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When I ran marathons, friends would often quote to me, "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint." I often replied with the previous verse: "Even the youths shall faint and be weary and the young men shall utterly fall."

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:)

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I love this. I had not noticed the words preceding 40:31.

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Beautiful throughout. Thank you.

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A very nice musical tribute to Ms. Henry, accompanied by Prof. Graboyes’ heartfelt recollections of her and her family’s impact on his life and on their community. Would that all of us could be memorialized in such a manner.

Also, with regard to the piece from “Local Hero,” I’m frequently amazed at the congruence in our taste in movies. “Local Hero” in my second favorite movie, after “Crimes and Misdemeanors” and just before the 1974 film of “The Little Prince.”

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The Vaughans deserve the accolades. And I admire your taste in film. :)

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Beautiful composition and engaging article. Well done.

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Thx!

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Beautiful

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Dr. Graboyes, is the piano part of your composition available in sheet music?

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Not yet, but I plan to make a score for it. Piano score and also a score for a woodwind quintet. A friend is interested in having his quintet perform it. I’ll make a note to let you know when that’s done. Not sure how soon I’ll be able to get to it.

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The JPS translation of that verse actually seems to me to make more sense. The idea of an eagle renewing itself seems to follow "renew their strength" better than taking flight does. I'll have to break out my concordance and see how the phrase here compares with Ps 103.

And as to "one kindly clergymen as proof of the decency of organized religion," I'm reminded of something that G.K. Chesterton wrote: "The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried."

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I agree. The KJV authors took a lot of liberties with the translation, but the result was the easily the most majestic literary work of all English translations. It was, after all, written in Shakespeare's time (and some speculate that he may have lent a hand). Variance from the original Hebrew is also understandable, given that modern texts have been, to some extent, a game of telephone across the millennia--with the meanings changing as the original went, in sequence, from Hebrew to Greek to Latin to English to more modern English. The JPS's goal in 1985 was to return to the original, cutting out the intermediate interpretations. I leave it to those more knowledgeable than I to determine how well they succeeded. But my understanding is that the JPS version is Isaiah 40:31 is closer in meaning to the original than the KJV or ESV. And, whereas I generally concede the literary superiority of the KJV, in this particular passage, I think the JPS version is better. The final lines of the KJV read "they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." The JPS version says, "They shall run and not grow weary, They shall march and not grow faint." For me the poetic qualities of the JPS version exceed those of the KJV--thanks to excluding "and" and repeating the word "grow" a second time. It gives a consistent rhythmic pattern that works much better in song.

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What a great memorial. I would love to have that kind of life and friends. But I suspect only a few are worthy.

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What a beautiful tribute. I hope it is stored somewhere along with her history. Somewhere that future generations of her family can find it and reflect the influence of this woman of blessed memory.

As I read your article, I was reminded once again how impossible it is to really "know" someone. You can only get a glimpse of their lives and influence they had.

As to the current popularity of "an indifference to religion". I have started pointing out to people that:

Science tells us what we can do, our Religion tells us whether we should. Science informs us about the physical world, while religion informs us of the spiritual world and our relation to other people. Neither are perfect, but religion has roots far deeper in all of us.

Thank you for your writing and music.

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I told the family that my dream is that a century hence, a musty copy of the essay will give Susan's descendants a glimpse into what a gem their ancestor from many generations back was.

Science and religion offer a valuable partnership. Science AS religion is lethal.

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I consider Science and Religion to be ying/yang. They both have their place, neither is perfect. Neither can reject the other.

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