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Stacey Federoff
Copy Desk Chief

A bucket and a pulley helped two families on Crescent adorn their shared Fourth of July display with its final touches — at least for this year.

Strands of red, white and blue twinkle lights now span between 58 and 61 Crescent, representing the latest addition to the two families’ homes.

“I could see as we were unraveling the bundles that we were going to have strings all over the place, so we put them in a bucket,” said John Suess, who calls 61 Cresent his Chautauqua home. From there, they passed the bucket down from the second-story porch, then across the street.

This cooperative effort represents a friendly “war” between the two families.

Linda Creech, of 58 Crescent, said she and her husband John, were probably the first to decorate for the Independence Day holiday three years ago. 

“It started out as a friendly competition,” she said. 

At first, the decor started out innocuous enough: A hanging metal star and wreath — but after some ribbing hurled from porch to porch, holiday-themed rope lights came next.

“Then Amazon helped out,” said Emma Northman, of 61 Crescent.

During the trash-talking, someone said, “Next thing you know, there’ll be an inflatable,” and while the Creeches were away, came a surprise.

“The eagle had landed,” said Steve Northman, Emma’s dad and John’s son.

Now, in addition to an inflatable American flag-patterned bald eagle, elements include tinsel, a lighted American flag, star-shaped wind catchers and an inflatable patriotic arch — all for Chautauquans to take in as they stroll the block.

The lights will be up through Wednesday evening, plugged in until sometime between 9 p.m. and midnight.

“Now we’ve teamed up and our goal is to get the rest of the neighborhood to join in,” said John Creech, known as the engineering director of the operation.

Next-door neighbor Errol Davis, of 60 Crescent, joked that while he and his wife Elaine appreciate the decor, they are skeptical about starting their own competing display.

“They badgered us into getting minimal decorations — which they scoff at — but it’s a start,” Davis said, wryly adding that he is encouraged by the families’ use of lights. “I used to be CEO of a power company, so I’m pleased to watch this get bigger and bigger.”

Near the brick path accessible from Ramble, the families’ houses are in the Garden District, the former location of the tennis courts.

“I used to play tennis right here with a good friend who is visiting today,” Steve Northman said. “We used to throw crabapples at each other.”

The Suess-Northman family, who live in Buffalo, New York, during the off-season, have been coming to Chautauqua for 46 years and moved onto the block in 2018. The Creeches, who live in Clinton, New Jersey, have been visiting the grounds during the summer season for 22 years, with the last 17 of those on Crescent.

Stanchions on either end of the block to limit car traffic make it even more amenable to impromptu gatherings, not just for Fourth of July. The families will set up oversized outdoor games and let the younger ones fill up the pavement with chalk drawings. 

“When it’s littered with kids, it’s awesome,” said John Creech.

The sense of community, perfect for the Fourth of July, is a big part of why they enjoy continuing this tradition, John Creech said.

“You can have fun here, too,” added Linda.

In addition to their ties to the strong holiday traditions at Chautauqua, both families are proud to celebrate the Independence Day holiday because of connections to military service: The Creeches’ son Kevin served as a Marine, and John Creech’s late father, also named John, served in the Navy. John Suess served in the U.S. Army from 1959 to 1962 in Germany.

All involved agreed that the lights and decor will be back next year. 

“Bigger and better; Stay tuned,” Linda Creech said.

Then, Steve Northman added: “Until astronauts tell us to turn the lights down.”

Alton Northup
Staff Writer

Very few Chautauquans consider themselves gamers. 

Colleen Macklin opened her lecture attempting to challenge that belief: After an initial hand count, roughly a dozen people self-identified with the label; but when she asked who started their morning with a round of “Wordle,” many more hands went up.

Still, Macklin, an associate professor of media design at the New School’s Parsons School of Design, had some work to do before persuading the crowd of their inner-gaming abilities.

She presented her lecture, “Gaming the System: What Games Can Teach Us About the World and Ourselves,” at 10:45 a.m. Monday in the Amphitheater to open the Chautauqua Lecture Series Week Two theme, “Games: A Celebration of Our Most Human Pastime.” 

Macklin, the co-director of PETLab, which develops games based on social engagement and experimental learning, sees gaming as crucial to human development and understanding. 

Children’s initial interactions with language as a form of play inspired Macklin to develop her game “Dear Reader,” which turns classic literature into word puzzles. When working with the Red Cross, she learned the native games of Ghana and modified them to teach Ghanaians how to stay prepared in climate change-affected areas. 

In 2009, she even developed a new sport – Budgetball – that pits college students against congressional budget officers in a game of fiscal and physical competition. Many of her games could be considered educational tools. For Macklin, learning through play is human nature.

“I truly believe that being playful means thinking more deeply about the world, about each other and about our role in life,” she said.

Of course, she would not be able to make her point without including some gameplay in her lecture. So, she asked Chautauquans to join her in a game of  “Five Fingers.”

The rules are simple: 

Make a group of three to five people

Have each person hold up five fingers

Form a circle and take turns (going counterclockwise) pointing at someone

If you are pointed at, you lose a finger

The last player with a finger – any finger – wins

The game was an instant hit as Chautauquans gathered in groups, forming alliances or secretly conspiring against their family members – there were even accusations of a six-fingered cheater.

When the crowd settled, Macklin said there was more to the game than its entertainment value. There were lessons on society and games that could be learned by playing “Five Fingers.”

“Games make rules fun,” she said. “That’s one of the most interesting things about games; they take things in the world that normally aren’t fun and turn them into fun.”

She said children, starting at age 5, develop an obsession with rules and start to make their own games at recess. This creative outlet gives children a safe environment to learn to follow rules – and what happens when they are broken.

“We don’t fully understand something until we see it fail,” she said. “A game teaches us that lesson.”

People typically avoid risks due to the possibility of failure, but those inhibitions go away in a playful setting. Macklin used an analogy of a kitten: If the real world is a lion, strong of claw and sharp of teeth, then games are cute, fluffy kittens in a bowl of marshmallows.

For thousands of years, she said, games have served as crash courses on society. One of the first games she developed was an Electoral College simulator and it gave her college art students a clearer understanding of the United States’ political system.

Because games shrink society into something tangible, “we can take our world and understand it more deeply through games,” she said.

Through collaboration and competition, games also help us understand each other better, whether it is your Aunt Sally’s need for revenge or how to work on a team.

And, despite popular belief, games teach us that the rules can be changed – just as long as you are not the only one who knows. As a game designer, each game Macklin works on goes through dozens of rule changes before it hits the market. 

“That’s why game designers do something that’s called play testing,” she said. “We have to see how the game is played before we can even understand what it is that we designed in the first place.”

All of us, she said, are game designers who can change the rules that are not working in our lives. 

“I hope that we can all stay game designers, too,” she said. “It’s really important to be consistently asking oneself ‘What are these rules that I’m living by and how do I redesign them to make life more fun or rewarding?’ ”

Because of the responsibility games give to players to follow the set rules, Macklin said games teach us that simple rules can create great complexity, even a game as simple as “Five Fingers.” 

Much like the societies they come from, games are systems; a set of elements interconnected with a purpose. And while “games let us play with little systemic reflections of the world,” she said, the real systems are not designed to be as understandable. Games make system dynamics understandable through play. 

Macklin highlighted free online games, such as “Explorable Explanations” by Nicky Case, that can teach the concepts of new voting systems, how to tune a guitar or the basics of probability and statistics. In David O’Reilly’s “Everything,” players can see from the perspective of an atom, design their own universe or let the game play itself.

As our world increasingly mirrors the worlds created by games with the advent of artificial intelligence (appropriately, it was at this moment Macklin’s Siri decided to respond to a prompt in her lecture), and apps have replaced traditional methods of grocery shopping, socializing and even dating, games can help us imagine new possibilities.

To end her lecture, Macklin held an old-fashioned game of Rock, Paper, Scissors. Though with more than 2,500 people in the Amp, she dubbed it “Massively Multiplayer Rock, Paper, Scissors.”

After nearly 10 rounds the competition was narrowed down to Chautauquans Dan and Kathleen, who faced off in a best-of-three round for bragging rights and a signed copy of Macklin’s latest card game, “The Metagame.”

The first duel was Dan’s for the taking, but Kathleen got points on the board in the second round as Dan failed to brush off the crowd’s heckling. The tie-breaking third duel resulted in a suspense-building tie. Then, the fourth duel resulted in another tie — which Macklin insisted was not planned.

As the crowd sat on the edge of their seats, Kathleen swooped in for the win.

She earned the well-deserved title of Massively Multiplayer Rock, Paper, Scissors champion.

Sarah Russo
Staff Writer

The Chautauqua Community Band may only have two performances each summer, but the group is still one of the most popular shows of the season.

The band is set to perform at 12:15 p.m. today on Bestor Plaza. However, if it rains the performance will be moved to the Amphitheater. 

Aidan Chamberlain, community band director, has been involved with the group for about 20 years playing trombone. He’s been a member of the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra and was invited by Jason Weintraub, founder and former Community Band director, to join the group many years ago. 

To Chamberlain, Weintraub, who passed away last fall, was a warm, skilled leader and director. 

“Jason was such a community person, and that’s the thing with a community band,” Chamberlain said. “It just brings in so many different musicians from different aspects, so this is really like a point where all those different groups meet. …  It really becomes a community when it’s in that band; everyone meets at that point. And Jason kind of epitomized that. He knew so many people, he was friendly with everybody … He made everybody feel welcome.” 

Conducting in Weintraub’s footsteps is no easy task. Chamberlain said there is a high expectation as he takes over, but Weintraub created an environment that is meant to last.   

“It’s slightly daunting,” Chamberlain said. “I hope that I can keep up and keep everything going. It feels like there’s a legacy that needs to be continued. … It feels like I’m part of a team.” 

Traditional marches by John Phillips Sousa will be a part of the band’s program combined with more modern pieces such as selections from John Williams’ scores, Louis Armstrong’s repertoire and songs from The Lion King. Fan-favorite sing-alongs and classic American songs including “My Country ‘Tis of Thee,” “America the Beautiful,” “God Bless America”  and “Lift Every Voice and Sing” will also be performed.

Deborah Sunya Moore, senior vice president and chief program officer, thinks she knows why this particular concert is so beloved.  

“ ‘Community’ is how many people first describe Chautauqua to their friends,” Moore told the Daily in 2021. “This is at the root of why we love this concert each year. It is open to all, invites professionals and amateurs to sit side by side, and serves as an invitation for all to gather around and participate in the arts with shared fun and joy.” 

Chamberlain hopes this program will showcase the diversity and inclusion of America through its musical selections. The program includes different aspects of American music and American culture. 

“It’s all music that people know,” Chamberlain said. “They’re very popular tunes, so it’s going to resonate with a lot of people. The idea is you’ve got young and old and a wide audience, so you’re trying to appeal to everybody, but in a way that celebrates American music. There’s going to be something for everybody in there.”

Column by Mary Lee Talbot

“I have some homework for you,” the Rev. Zina Jacque said to the congregation. “I want you to think of two practices that someone from your faith tradition or spiritual space should do every day. I will get back to you at the end of the sermon.”

Jacque preached at the 9:15 a.m. morning worship service in the Amphitheater. Her sermon title was “A Game of Charades,” and the scripture reading was from Matthew 1:18-20, Joseph and the birth of Jesus.

Charades, she said, was created in the 19th century and has delighted people in many places. She described the rules: With at least two teams, one thinks of phrases, book titles or movie titles for the other team to act out. A person from Team A picks a selection from Team B and acts it out for their team to guess.

“People are required to communicate only using their actions, their faces and bodies. Actions speak louder than words,” she said. “Nowhere from Matthew to Revelation does Joseph speak out loud. We are told what he said but we see what he believed by his actions.”

Joseph heard about Mary’s pregnancy from an angel. “We hear the angel speak, we hear Mary speak, we hear Elizabeth speak, but we never hear Joseph. When Jesus was lost in Jerusalem at age 12, we would expect the father to speak to him, but it was Mary who asked, ‘Why have you treated us this way?’ ” Jacque said.

She told the congregation, we know that Joseph was a righteous person because of his actions; he operated out of an ethic of love. He could have had Mary stoned to death. 

“We know he was a gracious person because he decided to divorce her quietly. And we know he was obedient because he knew that what the angel said was of the Holy Spirit. What we know about him is from his actions and behavior, not his words,” she said. 

Actions speak louder than words and “we are playing a game of charades every day,” Jacque told the congregation. “People can’t hear what we say because of how we act, how we spend our money, the bumper stickers on our cars. The world is watching the church and we are failing because our actions do not align with our words.”

Author Jeffrey Moss, in his book Oneness: Great Principles Shared by All Religions, looked at maxims like the Golden Rule, and showed that even though they are stated differently in different religions, the imperative to treat others as you wish to be treated is common in all faiths.

“In our nation today, a Pew Research study has shown that Democrats and Republicans don’t want to defeat the other party, they want to move the other party off the face of the Earth,” Jacque said. “How many of us only see ‘me’ instead of ‘we’? Native American cultures teach us to take only what we need. How many of us compost or truly understand where our plastic recycling goes?”

She continued, “We are playing charades and failing. We are taught to honor our father and mother but the fastest growing segment of unhoused people are seniors. One in seven seniors is food insecure. We may serve our own families, but what do our actions say about us for the rest of the nation and the world?” 

Christians are called to love their enemies but “we act like we want to remove them from the Earth, or at least our presence,” Jacque said. “There is a difference between praying about someone and praying for someone. We have to align our words with our actions. Ask yourself: What did my actions or behavior say today?”

Jacque asked the congregation again if their actions aligned with their words. In the world today, people cannot hear what is said or read what is written because they are too busy tearing each other down to prove each other wrong.

In Joseph, we see a grace-filled heart, and a willingness to be kind, she said to the congregation. “Think about the 48 hours before you came to Chautauqua, because what happens in Chautauqua doesn’t count. What did your life communicate?” 

When Jacque married, it was a package deal that included two children, a daughter and a son, from her husband’s previous marriage. The daughter came to live with them and she was angry that her father had moved so far west, away from where the former family lived.

Jacque searched for a way to reach out to her new daughter. She hit upon the idea of having a cup of tea each night with her. She would make the tea, take it up to the bedroom, and she would not leave until her daughter drank the tea. Sometimes she drank very fast just to get Jacque to leave. 

“I had no words for her, but I wanted her to know that she had a place in my heart,” Jacque said. The daughter is now grown with a son of her own. When her grandson came to stay with Jacque and her husband for the first time, she put him to bed. He asked her, “Grandma Z, aren’t we going to have tea?”

Jacque said, “It was a simple thing to do to end the day, but it showed the love that words could not.”

Again she asked the congregation, “What does your life say? Where you spend your money says something about your religious practice. Can you receive immigrants, love your enemies — do, and not just speak? The world is watching and the world needs church values. Jesus told the disciples to love one another so that they might be one.”

Jacque returned to the homework she gave the congregation at the beginning of her sermon. She asked, “Of the two things that someone of your faith or spiritual tradition should do every day, when was the last time you did them?”

She continued, “How hard is it for you to live into your faith? Will you try? The world is watching. We are playing charades and they will see what we do. What difference will your story make when you walk out of the room? Let our lives be a shining example of God’s love, grace and presence.”

The Rt. Rev. Eugene Taylor Sutton, senior pastor for Chautauqua Institution, presided. The Rev. John Morgan, pastor of Williamsburg Presbyterian Church, read the scripture. Nicholas Stigall, organ scholar, played “Prelude” on Jesu dulcis memoria, by Pamel Decker, for the prelude. The Motet Choir sang “Let the life I’ve lived speak for me,” under the direction of Joshua Stafford, director of sacred music and Jared Jacobsen Chair for the Organist, and accompanied by Stigall on the Massey Memorial Organ. The anthem was written by Gwyneth Walker and the traditional words were altered by Walker. The postlude was “Fugue” on Jesu dulcis memoria by Decker. Support for this week’s chaplaincy and preaching is provided by the Harold F. Reed, Sr. Chaplaincy and the John William Tyrrell Endowment for Religion.

Mariia Novoselia
Staff Writer

On Independence Day eve, Chautauquans can enjoy a program of orchestral music that evokes national sentiments while testing boundaries. 

The Music School Festival Orchestra consists of 82 young musicians from all over the world. Under the baton and guidance of Timothy Muffitt, the MFSO’s opening concert is at 8:15 p.m. tonight in the Amphitheater.

“(The audience) will hear some exciting, dramatic, beautiful, uplifting, powerful, moving music, played with great spirit and joy,” said Muffitt, conductor and artistic director of MFSO.

First, the orchestra will perform a tone poem by Richard Strauss, Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks. One of the composer’s most beloved works, Muffitt said, the piece tests musicians by pushing not only their musical skills, but also their emotions — something works by Strauss often do. 

Opting to perform this piece for opening night is “a bit of a gamble” because of how challenging it is to play, Muffitt said. 

“I’ve been doing this job for 26 years now and, if there is one thing I’ve learned, it’s that these musicians step up to the plate when we put something in front of them like this,” he said. 

Following that is “Umoja: Anthem of Unity” by African American composer Valerie Coleman. The  “beautiful and uplifting” composition possesses a very strong American sense to it, he said, marrying strife and conflict alongside remarkable warmth and optimism.

“It meets the moment in a wonderful way … in a powerful, profound way,” Muffitt said. 

After an intermission, the MSFO will perform Symphony No. 100 (“Military”) by Joseph Haydn. Percussion parts of the piece, written in 1794, conjure the Turkish army. 

Recreating the sounds of Janissary music – particular to that time and region – the symphony “gives our percussionists an opportunity to play a unique work,” he said, remarking that the piece is also good at bringing the whole orchestra together. 

This year, a record high of around 450 musicians auditioned for the MSFO. This is “considerably more” than usual, which shows the competitiveness of the program, Muffitt said.

A part of COVID-19’s legacy, the auditions were virtual, which continues to prove effective. However, that could change in the future.

“There’s nothing quite like a live audition and someday, hopefully, we will get back to that,” Muffitt said. 

MSFO students had seven rehearsals before this evening’s concert. This, Muffitt said, is very similar to most professional orchestras, which usually have four. Moving forward in the season, the orchestra will only have six rehearsals for each concert. 

Even after nearly three decades in his role, Muffitt said he most enjoys working with musicians who are immensely gifted, enthusiastic and ready to make music at a high level.

“It’s wonderful to be in the middle of that energy,” Muffitt said.

One of Chautauqua’s own is set to open Week Two of the Interfaith Lecture Series, dedicated to the theme “A Spirit of Play.”

And no one may be more suited to speak to that theme than the winningest coach in the history of women’s college basketball — and the   winningest active coach in men’s and women’s Division 1 basketball — Tara VanDerveer.

A lifelong Chautauquan, VanDerveer is one of the top coaches in the history of sport, both collegiately and internationally. She’s  a member of both the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, and at Stanford University, where she’s been the head women’s basketball coach at since 1985, she holds the title of the Setsuko Ishiyama Director of Women’s Basketball.

Over the years, VanDerveer has made several appearances on Chautauqua’s program platforms. She’s spoken to Groupers at Boys’ and Girls’ Club about the history of basketball; she’s been in conversation with three-time LPGA champion Nancy Lopez for a Coalition of Chautauqua County Women and Girls event about “Women and Girls in Sports”; and she’s actively supported Chautauqua’s arts pillar. In 2017, she endowed the Rita and Dunbar VanDerveer Symphony Principal Chair for Flute in honor of her parents (Richard Sherman currently holds that chair for the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra).

Most recently, VanDerveer spoke at Chautauqua in 2022, during a panel focusing on the intersection of human rights and athletics; for her part in the multi-generational panel that took place last July in Smith Wilkes Hall, VanDerveer shared her memories of the time before Title IX — part of the 1972 Educational Amendments that banned discrimination based on sex and gender in educational settings. 

Before Title IX, before those protections, VanDerveer didn’t have a team to play on, despite how much she loved basketball. She urged Chautauquans last year to remember that it’s not just up to women to advocate for gender equality.

“So much of equality is not just women fighting for it,” VanDerveer said last July. “It is men fighting for it, too.”

At Stanford, VanDerveer has led her teams to three NCAA Championships (1990, 1992, 2021) — one of four coaches in the history of the sport to win three titles — she’s advanced the Cardinals to 14 NCAA Final Four appearances, 25 Pac-12 regular-season titles, 15 Pac-12 Tournament crowns and 34 trips to the NCAA Tournament. 

A five-time national coach of the year (1988, 1989, 1990, 2011, 2021) and 17-time Pac-12 Coach of the Year, VanDerveer has a 1,186-265 (.817) record in her 44 years as a collegiate head coach and a 1,034-214 (.829) record over 37 seasons. On top of that, she’s a gold medalist as  the coach of USA Basketball at the 1996 Olympic Games. 

Julia Weber
Staff Writer

When Colleen Macklin’s grandmother asked her what she wanted to do when she grew up, Macklinw told her that she wanted to make video games.

Now, the game designer and professor is not only creating and developing video games, but also leading cutting-edge research about the role of games in our lives.

As a child, Macklin became interested in gaming and, more specifically, in coding games. 

“I ended up realizing that more than even playing video games, I loved to make them,” she said.

Macklin will open Week Two of the Chautauqua Lecture Series and the theme “Games: A Celebration of Our Most Human Pastime,” with her lecture “Gaming the System: What Games Teach us About the World,” at 10:45 a.m. today in the Amphitheater. Macklin is an associate professor at the New School’s Parsons School of Design, where she teaches in the Design and Technology program — and where she founded and co-directs PETLab (PET stands for prototyping, education, and technology).

Growing up, Macklin had an Atari 400 and learned how to code video games by using game codes from magazines to download her games and, later, to start altering them. 

Jacques Cousteau, specifically, helped drive her passion for games. Using what she knew about coding video games, Macklin started to create fantasy underwater worlds, designing games with premises like discovering Atlantis and she began to learn how to alter the basic codes to adapt and customize the games.

When puberty hit, though, Macklin took a step back from gaming because of the gender stereotypes associated with the activity.  Boys in her class were also interested in progamming games, but she was starting to feel more social pressure to just hang out with the girls instead.

“Unfortunately, I kind of dropped the game-making, because for me it was as much about making them and talking about them with other boys in my class – because it was only boys at that time – but it was also about sharing them, you could actually offload them onto a disk and share them with each other, and so that’s really how I got my start.”

After attending college, where she studied photography, Macklin met Eric Zimmerman, a fellow game designer and now collaborator, who helped reignite her passion for creating and developing video games.

“I think many of the paths that we take in life, they’re not always logical, you know?” Macklin said. “And I think in another way, also, they’re very much about who you’re with at the time and the people you like to be around.”

In their most basic forms, games have existed for thousands of years. Technology like the six-sided die, for example, long predates modern society, yet still remains widely in use today. To Macklin, the importance of gaming is immeasurable – both at a personal and a societal level, starting in childhood, when games teach core principles and ideas.

“At the very beginning when we’re born, the way we learn is we play. We pick up a ball and throw it. We learn physics. We crawl around and we’re touching and constantly experiencing things,” she said. “And I think as humans we need to keep learning.”

As we grow older, games help us understand the systems in which we live, Macklin said.

“I think a lot of it is about an understanding of systems, and when I say systems, I mean almost everything that underpins our lives,” she said. 

Systems can refer to the natural systems in our lives, such as the environment, as well as our impact on them, like climate change. Video games, to Macklin, can be used to understand and reimagine how we approach and navigate these systems.

Another benefit of games is the refuge they offer and the outlet for relaxation that they provide, Macklin said, adding that video games are “a little bit of an antidote to that constant pressure to be productive.”

She is optimistic about the future of games, and hopes that Chautauquans will leave the lecture with a playful spirit. 

“I think that if we can take the best parts of games, which I think are those kinds of parts of games, the social, the systemic, what they can teach us about systems and how they work, then I think that they’ll give us a better ability of at least understanding the problems we’re facing as systemic and being able to see what kinds of rules we need to change to help solve those problems,” Macklin said. “So, that’s my big hope, is that, through games, we develop a systems literacy that can lead to better problem-solving in the real world.”

Sara Toth
Editor

Some years ago, at the end of the semester, Adam Sandel’s students asked him a question: How has philosophy changed the way you live? 

He paused, thought about it, and gave a textbook answer: Philosophy can help someone develop an independent mind. It can help challenge conventional wisdom. It can help someone assess what they might have taken for granted. Then he thought a little bit more.

“I came to an answer that I think it’s better actually because it’s a little bit more concrete,” he said. “And that’s that philosophy has taught me the significance of friendship.”

That confused his students, who had spent much of their studies reading philosophy texts that spoke to issues of justice, and little about friendship. But Aristotle, Sandel told them, did write about friendship; it’s a virtue, the great philosopher posited, and one of the most necessary aspects of life.

This was Sandel’s springboard for his presentation at 2 p.m. Friday in the Hall of — appropriately — Philosophy as he closed the Interfaith Lecture Series Week One theme: “Holy Friendship: Source of Strength and Challenge.” With his lecture, “What Friendship Really Means,” Sandel drew a distinction: The meaning of friendship lies in the difference between a friend and an ally.

“Allies are good. They’re important. They keep our lives moving the world moving. But they’re not friends necessarily not friends in the genuine sense,” said Sandel, who is the author of Happiness in Action: A Philosopher’s Guide to the Good Life and an assistant district attorney in Brooklyn, New York. “Friendship in the genuine sense, I think, is friendship that has to do with more than just a goal. More than just an accomplishment. A friend is someone who helps you put your goals in perspective. When you fail, who helps you see the bigger picture? Who helps you see that?”

Amidst the incoherence and messiness of life, a friend can help interpret your story, return you to a sense of self. A friendship has a shared history of mutual commitment; allies, on the other hand, can materialize with the shake of a hand, and dissolve with the accomplishment of a goal.

“Friendship, by contrast, has a very different temporal structure. We all know it takes a while to make real friends. You can’t just make your friend instantly,” he said. “There really is no such thing as love at first sight when it comes to friendship.”

But once a friendship — a true friendship — develops, it reaches out “almost infinitely into the future.”

Sandel made another distinction, essential for understanding happiness and a good life: there’s activities to do for the sake of a goal, and there’s activities to do for the sake of the activities themselves. 

“Friendship is one of the most very powerful forms of activity for the sake of itself. Think of a moment when you were fully immersed in what you were doing intensely joyfully,” Sandel said. “Chances are you were with friends or family; for the purposes here, it’s the same idea.”

Sandel suggests that friendship for the sake of itself is a “way of being together that involves understanding,” he said. That’s an important point, since one of the “philosophical knocks against friendship is that friendship is actually a kind of sentimental, emotional relationship only, and that we make friends (only to) become habituated to sharing the sorrows and pains and pleasures of the people who are closest to us.”

Sandel cited philosopher-economist Adam Smith, who criticized friendship as antithetical to reason, and then pushed back against the 18th-century thinker.

“Friendship involves each understanding and dialogue,” he said. “Friendship is a form of understanding  — understanding each other and understanding something, some activity or some situation. Those … are always at play in friendship, and friendship in the most genuine sense and the friendship that is conducive to happiness.”

Much of philosophy considers the nature of self-possession, and it’s often thought that “being strong and powerful or self-possessed individual is different from being a good friend,” Sandel said. “But I think the two go together, and I think it’s important to consider friendship as a way in which we come to understand ourselves.”

Even when we consider solitary acts — bold ones of  self-possession, self-confidence,” friendships are “lurking in the background,” Sandel said. Think about pep talks, and the imagination of talking to yourself as you would have a friend talk to you. 

“Actually the friend is there; at least, the potential friend is there. You just don’t see him,” Sandel said. “It’s very important to look at that to understand the depth of friendship in our lives. One can be a friend himself or herself. … Friendship and self-possession can go together.”

There’s a reason that Enlightenment philosophy says comparatively little about friendship — that school of thought tended to view how history developed, and was developing. 

“The world is moving in a direction that is absolutely more prosperous, more just more technologically advanced than in past times. The very term ‘enlightenment’ captures that self-understanding,” he said. “If you ascribe to that worldview, a kind of linear understanding of progress, … friendship tends to take a backseat to alliances.”

This stands in contrast to the Greek thinking of friendship, which existed in a world “written with tragedy rather than progress,” Sandel said. Thus, “friendship rises to immense significance because friendship is what allows us to keep going to redeem ourselves to redeem life when things go terribly wrong.”

What previous schools of philosophy missed, Sandel argued, is the ability of friendship to help us understand ourselves and understand each other; reason and justice can’t be learned in the abstract, which is why friendship is so important.

Finally, Sandel said, friendship helps us understand our experience of time, and the passage of time. The future is “the moment lying ahead,” the goal to be accomplished; the present is us “working feverishly” to accomplish that goal; maybe the past is an accomplishment, already “fading into oblivion.” Or maybe it’s a failure.

“We have no moment that lasts,” Sandel said. “Everything that approaches fades away.” Here is where friendship comes in.

“Think back to that basic expression of commitment: No matter what happens, I’ll stand by your side,” he said. 

To say that with conviction, one must have a strong sense of the past; that past animates the “here and now, a past that’s very much active.” Friends can be that grounding for each other, and help each other navigate a “future that’s utterly unknowable, unforeseeable, unfathomable, mysterious.”

“The meaning and weight of the commitment (between friends) surely depends on a future that’s radically open ended,” Sandel said. “And not just the future of goal-oriented striving to achieve this kind of fullness to time and possibility in every moment — this what friendship in the highest sense does for us. Coming to that understanding of time and living in the spirit of such an understanding, I think is essential to finding a happiness that lasts.”

Column by Mary Lee Talbot

“Olly, olly oxen free” or “all ye, all ye outs in free,” probably comes from 19th-century English. “Is there any better definition of salvation?” the Rev. Zina Jacque asked the congregation at the 10:45 a.m. Sunday morning worship service in the Amphitheater. 

Jacque began her sermon series, “Learning from the Games People Play” with a sermon titled “Olly, Olly Oxen Free.” The scripture reading was Luke 15:11-32, the story of the prodigal son.

Hide and Go Seek was the game at the center of her sermon. The phrase “olly, olly, oxen free” is used at the end of the game to let anyone still hiding know that the seeker has given up and they can come back to base freely.

“I do believe when that father saw his woe-begotten son, I believe that he ran to his broken boy hollering some version of olly, olly oxen free. You who took your inheritance and left are still alive,” she said. 

The son did not know if he would be welcomed by his father. He had disregarded his father’s love. The father says the son is home free but his homecoming is not free to the father. The father was filled with compassion, a word not used in regard to men in Biblical times.

“The word compassion is connected to the womb. For the writer of Luke to use that word in relation to the father was to break with tradition,” Jacque said. “In Luke’s gospel, the word is only used for the Good Samaritan, for the father of the prodigal son and for Jesus.”

The father’s compassion for the younger son comes at a cost: his relationship with his older son. But for the father, the price was worth it. “What is true for the son is true for you and me,” she said. “No matter how much we have disregarded and disrespected God, ‘all ye’ means ‘all’ in the Gospel.”

She continued, “Jesus runs to us when we come to ourselves. While we are rehearsing our confession, Jesus says, ‘I paid it all, come in free.’ We have a Savior who runs to meet us and the son represents the status of all who are loved and redeemed.”

But the man had two sons. It is easy to focus on restorative love for the younger son, for redemption assured, and for the favor of God in life that is unending. For the father, the child was more important than his reputation.

“But the man had two sons,” Jacque said. The older son also got an olly, olly oxen free but, “he captures our attention because the truth is we are more like the older brother. The older brother is still out in the field.” 

She said there are three ways to look at the older brother. First, he saw being right as more important than being in a relationship with his father and brother.

The father came out of the party for the younger son and invited the older son to come in, free. The son told his father that he had worked “like a Hebrew slave” for him and that the father had never had to bail him out, but even though “this child of yours” — his brother — had done the father wrong, the father gave him a party. 

“The older son missed the opportunity to be in relationship with the father and his brother by privileging being right over being in relationship,” Jacque said. “The power of being wise beats the power of being right every time. You can gain a victory and lose the war; you will be right all by yourself.”

People put being right over being in relationship every day, she told the congregation. “We say things like ‘it’s just my truth,’ with daggers in our mouths. We go about without thinking about our carbon footprint. We are all interdependent. If we think we live only for ourselves we abrogate God’s command to love our neighbors as ourselves.”

She continued, “If you call yourself a person of faith and you vote your conscience, you have to talk to the Holy Spirit. We are not independent of what God teaches.”

The second way to look at the older brother is to consider when God’s favor on someone else makes you feel left out. 

“We want to live in a fair world, but, as my mother told me, we live in a post-Genesis 3 world and a fair world is on the other side of the Jordan,” Jacque said.

The older brother’s heart broke because his younger brother seemed privileged. “God’s favor is sufficient to meet all of us,” she said. “No one can take what God has for you.”

As an example, Jacque shared a story about a preaching contest at her seminary. She would have competed with Howard-John Wesley, now the senior pastor of the historic Alfred Street Baptist Church where she serves.

In order to be part of the preaching competition, students had to get the signature of one of the professors of preaching. She went to one professor who said he would not sign her paper because the competition “was for young bucks who could make a difference in the church.” Another professor was on leave, so Jacque could not compete.

She sat on the floor at the back of the hall and listened. She was crying because it was not fair. Wesley won the competition and Jacque was about to leave without congratulating him when “the Holy Spirit said, ‘I dare you not to rejoice with him. What God has for you is for you. God will never forsake you.’ ”

The third way we are like the older brother, she told the congregation, is when we hear God’s whisper and refuse to come inside. 

The father told the older brother that everything he had was the older brother’s, yet the son did not respond. “God has forgiven you, but you withhold forgiveness like the older brother,” she said to the congregation.

This standoff doesn’t end the story. “God knows our story and so we can make the decision to come inside,” Jacque said. “God leads us all inside. God’s ‘olly, olly oxen free’ stands over against the hate generated when courts overstep their bounds, when we don’t let people marry who they want or go to any college they want.”

“Olly olly oxen free” means we are not just forgiven, but we are needed for the kingdom, for justice, peace and koinonia, she said. “ ‘Olly Olly Oxen Free’ is God coming out to plead with us. The work is too big if we don’t have everyone. ‘Olly, Olly. Oxen Free,’ come, the work has just begun.’”

The Rt. Rev. Eugene Taylor Sutton, senior pastor of Chautauqua Institution, presided. Melissa Spas, vice president for religion at Chautauqua Institution, read the scriptures. Nicholas Stigall, organ scholar, played “Toccata in C, BWV 564,” by Johann Sebastian Bach, for the prelude. For the anthem the Chautauqua Choir sang “Tell me where is the road,” music by Stephen Paulus and words by Michael Dennis Browne. The choir was directed by Joshua Stafford, director of sacred music and Jared Jacobsen Chair for the Organist. The offertory anthem was “Going home, going home,” with music by Antonin Dvořák with text and adaptation by William Arms Fisher. The Chautauqua Choir sang the anthem under the direction of Stafford and accompanied by Stigall. The postlude, played by Stafford, was “Fugue in C, BWV 564,” by Johann Sebastian Bach. Support for this week’s chaplaincy and preaching is provided by the Harold F. Reed, Sr. Chaplaincy and the John William Tyrrell Endowment for Religion.

Julia Weber
Staff writer

Legendary Motown singer Diana Ross made an impact on the Chautauqua audience so great that Deborah Sunya Moore easily recalls the icon’s debut performance at the Amphitheater in 2019.

“She was just so generous with her time and the emotion that she was able to convey was beyond what we were hoping,” said Moore, senior vice president and chief program officer. “She just had a real connection with the Chautauqua audience.”

Ross is set to perform at 8:15 p.m. Sunday in the Amp as part of the ongoing Diana Ross: the Music Legacy Tour.

Her energy four years ago was “out of this world,” Moore said. 

Concert-goers can expect to hear a dynamic, engaging selection of her classics like “I’m Coming Out,” “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” “Stop! In the Name of Love” and “Upside Down” among other hits.

Originally rising to fame as lead vocalist in the 1960s girl-group The Supremes, Ross is also well-known for her successful solo career.
Ross undeniably impactful music and legacy within the industry will make for a not-to-be-missed show Sunday.

“I just love this business,” Ross said in a 1997 interview with Rolling Stone.
“I don’t know if I could have chosen anything better to give my life to. I’m doing something I probably didn’t have to be paid to do.”

The Supremes, originally comprised of Ross, Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson and Betty McGlown, were integral in establishing the Motown sound. The Detroit-based musical movement was named as an ode to the Midwest “motor town.” It spread throughout the nation and world, then paved the way for other artists following in their footsteps. 

Including the 1962 debut Meet the Supremes, 1964’s Where Did Our Love Go and 1966’s The Supremes A’ Go-Go, the group released a number of albums and underwent numerous lineup changes in its 18 years of existence.

Ross departed from The Supremes in order to pursue a career as a solo artist, which proved to be wildly successful with releases like her 1970 self-titled album, 1979’s The Boss and 1980’s Diana. Most recently, Ross released her newest album Thank You in 2021.

“I sing all the time. Music is a part of my being,” Ross said in the Rolling Stone interview. “Like when I’m walking, I walk with a rhythm. I carry myself as if there’s music inside.”

As an actress, Ross starred in The Wiz, Lady Sings the Blues and Mahogany. She was recognized as a Kennedy Center honoree in 2007, with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012 and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016, among other high-profile honors.

Her infectiously fun music is reason enough to attend tonight’s show, but her long-standing cultural relevance and significant musical contributions make an even stronger case for attending, Sunya Moore said.

“There is no one like her,” Moore said.

Sarah Russo
Staff writer

The Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra is taking traditional concerts to the next level with this weekend’s performance of Merregnon: Land of Silence, a symphonic fairy tale.

The CSO holds the honor of being the first orchestra to present the English-language version of the piece at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in the Amphitheater. The program will open with Edvard Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, Op. 46.

Music by internationally renowned composer Yoko Shimomura and story by popular German children’s author Frauke Angel combine to create a concert experience that takes audiences on a magical journey using music, art and narration.

Laura Savia, vice president of performing and visual arts at Chautauqua Institution, called the score “incredible” and agreed with Rossen Milanov, the CSO’s music director and principal symphonic conductor, that it would be a good fit for Chautauqua.

“Maestro Milanov and I both found the score to be really sophisticated enough for our seasoned orchestra patrons, but also accessible enough for kids and family audiences,” she said. 

The piece includes anime-style images that Savia called “stunning,” along with live storytelling.

Broadway and award-winning film actress Tina Benko, who will also appear with the Chautauqua Theater Company later this season, serves as the narrator.

“It is a piece that uses the entire symphony orchestra beautifully,” Savia said.

Shimomura created a melody for each of the story’s characters. The score showcases a diversity of sound, penned to complement the various orchestral sections as well as their soloists.

“The journey that the protagonist goes on feels like an adventure,” Savia said. “And the music, while certainly not video game music, is composed by someone who has built her reputation on scoring beloved video games.”

Shimomura is known for her work on multimillion-selling video games, including Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy XV. With fans around the world, she holds the honor of being the highest placed female composer ever in the Classic FM Hall of Fame, the world’s largest annual poll of classical music tastes.

“To me, when I listen to her score, there is an elegance to it. There is a power to it,” Savia said. “She is adept at utilizing every section, every instrument in the orchestra. But there’s also a sense of play. There’s also a sense of wit and whimsy.”

Mary Lee Talbot
Staff writer

In her ministry, the Rev. Zina Jacque, assistant to the Pastor for Small Groups at Alfred Street Baptist Church, has to plan well in advance for the programs she is offering. For her, a “small group” is 4,000 people viewing the second part of a three-part video Bible study. 

She was already reading Fulfilled: Living and Leading with Unusual Wisdom, Peace and Joy, by Kirk Byron Jones for a leadership education event as she was thinking about her sermon series for Chautauqua.

“Jones says that to be fulfilled as you lead, you need stillness, awareness and playfulness,” said Jacque. “When I got the invitation from Chautauqua, I remembered all the games I loved and the life lessons they taught me.”

Jacque will serve as chaplain at Chautauqua and will preach at the 10:45 a.m. Sunday morning worship service in the Amphitheater. The theme for her sermon series is “The Games People Play.” The title of her sermon is “Olly, Olly Oxen Free.” She will also preach at the 9:15 a.m. Monday through Friday morning worship services in the Amp. Titles of her sermons include “Charades,” “Jenga,” “Monopoly,” “Sorry,” and “The Game of Life.”

“We know what play can do to alleviate stress,” she said. “Board games are playful but can teach us so much about the underlying goals and strategies that are important in our lives. Think about charades. Remember the old saying, ‘Actions speak louder than words.’ What do our actions broadcast to the world?”

This will be Jacque’s third visit to Chautauqua. “I love this place because people are curious. Curiosity and judgment can’t coexist. Chautauqua is food for the soul. If we can have courageous conversations that can create curiosity, we can be open to each other and lose our judgemental edge,” she said.

The historic Alfred Street Baptist Church claims 12,000 people involved in ministry. Jacque’s primary responsibility is to facilitate the learning and growth generated among the members who participate in the Villages of Alfred Street. 

“Ministry has to be different in this place,” she said. “It is extraordinary and different from anything I have ever done. I love what I do.”

Jacque arrived in this position after leading the Community Church of Barrington in Illinois for 15 years. Jacque has served on the staff of multicultural, urban and suburban churches and has done extensive work in the areas of education, counseling and support programs.

She worked in the not-for-profit realm, founding and serving as the first executive director of the Pastoral Counseling Center of Trinity Church Boston and serving as the first executive director of the Boston Ten Point Coalition. Jacque serves as chair of the board of National Senior Communities, a 28,000-resident enterprise of continuing-care retirement communities.

Currently, she serves as one of three founders and a host for A Year of Courageous Conversations. This pivotal project has engaged more than 1,500 local community members and beyond. Through this dialogue series, participants consider how we, as individuals and communities, might foster greater inclusion and belonging in our communities.

Prior to entering ministry, Jacque spent more than 20 years in higher education serving in senior positions at Northwestern University; the University of Chicago; Mills College in Oakland, California; and the University of California.

Jacque holds a doctoral degree in theology (Practical Theology) and a Master of Divinity degree (summa cum laude) from Boston University, a master’s degree from Columbia University, and a bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University. She has served as an adjunct professor of pastoral care at Boston University and the University of Chicago. She serves on the boards of the American Baptist Churches USA (Board of General Ministries), National Senior Communities and Courageous Conversations Barrington.

Mariia Novoselia
Staff writer

A white jellyfish with specks of orange splattered across its body hangs from the ceiling of the Athenaeum Hotel lobby, one of 14 sculptures in the “Washed Ashore – Art to Save the Sea” exhibit, made of debris collected from ocean shores in South Oregon.

Brad Parks, conservation and education director of the Washed Ashore organization, will talk about the project’s mission and the sculptures’ hopeful impact at 2 p.m. Saturday at Smith Wilkes Hall.

The project’s mission can be divided into three parts: 1) Creating beautiful art, 2) educating a global audience about plastic pollution in oceans and waterways, and 3) getting people to reflect on what they can do to solve this problem. In his presentation, Parks will pay special attention to the art of “Washed Ashore,” since art is one of the four pillars of Chautauqua Institution.

Parks said he will discuss how the sculptures are created and give the audience a virtual tour of the project’s home base in Bandon, Oregon, through a video created by their artistic director.

In Fall 2016, when serving as senior director of guest experiences at the Denver Zoo, Parks organized an exhibition there, the first inland venue to host “Washed Ashore.”

Working with the exhibit transformed him in many ways, he said, including which products he uses and which he chooses to avoid. As his first step, he examined his shopping habits.

For example, once he learned that most single-use coffee cups have plastic lining that prevent them from being recycled, Parks now carries around a reusable mug “religiously,” especially when traveling.

Avoiding something as familiar as plastic toothpaste tubes in favor of solid tablets has been more challenging, but even a small change can make a big difference, Parks said.

“When I have collected those toothpaste tubes that I’ve used over a period of time, it was shocking to actually see the volume that I go through as one individual,” he said.

Buying items made with reclaimed plastic from the ocean is another way to mitigate plastic pollution. In Parks’ case, he wears a bracelet made of beads that were once plastic water bottles. The accessory, he said, acts as a reminder to look for ways to support the environment and those who are helping it.

Over the last several years battling plastic pollution, Parks said he “had moments of losing hope,” especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of single-use masks, gloves and plastic packaging, huge volumes of trash ended up in the ocean. 

“I’m getting a little more hopeful, though,” he said, thanks in part to efforts like the one led by the United Nations, in which more than 100 participating countries are considering ways to reduce and eliminate plastic pollution.

“Washed Ashore” also gives individuals the opportunity to feel part of a collective action, Parks said.

Locally, Chautauqua Institution and its Climate Change Initiative have also been working to reduce plastic pollution on the grounds. Parks said the Institution has done “a great job in leading by example,” namely in replacing single-use plastic water bottles with aluminum ones, which are recyclable and can be used over and over again.

“There are so many ways plastic is involved in our daily life,” Parks said. “It does help us in many ways and has benefits, but it is also choking our planet.”  

Parks suggested everyone can do their part by picking up plastic bottles or researching environmental issues. 

Mark Wenzler, director of the Chautauqua Climate Initiative, said a permanent “Washed Ashore”-style sculpture may appear at the Institution this fall. The sculpture will represent the ecosystem of Chautauqua.

Plastic pollution, he said, is an issue that affects people and the environment everywhere, not just along the coast of the ocean.

“All the nearby creeks, rivers, streams … are connected and do lead to the ocean,” Parks said. “So everyone, no matter where they’re from, really can make an impact on this problem.”

Alton Northup
Staff writer

For decades, millions have watched Sean Astin play the best friend on the big screen.

“I’ve done a lot of stuff where I’m kind of a jerk, but nobody remembers those,” he joked.

Astin is most remembered for his roles as Mikey Walsh in “The Goonies,” Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger in “Rudy” and Samwise Gamgee in “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy. After all these years – or perhaps it was always there – the joyful camaraderie of these characters seems to have rubbed off on him. He shared how friendship has influenced his career, and his life, at 10:45 a.m. Friday in the Amphitheater, closing Week One of the Chautauqua Lecture Series and the theme “On Friendship.”

Astin’s affinity toward friendship began before his acting career when his mother, actress Patty Duke, was raising him on her own. Shortly after his birth, Duke married actor John Astin who, along with bringing three boys of his own into the family, adopted the young Astin.

“There was all this kind of mixture of love, of family, and talent and drama,” he said, “… particularly going from being the one kid my mom had. … It was her and me against the world and then all of the sudden there (were) five boys.”

Growing up with that family dynamic encouraged him to give everything his best effort, whether it was playing baseball with his brothers (which he was never good at, but still wanted to try) or getting a scoop of mashed potatoes at the dinner table.

“I think who you are – who you really are – it comes with you to what you do,” Astin said. “I think that something about that earnestness that I cultivated, and a little bit of a twinkle, a little whimsy, is what Steven Spielberg and Richard Donner saw when they casted me in ‘The Goonies.’ ”

The 1985 comedy follows a group of kids who, while attempting to save their homes from foreclosure, discover a treasure map and go on an adventure to find the long-lost fortune of One-Eyed Willy. The movie – representing friendship, youth and courage – has become iconic in American culture. Astin said its theme of friendship is the most important.

“It’s ultimately a story about these kids not wanting to lose their homes to real estate developers. So, they’re on this quest and they’re trying to save their homes,” he said. “And what sustains them is their friendship.”

This experience of friendship, along with his father instilling in him a philosophy of caring for others, gave him “a lifetime of understanding deeply – in my bones – of what it means to have other people to rely on and what it means to be someone other people can count on.” 

Because of this, he entered every role with an “embedded sense of community.” With each movie, that community grew stronger. 

In “Rudy,” it was the support  Dennis “D-Bob” McGowan showed for his titular character that stuck with him.

“At the moment, the crescendo moment, the apex of (Rudy’s) success, (D-Bob) gets to see it,” said Astin. “And it’s pure. He’s not selfish, he’s like, ‘I love that guy! That’s my friend!’ ”

 Astin’s character in “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, Samwise, is considered by many to be the epitome of friendship. A loyal member of the Fellowship of the Ring, Sam is a steadfast companion and servant to Frodo Baggins along the hobbits’ journey to destroy the One Ring – even going so far as to carry Frodo when he becomes too weak to continue.

At one point, Frodo is deceived by Gollum and orders Sam to return home. He obliges – despite being despondent without his friend. Faced with his commitment to Frodo and his instinct to protect him, he returns after realizing Gollum has imperiled the hobbit. Together, they finish the journey.

Astin had a realization of the two hobbits’ bond while speaking with Sony Ton-Aime, the Michael I. Rudell Director of the Literary Arts, who co-taught a master class with Astin Friday.

“We realized every journey is lonely; there’s a profound loneliness that comes with anything that we do that’s worthwhile, the sacrifice it takes,” Astin said. “When you come through it, and you reflect back, the pain of that loneliness makes it sweeter.”

As an actor, Astin is no stranger to loneliness; his schedule requires him to spend long periods of time away from family, especially his wife Christine, who he considers his best friend. But, he said, when the two of them come together, even when it feels as if the world is collapsing around them, their bond seems immortal.

“If we get to the end of our life, if we’re blessed to live a long life, and we can look back on the sweep of our life and know that we shared it together, that we experienced it together, … it’ll make dying easier,” Astin said.

Frodo and Sam’s friendship was inspired by author J. R. R. Tolkien’s batmen in the First World War. A batman was a soldier who, along with fighting on the frontline, was tasked with looking after their officer. 

Tolkien wrote in a 1956 letter to H. Cotton Minchin, “My ‘Samwise’ is indeed (as you note) largely a reflexion of the English soldier – grafted on the village-boys of early days, the memory of the privates and my batmen that I knew in the 1914 War, and recognized as so far superior to myself.”

Tolkien turned these experiences into bedtime stories for his son to teach him the importance of friendship; these bedtime stories became the first drafts of The Hobbit.

Astin said since starring in “The Lord of the Rings” he has met soldiers who need the books in their lives. Veterans have come to embrace Tolkien’s stories – ones of service and sacrifice – and some even get tattoos embodying Sam as a protector.

“My favorite thing about ‘The Lord of the Rings’ bar none … is that they became a locus for families and friends to communicate with each other,” he said.

In 2017, Astin starred as Bob Newby in the second season of “Stranger Things,” a show with a young cast he called “stone-cold professionals.” Now, he is no longer the young actor, but instead the seasoned veteran, sharing lessons he’s learned during his career with today’s young actors, filling the same shoes he once did.

His daughter, Ali, recently graduated from Harvard University with a master’s degree in dramatic arts and anthropology. And, while Astin jokes he didn’t provide her with enough nepotism, the two are working together as she starts her own film career. This summer, he will be directing her in a film that she wrote.

“If you go on a set and you work with young performers, there’s an obligation to protect them or offer them guidance,” he said. “We have to, from generation to generation, protect each other.”

In closing the lecture, Astin recited Sam’s speech from “The Two Towers,” which concludes: “There’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for.”

Column by Mary Lee Talbot

“God created community for the purpose of increasing blessings on the earth, for purity without shame, a covenant of trust and cooperation until egotism destroyed the equilibrium,” said Bishop Latrelle Miller Easterling. She preached at the 9:15 a.m. Friday morning worship service in the Amphitheater. 

Her sermon title was “I Am a Friend of God: Being the Beloved Community.” The scripture lesson was Ephesians 4:1-6. 

God’s vision for the cosmos was symbiotic, a unity of harmony, humility, justice and shalom, she said. Situational morality and egotism caused a fracture that is antithetical to God’s nature and being. Every instance of war and violence is turning away from deep communion with God. Self interest shattered the peace of the garden (of Eden).

“God’s desire is always for blessing and community. God intended equality and justice for all, not for ‘just us,’” Easterling said. She acknowledged that there are extremists in every religious body, who read the sacred texts for their own ends and have a malformed sense of entitlement.

She continued, “But all who pray earnestly ­— to God, Allah, Buddha, Gaia — do so in peace, compassion and seeking the highest for all humans. God desires a contrite heart because a contrite heart is the will to do God’s holy will.”

Easterling gave a recap of the journey her sermon series took this week. She told the congregation that they began the journey in humility, that they either “mean it or you don’t;” the kind of love needed is not a greeting card kind of love; the love needed includes self, neighbors and enemies; there is no future without forgiveness; and they need to reconcile their faith with their finances. 

“We serve a generous God and we are called to be a generous people. We are called to dismantle poverty because we have one destination — the Beloved Community,” she said. “This is God’s design, given to us by Martin Luther King Jr. so that all are treated with love, dignity and equality and we become the embodiment of love, justice and equality.”

All people are created in the image of God and all people are heirs to God’s promises. “Everyone is created in the image of God and when we don’t respect others, we do it to God,” she said. “We are called to stand together and achieve all that is right. We have experienced a foretaste of the divine kingdom this week. We intend to work to bring about a more just society.” 

She quoted the day’s scripture, Ephesians 4:1-6, from pastor and theologian Eugene Peterson’s The Message. 

“In light of all this, here’s what I want you to do. While I’m locked up here, a prisoner for the Master, I want you to get out there and walk — better yet, run! — on the road God called you to travel. I don’t want any of you sitting around on your hands. I don’t want anyone strolling off, down some path that goes nowhere. And mark that you do this with humility and discipline — not in fits and starts, but steadily, pouring yourselves out for each other in acts of love, alert at noticing differences and quick at mending fences. You were all called to travel on the same road and in the same direction, so stay together, both outwardly and inwardly. You have one Master, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who rules over all, works through all, and is present in all. Everything you are and think and do is permeated with Oneness.”

Easterling told the congregation, “As friends of God, we walk together to build community. We don’t know or understand how to fix it by ourselves, so we have to leave room for the Holy Ghost. We will be disappointed, disillusioned and hurt, and we will disappoint, disillusion and hurt others. But on the road of life we will perish together as fools if we don’t live together as human beings.”

The Beloved Community is right here in Chautauqua. It is not perfect but “we have demonstrated what is possible,” she said. “We have lived the resurrection and we can extend it into the world beyond the grounds. We are not called to change the entire world, but to make a difference where we can.”

Easterling shared a song by Andra Day, “Rise Up,” that gives her comfort. The lyrics describe what is needed when people are tired of living on a merry-go-round. 

“You’re broken down and tired / Of living life on a merry-go-round / And you can’t find the fighter / But I see it in you, so we gonna walk it out / And move mountains / We gonna walk it out / And move mountains / And I’ll rise up / I’ll rise like the day / I’ll rise up / I’ll rise unafraid / I’ll rise up / And I’ll do it a thousand times again / And I’ll rise up / High like the waves / I’ll rise up / In spite of the ache / I’ll rise up / And I’ll do it a thousand times again.

“When the silence isn’t quiet / And it feels like it’s getting hard to breathe / And I know you feel like dying / But I promise we’ll take the world to its feet / And move mountains / Bring it to its feet / And move mountains / And I’ll rise up / I’ll rise like the day / I’ll rise up / I’ll rise unafraid / I’ll rise up / And I’ll do it a thousand times again.

“All we need is hope,” Easterling said. “Chautauqua, rise up, and hate evil and do good, live into grace. When we are weary, all we need is each other. Rise up and stare down the dark. Rise up and build community. Rise up and work for real shalom. Rise up and teach the truth. Rise up and use wealth to create a just society. Rise up, Chautauqua, and be the Beloved Community.”

The congregation rose and gave her a standing ovation.

The Rev. George Wirth, a retired Presbyterian minister from Atlanta, presided. Welling Hall, a member of the Motet Choir, read the scripture. Nicholas Stigall, organ scholar, played “Set Me as a Seal Upon Thy Heart” by Margaret Sandresky for the prelude. The Motet Choir sang “Set Me as a Seal,” by René Clausen, under the direction of Joshua Stafford, director of sacred music and Jared Jacobsen Chair for the Organist and accompanied by Stigall on the Massey Memorial Organ. The postlude was “Toccata” from Symphony No. 5 by Charles-Marie Widor, played by Stafford. Support for this week’s chaplaincy and preaching was provided by the J. Everett Hall Memorial Chaplaincy and the Geraldine M. and Frank E. McElree, Jr. Chaplaincy Fund.

Kaitlyn Finchler
Staff writer

Even the holiest of people need a break. Not just a vacation or sabbatical — a break. Pastors and faith-rooted leaders alike have their own families, communities and lives. They have to forge onward without losing their minds.

The Rev. Victoria Atkinson White delivered her lecture on holy friendship at 2 p.m. Thursday in the Hall of Philosophy to continue Week One of the Interfaith Lecture Series theme, “Holy Friendship: Source of Strength and Challenge.”

White is a writer, pastor, designer, coach, facilitator and teacher. She hones these skills through her work at Leadership Education at Duke Divinity School to cultivate and support Christian institutions and its leaders.

White spends her time with pastors and faith-rooted leaders in their 20s to 40s who are figuring out what it’s like to live life in and alongside their communities. These people often have many questions about what their lives are supposed to look like, how to do their job or how to move forward in what may be seen as impossible times.

“I’m guessing that maybe these questions are not unique to 20-, 30- and 40-something-year-old pastors and faith-rooted leaders,” White said. “If we are living as thinking human beings in the world, we are less likely (to be) asking these questions our whole life long.”

Admittedly, she has more questions than answers, and White said she considers it a privilege to work with faith leaders.

“They’re wanting to do good in the world, some through traditional structures because they grew up with them,” White said. “Some are suspicious of institutions and they’re putting their energy into starting new ones. They all want to do good work in the world through the lens of their faith.”

Along with their career-focused questions, White said she often gets asked how to sustain work, energy, budgets, family, faith and sanity. 

She likes to turn those questions back on them with her own: “What are you doing to sustain yourself?” and ”What are you doing to keep yourself healthy, whole, focused and faithful?”

“If you aren’t keeping yourself healthy, your organization organized, (then) your family, your budget, your community — they don’t stand a chance,” she said. 

Typically, the person retorts that they have resources in place, or are taking vacations, sabbaticals or date nights. Those aren’t unnecessary, she said, and she highly encourages “all of those things collectively and individually, especially date nights.”

However, “there is one thing I believe that is absolutely critical to the sustainability and flourishing of faith-rooted leaders that is far too often overlooked and undervalued,” White said. “That is holy friendship; holy friends.”

This doesn’t mean casual friends and surface-level conversations, but friends who know each other holistically.

“So many of our clergy and faith-rooted leaders are lonely, isolated and feel as if they are living and leading in a vacuum, even when they’re surrounded by people every day,” she said. 

She cited a report from the Surgeon General about the loneliness epidemic, which has been mentioned multiple times by the week’s speakers in both the morning and afternoon.

“Social isolation is not just a problem. It’s an epidemic,” White said. “That means our friendships can literally mean life and death. Research shows that social isolation, or a lack of friends, weakens our immune system.”

It also makes people more susceptible to things like Alzheimer’s disease, high blood pressure, heart disease, sleep disruption, diabetes and cancer, she said. According to the report, the only thing more detrimental to someone’s health than social isolation is smoking.

“When I went to seminary, I was taught to be very careful about the friends I developed, especially in my congregation or my organization,” White said. “Some of this, I’m sure, is because I was a woman. However, my male counterparts were taught the exact same thing.”

White was told to always make sure her words and actions could never be used against her, and that relationships were messy. She was taught the way of ministry should be her top priority, so she was “literally set up to be lonely.”

“If we spend years investing in educating a young pastoral leader and then we send them to an isolated congregation, and they have been taught to not be friends with them,” White said, “why on Earth are we acting surprised when they’re lonely, burnt out and making bad decisions?” 

Whatever they may be called — best friends, soulmates, family, BFFs, ride-or-dies, besties or “bruh” as her 13-year-old son so eloquently puts it — people need people.

“You can call these people whatever you want,” White said. “I call them holy friends. Holy friends are mutual and sacred relationships deeply formed in God’s love.”

To break it down more, she described these friendships as mutual, vital contributors to each other’s thriving. 

“Let me introduce you to my holy friend, Amy,” White said. “We FaceTime regularly and we rarely end a call without saying some form of ‘I love you and I couldn’t do this without you.’”

This helps Amy and White remember that they’re stronger, more creative, more resilient, braver and “definitely more loving because of each other than we ever would be apart.”

She then recalled a “fantastic meme” that goes, “Tell your friends you love them. Tell them a lot. Make it weird.” 

“I love that meme because of the truth of it,” White said. “We don’t tell our friends enough. We don’t tell anyone enough because it can feel weird. There’s intimacy involved. There’s a fear of rejection there.”

White said she wants people to reevaluate and enter the revolution with her — the revolution of telling their friends they love them, a lot. 

“Tell them a lot,” she said. “Tell them until it’s no longer weird. Tell your friends you love them so you can both revel in the mutuality of your friendship.”

Nathan, another of White’s holy friends, is “most definitely one of the ways that God is using me to form me into being the person God would have me to be.”

A holy friendship is what White said is the “antithesis” of a traditional, even transactional friendship shaped by consumerism and capitalism.

“A lot of the time, friendships are made and chosen based on having things in common,” she said. “Casual friendships are often the currency by which the world operates. They are formed through our jobs, our churches, our neighborhoods (or) our favorite sports teams.”

Holy friendships, on the other hand, are formed based on contribution. 

“I’m certain that I could not have the life I lead right now without my holy friends beside me,” White said. “I don’t think I’m alone. I think you need them to flourish, too.”

White said she invites people to listen and see if they recognize similar traits in their friendships. Holy friendships tend to have three things in common.

“One, they validate our past,” she said. “Two, they hold space for us in the present, and three, they help us midwife a vision for the future.”

In pursuit of validation, holy friends come and listen and decide what they need at that moment. 

During a time when White was “painfully betrayed” by an organization in which she had invested a lot, she started to only see the bad. She told her friend Dave that her new organization was great, but she was ”waiting for the other shoe to drop.”

Dave told her: “Victoria, you have done this research in this new organization. Everything I’ve heard you say is positive and healthy and hopeful. And I think you should trust that the shoe is going to drop. It always does. Shoes are manageable.”

He then went on to say that what happened to her, the betrayal she felt, wasn’t a shoe. It was “the rug being ripped out from underneath you.”

White said Dave gave her a gift at that moment.

“In those few sentences, he validated my painful experience,” she said. “He affirmed my instincts that the work I did to find a place of health and hope was important. He reminded me that no organization is perfect.”

This validation led White to help her holy friends “call out the demons of negative self-talk.” She compared holy friends to the “story editors” of life.

“We share our fears and our failures, our hopes and dreams, and we reveal parts of ourselves few people will ever see,” White said.

She and her friend Jean use the phrase “holding each other’s baskets.” It means one person can share whatever they’d like with the other person; that person will hold onto it; and then they’ll ask what the first person wants out of the conversation.

“I begin to feel lighter and lighter and less burdened because Jean is holding all my thoughts and feelings and frustrations in the moment,” White said. “As I feel lighter, I gain clarity and discern solutions to some of my problems.”

White said her main goal is to advocate for and support holy friendships. 

“While you’re at it, nurture your own holy friendships, the mutual and sacred relationships that are deeply formed in God’s love,” she said. “… Love your holy friends. Be a holy friend and share your stories so that others will follow in your beautiful and holy example.”