Reminiscing About a Small Town: Bad Axe, Michigan

In the quiet, dusty corners of the social media world there is a site called: “You must be from Bad Axe, Michigan…” with around 1700 members. Most members are old Bad Axe natives who like to keep up with what is happening in their old hometown. Every once in a while someone will share a photograph, memory, or comment; that is until the recent passing of Mr. Ervin Ignash. The site erupted with activity after that, it seems everybody had a fond memory of Mr. Ignash’s tenure at the Bad Axe schools, his service and dedication had spanned generations and touched thousands of lives with his fairness and equanimity. This prompted an even a more intense and detailed conversation about others in the community who had shaped and impacted the lives of so many from our fair town.

What proceeded was a very long thread (still growing) listing dozens, if not hundreds of local business men and women, doctors, lawyers, and pastors who had worked and yes thrived in Bad Axe for decades. We reminisced about the days of the “drawings”, candy stores, 5 & 10 stores, cruising town (that didn’t take long), the Fair, and so on. What follows is something I shared with the group and I hope you might enjoy it as well.

“After Ted Rapson’s and other’s recent walks down memory lane, (felt so good it hurt), I came to a realization which I think has been slowly growing on me since my parents moved back to Bad Axe to retire about 8 years ago; Bad Axe really was a great place to grow up. My family moved to town in 1970 and I moved out in 1980 and couldn’t have been happier; off to the big city and the world beyond! I settled in another oddly named town: Downers Grove, IL, just outside of Chicago, (well, farther outside than Bad Axe is from the lake) I have 60,000 neighbors in Downers Grove and another 1,000,000 just in the county, about the size of Huron County. I can drive for 2 hours and still be stuck in the Chicago area.

I leave at every opportunity I can. I take poorly paying work way out in the country, hours away, just to breath the air and listen to the quiet.

I could never earn a living in my chosen field in a town such as Bad Axe, but I have found my heart and soul never left after all. My children have lived longer in Downers Grove than I did in Bad Axe, but they have no special attachment to this town. How could they? It is no different than any of the other 100 suburbs around here. When your high school is larger than Bad Axe’s entire population, you can go 4 years and make few friends. But when you go to school with the same kids for years… everybody will at least know your name not to mention your brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles, and parents.

If you walk into a store here, you are one of 10,000 customers for the week and you almost never see the same employee twice, let alone learn anything about them. I try to patronize the small retailers here, but every year there are fewer.

I know Bad Axe has changed a lot since I left and will never be the same town many of us grew up in back… you know… then (however many decades you wish to admit to). But I think we had a sense of community and family which is impossible except in the small towns of the USA.

If I am destined to live the rest of my days away and only visiting on occasion, I am very thankful for the few years, many experiences, and life influencing people I met in that little town up in the Thumb.”

We never fully appreciate what we have until we have it no more; whether family, friends, prosperity, or a true home town.  It took me over 30 years to learn that lesson. Thank-you Bad Axe for being, well, Bad Axe.

 

Sentimentally and respectfully

Andrew Remillard

 


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Ein’ feste Burg ist unser Gott

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Ah, Holy Jesus, How Hast Thou Offended

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Savior, When in Dust to Thee

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Alas! And Did my Savior Bleed

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Why Do We Sing?

Romans 8:26 (KJV revised by ANR)

Likewise the Spirit also helps our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

Music is the closest we can come to the groanings of Holy Spirit.

“Through the Night of Doubt and Sorrow”
by Bernhardt S. Ingemann, 1789-1862
Translated by Sabine BaringGould, 1834-1924

  1. Through the night of doubt and sorrow
    Onward goes the pilgrim band,
    Singing songs of expectation,
    Marching to the Promised Land.
    Clear before us, through the darkness,
    Gleams and burns the guiding light.
    Brother clasps the hand of brother,
    Stepping fearless through the night.

  2. One the light of God’s own presence,
    O’er His ransomed people shed,
    Chasing far the gloom and terror,
    Brightening all the path we tread;
    One the object of our journey,
    One the faith which never tires.
    One the earnest looking forward,
    One the hope our God inspires.

  3. One the strain the lips of thousands
    Lift as from the heart of one;
    One the conflict, one the peril,
    One their march in God begun;
    One the gladness of rejoicing
    On the far eternal shore,
    Where the one almighty Father
    Reigns in love forevermore.

  4. Onward, therefore, pilgrim brothers!
    Onward, with the cross our aid!
    Bear its shame and fight its battle
    Till we rest beneath its shade.
    Soon shall come the great awaking,
    Soon the rending of the tomb,
    Then the scattering of all shadows,
    And the end of toil and gloom.

Commonly sung to the tune: Ebenezer (remember last month’s article?).

There is but one reason to sing and that is to worship and there are three primary types of songs we sing. We sing to praise, we sing to proclaim, and we sing to pray. This is a hymn of proclamation usually sung during Lent.

The most important part of a hymn, (it is the very definition of a hymn) is the text. The most important aspect to the text is that it faithfully declares the Glory of God. Every aspect of the text must speak to the Biblical truth clearly, it shouldn’t be mistaken for a song for some other purpose. I have heard some songs in church where any reference to God was purely inferred and these songs could just have easily been about some lost lover.

This hymn of proclamation describes the pilgrim’s journey which begins in darkness surrounded by doubt and sorrow. In the second stanza we find a great example of how hymns can teach and reinforce Biblical truths. The idea of God ransoming his people starts early in the Old Testament and finds its culmination at the foot of the cross. The fourth stanza makes a clear statement of the importance of cross and the empty tomb.

One of the most radical transformations which the reformers Luther, Knox, and Calvin wrought was the incorporation of congregational singing. At the time of the reformation worship was done in Latin, a language which had effectively been dead for nearly 1000 years, which all but the most educated had no understanding. The music was performed by professional musicians and choirs. The congregation simply stood there for hours and watched the actions of others.

Moving worship to the vernacular and even letting the congregation sing spiritual poems set to simple tunes was such a profound change we have difficulty understanding it today. The fathers of the reformation and many since have left us thousands of hymns of praise, proclamation, and prayer.

Every Sunday your pastoral and musical staff endeavor to bring music which clearly and unabashedly proclaims God’s truth.

I would challenge you to read the text of each hymn and song we sing and consider the Biblical truths present and even more importantly, dialogue with the text. Consider the implication for your life in the truths proclaimed.



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Play it Again, an Amateur Against the Impossible by Alan Rusbridger

Play it Again, an Amateur Against the Impossible by Alan Rusbridger

Browsing through the new book collection at my local library I came across this book, at first I thought: “not another ‘how I came back to lessons as an adult’ book!” However, the “against the impossible” part of the title intrigued me a bit so I thought I would at least give a start. After the first bite my appetite became insatiable.

For those, like me, who have no idea who Alan Rusbridger is, let me give a quick biography of him. He, like most of us had piano lessons throughout his childhood, often he was less than a great student, sliding by on his wits more than his effort. He even took of the clarinet in his early teens. He advanced well but always short of his potential. He ultimately goes into journalism where he does excel and is quite successful reaching the editor’s desk of a major English newspaper by his 40’s. He has continued to play throughout his college years and adult years, though as his responsibilities increase he has less time for his past time. For a couple of years leading up to the events of this book he has attended a sort of summer camp for amateur pianists for a week. During the camp about two years ago one of the students plays the 1st Chopin Ballade and Alan gets bitten. He wonders “Could I possibly do that too?” He rashly commits himself to playing for the group the following summer and sets out to begin learning this work on about 20 minutes of practice a day!!?? (And this from someone who readily admits he never “practices”, he just plays around.) Through over 350 pages Rusbidger chronicles the personal discovery of what it means to commit oneself to the mastery of a great work of art.

During this period of his life, while sitting at the editors desk of The Guardian, he must deal with several major issues and stories, any one of which could have commanded all of his attention. There were three primary stories which compete with Chopin, 1) the need of traditional newspapers to find new business models to survive in the internet age 2) The Guardian was one the primary outlets for Julian Assange and Wikileaks 3) the Murdock news organizations engaged in massive illegal wire tapping of celebrities, politicians, and even crime victims, The Guardian broke the story.

Throughout the year leading up the next summer music camp Rusbidger shares the same struggles we all face in finding a balance between our work and our art. Unlike the rest of us, he has the opportunity to interview several internationally know pianists who share their thoughts about his adventure including, Emanuel Ax, Murray Perahia, and Alfred Brendel. In the end he finds that life has conspired against him, and though he has made remarkable progress by the next summer’s music camp, he is far from ready for a real “performance”. He reset the goal and plays on a couple different occasions in December of last year 1 1/2 years after starting to work on his project against the impossible.

He admits his performance is far from what one would expect from a professional pianist, but he and his audience found it a profoundly musical experience nonetheless. And here I think is the most important point of his writing. It is a celebration of the amateur’s music making. We often overlook the importance of music making in the living room as we get caught up in the celebrity of the concert hall or recording studio. Which is really more important to the art, Andras Schiff recording all of Bach’s Partitas or Mrs. Jones, down the street, learning her first Prelude and Fugue?




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Rejoice, Rejoice, Believers

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