Journal 4. 13. 06 William Sloane Coffin

[RedEarth]

Journal 4. 13. 06 William Sloane Coffin
by Robert Shetterly

I loved Bill Coffin. He died yesterday. It seems that he was the midwife to every important moral decision I ever made. He could never have known that, but I always consulted him in my heart when I had to risk something principled ---starting with turning my draft card over to him at an anti-Vietnam War rally at Yale in 1968. He inspired moral courage.

I had a long phone conversation with him the day before he died. A woman from Westport , CT had emailed me about having William Rivers Pitt & Stan Goff speak there on May 21st, and she wanted to know if I knew Paul Newman( ! ), who lives in Westport, to get him to introduce the speakers. I said I didn't, but I knew William Sloane Coffin who was currently coaching Newman for the movie role as the preacher for Marilynne Robinson's novel Gilead. Maybe he could make the connection.

So I called Bill. The first thing he said was that he now had Hospice care at home. (The obvious subtext, the string was finally out). His voice was, as usual, buoyant, exuberant, but even more slurred than the slur caused by his stroke of several years ago. Medications, I thought. I could hear children playing in the background. His daughter Amy was there with her kids. His wife Randy, too. I thought of T. S. Eliot's Quartets --- children’s voices among the leaves. The sweet sound that mixes mortality and hope. The quality in Bill's voice was not forced bravery in the face of death. He was exuberant. He knew he had lived nearly as good a life as he could have. He forgave himself his excesses & mistakes; he'd learned from them and lived long enough to redeem them through courageous action. If I had an aptitude for synaesthesia, I'd see his voice in a rush of deep, rich greens, blues and yellows. Or, to purposely mix metaphors, starting a conversation with Bill Coffin was like turning on a tap & having to jump back from the unexpected gush of water pressure --- an immense, sparkling surge. He extolled Hospice, but, even better, he said, was having a catheter --- "You don't have to go to the bathroom, the bathroom comes to you!" (sounds Shakespearean ---- Macbeth isn't it?) I asked for the Newman information & he called to Randy to bring him his address book. When he had it he said, "Half the people in here are dead, and half the pages are missing, & the parts don't coincide." He said he'd call me back tomorrow.

But before hanging up, he wanted to talk about my portraits. When he had first seen the one I'd done of him he'd had two problems, one of which he was tactful about, the other, not: He was not tactful about the fact that I had accentuated his jowls. I lamely tried the excuse that the photograph of the portrait that he had seen made it (them!) look worse than the real portrait. I was a bit surprised at his touch of vanity, but I also suspected that he was pulling my leg, that, in fact, he was pretending to be vain. I wanted to say adamantly, "Bill, this about telling the truth!!!" The next time I drove up from Maine to visit him in Vermont, I took the portrait with me. He conceded that the jowls were not so jowly. What could he say.


http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0413-32.htm

[checks-n-balances]

1. His father, Rev. Henry Sloane Coffin, was also ahead of his time

He wrote "God of Grace and God of Glory," a famous Protestant hymn whose words describe the way that his son lived his own life. One of the highlights of my life was getting to hear William Sloane Coffin preach at Riverside Church in NY about 25 years ago at Christmas time. I deeply admired him and appreciated his work and his writing. We still need him and more people like him - now more than ever. It's an interesting coincidence that he died this particular week - just a few days before Easter.

"God of Grace and God of Glory" happens to be my favorite because I've sung those words in church all my life, and I've come to understand their meaning. Whether or not fellow DUers consider themselves religious or not, these words - some of the lyrics - could not resonate more than they do today:

...Grant us wisdom, grant us courage, for the facing of this hour, for the facing of this hour...

...Fears and doubts too long have bound us; free our hearts to work and praise. Grant us wisdom, grant us courage, for the living of these days, for the living of these days...

...Cure your children's warring madness. Bend our pride to your control. Shame our wanton selfish gladness, rich in goods and poor in soul...

Prophetic words, aren't they?

Thanks, RedEarth, for posting the article.

[RedEarth]

2. Your welcome.... I too have admired Rev. Coffin over the years

Twenty or twenty-five years ago, my wife and I were able to visit Riverside Church, however, we didn't get the opportunity to actually hear Rev. Coffin preach. I certainly agree we need more people like him...other than Jim Wallis a few others, not many sensible religious leaders are speaking up.

I wasn't aware his dad wrote "God of Grace and God of Glory". It's a great hymn...one of my favorites. It will have even more meaning now....thanks for posting it.

[bobbieinok]

3. he was really hated by the RW.....wasn't he the model for the Doonesbury

minister??????

[checks-n-balances]

4. Yes - the Rev. Sloane (or Sloan) - the real Rev. got very little press

coverage that wasn't negative. I'm sure that any good press he gets posthumously will be debunked and smeared by the RW - as is their usual unchristian MO ...