Navigation and Theology

 

     While Greg was an atheist to the quick he still studied the strange effects of organized religion on society. Therefore his rejection of Catholicism was not on a whim or because he hated to kneel during mass (like me). It may be odd but Methodism had some effect on the man as his mother attended the Methodist Church at State street and Missouri where reverend Norman Taylor preached a surpringly liberal brand of christianity supporting the United Nations and Unesco. My grandma, a devout Methodist attended the "new" church that was erected in 1953. The founder of the sect was the stern looking John Wesley who was first connected to the Anglicans who came to the new world but when many returned to England after the revolution he stayed and created his own ministers following his direction. Since staying slim and never eating too much was one of his doctrines it is no wonder our man rejected such teachings. Of course, in our overly stressed religious education at Pius X we were taught of the holy Father Junipero Serra who brought Catholicism to the poor indians in California as he formed 8 of the 21 Franciscan missions on the West Coast. Woke folks have since heaped scorn on Serra but in our day he was a Saint, quite literally. So while Greg rejected both of what he called purveyors of fairy tales he used the men of God as a mnemonic when he took the big or little bear boats out on squam lake to maybe get gas at Holderness or just tool around showing his old buddy the sights. He took me to Church  Island and the area where they filmed "On Golden Pond' and he assiduously followed the buoys that guided boaters on that delightful body of water. He even showed me the 20 page Squam Lakes Association guide to respecting the nature. He explained the "spar buoys" and channel markers that directed navigation used while travelling slowly past any hazards. All black buoys mark one side of a channel, all red buoys mark the other side, and white with red or black tops indicate specific directions based on your headingSo Greg said that the black were the right direction of John Wesley's old world bent andthe red were Father Serra were the left leaning of the New World. While the fellow may failed to attend mass for fifty-five years he still put his indoctrination to good use.