WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.320 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.320 --> 00:00:10.200 align:middle line:84% "When God's parachute failed along about the spring of 1945, 00:00:10.200 --> 00:00:14.120 align:middle line:84% the sky in Texas jerked open and we all 00:00:14.120 --> 00:00:19.460 align:middle line:84% sailed easily into this new strange harness on the stars." 00:00:19.460 --> 00:00:23.490 align:middle line:90% 00:00:23.490 --> 00:00:29.880 align:middle line:84% With this, I'm going to stop for a minute and locate myself. 00:00:29.880 --> 00:00:33.060 align:middle line:84% Over our country in many gatherings 00:00:33.060 --> 00:00:39.060 align:middle line:84% like this travelers are starting with something like when 00:00:39.060 --> 00:00:44.040 align:middle line:84% God's parachute failed and then presenting something that's 00:00:44.040 --> 00:00:49.650 align:middle line:84% like a little report from the language we all use every day 00:00:49.650 --> 00:00:53.880 align:middle line:84% just enhanced a little bit sort of dislocated 00:00:53.880 --> 00:00:55.680 align:middle line:90% called attention to. 00:00:55.680 --> 00:00:58.590 align:middle line:84% And they call these things poems. 00:00:58.590 --> 00:01:02.350 align:middle line:84% And this is what I'm doing and I want 00:01:02.350 --> 00:01:06.750 align:middle line:84% to identify what seems to me is happening. 00:01:06.750 --> 00:01:09.300 align:middle line:84% Since there's such a world of this, 00:01:09.300 --> 00:01:14.130 align:middle line:84% I think partly what it is we're realizing especially 00:01:14.130 --> 00:01:19.140 align:middle line:84% in school communities like this that the language we use 00:01:19.140 --> 00:01:25.650 align:middle line:84% every day is indeed the material for literature no matter 00:01:25.650 --> 00:01:28.770 align:middle line:90% how exalted. 00:01:28.770 --> 00:01:35.160 align:middle line:84% And we're telling each other in the words of everyday things 00:01:35.160 --> 00:01:36.870 align:middle line:90% that occur to us. 00:01:36.870 --> 00:01:40.320 align:middle line:84% And we're realizing that literature no matter how grand 00:01:40.320 --> 00:01:44.520 align:middle line:84% it starts there with a report like when 00:01:44.520 --> 00:01:47.880 align:middle line:90% God's parachute failed. 00:01:47.880 --> 00:01:54.390 align:middle line:84% The part I read was part one of four short sections like that 00:01:54.390 --> 00:01:58.260 align:middle line:84% called "Religion Back Home," the part about God's 00:01:58.260 --> 00:01:59.590 align:middle line:90% parachute failing. 00:01:59.590 --> 00:02:02.310 align:middle line:84% Now I'd like to stop and read the other three 00:02:02.310 --> 00:02:04.770 align:middle line:90% parts of "Religion Back Home." 00:02:04.770 --> 00:02:06.870 align:middle line:90% And it isn't all reverent. 00:02:06.870 --> 00:02:09.539 align:middle line:84% But I can report that it was published 00:02:09.539 --> 00:02:14.610 align:middle line:84% in the Sunday Supplement didn't seem to cause any trouble. 00:02:14.610 --> 00:02:16.800 align:middle line:90% Part two. 00:02:16.800 --> 00:02:22.830 align:middle line:84% "The minister smoked and he drank 00:02:22.830 --> 00:02:26.760 align:middle line:84% and there was that woman in the choir, 00:02:26.760 --> 00:02:30.195 align:middle line:84% but what really finished him, he wore spats." 00:02:30.195 --> 00:02:33.750 align:middle line:90% 00:02:33.750 --> 00:02:37.170 align:middle line:84% Part three of "Religion Back Home" 00:02:37.170 --> 00:02:41.580 align:middle line:84% is "A short review of Samson Agonistes 00:02:41.580 --> 00:02:44.880 align:middle line:84% written for Miss Arrington's class in Liberal High School. 00:02:44.880 --> 00:02:47.720 align:middle line:90% 00:02:47.720 --> 00:02:50.990 align:middle line:84% Our Father Who art in Heaven can lick 00:02:50.990 --> 00:02:52.400 align:middle line:90% their Father Who art in Heaven. 00:02:52.400 --> 00:02:55.172 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:02:55.172 --> 00:02:57.020 align:middle line:90% 00:02:57.020 --> 00:03:01.220 align:middle line:84% Part 4, this is the last of my four parts of "Religion Back 00:03:01.220 --> 00:03:02.930 align:middle line:90% Home." 00:03:02.930 --> 00:03:07.760 align:middle line:84% "When my little brother chanted, 'in 1492 Jesus crossed 00:03:07.760 --> 00:03:13.310 align:middle line:84% the ocean blue,' mother said, 'Bob, you mean Columbus crossed 00:03:13.310 --> 00:03:14.250 align:middle line:90% the ocean blue?' 00:03:14.250 --> 00:03:20.000 align:middle line:84% And he said, 'I always did get them two guys mixed up.'" 00:03:20.000 --> 00:03:26.420 align:middle line:84% Well, now one thing it happened as a result 00:03:26.420 --> 00:03:29.390 align:middle line:84% of this being published in a Sunday Supplement it was back 00:03:29.390 --> 00:03:34.520 align:middle line:84% East and someone sent a clipping to Miss Arrington now retired 00:03:34.520 --> 00:03:37.940 align:middle line:90% from Liberal Kansas High School. 00:03:37.940 --> 00:03:41.660 align:middle line:84% And she sent me a note by way of publishers back East, 00:03:41.660 --> 00:03:44.000 align:middle line:90% finally found me out in Oregon. 00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:49.460 align:middle line:84% And she said, I apparently were in one of my classes 00:03:49.460 --> 00:03:51.840 align:middle line:90% and but I don't remember you. 00:03:51.840 --> 00:03:54.330 align:middle line:84% And then she made various guesses-- 00:03:54.330 --> 00:03:57.530 align:middle line:84% were you the one who said at such and such a place 00:03:57.530 --> 00:03:58.700 align:middle line:90% and so on? 00:03:58.700 --> 00:04:00.470 align:middle line:90% No, none of those places. 00:04:00.470 --> 00:04:02.280 align:middle line:90% But I remember her vividly. 00:04:02.280 --> 00:04:04.040 align:middle line:84% But I didn't really write that review 00:04:04.040 --> 00:04:06.850 align:middle line:90% Samson Agonistes for a class. 00:04:06.850 --> 00:04:07.458 align:middle line:90%