Two Impressive Poems Worth Contemplating

My previous blog article was about a large steamship, but this post begins with part of a poem about sailboats. It is the third stanza of an impressive poem that I probably heard first as a college freshman. Here are the words of the third stanza of “’Tis the Set of the Sail,” by Ella Wheeler Wilcox:

One ship sails East, / And another West,
By the self-same winds that blow,
'Tis the set of the sails / And not the gales,
That tells the way we go.

Ella Wheeler was born in 1850 and married Robert Wilcox in 1884. He died in 1916, three years before she passed away in 1919 at the age of 69. Ella wrote the powerful poem cited above in 1916, quite possibly while she was grieving over her husband’s death.

Recently, June and I were reading Leif Enger’s novel I Cheerfully Refuse (2024) about Rainy, a man who was sailing a small boat up the west coast of Lake Superior. Rainy’s voyage on that large lake is a good illustration of Ella’s insight that “’Tis the set of the sails, and not the gales, that tells the way we go.”

In Enger’s novel, Rainy learned that by trimming his sails—angling them one way to reach the shore, and another way to follow the long sweep of the coast—he could choose to go ashore to buy supplies or travel north toward Canada, where he wanted to go as he was grieving his wife’s tragic death.  

Thus, Rainy could move through grief and uncertainty with intention rather than just going where the wind blew him. The lake didn’t change, the winds didn’t soften, but his deliberate choices made all the difference. And so it is with all of us as we travel through life.  

Ella also composed another impressive poem in 1909. It was titled “Who is a Christian?” and here are the words of that complete poem:

Who is a Christian in this Christian land / Of many churches and of lofty spires?
Not he who sits in soft upholstered pews / Bought by the profits of unholy greed,
And looks devotion, while he thinks of gain. / Not he who sends petitions from the lips
That lie to-morrow in the street and mart. /Not he who fattens on another's toil,
And flings his unearned riches to the poor, /Or aids the heathen with a lessened wage,
And builds cathedrals with an increased rent.

Christ, with Thy great, sweet, simple creed of love,
How must Thou weary of Earth's 'Christian’ clans,

Who preach salvation through Thy saving blood
While planning slaughter of their fellow men. / Who is a Christian? It is one whose life
Is built on love, on kindness and on faith; / Who holds his brother as his other self;
Who toils for justice, equity and PEACE, / And hides no aim or purpose in his heart
That will not chord with universal good. / Though he be pagan, heretic or Jew,

That man is Christian and beloved of Christ.

It seems that Ella never was a member of a Christian denominational church, but the first part of the poem can be seen as valid criticism of many CINO (Christians in name only) people then as well as of many contemporary MAGA-type Christians now.

The second half of this poem is the kind of faith that we progressive Christians seek—and also acknowledge in the actions of many people who do not self-identify with Christianity.  

There are many, indeed, who toil for “justice, equity and PEACE,” and who seek to do that which will “chord with universal good.” And, yes, no matter if such a person “be pagan, heretic or Jew,” they can also be considered a “Christian and beloved of Christ.”

Although Ella Wheeler Wilcox was not a professing Christian, it is remarkable that she could fathom what it means to be a follower of the universal Christ even by those who don’t consciously know him.

1 John 4:7 (NIV) says that “love comes from God” and that everyone “who loves has been born of God and knows God.” Then the very next verse declares, “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

So, what does this say about the MAGA Christians who are hateful toward the immigrants seeking safety/refuge in the U.S. as well as toward LGBTQ people and women who advocate pro-choice? Perhaps 1 John 4:8 applies to them: “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

On the Way to Japan (August 20, 1966)

This blog post is different from most of the 1,130+ posts I have made over the past 17 years. It is a personal narrative of life-changing events that began on my 28^th birthday, events that have greatly impacted me and June and our children from then until the present.  

SS President Cleveland

August 15, 1966, was a significant birthday party in Kansas City. In addition to my immediate family, several extended family members and a few personal friends gathered in Swope Park for the last birthday I would celebrate in the U.S. until 1971. That is because our family of four (our two other children were born later), started to Japan that day for a five-year term as missionaries.

We flew from the old Kansas City airport to San Francisco, where we had time for some much-needed rest and relaxation before boarding the President Cleveland Steamship on August 18 for a 13-day voyage to Japan. It was the best vacation June and I had ever had. The seas were calm, the meals were bountiful and delicious, and having some carefree leisure time was wonderful.

June and I married in 1957, the month we graduated from junior college. I was then a full-time student for the next eight years. Throughout the year of 1965, I was under considerable pressure to finish my doctoral dissertation. Kathy, our daughter who turned five that year, often included these words in her prayers: “Help Daddy get his thesis done so we can go to Japan.”

A few days after leaving San Francisco, the steamship stopped in Hawai’i, and we had an enjoyable and somewhat tiring day, sightseeing near and around Waikiki Beach and other places on that beautiful island of Oahu. By evening, the four of us were so tired we decided to turn in early. Because of going to bed so soon, we missed having an interesting experience.

When we arose the next morning, we found a notice that had been slipped under our cabin door the night before. It said that a famous Italian actress would be on deck for the filming of a movie scene that very evening. So, Sophia Loren was there on our ship that night, and we never even knew she had been there until she was already gone!

September 1, 1966, was a thrilling day for our family. That is the day our ship arrived in Yokohama, the harbor city not far south of Tokyo. We woke up early that morning and went up on deck, and what a wonderful view we had! There in the distance we saw Mt. Fuji, perhaps the most beautiful mountain in the world. That was a good omen, as It usually is not visible from the Tokyo area.

About a week later, we started language school and began the long, difficult process of trying to learn the Japanese language. In addition to learning English from birth on, I had studied several languages up until then (in this order): Latin, Greek, French, German, Hebrew, and even a smidgen of Danish. However, I had never studied a language in order to converse in it.

With Japanese, though, the challenge was not only learning to speak but also learning to read. In addition to the two fairly simple fifty‑sound syllabaries, one must learn around 2,000 Chinese characters (kanji) in order to read at the level of a high school graduate. I had to learn many more than that, for I was designated to become a college professor.

October 1968 was a grueling month as my teaching career began then. This was why we started on our trip to Japan more than 25 months earlier. It ended up, though, that my “career” at Seinan Gakuin University and the larger school complex involved many administrative jobs as well as teaching in the classroom.

I never sought any administrative position—and I never turned one down, as refusing to take a position to which I had been elected to or appointed for would have seemed presumptuous. Beginning in 1970, I served in six admin positions, including two four-year terms as Chancellor and one year as Chair of the Board of Trustees. Except for the last four years, I also continued to be classroom professor, .

If I had it all to do over again, I would choose with no hesitation to do exactly what we did beginning on my 28^th birthday.

_____

** I am now wondering if I have perhaps discovered when the year of my death will likely be. Since I have always emphasized balance, perhaps leaving for Japan on my 28^th birthday and being in Japan for 38 years indicates that perhaps my passing will be in the 28^th year of our retirement from Japan, which will be in 2032. Even that might be pushing it, as I would turn 94 that year.

Don’t U.S. Muslims Deserve to Have a Senator?

Previously, I have written two blog posts about Islamophobia (in January 2016 and May 2013). But this month that phobia has reared its ugly head again, so I decided to change my planned blog post for today in order to write about Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and the recent Islamophobic attacks upon him. 

On August 4, Abdul El-Sayed won the primary election for the U.S. Senate in Michigan. Even though he was opposed by the Democratic “establishment,” which spent big bucks to oppose him in favor of their preferred candidate, El-Sayed (b. 1984) narrowly won the election. I had been pulling for him, mainly because of his progressive views.

In addition, I think it is only fair that U.S. citizens whose religion is Islam have a person of their faith in the Senate—and there never has been a Muslim Senator to this point. There are at least 1.1% of U.S. citizens whose religion is Islam, so 1% of the Senate being Muslim seems fair to me. (At present, there are four House members who are Muslim, slightly over 0.9%.)

El-Sayed holds an MD degree from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He was also a Rhodes Scholar and has a Doctorate (DPhil) in Public Health from Oxford University. Following graduation, he chose a career in public health, academia, and government. He self-identifies as a public health physician and epidemiologist.

El-Sayed’s political views deserve widespread support by progressives. I encourage you to read the excellent New York Times interview with the Michigan politician posted on August 7 (see here; the image at the head of this post is from the photo in that article, taken by Nick Hagen for the Times).

Among other things, Tim Balk, the interviewer, said to the Muslim candidate, “There are Jewish folks in Michigan who say they’re anxious about some of your comments. They’re anxious that they could make them less safe in Michigan. What’s your message to them?”

I was impressed by Abdul’s response: “My commitment to Jewish safety is the same as my commitment to the safety of my own daughters. Antisemitism is a scourge.”

This also is noteworthy: a Religion News Service piece on his Senate primary win reports that El-Sayed has said he believes in the fundamental separation of church and state, adding that he wants to protect the kind of America where everybody can pray how they choose to pray, or choose not to pray at all.

Some Republican politicians have unfairly pilloried El-Sayed. Despite what Abdul has said and the full support he has from even the Democrats who opposed his election, Republican leaders such as the POTUS and Ted Cruz have spoken out strongly and untruthfully about him.

In his Truth Social post on Wednesday (Aug. 5), Trump leveled a series of attacks on El-Sayed. According to Time magazine, the POTUS called the Michigan politician ‘a man of hate’ who was ‘full of sh‑t.’ Ted Cruz’s invective was even harsher.

On that same Wednesday afternoon, Sen. Cruz (R-Texas) used the authority of his Judiciary subcommittee of the United States Senate to hold a hearing purporting to demonstrate that there has been a decades-long Muslim conspiracy, led by the Muslim Brotherhood, to undermine and control the United States. He stated that El-Sayed is “the crowning achievement of that conspiracy.”

In addition to the unseemly Islamophobic attacks, Abdul is also being attacked for being a Communist, as seen in Trump and his MAGA supporters, and renounced for being a Marxist.

Gary Bauer, a conservative evangelical commentator who writes the American Values daily email newsletter, also posted this on Aug. 5: “All of the socialist leaders were celebrating today. Bernie Sanders, AOC, Mamdani and Marxist professors on every U.S. university faculty see the future looking more like Marx and less like Jefferson.”

That is the sort of criticism coming from the Religious Right, who are mostly MAGA supporters and agree with Trump’s recent screed against Communism. And that is even though El-Sayed declares that he is a capitalist and won’t even self-identify as a democratic socialist.

I fully support the senatorial candidacy of El-Sayed, a Muslim, as well as that of Adam Hamilton, a widely known and highly respected Methodist pastor in Kansas, and of James Talarico, a recent seminary graduate in Texas.

What a difference it will make when Abdul, Adam, and James take their Senate seats in January of next year! (It’s OK to have high hopes, isn’t it?)