On Retreat

Let's be honest right up front. Many of us at Sojourners are movie buffs. And basketball fans. So when the Academy Awards and the NCAA men's basketball championship game were up against each other on television, it was like choosing between a double-cheese pizza and a double-dip hot fudge sundae (for those of us who have addictive tendencies toward both).

To further complicate matters, the Sojourners editorial staff was on a planning retreat out in the wilds of Maryland when the events hit. Fortunately, the Recreation Committee (Danny Collum) had planned ahead and, in addition to the usual deck of cards and box of "Trivial Pursuit," packed two small black-and-white televisions for the trip.

The Weather Committee (Joe Roos) was not so lucky. When it actually started to snow that first day, on the eve of April 1, we were forced to say to Joe, "Thanks for nothing." Wind, rain, snow, and cold forced us to abandon our usual afternoon volleyball session, and all that was left to do was work. I suppose we could have watched soap operas, but who knows what effect "Days of Our Lives" and "All My Children" might have had on people who have never seen them?

By mid-afternoon the lack of exercise had begun to affect Danny's brain. The first sign came when he suggested "Life in the Faith Lane" as a new department in Sojourners. Then we had our semiannual conversation about how mind-boggling it is that our December issue will go to press in October, meaning that the author of our annual Christmas meditations needs to write them in August, to which Danny suggested, "Get an Australian."

But the real tip-off on Danny's condition came when we were getting close to completing projections for Sojourners cover stories through June 1988 and he launched into a theological treatise: "We're getting close to violating the Sermon on the Mount. I mean, at some point you have to consider the lilies of the field." This caught the attention of Ed Spivey, who was dozing in the corner, and he offered, "Maybe in July 1988. Summer's a good time for an environmental issue."

BY THIS TIME IT was 7:30 p.m., and we were up to an item on the agenda called "Media Crossover Strategy." Jim Wallis had hoped for a productive discussion on how we might get the message of Sojourners more broadly into newspapers and other magazines, but Danny said, "Oh, I thought you meant it's time to watch TV."

By 8 p.m. we were tuned in to the basketball game. At 9 the majority wanted to focus their attention on the Academy Awards. But one staff member (who will remain unnamed for reasons that later will become at least as clear as the TV pictures we were watching) wanted to focus on the game. This presented a dilemma, as the game was on the set farther from him.

We encouraged him to switch the sets, at which point he actually got up and started to unplug the television sets to switch them. A voice in the crowd said,
"Uh,_______, how about just switching the channels?" This was a novel solution to at least half of the room.

We left the sound up on the awards and down on the game, until some star went over the time limit on their acceptance speech. Brent Musberger served as a sort of Sojourners version of the "gong." When he got boring, we resorted to conversation like, "Where can you see short documentaries anyway?" "In short theaters, of course." As the night wore on, some began to get confused about whether a comment like "Nice shot" referred to a Syracuse score or a clip from The Mission.

Fortunately, the Academy Awards planned a production number to coincide with the last 30 seconds of play in the game, which lasted almost as long as the entire awards ceremony. Most of us were cheering for Syracuse, but Ed stood behind his alma mater--Indiana.

His parents had driven down to visit him just the weekend before, and he knew they were watching the game on the road. When Indiana won, and the band broke out the music, Ed stood and sang his alma mater, and we all knew how happy Virlin and Wanda Spivey were in a motel room somewhere between Washington, D.C., and Vincennes, Indiana.

The cheering was unanimous when Platoon received the award for Best Picture on the other television a couple of hours later. Amid all the hype and glitter, it was nice to see a real winner win. I think somebody suggested that in our next "Media Crossover Strategy" session, we ought to discuss launching the first Sojourners full-length feature film. Or was it fielding a basketball team?

Joyce Hollyday was associate editor of Sojourners when this article appeared.