Five Years After Israel, Blessings on Lee and Sue Jensen and Their Fellow Pilgrims

For Sue and Lee

On behalf of: Art, Jim, Steve & Terry, Dianne, Jackie, Karen, Martha, Verna, Howard, Stellios, Dana (Dee) & Ralph

We were strangers in a strange land shadowed in the pre-9/11, June innocence of five years ago.  We wandered foolishly into one another’s deserts and waded playfully together in the waters of the river Jordan (or was that the Dead Sea?)… seeking occasional credence and sanctuary in songs of both clear and muddy water(s).

Some disagreed on the Mount of Beatitudes before all going together to the original olive garden, where Jesus wept… 

Blessed are the peacemakers… for they are in short supply… Blessed is he who sits on a tack, for he shall arise… Blessed is she who expects nothing, for she shall not be disappointed… Blessed… blessed…blessed assurance, vengeance is mine.

We were bound by our courage, loosed by our humanity, we laughed and cried… ate and drank perhaps too much… finally settling in Tel Aviv, by the Mediterranean Sea for a last supper, before heading home. 

But alas, since returning, from time to time, we are brought together by Sue and Lee: Lee and Sue, while always wondering who should get top billing?… yet knowing that who’s in charge depends on where you are with them. 

And so, Lee retires (even God rested on the seventh day, we are told)… after years in the vineyard working for a better quality of life for so many: the children, the elderly, the needy, the young and the restless… the Y welcomed all to its doors, with more than a little help from our friend, Lee, and his “bridge over troubled waters”, Sue. 

And so, Yahweh-God-Allah (Host of Jerusalem’s Temple Mount), we ask you to bless this food, as you have blessed us with the Jensens, as you have blessed them with each other and as you have blessed Lee with the opportunity to serve you these 39 years. 

We pray that we may remember from where all blessings come.  We pray that we may be nourished to give, as they have given.  And we pray that we will always have their great friendship to cherish.  

May all who witness our circle of companionship be nourished by it.  And may Sue and Lee be blessed with the knowledge that wherever they may go, whatever they may do, their right of return to our circle is forever assured. 

Delivered by Ralph E. Moore, Jr. in the Tremont Grand, Ballroom on May 15, 2006 upon the occasion of Lee Jensen’s retirement as Director of the Central Maryland YMCA after working for the Y for 39 years…