clicking along the sidewalks...

The first time I ever stepped foot in a Unitarian Church was about eight years ago. I was a full-time stay at home father for then two very young children and a retired couple with a granddaughter the same age as my oldest became good friends. In the course of one of our weekly talks, with children running about, they mentioned that they were Unitarians and I allowed as to how I (though an Episcopalian at the time) had, for some time studied Unitarian history and found many of the founding generation of American Unitarians to be my spiritual teachers.

The couple invited me to give three lay talks at their church. At one of those talks, I happened to see a small shelf of six or eight fairly nondescript books and one old book. I have written before of my love for old books, so I gave it a look. It was "Ezra Stiles Gannett: Unitarian Minister in Boston" I borrowed and read it and have since found my own copy. Written by his son, I was struck with the honesty of the book and the person that emerged from its pages.

Many things about ESG resonated with me but I think the most profound was his life-long, often near paralyzing struggle with self-distrust and feelings of inadequacy. And yet, he did the work...

In early middle age, ESG suffered a stroke that necessitated the use of two small hand crutches which became his constant companions from then on. His son puts it thus, "They (the canes) became a part of him, the signal to eye and ear, by which everyone knew 'Dr. Gannett' in Boston streets. When in a hurry for the cars, and he always was,-his quick-leaps between them, as he fled clicking along the sidewalks, used to make the boys turn and shout; a tribute that he never seemed to notice..." (the illustration above is a wood-cut illustration from the book)

And yet he did the work...

Blessings