Month: January 2024

First Night

by Steve Harsh, posted in memoir

December 31, 1998 was one of those magical nights that fairy tales could be made of. It was exactly 25 years ago this past New Year’s Eve. The city of Columbus, Ohio held it’s very first “First Night” that year to mark the beginning of the New Year 1999. I have kept the little souvenir of that night on my desk for a quarter of a century because that event was like no other of the 78 first nights of a new year of my life.

I was single then, having ended a 30 year marriage 18 months earlier. I was also a new grandfather following the joyous birth of Olivia to my daughter and her husband in July of that year. Olivia’s dad, Drew Thomas, was and is a very good magician, and that played an important role in the real magic that occurred that First Night for me. Drew had been hired to perform one of his illusions at the stroke of midnight at the First Night celebration in downtown Columbus. The illusion was to make Columbus Mayor Greg Lashutka magically appear in an empty room. My son and I had been enlisted to help prepare the stage for that illusion in the days leading up to New Year’s Eve. Since the Mayor was not available to rehearse the illusion the day before the event I was actually his stand-in for rehearsal.

To my surprise, she not only had no plans, but was interested in joining me. It was an unusual first date in several ways. Because of my connection with Drew, we were invited to come back stage in the Ohio State house where food was available for the cast and crew. Because this was a family affair, both of my children and my young granddaughter, who was then six months old, were there.  I don’t believe I have ever had a first date that involved all of my family.

At that point I had no plans to actually attend the celebration since to do so as a single didn’t sound very exciting.  But as the big night drew closer my curiosity grew, and I decided I did want to see the fruits of our labor preparing for the illusion.  In 1998 the phenomenon of on-line dating was in its infancy.  Match.com was one of the pioneers in that industry, and I had dabbled with it a few times that year.  So I decided to get back on that website and see if by chance I might find a last-minute date for New Year’s Eve. I noticed right away that one woman I had talked with the previous summer was still listed. Doubting that she would be available at the last minute I gave her a call anyway.

So after meeting the whole clan and enjoying some dinner, Diana and I spent several hours, taking in the various sites and entertainment around downtown Columbus. It was a very cold New Year’s Eve with temperatures well below freezing. So I didn’t know at the time if my date was holding my arm and snuggling close to me as we walked around because of attraction or just a desire to keep warm.  In either case it felt really good.  About 11:30 that evening we made our way back to the State House so we could take in Drew‘s performance.

As it turned out, we didn’t actually see what happened on stage. My daughter asked me if I would be willing to keep Olivia inside where it was warm so she could go outside and see the show. As midnight approached I was holding my precious granddaughter and standing next to my date, and it suddenly occurred to me that I had never been on a first date on New Year’s before. My dilemma was wondering if the tradition of kissing one’s date at the stroke of midnight was appropriate on a first date. Because the evening had gone so well, I decided it was worth the chance, and as it turned out, it was the first kiss of many more to come.

You see that date on our special first night was the woman who has become my best friend, companion, lover, and fellow adventurer for the past quarter century.  Together Diana and I have celebrated the birth of six more grandchildren.  We have each buried a parent.  We have been there for each other in sickness and health.  It has not been all happily ever after, of course, but the highs have far outnumbered the lows.  Before I met Diana I had never been more than 1200 miles from Ohio, but thanks to here adventurous spirit together we have traveled all over North America.  We have skied breathtaking mountains in 4 Western states and British Columbia.  We have cruised the Caribbean and Mediterranean multiple times, climbed the Great Wall of China, toured the Colosseum in Rome, snorkeled with Sea Turtles and Manta Rays on the Great Barrier Reef, and created several lifetimes of memories all over the world that I could never have dreamed of on that First Night. 

And we’re not done yet.  Who knows what the future holds, but whatever it is I’m so glad I made that last-minute phone call 25 years ago that was the beginning of it all. 

Faith Like the Birds

by Steve Harsh, posted in Christian Discipleship, Gratitude, spiritual discipline

In this frigid cold snap we have had in Ohio recently I have been filling our bird feeders every day, and the cardinals, blue jays, woodpeckers, sparrows, and the whole wonderful diversity of our feathered friends have flocked to our yard as soon as I finish. How they communicate so quickly that it’s feeding time is a mystery to me, but they do; and I’ve decided we have very biblical birds in our neighborhood.

You see, the birds don’t ever leave food on the table or let the seeds that fall on the ground go to waste, and that has reminded me of the story in Exodus about God providing manna/bread from heaven each day to feed the Hebrews in the wilderness. As usual the Hebrew people are complaining to Moses that he has brought them out into the wilderness to starve. They say they were better off as slaves in Egypt. When Moses shares their concern with Yahweh this is the response he gets: ”Then the Lord said to Moses, “I am going to rain bread from heaven for you, and each day the people shall go out and gather enough for that day. In that way I will test them, whether they will follow my instruction or not.” (Exodus 16:4) 

And God delivers on that promise, but the test is that God through Moses instructs the people to only gather enough of the manna for that day’s needs and not to try and store some up for another day. God is testing their faith to see if they will trust that each day the promise will be fulfilled again. That’s why when Jesus teaches his disciples what we now know as “The Lord’s Prayer” we are instructed to pray only for “our daily bread,” and not for a whole week’s worth. To do so is the difference between a mindset of faith in God’s providence and a scarcity mentality where we hoard more than our share of life’s resources for fear that we will run out the next day.

And that’s the way the birds in our yard live. They don’t leave any bird seed in the feeder for tomorrow because they trust that I will be faithful to meet their needs each new day. As you will see if you read the rest of the story in Exodus 16 some of God’s human children aren’t quite as trusting. And since I don’t speak fluent bird it may be that my feathered friends do complain when I’m late filling their feeders. They are much earlier risers than I; so I don’t pretend to be as faithful as God, but I can tell by the way they flock to the feeders whenever I fill them they are very grateful. And I am grateful to them for reminding me to be satisfied with my daily bread. 

Epiphany – Herod Lives

by Steve Harsh, posted in Faith and Politics, hope

“Then Herod secretly called for the magi and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.” Matthew 2:7-8

I am embarrassed to admit this. It took me till the third anniversary of January 6 to realize that horrible event took place on Epiphany, the twelfth day of Christmas. So for the last 24 hours since that light went on in my head I’ve been trying to think of some way to make theological sense of that convergence of those two radically different events. I don’t believe in coincidences; so I knew there had to be a connection, but all I was coming up with was that the attack on the very core of our democracy was even worse because it happened on Epiphany.

There are just a handful of dates in my lifetime that burned such a mark on my psyche that I will always remember where I was when I first heard about them: the assassinations of JFK, MLK, and RFK; the explosion of the Challenger space shuttle; 9/11; the election of Donald Trump; and the insurrection against our government on January 6, 2021.

I was working my home office that day but had the TV on fearing there might be trouble around the certification of Joe Biden’s election as President. But even though I was worried there might be some kind of trouble at the Capitol that day I never in my wildest imagination expected what played out on my TV screen that awful afternoon. As I watched the badly outnumbered Capitol police be overrun by an angry mob that began scaling the walls of the Capitol building, smashing windows, and swarming into the halls of Congress I sat there in stunned silence. Feeling helpless I finally did the only thing I could think to do. I got on Facebook, and I still remember exactly what I said: “Whatever you are doing, stop and pray. Our democracy is under attack.”

During worship this morning at our church it finally dawned on me what the connection was between the insurrection and. Epiphany. After preaching about the light of the star that leads us to Jesus our pastor, Chris Rinker, went on to say that we also need to remember that there are always forces of darkness that try to snuff out the light. There are always Herods who are so insecure and so desperate to preserve their own power that they will do anything to put down any threat real or imagined to their fragile egos.

Of course there are. I remember as a young pastor many years ago preaching on Matthew’s story of the Magi and Herod, and the title of that sermon was “Be Sure You Follow the Right King.” There are always Herods and the person fulfilling that role on January 6, 2021 was none other than President Donald Trump. Just as Herod told the Magi to go find the Christ child so he could go worship him too, our 45th President urged his angry followers to march to the Capitol and stop his Vice President from fulfilling his Constitutional duty to certify the legitimate electoral colleges votes from the 2020 election.

Three long years later we are still dealing with the fallout from that awful day, and I must admit I am often very discouraged about that and what it means for the future of our nation. But here’s my takeaway from this Epiphany 2024 message from Matthew. I can’t say it any better than Maltbie Babcock said it in 1901 in his great hymn, “This is My Father’s World;” so I will just end here with the third verse of that hymn:

“This is my Father’s world:
O let me ne’er forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the Ruler yet.
This is my Father’s world:
Why should my heart be sad?
The Lord is King: let the heavens ring!
God reigns; let earth be glad!”

Renaming the YMCA?

by Steve Harsh, posted in hope, Wellness

One of the few benefits I’ve found of being old is a feature that comes with many Medicare Advantage plans. Silver Sneakers is a program that pays for access to many gyms and exercise facilities as part of one’s health insurance after the age of 65. Insurance companies benefit because people who exercise are healthier and have fewer claims for medical bills from their insurance. And, of course, having access to places to work out benefits senior citizens.

My wife and I have enjoyed Silver Sneakers since we went on Medicare 12 years ago. We are fortunate that with Silver Sneakers we can use 4 different YMCA’s and another gym that are all within 15 miles of our home, and we often decide which one to use depending on what errands or other trips we need to make on a given day. We’ve even been able to use our Silver Sneakers membership to workout when we are traveling.

Having said that I want to give a shout out to my favorite place to workout. My go to exercise since I had back surgery two years ago has been to swim, and my favorite pool is at one of our local Y’s in the nearby suburb of Hilliard, Ohio. It has become my favorite because of very friendly staff who call me by name and make me feel very welcome whenever I walk in. I also like the temperature of the water in their pool, about 82 degrees. But there’s something else I have come to appreciate very much about our Y, and that is the diversity of the staff and those who use that facility.

On any given day at the Y I see several people of different ethnicities. There are Asian Americans, African Americans, Muslim women in hijabs and some in berkas, either working at the front desk or often using the pool by themselves or with their children. The first time I saw two of these women get in the pool fully clothed in berkas and hijabs I must admit I was a bit taken aback. But it has become a common sight now. Recently a new sign was put up by the deep end of the pool warning of the danger for those who can’t yet swim. What struck me about that sign is that it is written in four different languages.

During the recent holiday season I was also pleased to notice that in addition to a Christmas tree in the lobby area there was a Menorah on the counter where members check in. I like the diversity and inclusive message all those things communicate. But here’s the irony in all that. YMCA originally stood for “Young Men’s Christian Association,” but it has obviously outgrown that name. Many of us who workout there are certainly not young, more than half I see are not men, and as I’ve demonstrated above the membership at our Y is certainly much broader than “Christian.”

I’m not proposing a name change. I happen to enjoy singing the YMCA song. I just find the diversity there a bit of good news in a world that needs all of the positivity we can get. So my hat is off to the Hilliard Y and all who help create the hospitality and inclusivity it represents.

It’s fun to play at the YMCA!