Love Notes

by Bill Love

In 1972, on a self-titled album, Jerry Jeff Walker had a song about Charlie Dunn, a bootmaker at Capital Saddlery in Austin, Texas. He had the reputation for making boots that fit perfectly. He didn’t put any identifying mark in the boots he made, hoping that the wearer would remember him. He kept each one’s measurements in a little book to remember, so he could make them another pair of boots. Buck, who ran Capital Saddlery, was concerned about the finances and didn’t understand the devoted loyalty of Charlie Dunn’s customers as they came in to have their soles patched up or the good that Charlie Dunn did humanly for those who wore his boots. Jerry Jeff Walker wrote, Well, I’m writing down some of ol’ Charlie’s size / because I’m making him up this song.

For me, it began in July, 2002, when I met Jane Hines, first in her capacity as an Elder and chair of the Worship Committee. I grew to respect her in that capacity and appreciate her sense of humor, which I suppose in part means she laughed at the things I said that I thought were funny.

That fall, she asked me to write something for the Voice about Christmas. That was the start of it, though I didn’t realize it at the time. She liked it enough to ask me to be a regular contributor. We dickered back and forth over the name and came up with Love Notes. I asked what she wanted me to write about; she said anything I wanted to. She put her trust in me, and I found her to be an able and more than trustworthy editor.

Sometime between July, 2002, and today, I came to know her as friend. And I see that in at least a couple of senses. Some friends are those we like, with whom we have much in common, whose company we find agreeable. There is another sense of friendship, closer to the sense of amicus curiae (friend of the court) who takes the side of someone simply because it is the right thing to do, who acts toward someone else as a friend would act. Jane has been both to me, a friend who encourages me and one who will tell me the truth as she sees it, even when it may be uncomfortable for both of us. Patching up the souls of many, including me.

She, too, has been that kind of friend to the Church of Jesus Christ and the Synod of Living Waters. She has shown a love of the church and the people of faith. Even when I am frustrated with the church, it is a kind of lovers’ quarrel. So it is with Jane.

She has championed the church and communication within the church. She is religious in the sense of its original meaning, to tie people together. She communicates in the sense of its original meaning, to create community.

A number of years ago, in an Alban Institute event, Roy Oswald said that, if you don’t say goodbye well, there are probably a lot of other things you don’t do well either. I think he was talking about boundaries.

We are at that boundary with Jane as editor of the Voice. It is an ending. I value that I have had the experience of writing for the Voice with Jane as my editor. I grieve and celebrate the experience. My life is better for the opportunity Jane gave me and nurtured in me.

I’ve tried to write down some of Jane’s size in this column. She has done so many good things. Though she deserves all kinds of good words, this is not eulogy.

In the liner notes of that 1972 album, Jerry Jeff Walker said that we need to tell the people in our lives how much we love them before they drift away and we have to tell them how much we miss them. Jane is drifting away as editor of the Voice. I say goodbye to her as my editor. I will miss her in that capacity. She remains my good friend, and I cherish that friendship. The Synod and I are better for knowing her.

Epiphany 2006
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam