Brad Carrier Class of 1963

Name: Brad Carrier
EmailAddress: bbc@ashlandhome.net
WebAddress: earthlyreligion.org and rockwalls.biz
City: Ashland
State: Oregon
Country: US

Thanks for all your work preparing for the 45th. I’ve lost the email that had the link to a web page, but found one via Google and I’m posting this entry there in the guest book.

I had hoped to be able to return to Michigan to attend the reunion, but it isn’t going to happen this time. Instead I’ll send this account of my life since graduating in 1963.

Working for Coats Funeral Home was pivotal for me. I looked into the fact of death, delivered (that is, caught) a newborn in the ambulance in front of the Pontiac Mall, and learned I liked working with people. I’m still grateful to the Coats family. Not only did I love the ambulance part of it, it got me to go to Flint Junior College for two years (I really enjoyed chemistry and anatomy, sciences I had avoided in high school) in prep for Wayne State School of Mortuary Science, where I graduated in 1967. But by then I knew I liked learning (unlike in high school) and, to the chagrin of the Coats, went on to Oakland University, graduating in 1969 with a Bachelor’s in Psychology and Philosophy. I especially liked Jungian psychology and Eastern religion.

Having stumbled into the Birmingham Unitarian Church earlier, I then went on to enter a Unitarian seminary at the University of Chicago. There I met Dr. Vasavada, who was from Bombay, had studied with Carl Jung and had a guru back home. We became friends for many years. I went to India and met his guru, the Blind Saint of Vrindivan, among others (including Rajneesh). Seminary was intense for friends and experimenting with psychedelics. I was too wild for them and so didn’t finish my Master’s then, but did ministry anyway in Clinton, North Carolina at a Universalist church for five years before returning to seminary and getting my degree and stamp of approval in 1985.

By then I was married (I had done three years as a campus minister in Urbana, Illinois, where I met Janice Marcks, my wife of 20 years). We had one son in Urbana, another in Illinois, and a third in Chicago as I finished seminary. They were all exactly 4 years and 2 months apart, though they were all “accidents.”

I had lived one year (in India I had lost 20 pounds and needed to heal) in southern Oregon, where I fell in love with the west coast climate, geography, and mix of characters. Fortunately, I was later assigned to be the first minister of a UU fellowship in Ashland, Oregon. They had met for 30 years on their own; I was their first minister. I was to help them grow. Grow we did, tripling the congregation and buying a lovely church near the center of this artistic, liberal town (Shakespeare Theater, University, night life and music scene). I served 8 years successfully, but then it all fell apart, I quit, we divorced, and I opted to stay in the town I liked rather than pursue new ministry posts.

I eked out a barely-living doing construction and rock wall work. I learned how to stack up natural rocks and boulders to create a retaining wall and went on to become a contractor and employer in that realm. It wasn’t very philosophical, but I got to be philosophical while working hard, which I liked. Unlike ministry, at the end of the day I’d take a shower and all the dirt would just flow down the drain. Plus I got perks with that work – like boogers worth picking! See photos at rockwalls.biz.

I like writing and public speaking and used to be more public about both. See old writings at earthlyreligion.org . A fortunate foray into humanism happened in the 80’s, complete with three trips to New York, at 64th on the Park, to study that rich heritage. I also value the Counter Culture or Hippies or various artists and thinkers who remind me how it goes in the U.S. isn’t how it has to go. There is hope for a more humane and healthy society than the one that wars on innocents and wears down and out its own. I’m very much for reconnecting religion with nature and our nature towards not just sustainability, but ongoing flourishing.

Used to see Don Douglas yearly, but he’s dropped out of contact. I don’t know why or where. Steve McCallum and I hang out once in a while, though he’s been in France for years.

It’s fun to see bios on old high school friends, though I’m faint on most of those memories. I do remember regretting teasing Steve Golden by calling him “the Jew,” not realizing then how hurtful that probably was. I remember Ken Forbes, Bob Dustman, and others. I remember the art teacher Lois Pety who said, “to be an artist one must look at life with artistic eyes.” (I like taking photos and video, framing what is already artful.)

Mostly I remember a girl from Clarkston, Beverly, who I loved then, but balked at commitment, and have gone on to love her from afar all these years. I used to visit her mother Betty when back in Michigan, just to be distantly close with Bev. Early loves are wiser than we know.

I’m regretting also how I fit into the prevailing mindset at Oakland Lake. When we first moved there in the 50’s it brimmed with ancient life. Huge gar pike, lumbering dog fish, ample bull frogs, furry musk rats – all speared, trapped, etc. The lake grew over-fertilized and clogged with weeds. I loved swimming and skiing but miss the creatures that had lived there for thousands of years prior to my and our crude and cruel ways. Wouldn’t it be fair and responsible to repopulate the lakes with the life that has as much right to be there as we have? We have a similar situation out west where ancient salmon are dying out to pollution, warm waters from overcutting, dams, and over fishing. But we see deer daily in town, and occasionally a bear, and if you’re lucky, a lion.

Lately I’m enjoying quasi-retirement. My meager social security helps but I still have to work. I’m trying to devote some time to completing a book on the interplay of religion and nature, summing up the most useful ideas I’ve had during my long, rich experience in the liberal ministry. I love to play piano at home (Chopin, Satie, etc.) and guitar (Hendrix, etc.) and sing. I was in a group for 8 years that made up music on the spot (by voice) with no leader, no plan, and no rule. We often came up with astonishing music. My sons have all moved on. (One has finished his first year of law school in Washington D.C. in environmental law.) I have a great girl friend, don’t need Viagra, and am trimmer, stronger, and more adept at physical things than ever. I’m eating largely vegan and raw, but still like all other forms too.

So, if anyone reads this prior to the Big Reunion, please pass on my “Hi!” to the class of ’63 (and adjacent ones). I’d welcome contact from anyone. Have a blast! Enjoy! Get rowdy!

Brad Carrier
Ashland, Oregon
541-482-3432 or 541-301-6435