Great Scot April 2019 Great Scot_156_April_2019_Online | Page 79

Coaches and
Services Award
Old Scotch Pipes and Drums member Angus Jones (’16) took out
the 2018 Young Old Boys’ Coaches and Services Award, after being
nominated by Scotch teachers, Mark Saul and Scott Birrell. He received
his award during an event at the Elgin Hotel in Hawthorn on 29 November.
Angus has been part of Scotch’s Pipes and Drums teaching program
for the past two years, and comes to the School two days a week to
coach boys at all year levels on snare drumming. Mark Saul and Scott
Birrell said Angus is a very enthusiastic tutor, guiding the boys to be
musical percussionists and strong team players. He gives precise and
clear tutelage, enhancing the boys’ development, and is always willing to
give a hand. Angus is also very active with the School’s elementary band,
both at Scotch and elsewhere on competition days.
In his final school year of 2016, Angus was the Drum Sergeant of the
Scotch Pipes and Drums Band which travelled to Scotland to compete
in the European Pipe Band Championships, where the band achieved a
commendable fourth place. In the same year Angus also led the Drum
Corps when Scotch took out the Australian championships, beating
other excellent bands from schools such as Scots College, Sydney,
SCOTT MONTGOMERY (’85) WITH 2018 YOUNG OLD BOYS’ COACHES AND SERVICES
AWARD RECIPIENT, ANGUS JONES (’16), AND SCOTT BIRRELL, SCOTCH STAFF
and Haileybury College, as well as the New Zealand Youth Band, which
includes players hand-picked from across New Zealand.
Through the annual event and the Young Old Boys’ Coaches and
Services Award, both initiated in 2016, the School pays tribute to the
backstage army of nearly 200 Old Boys who contribute significantly to
the success of the School’s sports and services programs throughout
the year. Congratulations to Angus and to all the Old Boys for their
contributions to the programs.
OSCA Chaplain
Who wants it darker?
I’ve been reading Richard Rohr’s book, Falling Upwards. It’s described
as ‘spirituality for the second half of life’. Now there’s a thought! A book
especially designed to appeal to the ageing generation of baby boomers!
In this interesting book, Rohr, a Franciscan priest, draws on the
journey theme in classic mythology (a great introduction to Homer), as
well as in other religions, and in the biblical texts. However, I find myself
at odds with Rohr’s premise; that the second half of life needs a different
spirituality from the first half.
The following banter between two ageing poet friends, Leonard Cohen
and (Emeritus Professor) Peter Dale Scott, lightly masks the challenge and
bleakness of their theme: darkness. It was a theme both men were familiar
with in the poetry and bloody narrative of the biblical tests.
Leonard Cohen’s last album, You Want it Darker? came into the hands
of his friend at Berkeley. Tucked away in the posthumous volume The
Flame we find their emailed exchange in rhyming verse.
Peter Dale Scott sent Cohen an inscribed copy of his recent book of
poems, Walking on Darkness. His inscription: ‘If you want it darker/this
book is not for you/I have always wanted it lighter/and I think God does
too’. Replying, Cohen wrote:
who says ‘i’ want it darker?
who says the ‘you’ is ‘me’?
god saved you in your harbor
while millions died at sea
you and god are buddies
you know his wishes now
here’s broken Job all bloodied
who met him brow to brow
According to Lord Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of the UK, Cohen’s
You Want it Darker? is a deeply reflective rabbinic style commentary
(available on YouTube) on one of the darkest and most difficult passages
in the Hebrew Bible, Genesis 22, ‘The binding of Isaac’.
For Christians the Scripture gets darker still. It was a dark day on
Calvary. The Christ was crucified.
As Leonard Cohen (circa 1970) put it, ‘the corners of the blueprint are
ruined since they rolled far past the stems of thumbtacks that still throw
shadows on the wood’. (Last Year’s Man). The blueprint was written in the
Scriptures. He died for us. ‘The Lamb of God. The Son of God loved me
and gave himself for me.’ (Psalms 110, 22, Isaiah 53, John 1, Galatians 2)
In a series of wide-ranging interviews, a younger but middle-aged
poet, Paul Hewson (Bono), was challenged by music journalist Michka
Assayas about his faith. Rather than speak about a generic spirituality
to which Assayas was pressing, Bono held his ground, affirming a
distinctively Christian position. He said: ‘Grace defies reason and logic …
I’m holding out for Grace. I am holding out that Jesus took my sins onto
the cross, because I know who I am, and I hope I don’t have to depend
on my own religiosity’.
When asked by Assayas to respond to a gallery of photos of himself
as an earnest teenage singer. Paul Hewson affirmed his youthful self:
‘You were right!’
The spirituality of the first half of life can illuminate the second.
REV GRAHAM BRADBEER — OSCA CHAPLAIN
www.scotch.vic.edu.au Great Scot
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