CHRIST
IN WINTER: Reflections on Faith from a Place of Winter for the Years of Winter…
©
I was in NYC, recording
the audio version of the first edition of Now
That I Have Cancer I Am Whole, when I learned some strange things about free
speech.
HarperCollins had bought
the audio rights from AndrewsMcMeel. They were going to get Jerry Orbach to
read the audio version. I protested. “I like Jerry,” I said, “but he just can’t
interpret what I’m saying in that book the way I can.” “Send us a tape,”
HarperAudio replied. I did. “You’re right,” they said. “You’ve got a better
voice than Jerry. And you’re a lot cheaper.” [They did NOT mean singing voice.
Orbach was a great Broadway musical star before he was a detective on “Law
& Order.”]
So they flew Helen and me
to Manhattan, and put us up in a hotel, from which we went out in the morning
to buy tea from a pushcart. And in the studio I sat in the same chair where
Tony Hillerman and Hank Aaron and The Countess of Romanova had sat the week
before, recording their books. It was neat.
But in the recording, we
kept hitting snags. Not like the Countess. She wore a leather dress, and
stirred her hot chocolate with the ear piece of her glasses. Each time she
shifted position, the engineers had to have her start the sentence over because
the noise was audible on the tape. They were pleased with me. I sat very still.
They called me “one take.” Except for the singing parts.
Yes, I wasn’t Jerry
Orbach, but there are some songs in that book. I had adjusted a lot of songs to
use for myself and other cancer patients. “Chemo-pusher’s Ball.” “After the
Chemo’s Over.” “You Light Up My Life.” [radiation] “Cancer’s Gone,” to the tune
of Edelweiss. And that’s when they would go crazy in the control room and yell,
“You can’t use that tune; that belongs to Richard Rodgers.” Or somebody else.
So I would have to adjust
on the spot, changing the tunes to old folk or Gospel songs which were not
owned by anybody. Like “No more cancer,” to the tune of “Oh, freedom.”
“If you were using the
material of others for satire or pornography, that would be a protected
free-speech right,” they assured me. “But you can’t use other people’s material
if you’re using it to help people get well.”
Free speech is a funny
thing. And its limits are sometimes in funny places.
Let me be clear: I
sympathize entirely with the French folks who were exercising their free speech
right--a human right, although it is not honored as such in many places--to do
cartoons critical of others, including religious people, and the religions
themselves, and were murdered by terrorists because they exercised that free
speech right. I totally condemn the people who killed them, both for their
murdering and for hiding behind religion to justify their hate and cowardly actions.
But I’m thinking about the
Epistle for this coming Sunday, in the 6th chapter of Paul’s second
letter to the Corinthians. I realize this is a slightly different context, but
I think it applies. Paul says, “All things are lawful for me,” meaning as a
follower of the Messiah, he no longer has to keep the religious rules-dietary and
such-of his people. They no longer apply. “But not all things are beneficial.”
In other words: I don’t
have to keep these rules when I am with these people, but since it is respectful
to them, and doesn’t diminish my freedom since it’s my choice, I’ll abide by
those rules.
Free speech is a good
thing. It covers some things that are not so good, though, like pornography and
being disrespectful. Just because it is lawful doesn’t mean it is beneficial.
If you use your free speech to criticize, you have to expect a reaction, and in
a world of violence, where guns and bombs are plentiful, and violence of all
sorts, including war, is glorified, it is not surprising that some people who
feel that they cannot be heard any other way will use violence as their
response to what they see and hear as disrespect.
I am a religious person, a
follower of Jesus, whom I call the Christ, even though I follow better in
theory than in practice. I don’t want my religious faith disrespected. However,
I respect the free speech right of people who do want to be disrespectful to me
and to my faith. I shall answer with free speech which is respectful to them,
because that is what is most beneficial. And I shall continue to mourn those
who have trouble knowing the difference between lawful and beneficial.
John
Robert McFarland
johnrobertmcfarland@gmail.com
The
“place of winter” mentioned in the title line is Iron Mountain, in Michigan’s Upper
Peninsula [The UP], where life is defined by winter even in the summer! [This
phrase is explained in the post for March 20, 2014.]
I
used to keep a careful index of all the things I told in this blog so that I
would not repeat. That has become unwieldy. Now I just trust to memory. Sorry
about that.
I
have also started an author blog, about writing, in preparation for the
publication, by Black Opal Books, of my novel, VETS, about four handicapped and homeless Iraqistan veterans who
are accused of murdering a VA doctor, n 2015. http://johnrobertmcfarland-author.blogspot.com/
I
tweet as yooper1721.
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