I wrote most of this post in Washington DC while attending the American Catholic Colleges and Universities annual meeting. I grieved Stock\u2019s absence just days after he died.\u00a0 One of the Province Jesuits came to pack his final effects and leave his room in the Jesuit house empty.\u00a0 I spent 5 hours in his room that day, tasting the harsh and tender fragrance of his years of ordinary living there.\u00a0 I carry the memories with me still and will into my future life.<\/p>\n
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Posted on\u00a0February 1, 2016<\/a><\/p>\n “Detroit Metro Airport, 7:23 am Saturday. I\u2019m heading to Washington DC for the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities, an annual ritual right after my university\u2019s January Board of Trustees\u2019 meeting. Lots of attendees, some close friends, some I\u2019ve not met. I stay at the Jesuit community, Leonard Neale House, about a 25 minute walk from the conference\u2019s Ritz Carlton hotel. Gerry Stockhausen lived here; most of the Jesuits in the house work with one or another national Jesuit office. Stock was Executive Secretary of The Jesuit Conference, where he worked with Tim Kesicki, President of the Conference. While I was packing this morning I realized that it will take some grace to take in and be welcomed into Gerry\u2019s absence \u2014 for me and the 10 men with whom he lived.<\/p>\n Monday will be busy and I had some time in Detroit Metro this morning so I fished around in Garrison Keilor\u2019s \u201cThe Writer\u2019s Almanac\u201d and found a poet new to me. Raymond Carver\u2019s \u201cAt Least\u201d freshens this travel morning. So does the note just below the poem where GK recalls for his readers that today is the birthday of Franklin Delano Roosevelt: three short FDR sayings.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n john sj<\/p>\n Today\u2019s Post \u201cAt least\u201d<\/strong> I want to get up early one more morning, \u201cAt Least\u201d by Raymond Carver from Where Water Comes Together With Other Water. \u00a9 Vintage Books, 1986. Reprinted with permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I wrote most of this post in Washington DC while attending the American Catholic Colleges and Universities annual meeting. I grieved Stock\u2019s absence just days after he died.\u00a0 One of the Province Jesuits came to pack his final effects and … Continue reading
\nby\u00a0Raymond Carver<\/a><\/p>\n
\nbefore sunrise. Before the birds, even.
\nI want to throw cold water on my face
\nand be at my work table
\nwhen the sky lightens and smoke
\nbegins to rise from the chimneys
\nof the other houses.
\nI want to see the waves break
\non this rocky beach, not just hear them
\nbreak as I did all night in my sleep.
\nI want to see again the ships
\nthat pass through the Strait from every
\nseafaring country in the world\u2014
\nold, dirty freighters just barely moving along,
\nand the swift new cargo vessels
\npainted every color under the sun
\nthat cut the water as they pass.
\nI want to keep an eye out for them.
\nAnd for the little boat that plies
\nthe water between the ships
\nand the pilot station near the lighthouse.
\nI want to see them take a man off the ship
\nand put another up on board.
\nI want to spend the day watching this happen
\nand reach my own conclusions.
\nI hate to seem greedy\u2014have so much
\nto be thankful for already.
\nBut I want to get up early one more morning, at least.
\nAnd go to my place with some coffee and wait.
\nJust wait, to see what\u2019s going to happen.<\/p>\n