To Care-full Too (Chuck Lathrop)

Chuck in Maryknoll, NY cerca 1978

A personal note: As I’ll be in Dublin on June 2nd, this Monday Morning Update was written last week and scheduled for today. The six-day trip to Ireland was spontaneously scheduled to visit an old Maryknoll friend from our Lay Missioners days, Chuck Lathrop.  He married Mary, a wonderful Irish woman some four decades ago and has been living in the suburbs of Dublin ever since.

Chuck has the heart of a missioner with the worn shoes to prove it as well as a poetic DNA wherein he is forever shaping verses to uncover everyday mysteries and moments that few could ever capture. Almost half a century ago, he wrote, In Search of a Round Table - so far ahead of its time. See https://beingchurchin21stc.wordpress.com/scripture-about-and-prayers-for-the-church/in-search-of-a-roundtable-by-chuck-lathrop/  Here is one verse:

Roundtabling means no preferred seating,
no first & last,
no better,
no corners for ‘the least of these’
Roundtabling means being with,
a part of,
together,
and one
It means room for the Spirit and gifts
and disturbing profound peace for all.

For several years now, Chuck has spent a good many of his days in and out of the oncology ward at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin. Cancer paid him a visit and has not yet decided to leave. Over this time, he has written over 35 poems that bring the reader into the oncology ward with him observing the faces, feelings, fears and hopes of those on the ward, and always the accompanying drip drip drip drip of the IV machinery.   

Few of us could think of writing a single verse if we found ourselves in an oncology war. Chuck cannot not write what he sees so deeply. So many amazing gems. One example:

Too Care-full Too

(Immunotherapy, No. 6)

She sat

Precariously perched

On the edge of the bed,

A delicate, fine china cup

Far too close to the edge of the shelf,

I was waiting

For her to tumble;

But with the arrival

Of the hot meal,

She had the table to steady her.

And so she began to eat,

Slow, tiny bites

After slow and deliberate cuts

Of tiny portions

Gingerly,

As if she were only learning how,

Conserving her energy,

Doing it out carefully

to make it last

The meal and the day.

...

Once and always again,

So much here is done the same:

Gingerly, slowly,

Deliberately, precisely.

You cannot be

Too careful here,

And too care-full too.

Both are needed,

And both are true.

- CS Lathrop

06/01/2024