THE LAMORINDAN 12-4-09

SANTA CLAUS CAME TO TOWN

Thursday night marked our return to the Frank's Church of Frank (as in pastor Frank Baldwin and nee, Church of Ray (as in Ray Welles) for our Christmas Party. More striking is that Santa confided to the press that he's been coming to these, bells on, for some 15 years. (Before that, he was a duly enlisted LSRer, but don't tell the kids that. We don't want to blow his cover.)

A festive time was had by all, what with the food, the wine, the company, the superb singing voices, and the loot bestowed by an ever-munificent Santa. The man who pulled the sleigh for the whole shootin' match this year was Jim Brencic. You just try to do that while keeping tabs on three kiddies, especially Little Jack, who is built so close to the ground that he's a danger to himself and others but a thoroughly charming toddler. Jim even dared to handle the invocation in this church, with the spirits of Ray Welles and Frank Baldwin guiding (or perhaps haunting) him. Well done from first to last, James. (Editor's note: There are outstanding pictures from the Christmas Party on Tom Black's smugmug website noted at the bottom of the Newsletter).

THOUGHTS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

Back to our usual Postino life, we had thoughts this morning from a thoroughbred Irishman named Patrick Flaharty. Of course, he started by quoting the late Egyptian President Sadat: "There can be hope only for a society which acts as one big family, not as many separate ones." Then, an American version: "If you ever start feeling like you have the goofiest, craziest, most dysfunctional family in the world, all you have to do is go to a state fair. Because five minutes at the fair, you'll be going, you know, we're all right. We are dang near royalty." Now, what Irishman do you reckon this was?

NONSENSE FROM AROUND THE WORLD

Speaking for the nation of Belgium, Aymeric showed on slides why they think we're different. The Belgian flag always flies, even in bad weather; not so the Stars and Stripes. Everyone in America loves McDonald's. All guys here are punks snarling, "Make my day." America is just a bunch of tangled spaghetti-like freeway interchanges. Well, after some research here, he's found that not so many people are crazy about McDonald's, and not quite everybody is a punk. But there are a lot of roads and cars, including one decrepit pickup truck he may be bringing to our newly incarnated Car Show next June. Additional slides included fly fishing on the Sacramento River (what happened there stays there). Also an SF tour and the Haight Ashbury - he's fallen in love with the City.

John Fazel thoughtfully interjected at this point that French fries were first marketed in Belgium, and they were brought here by another president, Thomas Jefferson.

CELEBRATIONS, AND NOT

If Jim Brencic needs proof that he put on the Christmas Party, the Prez gave it to him-- a collage of LSR hand prints shaped into a Christmas tree.

Ray Welles (much more of him later) hit the Big 8-Oh last week. What should happen but a surprise party, with 16 or 17 of his best friends from everywhere. Rumor has it that he asked whether he looked 80, and someone said no, but he used to.

Double whammy for the aforementioned Prez Fazel. Not only was he fined by Santa last night, but Mary Lou picked this time to have a birthday. He apparently retaliated by exempting himself from any additional fine.

John Linneman not only took spouse Connie for a day in the wine country for her birthday, but went really upscale for dinner - at Chez Postino.

No birthday for Ernie Furtado, just publicity. A picture of himself with son David on the Scout 50-miler in the Sierras. This was Ernie's first; is it his last? It seems the number of miles would segue nicely into the amount of the fine, but our leader apparently remembered how Fazel got off, and kept it reasonable.

What was not trumpeted? The name of Kevin Croak came up. He was craftily late as usual, so that warm celebration has to be postponed.

OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY

That's the motto of this year's fundraiser. It's also the name of a band Dave Waal may bring, and that's just too good. Richard "Silent" Shearer, whose presentation (without even a microphone) left Dave Watson unable to speak, might sell a few antique cars when the day comes. He has a little involvement with Other People's Money in his profession. Rich brought the crowd to its feet with his name of the event: "Motorama, World of Wheels." Well, nobody else responded to an invitation to make suggestions. Featured will be cars, cycles, and bikes. If you know of any worthy vehicles, tip off Hays Englehart by e-mail, and he'll turn on his well-known charm. Cars should be pre-1974, or else unique (e.g., any Ford Pinto that did not go up in flames). We're going for nostalgia here. Fortunately, a lot of people like to show off their prized wheels, and they tend to give a voluntary donation for the privilege of doing so.

Mark Roberts also begged for contacts, this time with potential sponsors to underwrite costs. Could be organizations interested in cars, or in just gathering a lot of people in Lafayette. Please give him contact information.

"Motorama, World of Wheels" (wow, that does roll off the tongue) will take place on Father's Day, June 20, (whatever date it turns out to be) in the Postino parking lot.

VERY MISCELLANEOUS

Perhaps most important, WE WON'T MEET ON CHRISTMAS DAY OR NEW YEAR'S DAY. Santa will be here all by himself.

Mike Edwards adopting? The wife might be interested. Well, actually, it's an adoption of needy families. Mike had a signup sheet for gift selection. Friday after next (Dec. 18), the gifts should be brought to the meeting. Mike will see that they get delivered to the Salvation Army.

In a very pale imitation of the absent Chuck Kenney, the Herr Fazel said we can sign up for the always-popular Reno train trip, scheduled the third Sunday and Monday in January.

Nice picture in the Lamorinda Weekly of the Community Breakfast we co-sponsored a couple of weeks ago at the Veterans Hall. "Photo by Tom Black, Lamorinda Sunrise Rotary," so the credit line read. Mercy, what would the local rags do without our feeding them such savory news morsels? (Rhetorical question.)

Board meeting at the Fazel office, 7:00 a.m. this Tuesday.

REVEREND RAY - WHAT MORE CAN YOU SAY

Ray Welles carried on manfully while anticipating that Jackie will have surgery in the afternoon. Best wishes to her from all of us.

He first commented, regarding this presentation, that he prefers "reveal" to "expose." (According to He Who Doesn't Need A Microphone, this is smart because reveal is a mere misdemeanor.)

Today he wanted to impart what it's like to be a clergyman. He perhaps was pointed in that direction as a precocious lad by the 1939 draft law, which exempted lunatics, the blind, and ministers.

Part of his talent may have come from his father and namesake, who was one of the top food brokerage salesmen in Southern California. His mother was quiet, warm and intelligent. But Ray Sr. was a flamboyant extrovert - to the extent that he once rented a giant sign at a hotel for a month, which said to the world, "Good morning, Ray Welles." But he definitely wasn't a clergyman. In fact, he fairly freaked out when Ray came home from that well-known seminary named Pomona College, thereby implicitly (however emphatically) declaring his calling.

Ray Sr. had definitely intended the food brokerage to be carried on by his obviously misguided son, and he wasn't about to finance anything else. Another interesting point was that Ray Sr. and his wife divorced when Ray was five, and had a total of four marriages including remarriage to Ray's mom when Ray was 10. Thus did Ray garner real-world bona fides as a family therapist.

So Ray didn't start with all the financial advantages he might have had and he married this girl, Jackie, who quit college at Occidental (to this day, Pomona's archival) to bankroll Ray's dream.

Well, what did he do then? Twelve years at St. John's in the Haight in the Sixties, which, believe it or not, was too conservative a congregation for Ray's taste. He quit, went back to studying Jung and those guys, and started a private family-therapy practice. He also became an interim minister and wrote a book on the subject. From there, of course, he went lots of places, including Redding where he sweet-talked Frank Lloyd Wright into designing his new church, and later our own Christmas venue, Orinda Community Church, whence he retired 20 years ago. In his "idle" retirement, he preaches a dozen times a year, is on the Pension Board of United Church of Christ, is a trustee of the Pacific School of Religion (a bold and innovative institution), and a director of Carmel Valley Manor Board.

Ray is a maverick, albeit not a radical. His pet peeves are tentative, righteous, and arrogant churches. Times have changed a bit since he was ordained, which was when Ike picked Dick for VP, the Dodgers and Giants were still in New York, and Albert Schweitzer was doing good deeds in Africa. You didn't need a key to get into a church. Congregations didn't shrink. Money was sent to all kinds of causes irrespective of differing religious beliefs.

He feels the future is an exciting time, even though churches are in ferment and religion can, at times, be is even dangerous (think megachurch). It's all very confusing and challenging. Mainline churches are shrinking, often deservedly. 15% to 25% of Americans are "spiritual but not religious." They are now specifying that their babies be blessed but not baptized. Twenty-five percent of Americans don't want a traditional funeral. Christianity's current challenge is the common suspicion of all religions. The most common dialogues are now interfaith. Brand names are irrelevant; literalisms and hierarchies are suspect. Creeds are increasingly counterfeit. There are many atheists with a longing for something they can believe in. Scientists are getting spiritual. There are more Christians in Africa than in all the remaining world. Here in the U.S. of A, Muslims outnumber Presbyterians.

Ray feels that instead of a food broker, he's a spirit broker. He deems it a privilege to hear confessions, pray, wed folks, worship, practice psychotherapy. Life is vertical as well as horizontal. He is wealthy in his life and his "weird" profession. He expresses gratitude that LSR regards him as somewhat normal. Now, THAT'S weird.

GUESTS

John Sherry, Lafayette Rotary
Tina Bettencourt, Joe's better half
Roger Samuelson, Ray Welles groupie
Gary Nye, Ray Welles groupie

CALENDAR

Tuesday, December 8 - 7 a.m. board meeting; Fazel's offices

Friday, December 11 - Budd Mackenzie is back to talk about trust in education in Afghanastan. How timely can this be?

Friday, December 18 - Major Ed Stevens

Friday. December 25 - DARK, Merry Christmas

Friday, January 1 - DARK, Happy New Year

Friday, January 8 - Adarsha Shivakumar, the Jatrophia Miracles

Friday, January 15 - Larry Swindwell, World's foremost expert on baseball, back by popular demand

Friday, January 22 - District Governor's report

Friday, January 29 - Expose yourself, TBA

Friday, February 5 - Terry Englehart, Seniors without walls