May 18, 2007
Couple things I should note that I haven’t in this journalizing effort. One, Tupper Saussy passed away in March. Just haven’t gotten around to noting that here—just been doing so much webzine and blogging stuff as my writing activity. Two, I’ve gotten into an online discussion forum that I’ve only frequented twice so far, this hosted by [my friend] who I’d seen as a gentleman I’d never met but who a couple years ago added a link my stuff in a blog comment he made somewhere. Cool. Wednesday night, the night of the forum, he
sent me an email he’d gotten from Tupper about stuff I just don’t
remember we were talking about, and I really needed to include it
here. Here it is, with my email response. Email from Tupper Saussy to [our mutual
friend] 11/22/05 [Friend's name], Finishing ROE taught me the principles of
human life ~ who has authority, and where they got it, and why, and
how their actions can be invariably predicted. So there's really
very little I can write about that hasn't been covered. GFTG
started with great ambition, but I found myself being reduced (in my
mind, at least) to being a commentator, and I really don't want
that. There's really no living in being a
commentator unless you're fronting for big interests, and that's not
in my nature. A generous person wants to fund the 7th edition of
MOMS, and I'm dragging my feet preparing even that. I started a blog
some months ago, again infused with ambition, but found myself just
rephrasing ROE. An ezine or newsletter would be fun if I were
still struggling for the big picture, as in the days of the Main
Street Journal, but I pretty well comprehend it (I say that humbly
and gratefully), and view maintaining dialogues on the subject
rather like re-inventing ROE. So these days I'm employing other gifts that
have too long been ignored ~ music, painting, cinematography ~ and
using them to state (perhaps too subtly for most beholders) the
principles discovered in ROE. I guess when enough people like
your good self have read and understood ROE and push me for more,
I'll do another book. Meanwhile, I'm kind of sitting it out ~
and doing lots of spiritual fulfilling ~ until critical mass. Cheers, Tupper
And then…
Email from David Beck to [our mutual friend]
5/17/07
[Friend's name],
Quite an email from Tupper. Very revealing.
At first I was surprised by his perspective there, but as I thought
about it I can understand where he was coming from. You may be able
to connect the dots here-- it is very much connected to the
question, one that I'm sure Tupper wrestled with himself, that we
addressed a bit last night: Why aren't more people reading ROE?
He said that the reason he wrote was because
he had something to say. But when you have something to say, you'd
like to think some people are listening. When you see many abjectly
not doing that, that can be a bit disconcerting. At the time of your
email from him, Tupper naturally went to a place where he found
people with whom he could have authentic interaction for a bit, the
Chocolate Orchid Piano Bar. This is not to say he didn't have it
with us ROEders, but he made an intriguing and somewhat enigmatic
remark in one of his sporadic writings: "Once you say 'embedded,'
what else can you say?" I believe he merely gave expression to a
desire to do exactly what Jeremiah wanted to do at the beginning of
chapter nine in his book. Read it, you'll see what I mean.
More thoughts about this are swimming around
in my head. Maybe we can bring it up again and wrestle with it a bit
more at a Wednesday forum. Thanks again for the great conversation.
David
I could say more, but I think what I said to
[our friend] says everything, except for one majorly key thing I want to
write down here, something that if it comes up in next Wednesday’s
forum I will speak about. That is this:
Everyone is a commentator.
I was very much taken aback by his dismissal of “commenting.” Again, I can easily see why he felt the way that he did. He’d already shared it. “There it is. What else can I say.” Been there done that. There comes a point when even the most engaging endeavor just gets old and you move on. But see, here’s the thing. It is life to commentate. To his credit he went off to commentate with people at the Chocolate Orchid Piano Bar. Wow. He so wanted the interaction in the lodge. Yes, no question. I feel it myself. The true agony of sharing Life with another, whether it is on my webzine, blog, even here at home, over at work, out in the mix of people wherever that is… and
having that most harrowing of harrowing thing happen
and wanted to be somewhere where he didn’t
have to deal with that.
I just can’t not say this however. I’m just kinda ticked that he so dismissed all the things out of the ROE premise he could have discovered, and used his immense God-given wonderful intellect to elucidate on further. Yes, I know he was saying, very
understandably, “Here it is. Right there. See it?” And having the listener go, “Ammm-nnyah—not.” How
many times do you want to go over it.
Even Tupper let the World suck him into its despair. There are a zillion people who want to know
Christ through his voice.
But to conclude that ROE stuff has all been said and done... That’s to dismiss the people you can love
with it.
But ROE is only a tiny bit of what
Scripture is all about. A
good solid bit, but only a bit.
That’s what I dream of happening with The Catholicist Nation. To expand on all the gazillions of things out
of Scripture—and yes, I confess, ROE—that can bring the Light of
Christ to others. Eurgh. Tupper. Why’d you give up so easily? Actually, I can’t say that. How great is it…
In whatever way that was.
May 18, 2007 Addendum
May 19
I thought about this idea from the perspective of the just previous journal post I did on whether or not someone was excused for just not getting the whole God thing, simply because he’s just immersed in doing exceptional welding or Shakespeare analysis or something else. The obverse is also true in this sense—and
indeed something that I think Tupper very insightfully saw:
You
can’t make a job out of the God thing.
You can see this desire of his quite
pronounced in the email (as well as other places I’ve seen), but
what was he thinking? Did he actually think he could speak about
those World Mouths who so graciously invited him on their show as
anything but the monstrous beasts that they are? Even if
he were doing his truth-telling thing as magnanimousificently
gracious as he could ever magnanimousificentoffowoffoloffoly as he
could, he’d still be pointing out what horrifically evil people his
hosts are and how abjectly
putridly wretchedly deep is their deceit—and of course naturally
following that what heinous murderers they are. Ahh, see,
that’s the bane of being a Catholicist Nation prophet. Was Jeremiah paid handsomely for his profound
truth-telling? Um, not. He was stuffed in a muddy, fetid cistern
left to die. Not even going to mention what was done to
Jesus… To his credit, then, Tupper did the
not-making-a-job-out-of-the-God-thing thing. We should be out doing
those things that give us the greatest joy—coaching Academic
Decathlon teams and playing keyboards at the Chocolate Orchid. In
fact, really, God
wants us doing those things so others can see we are, indeed
Available. When they see love at work, then maybe
they’ll want to get more truth from people who are experts—those
who’ve merely had the scales dropped from their eyes, think with the
mind of Christ, all the rest of it—it’s not hard, really… But then to understand the love You do need to get what the prophets are saying... Didn’t the prophets come before Jesus?... So in the end, it has to be both. This is so not new… There’s truth (ahh, prophets, good stuff) and
there’s grace (Chocolate Orchid). It is just, yeah, I think Tupper gave up too
soon on the phenomenal abundance that is the former. Maybe God just wants us to keep running with
it. That’s cool.
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