Dear Speakers and Listeners:
I have always admired the talent of Mel Blanc. Do you know that name? The late Mel Blanc was the voice of nearly all Looney Toons cartoon characters watched by many generations of fans, including today. Mel did voices from Porky Pig,to Daffy Duck, to Bugs Bunny and even to the “Beep Beep” of the Roadrunner. While in a coma following a car accident doctors could only get him to talk by addressing him as “Bugs Bunny” and he would respond with the voice of that “Wascly Wabbit.” He also had a sense of humor: the epitaph on his tombstone is, “That’s all, folks!”
Yes, Mel had quite a talent. Yet, whenever you and I speak whether by voice or writing, do we not many voices speak through us? Have you not ever said anything and then thought, “Gee, that was my Dad or Mom speaking?” How many people helped to shape us and mold our viewpoints! Teachers, family members, colleagues, mentors…so many influences us to the point that their voice can at times be heard in our own.
As you and I confront the reality of COVID 19, no doubt the words and thoughts that we use to respond are some amalgamation of those voices that once influenced us and helped to create who we have become. Suffering Succotash!
Ah, but this remains the Easter season. Christ is Risen. New Life awaits! That means you and I have not yet “become.” We are, instead, “becoming.” There are more voices to address us and our time. There are more voices that can yet blend into our speech regardless of our age. That raises the question, “To whose voices do we listen? ” Whom do we want to shape the person we are becoming? How do we wish to respond to more weeks of sheltering and more weeks of uncertainty regarding how this pandemic might shape the future? Do we want to simply respond with fear? With anger? With unfounded certainty? With hope regardless of what the future might bring? Chose those voices carefully. We don’t want to be Tweety, the canary, who constantly sees a “Puddy Cat.” Nor ought we become Foghorn Leghorn, with his overconfident sense of importance.
With the cacophony of voices addressing us today all claiming to be in the know, you and I need to constantly recall the voice of Jesus; the voice from the sermon on the mount, the voice who pronounced forgiveness, the voice that taught in parables, the voice from the cross and the voice that waled along Emmaus’ road and grilled fish on the beach. Certainly, “that’s all, folks!”
In Christ’s Risen name
Gary N McCluskey
Pastor, University Lutheran Church