Dear Editor: Elizabeth Boardman’s piece in the March/April issue has given me great joy. Her article, “The Fancy Sunday Hat,” takes me back to my own childhood in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. At age four or five, I learned a song in our Methodist Church Sunday School that has served me well through almost nine decades.
It’s a challenging time for human beings these days. In Meeting and at other times, I ponder that truth, and the song comes to me. I am uplifted, and my hope is restored. The song goes,
Down in the dumps I’ll never go –
There’s where the devil keeps me low –
I’ll sing with all my might,
I’ll keep my armor shining bright,
But down in the dumps I’ll never go.
– Paul Niebanck, Horizon House Worship Group, South Seattle Friends Meeting