Dave Hogsett

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?”

The third selection in Reader's Digest Fiction Favorites Volume 402 is Katherine Center's The Rom-Commers. An important element of the story involves the death Emma Wheeler's mother and the disability of her father.

The first several weeks of 2025, I have seen new faces at LifePlex where I work out. Some are actually old faces returning. A few have been people I know from other settings. One of their New Year resolutions may have been to work out more. Some are people I have never seen before. I wonder how many of them will be around when spring arrives. Studies show that that average date people no longer keep a New Year resolution is Jan. 13.If that is the case, I may never see several of them again.