Saturday afternoon's traditional Episcopal memorial for John Lachs at Vanderbilt's Benton Chapel was a beautiful sacramental service, a beautiful religio-ritualistic affirmation of life eternal. John reportedly was deeply involved in its design, selecting the music (Bach, Brahms, Mozart), the bible readings (Romans, Psalms, Corinthians), and two selections of his own work from In Love With Life and "Pragmatism and Death."
“Believing in what our fervent hopes promise has, in any case, never much appealed to me. I think, on the contrary, that the dignity due our intelligence requires seeing the world and our prospects in it with unclouded eyes. Religion gets undue support from our desire to escape the pain of loss and the dread of death. Although they do not bring out the best in religion, I have no quarrel with such consolations. But philosophers should not need them. They ought to have the courage to look into the abyss alone and to face sudden tragedy and inevitable decline with equanimity born of joy or at least of understanding. I am prepared to be surprised to learn that we have a supernatural destiny, just as I am prepared to be surprised at seeing my neighbor win the lottery. But I don't consider buying tickets an investment.”
That would be a joyous surprise indeed, but John never held the a value of life hostage to surprise. He was in love with it, whatever its ultimate unknown denouement. The Apostle's Creed (which I and a few others did not stand for on Saturday) was not something he insisted on, as life's condition of validation.
I told my wife I'd like John's coda of equanimity and joy to be read at my own service, someday. She surprised me with her matter-of-fact response: print it and put it in a file folder... I wasn't expecting her to be so on top of planning my last party already. But we are, already, growing old together. We're counting on the best being yet to be, and on its being here if anywhere.
Anyway... the resonant keynote of John's memorial was lovely. The reception afterwards, not livestreamed, featured stories illustrative of his boundless energy and service to the various communities touched by his generous and active spirit--especially the community of former students who, one after another, declared that he'd changed their lives for the better. He was the quintessential meliorist.
His colleague Dr. Dobbs-Weinstein gave the most succinct testimonial, in a word: "magnanimous"... He and she were very different in style and substance, philosophically, but he told her every department needed someone like her "and someone like me."
Every department of life should be so lucky. But there just aren't that many others like him, large-hearted, great-souled, in love with this life, happily embracing its finitude, working joyously to prepare the way for those behind him in the great moving caravan of humanity.
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