WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.500 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.500 --> 00:00:04.770 align:middle line:84% This next one is called "Late in the Millennium." 00:00:04.770 --> 00:00:06.660 align:middle line:90% I see something here. 00:00:06.660 --> 00:00:08.520 align:middle line:84% I see when I was little my father made 00:00:08.520 --> 00:00:11.280 align:middle line:90% me recite a book a month. 00:00:11.280 --> 00:00:14.040 align:middle line:84% And someone asked me, is that true? 00:00:14.040 --> 00:00:15.510 align:middle line:90% And in fact, it was. 00:00:15.510 --> 00:00:20.550 align:middle line:84% When I was very little, he used to do this beautiful thing. 00:00:20.550 --> 00:00:23.415 align:middle line:84% He would pull a chair up to his desk. 00:00:23.415 --> 00:00:25.290 align:middle line:84% He would take like two or three dictionaries, 00:00:25.290 --> 00:00:27.570 align:middle line:84% put it on the chair, and he'd lift me on top of it. 00:00:27.570 --> 00:00:31.680 align:middle line:84% And he would open this huge rotten Bible, the King James, 00:00:31.680 --> 00:00:33.840 align:middle line:84% and he would make me read from it. 00:00:33.840 --> 00:00:36.600 align:middle line:84% And he would unwrap these butterscotch drops 00:00:36.600 --> 00:00:39.990 align:middle line:90% and pop them in my mouth. 00:00:39.990 --> 00:00:41.880 align:middle line:84% And I would have to read out loud doing this. 00:00:41.880 --> 00:00:44.820 align:middle line:90% 00:00:44.820 --> 00:00:48.090 align:middle line:84% And I remember if I read something wrong, he would say, 00:00:48.090 --> 00:00:49.770 align:middle line:90% what? 00:00:49.770 --> 00:00:52.300 align:middle line:90% And I'd be terrified. 00:00:52.300 --> 00:00:54.900 align:middle line:84% I was terrified of the man who gave me a butterscotch drop. 00:00:54.900 --> 00:00:58.530 align:middle line:90% But he called it sweet learning. 00:00:58.530 --> 00:01:00.750 align:middle line:84% And so he would make me do this over and over 00:01:00.750 --> 00:01:03.540 align:middle line:84% again until I had certain passages, entire books 00:01:03.540 --> 00:01:05.160 align:middle line:90% of the Bible memorized. 00:01:05.160 --> 00:01:07.350 align:middle line:90% It has to do with that. 00:01:07.350 --> 00:01:09.975 align:middle line:90% He was a scholar, I am not. 00:01:09.975 --> 00:01:12.540 align:middle line:90% 00:01:12.540 --> 00:01:14.130 align:middle line:84% It's called "Late in the Millennium." 00:01:14.130 --> 00:01:17.160 align:middle line:90% 00:01:17.160 --> 00:01:19.770 align:middle line:84% "My father in Heaven is reading out 00:01:19.770 --> 00:01:24.900 align:middle line:90% loud to himself, Psalms or news. 00:01:24.900 --> 00:01:28.170 align:middle line:90% Now he ponders what he's read. 00:01:28.170 --> 00:01:32.700 align:middle line:84% No, he's listening for the sound of children in the yard. 00:01:32.700 --> 00:01:37.020 align:middle line:90% Was that laughing or crying? 00:01:37.020 --> 00:01:39.420 align:middle line:90% So much depends upon the answer. 00:01:39.420 --> 00:01:42.000 align:middle line:84% For either, he will go on reading 00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:46.680 align:middle line:84% or he'll run to save a child's day from grief. 00:01:46.680 --> 00:01:51.870 align:middle line:84% As it is in heaven, so it was on earth. 00:01:51.870 --> 00:01:53.970 align:middle line:84% Because my father walked the earth 00:01:53.970 --> 00:01:57.270 align:middle line:84% with a grave, determined rhythm, my shoulders 00:01:57.270 --> 00:01:59.010 align:middle line:90% ached from his gaze. 00:01:59.010 --> 00:02:03.240 align:middle line:84% Because my father's shoulders ached from the pulling of oars, 00:02:03.240 --> 00:02:06.810 align:middle line:84% my life now moves with a powerful back and forth 00:02:06.810 --> 00:02:11.700 align:middle line:90% rhythm, nostalgia, speculation. 00:02:11.700 --> 00:02:14.250 align:middle line:84% Because he made me recite a book a month, 00:02:14.250 --> 00:02:16.920 align:middle line:84% I forget everything as soon as I read it 00:02:16.920 --> 00:02:18.840 align:middle line:90% and knowledge never comes. 00:02:18.840 --> 00:02:21.480 align:middle line:84% But while I'm mid stride a flight of stairs 00:02:21.480 --> 00:02:24.630 align:middle line:84% or lost a moment, on some avenue, 00:02:24.630 --> 00:02:27.060 align:middle line:84% a remarkable disappointment to him. 00:02:27.060 --> 00:02:30.780 align:middle line:84% I am like anyone who arrives late in the millennium 00:02:30.780 --> 00:02:33.960 align:middle line:84% and is unable to stay to the end of days. 00:02:33.960 --> 00:02:36.780 align:middle line:84% The world's beginnings are obscure to me. 00:02:36.780 --> 00:02:39.450 align:middle line:90% Its outcomes inaccessible. 00:02:39.450 --> 00:02:43.380 align:middle line:84% I don't understand the source of starlight or starlight's 00:02:43.380 --> 00:02:44.640 align:middle line:90% destinations. 00:02:44.640 --> 00:02:49.500 align:middle line:84% And already another year slides out of balance. 00:02:49.500 --> 00:02:53.640 align:middle line:84% But I don't disparage scholars, my father was one, 00:02:53.640 --> 00:02:55.200 align:middle line:90% and I loved him. 00:02:55.200 --> 00:02:58.660 align:middle line:84% Who packed his books once and all of our belongings, 00:02:58.660 --> 00:03:02.610 align:middle line:84% then sat down to await instruction from his God, 00:03:02.610 --> 00:03:06.390 align:middle line:90% yes, but also from a radio. 00:03:06.390 --> 00:03:09.240 align:middle line:84% At the doorway I watched, and I suddenly 00:03:09.240 --> 00:03:14.070 align:middle line:84% knew he was one like me who got my learning under a lentil. 00:03:14.070 --> 00:03:17.280 align:middle line:84% He was one of the powerless to whom knowledge 00:03:17.280 --> 00:03:19.740 align:middle line:84% came while he sat among suitcases, 00:03:19.740 --> 00:03:23.160 align:middle line:90% boxes, old newspapers, string. 00:03:23.160 --> 00:03:29.460 align:middle line:84% He did not decide peace or war, home or exile, escape by land 00:03:29.460 --> 00:03:31.200 align:middle line:90% or escape by sea. 00:03:31.200 --> 00:03:37.500 align:middle line:84% He waited merely as always someone waits far, near, here, 00:03:37.500 --> 00:03:43.170 align:middle line:84% hereafter, to find out is it praise or lament hidden 00:03:43.170 --> 00:03:45.530 align:middle line:90% in the next moment." 00:03:45.530 --> 00:03:48.000 align:middle line:90%