May, 29, 2023

Hello friends,

       I usually find my best thoughts for writing this little blog while I’m traveling back-and-forth between Penn Yan and Rochester. It is approximately  a one hour drive, and Julie and I have been commuting at least once a week, staying at our daughter Grace’s house while we are in "the big city". There are some days when we drive the distance twice in a day, but it always gives us time to reflect. On yesterday’s return to Penn Yan I started thinking about how the view is different each and every day because of the constant changes that nature provides. It may seem like the same drive every day, but if you look closer, you can see the variations in color that paint a picture across the farmland. Taking a closer look is something that was ingrained in me from an early age.

      I started my real intellectual training when I entered high school at age 13, under firm hand of the Jesuit fathers, and the scholastics who were training for the priesthood, Their approach was classical and to the point, challenging…especially for a 13 year-old child of immigrants. One Jesuit credo is "ignem mittere in terram" ….send fire into the earth. They always challenged us to think beyond the obvious and I believe when I was a sophmore,  over sixty years ago, Mr. Edward Zogby, SJ, exposed us to this poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins:

"Pied Beauty": a sonnet ca. 1887

Glory be to God for dappled things – 

   For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow; 

      For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim; 

Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings; 

   Landscape plotted and pieced – fold, fallow, and plough; 

      And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim. 

All things counter, original, spare, strange; 

   Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?) 

      With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim; 

He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change: 

                                Praise him.

The Jesuits taught us how to glorify the mundane, see beyond the obvious….or in my current situation…enhance the commute. Instead of just paying attention to the road ahead, and the amount of time, it takes to get home, I now try to observe the myriad shades of green, yellow, orange and brown in their endless variations across the rising and setting Sun. It can be such a beautiful world if we just opened our eyes and really see. As a result I have set forth a little picture essay of the trip home last night. I hope you enjoy them.

     Of course the Jesuit training didn’t just end with an appreciation of poetry and pretty colors. They went on to instruct us on how to challenge any given premise, to expand our ways of thinking. Their credo was more in tune with the Eight Beatitudes rather than the 10 Commandments. They were proactive… rather than saying what "not to do" they affirmed what we must do. 

Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are the meek: for they shall possess the earth.
Blessed are they who mourn: for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice: for they shall have their fill.
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. 
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God.

      Today is Memorial Day, celebrated around the country to give commemoration to those who fought in wars since the the time of our country’s founding. This Memorial Day, I am thinking more about those particular Jesuits, the Berrigan brothers, Daniel and Philip, who challenged the law, risked their lives and security to protest war in all of its forms. They engaged in nonviolent, civil disobedience in the cause of peace and nuclear disarmament….and yet, there is no memorial to be found for that type of "giving up of one’s life for one’s country"….just some thoughts that circle my mind while on the endless commute.

Sincerely,

John Bernunzio