The 2007 Sprunt Lectures at Union-PSCE in Richmond, Va., were notable for a number of reasons: a timing change from winter to spring, the marking of a presidential transition, a thematic emphasis upon worship and Scripture and a marvelous address by Katherine Paterson. Paterson, a distinguished writer of children’s stories, spoke to a capacity crowd on May 3 at the annual PSCE alumni dinner. She was honored along with nine classmates as members of the Class of 1957. Dr. Freda Gardner, past moderator of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), introduced her former PSCE roommate.
Katherine Womeldorf Paterson was born in Quinn Jingo, China. She is a graduate of King College and holds masters degrees from both the Presbyterian School of Christian Education and Union Theological Seminary in New York City. She lived and worked for four years in Japan. The Patersons now live in Barre, Vt., where her husband, Dr. John Paterson recently retired as pastor of the First Church. They are the parents of four grown children and four grandchildren.
Katherine Paterson is the author of more than a dozen novels for children and young people including Bridge to Terabithia and Jacob Have I Loved, Newbery Medal winners in 1978 and 1981 and The Great Gilly Hopkins, a Newbery Honor Book. The Great Gilly Hopkins and The Master Puppeteer were National Book Award winners in 1979 and 1977. Her latest book is Bread and Roses, Too (2006).
She began her alumni address with a “grandmother story,” recalling a visit to Sweden where she received the 2006 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. Astrid Lindgren was Sweden’s favorite author. She wrote the much-loved Pippi Longstocking books. The award honors her memory and promotes children’s and youth literature around the world. Jordan, Paterson’s five-year-old grandchild, was properly impressed at meeting the Crown Princess. But after seeing many life-size publicity pictures of her grandmother, she admitted to being a little tired of seeing Nana!
Paterson used that story to challenge thinking about heroes. As an author, she cited some of her memorable characters who are often set apart or cast out from society, sometimes physically apart. Jip, for instance, as an infant, was literally cast out of the careening wagon by his mother. Leslie, in Bridge to Terabithia, is a newcomer and viewed with suspicion by many of her classmates. Jimmy Jo is cast off by his parents until the agent finds him. Mason, in Flip Flop Girl, sets himself apart by his refusal to talk. Gilly takes pride in making herself undesirable and in making her host families so miserable they cast her out. Each of these outcasts, as well as many of Paterson’s other characters, are strong persons in spite of or because of their alienation and are often on a quest to discover their own identities.
Paterson reflected on Jesus’ call “to proclaim good news to the poor and liberty to the captives. …” as recorded in Luke 4. “Our call,” she said, “is to be like Jesus.” She described a hero as one “who makes common cause with the losers.” One of her examples of living out the call of Jesus to be heroic is Dr. Paul Farmer, who shuttles back and forth between Harvard Medical School and the mountains of Haiti. Farmer’s story is told by Tracy Kidder in a book titled, Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World.
Invoking Farmer’s example of selfless love and service, Paterson further described a hero. “It is not winning nor power nor praise that makes a hero. It is never turning back on the poor and the dispossessed. It is making common cause with the losers. It is fighting the long defeat.”
Paterson’s stories feature characters who appear as this kind of unlikely hero or who work to help them. They persevere against great odds — against “the long defeat.” Her latest book, Bread and Roses, Too, tells the story of Rosa and her Italian immigrant family struggling against poverty amidst personal danger during a textile strike. The story is set in Lawrenceville, Mass., the scene of the famous “bread and roses” strike of 1912. Paterson was inspired to write the story after finding an old photograph of thirty-five children taken on the steps of the Old Socialist Labor Hall in Barre, Vt.
She refers to this narrative as “the story of the powerless against the mighty, the story of those who do the work while struggling to survive hunger, cold, accident and disease, and of the self-satisfied owners who bask in luxury and despise the very persons who make their lives of ease possible.”
Paterson concluded her address with two stories from South African leaders Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu. President Mandela was asked once if he hated his captors. He admitted that he did for the first 13 years of his 27 years in prison, but not for the next 14, after a change of heart. Bishop Tutu, facing a host of police officers interrupting a worship service, said to the officers, “You’re strong but the God we serve is stronger.” His words prompted a spontaneous outburst of dancing and the congregation danced their way out the doors.
These witnesses embody for Paterson an ability, in the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “to see from below, to share the perspective of those who suffer; this is the perspective for us to embrace, to follow the call of Jesus.” They made common cause with the losers.
Katherine Paterson pointed out that God’s grading system is much different than our own. Perhaps that is what has helped her and others to embrace life even when it is not what they thought it would be. Her call to hearers and readers alike: “Let us become unlikely dancing heroes of the long defeat.”
Richard Haney is concluding a term as interim pastor of St. Giles Church in Richmond, Va. He is a Ph.D. candidate at Oxford University, studying missional theology.
