WGBH Radio; The Callie Crossley Show

I'm Kelly Crossley and this is the Cali Crossley Show sometimes to make sense of the world. We need to tune out the talking heads and turn to our eternal teachers the scholars of the psyche and soul writers. Today we introduce a new segment off the shelf a recurring conversation where we take a classic and explore what it can tell us about today. This hour we're dusting off TS Eliot's The Wasteland written in one thousand twenty two. It's one of the most influential works of the 20th century with our cultural contributor Eugene Polk leading the way. We get a better understanding of our post postmodern world by way of one of the first post-modern poems. But first more mass Decision 2010 election coverage with a look at the Patrick campaign's final push. And along the way it's a preview of the blessing of the animals ceremony at Trinity Church in Boston. Up next politics pets and poetry. First the news. From NPR News in Washington I'm Barbara Klein.

Sources close to White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel tell NPR he's stepping down tomorrow. He'll then return to Chicago to begin a run for mayor. Mildly promising economic reports are out today first time claims for unemployment benefits fell more than expected last week and gross domestic product in the second quarter has been revised upwards to one point seven percent still quite slow. Mortgage rates are lower than they've been in decades. Freddie Mac the nation's second largest mortgage finance company says rates on 30 year loans are 4.3 percent. NPR's Paul Brown reports the reason can be found in Europe. Freddie Mac economist Amy Cruz cuts says a big reason for the super low mortgage rates is economic upheaval in Europe she says European investors are putting their money into safe government backed U.S. securities including some mortgage securities. Money from the global capital markets is flowing into mortgages. Those interest rates down. That's because government backed securities including mortgage securities pay their investors a

guaranteed amount. That amount is a smaller percentage when securities prices are high because of high demand. Cutts says she sees mortgage rates continuing very low in coming months but that may not make a lot of difference to some home buying prospects. Even people with good credit are finding it tough to get mortgages from banks. Paul Brown NPR News Washington. Toy maker Fisher-Price has announced a major recall about 10 million toys in the U.S. and Canada are being recalled as safety hazards. The Consumer Product Safety Commission Scott Wilson says they were recalled after reports of injuries. The injuries range from serious laceration hazards that lead to stitches and even choking hazards. The products include tri Sickles highchairs and some toys with inflatable balls. Authorities in Pakistan are blocking trucks from going into Afghanistan along a supply route that's vital to U.S. and other coalition troops.

From Kabul NPR's Quil Lawrence reports the move follows an early morning NATO's airstrike that killed three Pakistani border security guards. A U.S. military spokesman said that around dawn NATO's soldiers spotted a group they believed to be insurgents after taking fire along the border in eastern Paktia province. A helicopter then attacked the position which soldiers believed was inside Afghan territory. Earlier this week U.S. helicopters made multiple attacks across the border drawing condemnation from Islamabad. U.S. officials have long complained that Pakistan doesn't do enough to stop insurgents from entering Afghanistan. Quil Lawrence NPR News Kabul. On Wall Street at this hour the markets are down the Dow is off 33 points at ten thousand eight hundred one. The Nasdaq composite is down eight points at twenty three sixty seven. The S&P is off two points at eleven forty two. This is NPR News. The federal judge who struck down California's ban on same sex marriage is retiring from the bench. From member station KQED in San Francisco Scott Shafer reports the judge has ruled on several

significant cases. Judge Vaughn Walker is known as a Republican with a strong independent streak and his decision in August striking down California's Proposition 8 banning same sex marriage cemented that reputation. The landmark ruling outraged conservatives who called it a perfect example of legislating from the bench. The 67 year old Walker has been chief judge of the federal district court in Northern California since 2004. He'll step down from that job at the end of December and then leave the bench entirely in February. Walker's judicial career began with controversy. He was nominated to the federal bench by President Reagan but didn't win Senate confirmation until the first Bush administration. Walker plans to return to private practice which he left to become a judge in 1900. For NPR News I'm Scott Shafer in San Francisco. Movie star Tony Curtis has died. A blue eyed heartthrob in the 1050 and 60s Curtis had a long and varied acting career which included a starring role in the classic comedy Some Like It Hot with Marilyn Monroe. I only come ashore twice a day when the tide goes out it's on.

Kind of the show. That's my hobby. I work for. Yes so did my father my grandfather you might say we had a passion for show. That's why we named the oil company after it. Please no name. Curtis also played serious roles he was nominated for an Oscar for playing a white racist escaped convict in The Defiant Ones. He died of cardiac arrest at his home in Las Vegas at the age of 85. I'm Barbara Klein NPR News in Washington. Support for NPR comes from the John D and Catherine team across the foundation committed to building a more just verdant and peaceful world. More information at Mac found dot org. The afternoon I'm Kalee Crossley and this is the Kelly Crossley Show. Today we continue our mass Decision 2010 election coverage with another installment of ask the manager. We've been checking in with the managers who are running the candidates campaign for the governor's

race and today shortly we will be joined by Sidney Ashbury the brains behind Governor Deval Patrick's campaign. Sidney Ashbury is on her way into the studio these things happen. So it's an opportunity for you the listeners to get in on this conversation. And that is where are you with regard to your vote in the governor's election in the upcoming governor's election. Are you a Deval Patrick supporter. Our number is 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70. What needs to happen listeners for people who are so close right now and just maybe paying attention to the election for the first time in Sydney just arrived in the studio so where we're good to go here in just a moment. I was just asking our listeners. Sidney about what needed to happen for them to be convinced of whomever they wanted to vote for come November because we're just a little more than a month until election time. Yeah and it seems like I'm running all the time it's 33 days out to be exact. Well I think this makes our my opening question to you even more appropriate which

is you know what does it take to be involved in this final push to the election. Well it takes a lot of work and the governor and lieutenant governor are committed to that and our campaign is committed to that and I hope that your listeners will will have take the time over the next few days left in this race to get out to an event and see the governor and lieutenant governor talking to voters about the issues they care about jobs. The fact that Massachusetts in 2010 has created 65000 jobs. Education the fact that Massachusetts is first the nation in education and health care the fact that 97 percent half a million more people are insured today than they were when Governor Patrick contended governor Murray came into office and the vision for forward going forward. There's a lot of work still to be done on all of those issues and so we hope that over the course of the 33 days that we have left in this race the governor lieutenant governor will have the opportunity whether it's in person or through TV ads to communicate that message. The last time you were

here which is a couple months ago Governor Patrick enjoyed a fairly comfortable lead over the next competitor which would be Charlie Baker. Two polls have come out since then and both of them that gap is close one suggest it's one percent. Another one suggest it's more than that but the bottom line is. It's very very close. Right and this is a race we knew was going to be close from the beginning. And I think the most important thing is we've never taken anything for granted. The governor and lieutenant governor do not take a single vote for granted they don't take a single moment they have to to talk to voters over these remaining days for granted. But I do think that as the race goes on our message will will begin to resonate with people and it's a message message about moving forward and it's a message about choices. Our opponents have a very different vision of the future in Massachusetts and really want to go backwards on many of the things that Governor Patrick and Governor Maria worked hard on on health care. They want to take us back. They they believe we can't afford or don't believe health care

coverage for everyone is important. And the governor and lieutenant governor are committed to that and they're committed to bringing costs down. And that's why they did things like put a cap on premium increases for small businesses which both of our opponents oppose. There are clear choices in this race and I think I think that's what these remaining weeks are about. What kind of pressure is it to be in the lead. If you're 1 percent or more than I mean there's got to be a different kind of situation for you to be trying to stay out in front. You know we don't pay much attention to polls I know no one believes that but we have been talking internally as a campaign about it's inevitable that this is going to be a tight race in the very end and we're committed to that in everything we do we're focused about the one on one conversations we're focused on our strategy which is about empowering our organizers on the ground to have the information they need to be able to have the conversations about the choice in this race. And that's everything we do if you go to Deval Patrick you will see all sorts of information that we provide to our organizers and our supporters to allow them to interact

with voters who are undecided at this point and to confirm their support and I hope that some of our viewers will visit Deval Patrick dot com today we have having a very exciting day. Diane Patrick who's the first lady and she's just a wonderful woman this morning sent out an e-mail to our supporters and she asked them in the last day of September. It's the last reporting deadline before the election. Fundraising wise too by midnight tonight help us to get to 10000 dollars raised on line. And I left the office and we were well over 11000. So people are checking in there visiting Deval Patrick. They're they're contributing online and they're signing up to organize online and and we hope that continues and we hope we continue to grow on that polls. The only poll that matters is on the action. When you were here the last time you said we've got to get up to talk to people and tell them what we have accomplished and I raise that because you know that seems to be something that you you have to continue repeating here are the things that we believe. Governor Patrick should be touted for.

And you know I have to. How frustrating is that when he hears the things that he's made that I know that he's done but I can't seem to get that across. You know and rightfully so that the voters have a right to know what what their leadership has been doing over the last three and a half years and it's been a really tough three and a half years and I think voters are feeling that and they have a right to hold their elected elected officials accountable and and I hope that's what they do because I think the governor and lieutenant governor have shown courage in very tough times. Protecting local aid protecting funding for education investing in health care renewable and clean energy technologies. Life Sciences they made targeted investments they had a plan that has helped us pull out of this recession faster than other states. And that's just a fact. We in Massachusetts are growing jobs at a faster rate than any state in the country. And that is remarkable. And it's not by accident. It really isn't. But just to go back to your question I think the voters have a right to ask those questions and we're fully prepared to engage in that conversation.

How have the debates impacted the campaign. There have been several Now there's what three more coming over I lost count. You know you never know. I'm a little too close to it to be able to tell you truthfully. But I do think Governor Patrick has really communicated his message. He's presented the choices to the voters. There have been clear differences between I think presented to voters in these debates and ultimately the choice is up to them so I encourage our last debate is on October 25th and it will be covered widely at least with the Boston media. So I encourage voters to check in it's an important thing to see. Each of the candidates on stage presenting their ideas about the future and their record to date. So we thought it's been it's been hugely helpful for those who are involved in the campaign. The governor really sets a strong tone about how he wants to carry himself and it's been a positive tone. This is been a positive campaign. Debbie let me let me Billy let me interrupt you and bring it up to you guys tone and temperament has ended up

being an issue in this campaign. And I think by most punditry Anyway people find him to be quite pleasant pleasant governor. And I'm biased and I think so. But I mean in his effort in answering questions and even though a number of people including a number of our analysts here did not think he won the last debate I thought Charlie Baker did what came through was his ability to be pleasant in even dealing with very tough questions. And the thing that stands out from that debate even if people did not say they thought he won was that moment when he said I see the faces behind the numbers that I have to really think about what it means to cut aid anywhere because it's not these are not just numbers these are real people that seem to resonate with a lot of people. I well I couldn't agree more with this sense that temperaments a really important characteristic in terms of our leadership that we choose and for me I think it's a it's a reason why I was

attracted to Governor Patrick in the first place even. But compassionate leader is is what I'm looking for and I think many voters are looking for and I think our pundits have a different approach. And that's a choice that voters have before them and it's a very clear choice I I would agree that the debates have shown they're different they're different styles and not it's not for everyone but from for many of our supporters they they've come away from the debate feeling more confident than ever that this is the type of leader we want and this is. Leader we wanted in these difficult times it's the last three and a half years have not been not been easy for people in Massachusetts. Nor has it been easy to lead Massachusetts through but a steady hand somebody who's who's willing to console and and lead in and the soft ways as well as through reforms and legislation that he's worked in on Beacon Hill. I think I think those are important things and I think those are those are things that the debates helped to bring out. Now what about the media coverage of the

campaign it's gotten a lot because of course this is you know where we all live. But also I think it's gotten a lot because people are looking at this as part of a national trend perhaps. So yeah certainly yeah. And I think the national trend I think there's just so much talk these days about the Tea Party movement and politics in general which I think is is a good thing I think the but the the media coverage of this race is really important civic engagement is a very important thing and having an informed electorate I think is incredibly positive in a positive direction I think the country. Him engaging in this debate. At times it goes too far obviously. But I think that's a really important thing and we welcome it. The governor is out and about and we've talked about the debates he's doing as many of the debates as we can possibly fit into his schedule. We've only got 33 days and the man never ceases to amaze me at how much he's coming into that that short amount of time. But I would say that the media coverage is

overall a very positive thing for us. We think and we're taking an opportunity to deliver a message and present the choices on November 2nd that voters happen before them. OK in this short period of time leading up to November we're now getting assaulted by the TV ads. Yeah I know that there is one that is a negative cast to it but not done by your campaign done by Bay State futures and another group but in support of Governor Patrick and in opposition to his chief rival or perceived chief rival. Charlie Baker Yeah and I think the governor's been very clear on the fact that these independent expenditures are just not something that were excited about and really think that we'd be better off without them. But it's a reality in the world we live in and the politics we're dealing in so I think I think we'd prefer not to have these independent expenditures going on in Massachusetts and in this race and we would prefer not to be influenced in this race but unfortunately it's just the reality of where we are. Well the Republican Governors Association the folks that put out the ads against

Tim Cahill have already announced him you know that they're going to do that against Charlie Baker and the Republican Governors Association are going to spend over four million dollars in negative TV ads between now. Well already have over the course of this this race and it's an unfortunate thing it really is. But they were effective against him. You know well well we'll see. We'll see. But I think I think the important thing is for our campaign is we're staying focused on our positive message and positive way we're approaching this campaign. And I think you'll see that in the TV ads the most recent TV ad that the governor had up that you can see if Deval Patrick dot com is about education and it's about it's a very telling moment where the governor is doing an interview and he's talking about the fact that. That students they can't they can't sit on the sidelines and wait for the recession to end. We have to invest now. We have to we have to be thinking about our kids now because they can't wait. And that is why he has gone out of his way to protect education funding

throughout from from pre-K through higher education he has made strategic investments to ensure that our kids have the opportunities and the chances that all of our kids have the opportunities and I think education reform is is an example of that in the most sweeping education reform in 17 years was passed under Governor Patrick's leadership and it's a testament to the fact that this is he believes a very important issue for our future and invest in our future. And again the more recent announcement of federal funds coming to Massachusetts is just another example of the fact that Massachusetts is truly a leader in the race to the top. Yes yes yes sorry. So finally Sidney What do you say to somebody who is like still on the fence. Maybe they've gone back and forth there's a lot of movement among voters right now in this campaign. To get them to look at your candidate very strongly and go in and pull the lever for Governor Patrick. Well I think I think the most important thing is to check in get informed go to

Deval Patrick dot com come to an event there's a calendar on there with all sorts of events where the governor lieutenant governor will be that's the best way. But if you don't have the time for that I would just say that there are some clear choices here and we can make a choice to continue to move forward on jobs education and health care or we can make a choice to go backwards on many of those investments and those commitments that we've made over the last three and a half years and I think our opponents are moving in the wrong direction. But that is for the voters voters to decide so I just strongly encourage folks to to get informed and use our website as a resource. OK. All right well we've been talking with Sidney Ashbury the campaign manager for Governor Deval Patrick and you can witness by her rushing in that she's very busy in these last few weeks and days. Sidney thank you so much for joining us I really appreciate it thank you. Up next it's a preview of St. Francis day and the blessing of the animals ceremony. Stay with us. Support for WGBH comes from you and from Subaru of

New England offering the redesigned and fuel efficient 2010 Subaru Legacy with symmetrical all wheel drive dealer listing at New England Subaru dot com and from our HCI the rehabilitation hospital of the Cape and Islands helping patients get home and back to life after illness injury or surgery and get stronger faster. At our HCI our HCI org and from arts Emerson the world on stage presenting The Laramie Project at its epilogue The Laramie Project ten years later a world premiere performed with the original creators September 24th through October 2nd at the Cutler Majestic Theater Arts Emerson org. Well the next fresh air of the battle between muckraking columnist Jack Anderson and Richard Nixon writer Mark Feldstein says Andersen cut ethical corners to get Nixon exposé and Dixon responded with fury. The Nixon CIA sent a team of 16 covert agents that surveilled Anderson and his family and his staff around the clock to help Stone's new book is poisoning the press. Join us this afternoon at to an eighty nine point seven

WGBH. Hi Kathy Fuller here from WGBH is all classical station ninety nine point five and I hope you'll join me on Saturday October 23rd for the 12th annual classical cartoon festival at Boston Symphony Hall. An entire day filled with live music and your favorite looney tune classics back on the big screen. WGBH members you can purchase discounted tickets online at WGBH dot org slash cartoon festival sponsored by Solomon Rudd's you fund college investing plan and Massachusetts Teachers Association. Why eighty nine point seven. Because there's this attitude that it's only the other parent's children that are doing the blowing because you'll only hear the Emily Rooney show on the news. Eighty nine point seven WGBH radio. OH UH OH UH UH UH.

I'm Kelly Crossley and this is the Kelly Crossley Show. This Sunday marks a feast day for the Anglican and Catholic churches in honor of St. Francis the patron saint of our feathered furry and scaly friends. Joining us is Rodney Hudgens associate rector at Trinity Church Boston. This Sunday he will oversee the blessing of animal ceremony in Copley Square in front of Trinity Church. Reverend welcome. Thanks Kelly I'm glad to be here. You got to tell us where this tradition started in the church I mean I know it's long going on going forever never but. Well yes they are honoring Saint Francis is a as a long honored tradition among several Christian denominations. I remember the first blessing of animals that I went to I was in the south in college in the 80s and it sort of began they are at least in that part of the country and it's just grown like wildfire fire all over all over the United States and especially in Europe especially in those places where. Our every day life is really rooted to the earth. But in places like Boston

where you have to go a little bit outside the city to get that experience we know God's creation is most accessible to us through our pets. And so the blessing of pets is a great city tradition and this weekend you'll find it all over the country in great cities. But here in Boston at your church it'll be outside Copley Square So tell us about let us know the site and promptly Square and other places can do it in their church yard our church artist Copley Square. So which is a nice one by the way it's a very nice when it is a very nice one. But we gather on a Sunday afternoon at 4 o'clock and we invite our parishioners which are many and their family and their friends and anybody who finds himself in the back bay or near Copley Square to bring their pets. And we gather people near the front steps of the church. And we have a short prayer we hear a little bit of the creation story that part that talks about God creating land creatures and humans. And then we pray for all creatures and especially for humans in our care of them.

And then the chaos begins. OK. It's a great holy chaos Well it's usually several hundred folks with their pets and so that's a lot of people even for Copley Square and the clergy the people bring their animals to the clergy of Trinity and we give each one of them their own blessing as we sprinkle them with holy water. It takes a little while but it's terrific and it's a lot of fun kids especially love it. And it just sort of takes as long as it takes. Yeah. And people hang around and it sort of becomes a party on Copley Square will have kids that will bring not only their pets but if their pets are too big to travel they may bring a proxy pet the animal. Well I saw a stuffed animal or so and they'll tell us who this is when they bring it to us. Some bring photographs of their pets that can't come. And sometimes most poignantly they will bring us the ashes of one of their pets who's died in the past year. So it's a lot of fun but it's very poignant for a lot of people. And what do people tell you when they say they come they make an effort to come to this particular you know ceremony

what do they say motivates them to come. Well it's a couple of things. What they what we learn when we listen to their stories is that sometimes God's unconditional love is most accessible to us through our pets. And for many especially as children it's the first time they learned what unconditional love was really about other than their parents. And so the bond we have with our pets is as like nothing else. And they want to honor their pets they want to honor this love of God that they find through their pets. You know I think about when President Obama and his family were about to select a dog the media frenzy everybody wanted to know what kind of dog it was going to be what was the name of the dog going to be what kind of life would this dog have. And you can do that back through several presidents I remember Socks the cat in the Clinton White House. We all have our own version of that.

And so you know in some places in some churches we can't do this at Trinity because of our historic structure but they actually invite the pets into the church. So it's a crazy it's a crazy day. But they want to find a way to to love their pet back and to actually put that love on display for others and it sort of turns Copley Square into a large dog park for a couple hours. Now how did the animals react to this and how how are they doing it. Well you would think it would be there would be some disruption as we say. But it's really I've been doing this for about 20 years. Not not at Trinity but in churches that I've served around the country and it's very rare that there are dog fights. There's this this holy piece that sort of comes over and harmony takes over and you wouldn't expect that. But more often than not that is the case your most memorable blessing of the pets that you can recall. I remember a bird getting loose here in the sense that it was OK you know in Copley Square we get lots of eight legged

creatures like believe that. We get a lot of rep tells me for me personally the snakes are the most difficult for me there are you know a blessing requires human touch in order relation. And I'm a loyal resident reticent to touch the reptiles but there are others who will. So you know we'll have people who have a large constrictor hold around them and walking around it almost like a circus. But that's probably the most memorable. Other than little children bringing boxes of ashes. Now other parts of the country is as popular as it is here. I believe so if you do an internet search for blessing of the animals you will get Church sites from all over the country. OK here's a question I have. It seems to me and I'm not a pet owner So I'm I'm just looking at this from the outset I'm wondering if there is way more interest in people and their pets and people talking about their pets and people

talking about what it means to have a pet in their life blah blah blah. So are this kind of ceremony become more important to people than it may have been in past years because of that is because of that trend. Or am I just way off. Well I don't. The truth is I don't know I think that is part of the story. If you walk up and down the street in Boston you can watch people they're more likely to say hello to the dog or the cat than they are the person. And that's just human characteristic. What we also but what we also find is that through things like the blessing of the pets where we're actually gathering the pet owners and you have to wonder what we were really doing the blessing of the pets is really more for the owner that it is for the pets the pets don't need our blessing. We need to be reminded that they are a blessing. So by pet owners coming to this we will see a change that they start talking person to person about the life of their pet so we actually get a chance to transform part of that.

Oh so you get little bit more social interaction little bit more and more interaction in the life that we find through our pets. Now one of the things that you're planning to do is sort of create a green initiative if you will as a part of this ceremony moving toward you know bringing in all the environment in addition to the pres that is become a national trend as well as we worry about. Environmental factors global warming and it really goes back to the original creation stories about are we stewards of creation or are we stewards in creation. So I know the Diocese of Massachusetts headquartered here in Boston are encouraging our parishes to do what we call Creation Care Sunday so it's using the lens of St. Francis to really look at all of creation and our responsibility to take care of it not only for ourselves but for those who will follow us. So we encourage parishes to look at their carbon footprint how to create sustainable communities. When Trinity Church was renovated within the past 10 years that was a large part of the

renovation buildings were digging geothermal wells so that we could greatly reduce our carbon footprint. And so now the diocese is actually creating Grant initiatives for some of our parishes to make that real for them. And that's not just our diocese and it's not just the Episcopal Church that's happening through Christian and other faith communities around the country really taking this part of our mandate to care for creation seriously. Now Saint Francis this is all in honor of Saint Francis. Tell us how you know he expressed his love of all creation if you will and pets so that this tribute is ongoing to him at this point. Well he believed that as it says in the Psalms that all creation all creatures are made to praise the Creator. And he really believes that he started life as the son of a wealthy cloth merchant his dream in life as a young boy was to become a knight.

And he did that but in his very first battle he was defeated and he went back out and he heard a message from God that said return home and rebuild my house. And at first he thought it was his own parish church which was in great distress disrepair. But he quickly learned that the house was not just the church but all of creation. And so over the course of several years he began to befriend the poor. He began to renounce a lot of material possessions and he really had a unique relationship with the creatures and creation he's known for many of his prayers he would he would refer to Brother Sun and Sister Moon and Stars brothers wind and air and sister Water Brother fire and sister earth. And so he would write he would write him so he would write prayers. But he also preached to the animals because he he took to heart what it says and the prophets what it says in the Psalms what it says in the Gospels about even the rocks shout out in praise to the Creator.

That's beautiful. I was thinking about the fact that part of this tribute in addition to the ceremony and all the other wonderful exchanges that are going on there at the ceremony itself is that if people want to offer donations you're asking for the garden they go to the Saint Francis garden and also to the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals that is true that's a long standing tradition. Trinity will have people who will make a memorial donation in honor of a pet who has passed in the past year but they miss PCA will actually be there with us. Oh yeah. Is that typical every place else to look. I can't imagine if they were invited and they wouldn't show up right. But they certainly show up whenever we've invited them. We've also every year invite the Boston Police Department the K-9 unit and the Ranger unit which is the Mounted Police. Wow. And they often they're often there. And that's true. Well the you know the horses are big and there are a lot of attention and people love to honor our service animals. You know we

forget that it's not just pets we have service animals that work and risk you and investigation. We have therapy pets we have people who have specially trained pets that assist them with medical conditions. And there they are as well. So we really get a sense of that animal service in a remarkable way so not merely here to be used or to be eaten though they service in those ways as well. I was wonder what happens when people are just walking by Copley during this blessing ceremony. You know what. I know you have some stories to tell about that. Well you never know. You know we are a large church and we're very conspicuous not only in our building but we're sort of often conspicuous in what we do outside our building. So I think some people are prepared for anything they might see. Often they just they come and want to get closer and want to be a part of it and then we see them join us the next year.

Oh really. Yeah OK. Yeah there are. There was one year that told you about the. There was a lady that was wrapped in a very coarse reptile walking around. That one you didn't catch the eye did not touch right. And you actually saw a well sort of open up around her. It was a lot of people didn't like us that definitely would be stepping away but I have to say this year we're adding to the mix a very large puppets. That we have borrowed from the Amalgamated public library the Boston branch is known as the puppet free library the other branches in New York City. And so we have a larger than life penguin a giraffe. We have a turtle and we have a very large silvery fish so there are going to be out there as well sort of as our larger than life Representatives they'll be with us and Sunday morning inside the church as we do our regular morning prayers. Be curious to see what kind of attention that brings. I think it's going to bring a fair amount of attention right. Hope so. It is a great day. It is so much fun.

And I often think it's the church really at her best trying to bind up all creation and offer it back. I think we're at a time where you know even though despite this new Pew study or whatever they just came out this it people don't know the tenets of their religion even if they're faithful they go in a church that people feel an overall sense of. They want to feel anyway an overall sense of spirituality about yes it's at some point in their lives. Yes. And you don't have to be religious I'm to use man in quotes to feel that and so it seems to me that a ceremony like this invites that without making people feel uncomfortable if they don't subscribe to the. To the to the overall religious aspect of it absolutely you know we're not checking anybody's membership card and we're not asking anybody what they believe that they love animals then we believe that that's they're also loving God whether they understand it that way or not we understand that. And if they love their pets and think that creation should be honored We'd love for them to join with us. We won't ask them to change anything they believe or that they feel deeply but to join with us and let us share in that common love we have.

Well I almost brought my stuffed animal today but ceremony is that today would just be. But I'm very inspired by what you've had to say here today Reverend. Thank you Cali so I think that you'll probably get a few people just checking you out. It's horrific. My guest is Reverend Wright. He is the associate rector at Trinity Church Boston. The blessing of the animals ceremony is this Sunday at 4:00 on the west porch Copley Square. To learn more visit our Facebook page our log on to Trinity Church Boston dot org revenue and thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. Up next it's our regular segment off the shelf a look at the literary classics with our cultural contributor Eugene Koch. Stay with me was the way the. The

support for WGBH comes from you and from the American textile History Museum in Lowell presenting high style Betsy Bloomingdale and the haute couture featuring designs created for one of America's most celebrated fashion icons. Details at ATHM dot org. And from Solomon's collection and finding rugs in Quincy now accepting entries from kids ages 11 to 14 for their design a rug contest for the WGBH 2011 auction to download an entry form you can go to Solomon rugs dot com and from arts Emerson the world on stage presenting The Laramie Project at its epilogue The Laramie Project ten years later. A world premiere performed with the original creators September 24th through October 2nd at the Cutler Majestic Theater Arts Emerson dot org. Next time on the world. Pakistan has been dragged down by natural disaster violence and political discord. That may sound like opportunity to Pervez Musharraf. Just two years ago the former president faced impeachment now with Pakistan's unraveling. Musharraf is launching a new political

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Today we're kicking off a new segment off the shelf where we dust off the classics and explore what they can tell us about today. Joining me to discuss TS Eliot's epic poem The Wasteland is eugène Co. He's our cultural contributor and a professor of English at Wellesley College. Eugene Welcome back. Thank you for having me Carol. Kelly this is a difficult poem to say the least so I okayed it. Before we dive in business with some specifics let me ask you why is this poem so important why is it a classic. There are so many different ways of answering that question how about I back up and refer to something that Matthew Arnold the 19th century critic and writer said about the greatest of our poets namely that they saw life clearly and they saw it whole. I think what the poem does is it enables you or helps you to see things more steadily and to see things more whole. The poem as you remember. Paint a picture of chaos disorder. This

junction convulse at this unity. It is a wasteland in which which is very difficult to navigate but rather than merely giving you the impression of this order it provides you with a vision that allows you somehow to get a handle on it. Give it a shape and give it some form of meaning. And so I think it's it resonates even today or especially today when we feel a great deal of this unity perhaps alienation and even displacement in our lives in the public and the public sphere. Why don't we just read a few lines right off the top of it and people will if they're scrambling right now to think and to remember this point. The first lines will bring you right back. That's right the first time that you like me to read yes please. April is the cruelest month breeding lilacs out of the land. Mixing memory and desire stirring dull roots with spring rain. Winter kept this warm covering earth and forgetful snow feeding a little

life with dried to burgers. Well for one thing people know where April is the cruelest month comes from that's right and that's just almost a part of our vocabulary these days. And I think it sets the tone that you just described about you know the sort of this disappointment and this feeling this feeling of alienation is generally thought that TS Eliot believe that modern society lacked community and spirituality which is particularly interesting coming off my last segment where it's writing about a ceremony and how to do that. Your last yeah. Yeah. So that's I see that I think we are we're seeing that in many ways right now. And that's right I think the first lines and the voice that articulate those first lines really captures many of the tensions the themes that are prevalent in the wasteland. There are many ways of reading this opening passage. Many have referred to for example the ritual rhythm fertility rituals. I see

something a little bit different that I'd like to offer Yeah please. What do you think when I read the first half of the opening passage I remember the experience of the first really beautiful spring day in April. You feel not only exhilaration and excitement but I think often an undercurrent of sadness because. You know that spring is transitory and therefore you cannot possess it you cannot hold it for ever. The rebirth of spring is a reminder that everything is in passing and winter and will eventually arrive. So I think the resurgence of desire. You often feel in spring time can remind you that youth your own spring especially as we get older will be lost or has been lost and will join all the other horrible losses that you will

suffer of which aging is only an emblem. And if you look at those lines from the broader perspective the ecumenical or religious and eclectic religious perspective of the pome. The lines presuppose a world in which complete fulfillment is impossible. Or to use the language of Buddhism and the you punish thoughts that permeates this poem. The objects of ordinary but very real desire. Are illusory. So in the second half of the opening passage it's understandable that there will be a retreat into the comfort the forgetful snow of the half life of winter. If you want to retreat from the pain of making yourself vulnerable with desire with hope because you know somewhere in the back of your head that it is doomed. So far as we are mortal and how does that play out now.

All of that you've just said and I ask the question because I wonder as I read this this is a very long point. It's dense. I would describe it and it he comes in and out uses different voices. Some of this I can very easily relate to but some of it I'm like I don't know what he's talking about and nor do I care. So I'm wondering you know who did he see as the audience for this. And you know help me work through it. You want her to answer both questions first about the difficulty. Elliot himself said that he became immersed very deeply immersed in many poems which he didn't quite understand. And I think that's an experience that we are all familiar with. And he would also add that the very fragmented and and often impenetrable elements of modernity of modern life required that he use a form that is difficult that is challenging. That is that is difficult to hold because that reflects and

replicates the difficulty of navigating the modern world. Is that still true today. Do you think oh oh yes oh yes. I think even scholars of TSL you probably. Will experience what we in the profession called imposter syndrome. You go lecturing about the poem and then you wonder to yourself Have I really gotten hold on this. And I don't think you really fully get a hold on this but you try. And there are lines that resonate in different ways at different times right now. What resonates for me is the political situation. There are many many people in America today whose hopes were stirred inspired by the last presidential election but who are now wanting to retreat. Into the forgetful snow of winter and hoping that the next this coming mid-term election cycle just passes to

echo Green Day you know the group yeah. You know these people are saying Wake me up when November ends and that desire for retreat because of the pain of hoping and striving is is a condition that it understands and picks very powerfully. But it is also the condition from which I think most seeks to live events right. So you know the parts of the poem eugène that really strike me right now that make just make a mark for today are the ones that really speak about the bleakness of what is happening now. So I'm drawn to the section called What the thunder said. Which seems to me to be really articulating what a lot of us are feeling right now and if we're not feeling it exactly ourselves we certainly can see it among all of our friends and loved ones. And there's such a thirst for some kind of vision some kind of redemptive possibility or even simply the wisdom to

make sense of it all. Yeah but before you get to redemption what I what I find you know the bleakness of this some of these lines he says here is no water but only rock rock and no water and the sand the road the road winding above among the mountains which are mountains of rock without water. If there were water we should stop and drink amongst the rock. One cannot stop or think Sweat is dry and feet are in the sand. If there were only water amongst the rock. I mean I read that and I think yeah if there was oh where is the water you know this is pretty tough times. A lot of people are living in. Absolutely. However at the same time there is a distinction between the pain felt in this voice and desire for comfort and retreat that you sense in the opening voice. And so. The voice that articulate this that this thirst is one that is still in touch with the life force and carries with it the potential for

salvation for redemption. It's the very fact that it is vulnerable to and is feeling pain that enables the possibility of regeneration. There is no regeneration unless you soon surrender yourself to the inevitability of pain. That's something that Eliot as a Christian believed in but which she saw also in other religions in which she saw in modern life it's too easy to feel alienated displaced and therefore to reject it all and to retreat into us all upsets the world of comfort. It's much more painful to go out there in the desert and look for water and to suffer. I think it's starting to sound right. I was going to say there's a lot of biblical references to the work which which leads me. You know at the time that he was writing this point in all its complexity poets some of them and particularly folks like himself were considered also public intellectuals people looked at these poems and took them apart and tried to find meaning. Do we

have those kinds of public intellectuals today. That's a great question. I don't know that we have somebody who can provide the unifying perspective that everybody can partake and share. It may be because of our times it may be that modernity is just too complex I don't know that there is a mind that can really bring everyone together I think for a moment. We thought Obama is the man. The world looked to Obama and to the hope that he raised and one of the elements of that hope was that he could somehow bridge the divide that this unity that you see and that was embodied in the 9/11 attacks. Yeah well despite the Nobel Peace Prize that he's gotten a lot of people would say well you know in the end he's a politician and you know Elliott is in a different space. You know as an artist. I wonder if you also have given thought to ever who might

be the voice if you can if there's no. 20th 21st century TS Eliot is in the same space. Is it possible that there would be someone who is not sort of this living in London in a certain kind of group white guy writing this guy. I mean who would be writing who. Why would they waste land alienation complexity all of those thoughts come from now. Is that the voice that we would hear. I'm going to answer this in a way that you might find a little peculiar. I think ironically Glenn Beck has taken on that role of giving voice to alienation. OK let me be clear you are defining him as a public intellectual. Glenn Beck I wouldn't call him an intellectual but I believe he and I find it frightening that he has assumed this position but he has exploited or

and given voice to alienation and anger in America that has galvanized a huge part of the population. I find that. Very sad and in fact I would wish that there were a public intellectual of its stature who could contextualize Glenn back and show what show how Glenn Beck's force is a symptom of that this integration and the disorder that we're suffering on there right now. I don't think that person has arrived yet. It's just simply maybe that I don't know because I haven't read enough. Some people might if President Obama hadn't become a politician and done what he's done to me as a writer and a lot of people were attracted to the work that he did. You know coming from that vantage point maybe he could have been that voice if he had taken a different kind of road. Right now who knows. One of the things that

Glenn Beck is been talking about in terms of expressing the alienation is about restoring American values. And I know that you have some thoughts about what Eliot may have been saying or not saying in terms of restoration. Yeah this poem I think is a very conservative poem not in the very superficial or official or limited political sense of his having for example a liberal attitudes towards the working classes. It's conservative in that it continues to look to the past. He feels such a sense of the placement and homelessness that he becomes overwhelmed by nostalgia and nostalgia means homesickness for a unifying perspective that he thinks the poets of the past or the sacred texts of the past might be able to provide. And that's a little bit troubling I think because you'd like to think that

people want to look forward. And I think 18 months ago people in this country and around the world were were looking forward to a much greater degree. Right now I think you have a retreat. And the look backward again for restoration as though there were a time in the past when the kind of unity for example UNbacked talks about what's possible right. But the world is much more complicated. You need a world you need a mind that is capable of understanding the complexity depicting it the way Eliot was before you can fully restore the world before you can create true unity. You can't simply dismiss the world. Those who don't agree with you as benighted people not worthy of consideration or who are un-American or whatever the case may be. The fact that this poem has existed as a classic thus far and will continue do you think it will. And he defined modernity in his own time as one thousand twenty two so

were as you said in a totally different kind of space. Can this continue to be the classic it is. Oh absolutely in large part because Eliot did not want his poem to be too localized. It was written in the aftermath of World War 1 and there are passing references to the war but Elliott really thought of himself in a cultural moment that is a recurrent moment at that moment as we go through the cycle of hope and disillusionment and disintegration and renewal. He felt that he was in a moment that recurred which is why the poets of the past are irrelevant to him. And you sense in all the literary allusions throughout this poem the whole of human history as well as the Western literary tradition rushing through him as he struggles to find some coherent perspective that will help him make sense of the present day and that is going to be with us in the future as well.

All right so you're saying pick up a copy and look at it again. We've been talking about TS Eliot's The wasteland with our cultural contributor eugenic O. He's a professor of English at Wellesley College eugène it's always a pleasure. Thank you for having me. You can keep on top of the Calla Crossley Show at WGBH dot org slash Calla Crossley follow us on Twitter or friend the Calla Crossley Show on Facebook today show was engineered by Alan Mathis and produced by Chelsea Myers and a white knuckle be an Abby Ruzicka. This is the Calla Crossley Show where production of WGBH radio Boston NPR station for news and culture.