an Economist, Wikipedia, and the Healing of the Nations

On Sunday evenings, I look forward to completing the day's work (insofar as possible), brewing some herbal tea, eating, and writing these essays. Today, I spent most of my time editing a Wikipedia page.

Dr. John P. Hussman writes a valuable weekly “market comment” on the stock market and other financial topics; he has been doing this for many years, and they can all be found here. I have also seen his name in the annual reports of the Carter Center, which I support. He does too, in a much larger way: this year's report listed him and his wife Terri among those whose lifetime gifts to the Center amount to more than a million dollars, and on top of that, his foundation has given another million (or more). At times, I wondered whether it was the same person; the financial site makes no mention of the foundation, and the foundation makes no mention of the financial work. So tonight, I hunted around a bit and satisfied myself that it is: his Twitter feed identifies him as an “Economist. Realistic optimist widely viewed as prophet of doom. Autism researcher and philanthropist. Musician with recovering chops,” complete with a photo that is clearly the same person as the one at the investment site.

So, I went to Wikipedia, where the article about him was a thoroughly inadequate one-paragraph stub. I added a second paragraph about his philanthropic work, with citations.

That took me about an hour. It would be quicker if I had more experience with such work.

There have been occasions when I have wanted to write to Dr. Hussman and thank him both for his investment writings and his support of the Carter Center. With the former, he is widely vilified at present because his views are contrary to the mainstream, and I wish I could effectively speak or write to support him. My time on Wikipedia tonight is the best I can do; it is not much, but it is something.


Today is Whitsunday, the Day of Pentecost. In choir rehearsal this morning, we touched on the implications of this Day for the environment. As our antiphon to Psalm 104 said, “Send forth your spirit, O Lord, and renew the face of the earth.” Romans 8 describes the brokenness of creation that has resulted from our sin – a brokenness to which we add daily: “The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now” (v. 22).

It is, I think, on Whitsunday that the “healing of the nations” began, and not just the humans. We read of this at Matins in Isaiah 11, the great passage that begins “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb.”

Dr. Hussman is engaged in this work by means of his foundation and other activities. I hope that my music is a small part of this healing, as well. In that spirit, here is this morning's piano improvisation, on the tune Down Ampney:

Come down, O Love divine,
seek thou this soul of mine,
and visit it with thine own ardor glowing:
O Comforter, draw near,
within my heart appear,
and kindle it, thy holy flame bestowing.
(Bianco da Siena, tr. R. Littledale)

I noted that the two halves of the tune combine with one another, so I began with this. About halfway through, I sought to imitate one of the things that Vaughan Williams (the composer of Down Ampney) did in his Fantasia on a Theme of Tallis: the echo effects between large ensemble and small. And the ending was explicitly in homage to that great work, one that has changed my life as much as any piece of music can.