At Superstore with the Iconographer

Lately Krista and I have been reading a fair bit of poetry since she splurged and bought me Rilke's Book of Hours. And some might know that "On His Blindness," by John Milton, is one of the poems closest to my heart, describing acutely what I felt at a few times on my journey to the Orthodox Church. (I can identify somewhat with this friend and fellow traveller).

On His Blindness

WHEN I consider how my light is spent
E're half my days, in this dark world and wide,
And that one Talent which is death to hide,
Lodg'd with me useless, though my Soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, least he returning chide,
Doth God exact day-labour, light deny'd,
I fondly ask; But patience to prevent
That murmur, soon replies, God doth not need
Either man's work or his own gifts, who best
Bear his milde yoak, they serve him best, his State
Is Kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed
And post o're Land and Ocean without rest:
They also serve who only stand and waite.

- John Milton, 1608-1674

Last night I had the experience of going grocery shopping with the master iconographer, Heiko Schlieper. He is 76. We are friends. I've known Heiko only 3 years, since I moved to this provincial city in the Spring of 2003, a city locked in winter for seemingly half the year. I started working very closely with Heiko just as his eyesight was dimming. I watched him paint his last icons, a panel of the Protecting Veil of the Mother of God, and Christ's Last Instructions to the Apostles, over the door exiting the narthex of St. George's Church. I interviewed him on tape each morning for about six months, before I went to work at the Tree Stone Bakery, gathering information on the several-year-long project of painting his masterpiece of St. George's.


After some intense training, in December '04, I helped him gild the last icon in the Church (not the dome pictured here, which he did solo in the early 90s). He used double-weight German gold leaf from the Ruhl company, "gold-beaters" Heiko calls them. We mistakenly applied 12-hour gold size and so it was nearly midnight when we climbed the ten-foot scaffold to start gilding. It was incredible. Specs of gold floated in the sacred air. As I recall, Heiko didn't offer his traditional incense (Benson & Hedges 100s) that night. I worked very slowly and carefully. Heiko, nearly blind, worked quickly and perfectly, his fingers knowing his image and the gold so well. Is it sacreligious to admit that we blasted Mahler that night as we gilded?

Since the Fall, we have shopped together with Heiko. It is an everyday activity that one can easily take for granted. Heiko had carefully arranged a service called "Seniors Driving Seniors," to take him shopping, but they only drive you, and he needs assistance in the store to procure his gourmet ingredients. So he had arranged with another company to have an assistant meet him there, but when he finally did, the guy they assigned admitted that he could not read! So, it works out much better this way. We go together - and since Krista and I have the requisite skills of both driving and literacy, grocery shopping goes much more smoothly. And, Heiko generously cooks amazing sauces and treats for us to freeze and use at home, always adding, "It's easier to make a larger amount." Last night we went to both the Italian centre and Superstore. Heiko cracks wise, usually with salty limericks about our former Governor General. It is good simply to be with him, to help him find his quail eggs, sardines, and pork fat for his homemade sausages. I sometimes think he can do more blind, at 76, than most people can who have sight and the prime of life. He "best bears His milde yoak."
May God grant him many years...

The south transept of St. George's Church.

Pictures from Last Weekend

Colleen and Sven on their wedding day. I've known Colleen for ten years now, since I was a student at good ole' CNC The wedding took place in Colleen's gradma's beautiful back garden. Aren't they lovely?

Derek & Sandra, enjoying the party.



Here's Leon Isaac Brower, aka, Lev, aka Lyova, son to Sandra and Derek, Godson to me. Krista and I had such a great time getting to know this bright little guy over the weekend. He, meanwhile, was a real trooper after being diagnosed with chicken pox!

Derek and our good friend John, in deep conversation. On Tuesday, I met up with these two again for our Calgary Burger Challenge. Not surprisingly, Boogie's Burger's came out on top.

Later...

Parkallen Gothic

Last Saturday, Krista and I planted our first garden together, together with our friends Mike a.k.a. "T-Bone"
and amy. (Here's us pictured attempting to duplicate the famous Grant Wood picture of the farmer and his wife). After we got out the majority of the "quack-grass," (the bane of a gardener's existence), we put in corn, Kennebec and Russet potatos, butternut squash, onions, green beans, carrots, beets, herbs, garlic - and all sorts of other excellent comestibles. A nice addition to the raspberries already at the back. Oh yeah, we also planted a Saskatoon bush! (Probably won't get fruit this year) But the rest of the garden will be looking pretty good by July. All our friends are welcome to come on by sometime... and help us weed! Maybe we'll give you a beet or something.

Choirs, Wild Man Blues and an 8th Habit!

This weekend Krista has been out in Saskatoon for the 10th anniversary of the Cecilian Singers and also for Rachel's wedding shower. The Cecilian Singers are a Saskatoon choir directed by Michelle, who is a good friend and music colleague of Krista's mom, Barbara. I think almost everybody in Krista's family - except maybe Annika - has been involved in this choir at one time or another, so they were all invited to come sing at this anniversary. Rachel and her mom are also involved with the choir too. I just talked to Krista on the phone, and she said she'll be home in between 11 and 12 tonight... so I can start counting down the hours.

So amidst all the music and festivities of Saskatoon, I decided to stay home as I'm starting a new position tommorrow with the Municipal Hertitage Partnership Program for the Province of Alberta. I get to head off to Red Deer tommorrow for the Alberta Planning Conference, to learn about civic planning issues in the province.

In order to pass the time, I rented a movie from our local Parkallen Video Gallery, and had a nice talk with Jeff, who owns the place. He's a filmmaker himself, and a great guy to talk to. Jeff, somewhat to my surprise, is a fan of Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. I was mainly surprised by this because Jeff is sort of hippie-esque (while at the same time running a successful small business). I mentioned I'd taken a 13-week course on the 7 Habits, and despite being put off by the jargon, benefited from much of the actual material. He then showed me a book by Buckminster Fuller that he said was the origin of the concept of "synergy," and also nearly knocked my socks off by announcing that - lo and behold - Covey has now identified an 8th habit! The 8th habit is all about encouraging "greatness" in others and in the world.

Krista and I have been enjoying the brilliant sit-com Arrested Development. But I also felt like a little music-travel documentary, so I picked up Wild Man Blues which is a documentary film about Woody Allen's jazz band. Not very many people know that Allen has been accomplished clarinetist since the early 1960s. As a young stand up comedian, he'd ask to sit in with the band in the clubs. His vernacular is the primitive New Orleans jazz style popularized by people like Sidney Bechet, and he's really good. Apparently Allen plays every Monday night in Manhattan at a little place called Michael's Pub. In 1997 he took his band to Europe, playing packed concerts all over the continent. Wild Man Blues documents this tour. At the end, Woody goes and visits his parents, who are in their late 90s. A great scene. At one point, his dad says, "maybe you think just because you wrote a script, and everybody liked it, you think you're some kind of bigshot, well that's a bunch of hokum!"


As I was listening I was shocked to hear one particular tune. I recognized it immediately as The Old Rugged Cross, done in a New Orleans jass style. I can remember Grandpa Russ singing this song. But doesn't this seem incongruous for some reason... a famous Jewish comedian playing this incredible tribute to the Cross? Was this an ironic statement, or is "The Old Rugged Cross" simply a standard of New Orleans jazz? I was struck by Allen's incredible clarinet on this tune - breathy and full of emotion, almost, to use Abraham Heschel's word "pathos." It was both wierd and also so 'right' at the same time. Allen to me, though of course lacking the whiskers, embodied something of the strange beauty of the Hebrew prophets. They also did Rock of Ages.