The question now is… where do we go from here? How do we get there?

We’ve come a long way. We have reached a major milestone and we are now resting at a crossroads to the future. Nobody knows what lies down whichever path we choose to take. But we know we must proceed. If we don’t, the dream we have watched come alive before our very eyes will die an obscure death; lost in the abyss of “could have beens”.

And so, after a brief respite, our journey continues. We must define the paths, decide which to pursue, and design the structures and schedules necessary to reach our NEXT milestone.

Won’t you help us? Let me know. Thanks for your support up to now. And thanks for the support I know you’ll give as we continue.

-dph

Anyway, the Company did a fantastic performance at the Westobou Festival (NOT the Westobou ARTS Festival thank you very much, Brenda) on Friday, September 26th. The turnout was quite good and the sound, thanks to Williams Sound, was excellent. We had 17 pieces in the orchestra and 14 singers. We were very honored to be a part of the first annual Westobou Festival. I hope we can participate again next year.

On Saturday, November 1st, a somewhat smaller contingent traveled to Thomson, Georgia to perform a Dessert Theater for Thomson Presbyterian Church. They were very welcoming and appreciative and I am glad we were able to perform for them (and the dessert was delicious, also!). I was scrambling trying to figure out how we were going to get the sound needs accomplished because our regular sound crew was unable to make it. Thankfully, providentially, a very capable sound engineer in the person of Jim McGaw was there to take over and do whatever needed to be done to make it happen. Thank you, Jim.

As I watched the performance (how many times does that make?), I watched this cast of mostly amateur singers move and sing and emote like never before and I realized they were not just singing their parts… they were IN the story. Greg Hatfield was singing the part of Job as he has since we began and, being the consummate performer that he is, he has improved it a little bit each time. The interplay between Job and Job’s wife, and between Job and Elihu, seemed entirely rehearsed and natural… and yet I know they were making it up as they went because we did not even have time to practice more than just quickly going over some of the songs and yet I saw them move around and do things I had not seen them do before. They were in the story. And that, to me, is what it should be. We are not just trying to sing great songs and play great music. We are telling the most incredible story in the history of mankind. THAT, my friends, is what makes JOB special.

It has been an incredible journey thus far… and we have a long way to go. I thank everyone who has had a part in getting us here… and who has a part in carrying us on to the next step and the next level of performance. Please, help us if you can.

What do you say at a time like that? Nothing. There are no words that will assuage the grief. Grief is a process that will only be accomplished through time… not through words. He does need supportive friends. Friends who, like Job’s three friends, would be willing to sit for days and nights on end without saying a word. But, unlike Job’s friends, would not resort to bland apologetics and empty explanations of God’s sovereign plans for his creatures. He does not need to hear that.

Mark and his family have joined the company of Job. No, I don’t mean the production company for our opera. I mean that he is, like so many others, enveloped in the company of suffering humanity and will probably never know or understand why he finds himself there.

My thoughts and prayers and tears are with you, Mark.

While the article overall was pretty good, I did have to take them to task for one statement. According the the article, “The opera features classic hymns such as Our Redeemer Lives, played in rock-opera style with electric guitar, drums, oboe, trumpets and flutes.” Ummm… Sorry, but we don’t do any classic hymns. All of the songs are original, and almost all of them were written by me (Don Harris) and my wife, Suzanne.

I do think the article can be credited with bringing a few people to the show who otherwise would not have known about it. We really did not want to sell many more tickets because we did not know if we’d have enough food, but I got a few phone calls on Saturday from people who wanted to come and I know we had some people buy tickets at the door. So we thank the Augusta Chronicle for that.

Simply incredible.

I try to pride myself on having the right words to say when I need to say something. The only word that comes to mind after Saturday night’s performance is “incredible”.

In*cred”i*ble\, a. [L. incredibilis: cf. OF. incredible. See In- not, and Credible.] Not credible; surpassing belief; too extraordinary and improbable to admit of belief; unlikely; marvelous; fabulous.

And that is exactly what it was… marvelous… fabulous… incredible. There are so many things that have to come together to make a performance work well. Add to that the difficulty of feeding 300 people and you have a task that is way beyond the scope of normalcy, at leaset in my world. In the midst of introductions and applause, I neglected to thank our wonderful kitchen volunteers who labored for well over a week… and especially so on Saturday night… to prepare and serve everyone who came. So, Mary and Bill Barnard and all who helped, here is my feeble thanks, for what it’s worth.

I also neglected to thank our sound crew, Bob Williams and company. Bob Williams and Mark Jones manned the board and managed to juggle the sound coming from the 16-piece orchestra with the vocals from 14 singers to produce a room full of… can I say it again?… incredible music. The vocals were clear and distinct and the orchestra was heard without being too loud. Bravo and Kudos.

I’ll post more later. I just wanted to be sure I thanked these all important people.

Having worked for quite a few years in technical training, I can tell you that writing questions that cannot be miscontrued is one of the hardest things you can do. If you’re successful at it, you are a very good test writer.How you define something makes all the difference in how a question will be interpreted. Most of the time, instead of “what’s the answer?”, it comes down to  ‘what answer are they looking for?’. That’s why many times I found my students wanting to know the ‘answers’ instead of trying to understand the concepts. I used to tell my students ‘if you cannot explain it, you don’t understand it’. They didn’t like that. They just wanted to know what answer to write down so they could make a good grade on the test. 

(To be fair, I have to admit that when they asked me “Why do we have to know this?”, my answer was “Because it’s on the test!”) 

Seeking understanding instead of answers requires a greater commitment. Understanding goes beyond simply finding the answer… way beyond. When a person can explain to you how their answer is correct according to their interpretation of the question, it reveals a higher understanding of the subject matter and reveals the fact that their definition may differ from yours. This is the dilemma Job faced with his three friends, Bildad, Eliphaz, and Zophar. They were all learned men; wise men. They had all the answers, having gleaned them from their tradition, their training, and their experience. Job was cut in the same cloth they were. He believed the same things they believed, which is what caused his dilemma. Somehow, though, their ‘answers’ did not line up with what Job was experiencing. Job wanted to understand. Job needed new answers, but all they had to offer were the same old answers that no longer rang true.

·         Undated – uses older genres and patterns of speech and fashions them into the most artistic and practical statement of faith in the O.T.

·         Challenges the basic premises of Israel’s faith

·         Refuses easy resolution

·         Composed mostly of lament and hymn, which is pushes to an “emotional, artistic, and theological extremity”

·         An immensely sophisticated and artistic work that is removed from any particular historical context or crisis

In “Reading the Bible Again for the First Time”, Marcus Borg says that if we read Job searching for an answer to why good people suffer, we are left unsatisfied and wanting; we get no good answer. But the real question, the primary question the story of Job seeks to answer is the one raised by Lucifer. In the story, God holds Job up for review; puts him on exhibit as his poster child of piety of righteousness. In response, Lucifer throws down the gauntlet and issues his challenge: “Does Job worship God for nothing?” Lucifer’s challenge is carefully crafted because it shifts the focus from Job’s righteousness to God’s worthiness. Notice that he did not accuse Job of anything. Even God said Job was “sinless and upright”. Rather, Lucifer’s accusation raises the question of whether God is worthy of worship simply by virtue of his being God or whether he is only worshipped because he gives blessings and benefits to his worshippers.

This point of view is startling because of the clarity it brings to the story.

1.       It shifts the focus from man-centered to God-centered;

2.       It makes God the central character rather than Job. The story becomes about God’s righteousness — not Job’s;

3.       It shows that Lucifer was not accusing Job of anything, but rather was accusing God of not being worthy of worship. That is why God had to engage the challenge and prove Lucifer wrong.

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