After that post about glitches, most of which were quite minor and hardly worth noting I suppose, it’s probably a good thing to move on to the things that worked right, and that led to a very long run for the “Celebration Rock” program.
For one thing, people listened to the program, and responded. Over the past few days, I’ve been re-reading scores of letters I had saved, some for nearly 40 years! The letters came at first from teenagers who had found something helpful, dare I say “meaningful,” even inspirational on the radio. But letters also came from teachers and coaches, from church leaders and music therapists, from radio station folk and whole families. Many of the letters simply encouraged me to “keep up the good work.” In the early years especially, some young people sent me poetry, prayers, and song lyrics they had written. A few times, teens came into the studio to read their poetry for the show, and one guy named Sam even directed a short play which we aired. Some of the offerings were dark and filled with angst. I received some troubling mail from kids who had thought about suicide. As I read these over recently, I prayed that I had responded to the most important ones all those years ago, and that my responses had been helpful.
Many listeners wrote often, and now 25, 30, 35 years later, I still remembered their names. Sometimes I met them at retreats or conferences. One young woman who wrote several letters from a small town in Virginia eventually found herself in a nursing home in Richmond. She had cerebral palsy and the biggest smile I’ve ever seen. As I read through those letters, I wondered what became of those writers. Well, for one thing they’ve aged! I think of the teens who wrote in 1970. They may well have grandchildren now! What of the guys who wrote from jail or prison? And what became of the poets and aspiring musicians?
All these years later, it was just time to clean house, and finally let go of the mail. But I did read each letter again, somehow feeling that I had to honor the connection with so many listeners who cared about or affirmed what I was doing on the program.
Something else about the letters…I smiled as I got to the end of some of the longer epistles. The writers poured out their thoughts about their faith journeys, their questions and doubts, their credos, and then the last line would read something like, “Please play ‘Wichita Lineman’ by Glen Campbell.” (Maybe they thought that if I played the request, it was a sign that I had read their letter.)
One more thing: I certainly got a lot of help in choosing artists to “showcase.” In the first couple of years, writers asked to hear programs featuring the music of Crosby, Stills, & Nash, the Moody Blues, Diana Ross, and even the Electric Prunes! (I did play their entire “Mass in F-Minor” one night, and later I used their “Kol Nidre” along with an interview with Rabbi Jack Spiro about the Jewish High Holy Days. In fact, I re-ran that interview and the Prunes album many times.)
I chose the subject of this post quite deliberately. When things went right with this weekly hour-long radio program, there was something terrible about it. Not terror, really, but some genuine fear. The words I wrote and spoke, the music I chose and played, the topics we explored together …very often spoke to the deepest places of many listeners. More than one listener admitted that for them the radio program was as close to church or worship as they would get that week. That became a heavy responsibility, and sobering for me as the writer/producer/voice. Many people, young and older, heard what they needed to hear, or what they wanted to hear, or what God intended them to hear. Boldly I confess that the Spirit moved in my heart and theirs, and the love of Christ embraced us all.
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