GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. -- Folk singer and social activist Arlo Guthrie’s church here is the kind of place someone could get lost in – or maybe even found.
But not through any traditional sense of religion.
“We’re not trying to start a religion,” said Guthrie Center Director George Laye, who answered the church door one recent afternoon in jeans, a black sweater and white sneakers – a far cry from the uniform of tie-dye and bell-bottom pants that reigned during the wild beatnik and hippie days when Alice and Ray Brock, of Alice’s Restaurant fame, lived in the building. “I don’t think God was religious.”
From the road, the rainbow peace flag in the front window hints at the building’s purposes now. A full-size modern industrial kitchen visible through the glass helps the center feed the hungry and the homeless. The sanctuary-turned-sound stage seats 110 people for musical acts that benefit the center. Although couples have been married at the Guthrie Center, no formal religious ceremonies are held there.
“Basically, we’re here to serve and take care of folks,” said Laye, who has been working for Arlo Guthrie for 30 years, the last three running activities at the Center.
A jumbled collection of religious icons displays the Center’s commitment to tolerance for all religions. A faded and weathered cross that may have once sat on the top of the building, which was burned then rebuilt by Connecticut shipwrights in 1866, now graces the walls. Church members found it discarded in nearby bushes. Pictures of Arlo’s guru, Ma, and her guru, dot a makeshift altar beneath a stained glass rose window upstairs. Incense, Hindu statues, crosses and other symbols compete for space on the low cloth-covered table. What once was the altar of the church is now a sound stage for folk acts. Upstairs, in the bell tower, the bell once used to call worshipers to prayer still works.
In many ways, the Guthrie Center is a shrine to 60s counterculture and to a whole cast of characters who helped define an American generation. Autographed posters and pictures of folk singers like Arlo Guthrie, Alice’s restaurant and Arlo’s father Woody Guthrie, who wrote “This Land is Your Land,” hang on the walls.
Laye is the only paid employee. Part of his job is conducting tours of the building, which these days gives the impression of a faded but dignified old lady whose exterior has suffered beneath years of hard living and not enough money for repairs.
Gone are the days of dope smoking and a trapeze hanging from the stage, said Laye.
Townspeople no longer think of it as just a hangout for beatniks and hippies but as an organization that serves Thanksgiving and other dinners to the homeless. Every May, Arlo Guthrie and many of the Center’s members raise money for Huntington’s Disease through a 6-mile Garbage Trail Walk, commemorating Guthrie’s arrest in the 60s for illegally dumping church garbage. The littering arrest disqualified him from serving in Vietnam. His ballad, “Alice’s Restaurant,” chronicled the event and urged people to resist the war.
The Center hosts an annual Thanksgiving dinner, folk music acts and youth concert series, and it remains a pilgrimage destination for people young and old, from a wide assortment of backgrounds. As Laye says, some find solace in silence. Some pray and meditate. Others just listen to music.
The atmosphere is designed to be warm and accepting, to show beliefs through good works, not through dogma.
When asked about his own faith, Laye says he feels a connection to nature and to something larger -- what he won’t quite call God but prefers to refer to as “the spirit.”
“Every full moon is new to me, and every first snowfall, and every first daffodil. I don’t get used to stuff. That’s a wonder, an amazement,” he said.
After three years at the Guthrie Center, Laye still looks forward to work every day – a marvel for a man who has always felt more comfortable on the move. But he still feels that connection to the spirit in the hugs of the autistic children who come here for lunches and dinners, and in the giving atmosphere of the place. It’s what keeps him coming back, and what he thinks attracts people.
Like the Guthrie Center, Laye is not religious in any traditional sense of the word.
“That’s not my job really. I’ve not put that burden on myself to walk through life, wondering if there’s a God. I’ll either find out or I won’t.”
Instead, he celebrates every sensation, every connection to what he thinks of as the spirit. And he’s open to the possibility of more. “If there is a supreme being and they put all this together, what a cool thing."
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Comments (10)
Too bad that Roy and Neal both took In_Boston's comments to be exclusive in nature rather than a celebration of what he/she finds in her own tradition. I didn't see that at all, in fact you were offered to "take it or leave it." Makes me wonder, who's being exclusive here? Or is the only exclusivity allowed open-minded people the anti-Catholic kind? Let's really try to look at one another without prejudices and preconceptions, just as the Guthrie Center is trying to promote.
November 20, 2007 11:17 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on November 20, 2007 11:17
Arlo's place is basically the antithesis of tribalism. The reason it appeals to so many is that it excludes no one. A tribal culture (and many religions have dogmas that make them tribal cultures) naturally excludes most of humanity. Tribes usually fear outsiders who threaten their tribal identity and going to war is the common response. In a world where our tribal Christian elders keep shouting "this is a Christan country", such a place is a breath of fresh air to many.
November 20, 2007 9:04 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on November 20, 2007 09:04
Neal: Right on. God forbid a Catholic or other Christian extremist Jesus mingling with sinners and infidels. God forbid a non-Catholic at Christ's table.
November 20, 2007 7:44 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on November 20, 2007 07:44
To In_Boston:
Leave it to a Catholic to read an article about a center dedicated to the many paths of spirituality and see it as an opportunity to push the, self-described, "one true church". If you expect others to overlook 20+ centuries of ungodly shenanigans would you be willing to allow that *anyone* can enjoy the rest of eternity without either converting or having to pack asbestos underpants?
November 20, 2007 12:05 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on November 20, 2007 00:05
For many of us, that sense of awe and wonder that Laye describes, combined with proactive compassion for others, is called humanism. Humanism is a secular worldview -- we are mostly atheists and agnostics who see no evidence for a supernatural realm. And not expecting an afterlife is good reason to make the most of the one life we are sure about -- not just in terms of happiness and fulfillment, but also leaving a positive imprint on the world while we're here.
If you think you might be a humanist, or are just curious, Google "american humanism" and "humanisteducation" (no space) to get more information.
November 19, 2007 10:11 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on November 19, 2007 22:11
"Jesus stumbling through the streets
On the road to Calvary
Nailed high to testify
With other local thieves
And as they hung there dying
One asked what lay beyond
That all depends the Master said
Which side are you on?
Some men work for little things
And some men work for more
Some men work for anything
And some don't work at all
And me myself I'm satisfied
To sing for God's own Son
And ask you what I ask myself
Which side are you on?"
-- Arlo Guthrie "Which Side" (1979)
November 19, 2007 7:56 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on November 19, 2007 19:56
.
Life is most awesome. Any body who is alive searches for its meaning. When one finds it, inchoate as it might be, there is a sense of peace that pervades his days and nights.
Woodstock and some such magical phenomena present us with a scintillating truth: most of us will find peace in our relationships with others, human beings, and all of nature, animate and inanimate constituents and compositions. Life manifests itself variously--and some men will try to capture such as voughsafe to be seen by them, in words, in artistic renditions, in music. or in science, or simple daily chores done with love. It is, by its nature, illusive, however. Each of us must appreciate it in our own individual way, albeit, the experiences of others can instigate us, inspire us, or lead us some ways. A few will do so hugely in ecstasy; most in measured doses sipped daily.
You may call that "spirituality," if you please, and proclaim: Life is love and love is God. And peace be with you and all that listens to you.
.
November 19, 2007 4:51 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on November 19, 2007 16:51
I do find it interesting that many people, including myself, experience that sense of "connectedness" he refers to; in nature, in relating to other people, in the simple acts of goodness and just being present. The Catholic dogma I have come to embrace in my own life has never, ever compromised that sense of uniting myself to creation or other persons. If anything, my belief in God enhances all of my experiences because, through the mystery that is sometimes faith, it links it all together, and leads back to one source and destination. There, in God, is the truest and most complete sense of connectedness I've been able to find. And I have searched, trust me...
But this article points to a genuine human desire for spirituality. Take it or leave it, but I find such a rich spirituality in the Catholic tradition, and when the tradition is *honestly* examined, with all prejudices set aside and preconceptions suspended, I am certain that it would offer something to many others who have been searching, like me,
best wishes to all readers!
"Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly." GK Chesterton
November 19, 2007 2:21 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on November 19, 2007 14:21
Thank God we still have Arlo and his contributions to our society and our culture. The spirit of kindness toward others and freedom to worship in one's own way are still at the core of America and not even the hatreds and bigotries of today's dark and crazy world will ever kill it. Love of freedom and respect for life will always remain a spark of light within each of us if only we will believe in it.
November 19, 2007 1:03 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on November 19, 2007 13:03
Conservatives know Arlo Guthrie was a Godless communist - "this land is your land, this land is my land..." Everyone knows this land belongs to the Peabody Coal company and they're hauling it away as fast as they can.
November 19, 2007 11:30 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on November 19, 2007 11:30