James Wilkerson

Posted on: Mar 29, 2022 at 4:33 AM

Posted on: Mar 29, 2021 at 4:33 AM

Mike and I were on the wrestling team together. In addition to being a great athlete and teammate, he was a wonderful human being. I from time to time visit the memory of Mike, my other teammates, and coach Andrew Haba. Those memories of teammates like Mike and of coach Haba helped me much in my later life. My condolences to his family and friends.

Posted on: Mar 29, 2020 at 4:35 AM

Posted on: Aug 20, 2019 at 1:12 AM

Sorry to have missed the 50th reunion. Instead I was in Kunming, China. I look forward to hearing the after-reunion reports.

Posted on: Mar 29, 2019 at 4:33 AM

Posted on: Apr 05, 2018 at 3:43 AM

Your note arrived just after I returned on 1 April from Shenzhen China, where I attended a conference. Strange city. It was all farmland and very poor when we were juniors at GHS in 1967-68. China was in the midst of its "cultural revolution." Shenzhen is adjacent to Hong Kong. In 1968, bodies were piling up on the coast of people who tried and failed to make the swim to Hong Kong. I forget who, but some important cadre stood on that beach and decided that China must change or the revolution would lose whatever moral authority it had left. Yesterday, 4 April here, but 3 April where you are, was the fiftieth anniversary of the murder of Martin Luther King. The memory of 1968 and especially his murder is burned forever into my memory. It is the year that I decided, in a muddled sort of way, what direction I wanted to take my life. Reflecting on our lives together at that time and now looking back after we lived our lives separately, I am struck by how diverse the directions our respective lives have taken, and yet how parallel they have been. The direction I took was to renounce cynicism, but to be at the same time realistic about the human species and its prospects, and to always remember the arc of the moral universe. Some of us may now in retrospect argue that there is no arc and I certainly have my doubts. However, I at a minimum believe that it can exist, in fact it does exist, as an intentionality in a struggle to survive in a universe of competing intentionalities, other intentionalities that have no arc and hold to a counter morality that keeps resurfacing like it did in 1968. And it is glaring at us in 2018 like it did a half century ago. I'm a minimalist. If it can be imagined, it exists to struggle with all other myriad thoughts. And so we struggle on. I don't think I would have had the thoughts about my future in 1968 if people like you and Bill were not in my life to show me that there is a moral universe and it just might, if we struggle, be an arc. Just a thought I should share with you.

Hi Mary. I had written a missive but it disappeared. I'll try to reconstruct it.

Posted on: Mar 29, 2017 at 6:49 AM

Happy Birthday old Washington Grove friend. I hope you are well.

Posted on: Mar 29, 2017 at 4:33 AM

Dear Mary,

Thanks for your kind words in return. I remember the braids (and the head bands). It is a little embarrassing, however. I think you made a wise decision to go into the ministry. Counseling is important, but I feel that ministry is more effective because it is more inclusive of faith. My students differ greatly in belief, but they are very similar with one another insofar as they all put a lot of emphasis upon faith.

Dear Mary, Thanks for the brief note. It is much appreciated. Bill French also wrote me on his birthday (24 March) for my birthday (29 March).

This note gives me the opportunity to thank you for something that I felt since we first got to know each other in elementary school and continued right through to graduation from high school. It is also related to Bill French, too. I've always felt that I benefited from your Christian moral character. This much needed influence, while not keeping me entirely moral, at least it provided ballast against less moral attractions. And that influence extended out from you (and Bill) to the wider Christian community network of which you and your famiily were so much an important part.

Over my professional years, I by interest and professional trainiing have ended up dealing a lot with religion. In fact, I spent the past 26 years teaching the graduate course "Anthropology of Religion" and doing research on community religion in Taiwan and Guangxi Province in mainland China. I attribute my career studying religion in large part to your (and Bill's) influence and through you two to your wider Christian network.

Just wanted to take this chance to set the record straight. I don't stay in frequent contact and indeed life in Taiwan is sufficiently full to keep me well of occupied. I wish you all the happiness and health and security in your retirement that you have so richly earned.

Posted on: Mar 29, 2016 at 4:33 AM