Dave Hogsett

Professor John R. Hale, in his final lecture about exploring the roots of religion, makes the following observation: “Not only does religious belief seem to be hardwired into human consciousness, but very specific manifestations seem to appear in widely separate times and places.” (Course Guidebook, “Exploring the Roots of Religion,” The Great Courses, p. 116) Professor Hales says that there is a hardwiring in the human mind of a very specific nature that goes beyond what one might think was necessary for simple survival that is somehow part of our mind to seize upon certain symbolic things.

Thursday, Sept. 5, I drove to South Bend from Plymouth for my scheduled check-up with my rheumatologist. I took highway 31 and when I got to South Bend, I continued on Michigan. At the corner of Michigan and Sample I turned right and proceeded to the South Bend Clinic. When I first started taking Michigan, when I moved to Plymouth in 2005, it was a one-way street north. Now it is two-way with bicycle lanes. The stoplight at the corner of Chippawa and Michigan has been replaced with a roundabout. Most of the stoplights have flashing yellow arrows.

In his first lecture about Sacred Texts of the World (The Great Courses), Professor Grant Hardy invites his listeners to look through the lens of a window rather than a mirror. When we look through the lens of a mirror, we see reflected back to us our own way of looking at the world. Professor Hardy is particularly concerned with what he describes the “Protestant bias.” By this, Grant means “looking at other faiths through the lens of the Christian Reformation: assuming that Scriptures are at the heart of a religion, that the oldest texts represent its purest form, and that those documents can best be understood through textual criticism, historical analysis, and translation.” (Lecture #2). Such a bias would give a rather skewed view of Hinduism.

The theme for the annual meeting of the Marshal County Community Foundation and the United Way of Marshall County on Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024, was “The Power of Collaboration.” The setting for event, the Bremen Community and Performing Arts Center, was an illustration of the theme. The center had been funded in part by Seller Funds which had been distributed on a regional basis and had been obtained with community help.

In the beginning the Earth is described as a hurricane at night at sea. The whole creation is chaotic. “Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit (Wind) of God was hovering over the waters (Genesis 1:2).” At the end of September those living in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina, experienced the furry and power of nature as Hurricane Helene brought havoc and destruction. The hurricane ravaged the states with winds, rains, floods, mud-slides and untold carnage.

“Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. ‘Teacher,' he said, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?' He said to him, ‘What is written in the law? What do you read there?' He answered, ‘You shall love the Lord you God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.' And He said to him, ‘You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.”

On our way home from men's and women's Purdue basketball games, Diane and I will listen to '50s Gold on 72 Sirius. The music takes me back to Cortland, Ohio, where I grew up. Thanksgiving always reminds me of the year that it started snowing on Thanksgiving and did not stop until Sunday, when there was four feet of snow on the ground. Cortland was isolated from the outside world for a week. The Boyd relatives who had come to celebrate the holiday fortunately made it home.

The adult Sunday school class I attend at Plymouth First United Methodist church is using Rob Fuquay's On The Way To Bethlehem for the four Sundays of Advent. Rob provides insight into the geographical and historical significance of Rome, Jerusalem, Nazareth and Bethlehem for the Christmas story. Fuquay is the senior pastor of St. Luke's United Methodist Church in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Saturday, Dec. 14, Anita Boetsman, communications manager for the Marshall County Museum and Historical Society was the speaker at the United Methodist Men's breakfast at Plymouth First United Methodist Church. Anita shared how Christmas has been observed in Plymouth and Marshall County over the years. When I shared with a friend at LifePlex about the program, I told him how I had asked the museum if they could provide a program on how the spirit of Christmas was alive in Marshall County. He asked me, “What was your criteria for the spirit of Christmas?”