The Pastor's Lament

Father Joseph Frazee, of St. Gertrude’s Episcopal Church, was one-third of the famous Treehouse Trio, back in the day. They were just three boys from the neighborhood who learned to harmonize in the tree-house that Joe’s father built between four tall pines. Their sound was so distinctive and, well, interesting,that the neighbors took up a collection to send them to NYC to look for work on the streets.

Of course, no one would know that what musical historians call “classibilly lumbago” would take off at that point, fueled by the crowds that came to the famous Bitter Grounds coffee house, and that The Treehouse Trio would be right there at the start.

As all such music waves do, however, it washed across the country and then washed on out to sea. There was no more demand for Treehouse Trio concerts, so the boys went their way. Joseph went to West Jesus Tech, the Episcopal seminary on the campus at Northwestern U, just across Sheridan Road from East Jesus Tech, the Methodist seminary, and has been an Episcopal priest for 35 years now, the last six in Periwinkle County.

He still likes to sing, though, so this morning at St. Gertrude’s he sang one of his own songs:

I’m going to a place where no one knows me
A place without a road sign or a name
Where no one makes me bend my back
Or listen to them sigh
A place where every day is just the same

I want to be bored, O Lord, I want to be bored
Save me from the clutches of the
Grasping, wailing hoarde
I want to go to be where there’s no necessity
Where no one even speaks of responsibility

I’m going to a place where they can’t find me
A place where no good Samaritans lurk
Where no one grabs me by the hem
Or stabs me in the back
A place where no one talks the talky-talk

I want to be bored, O Lord, I want to be bored
Save me from the clutches of the
Grasping, wailing hoarde
I want to go to be where there’s no necessity
Where no one even speaks of responsibility

I’m going to a place without a sorrow
A place where there’s just today and no tomorrow
Where no one has a gripe
Or expects me their nose to wipe
A place where no one confuses me with Peter Yarrow

I want to be bored, O Lord, I want to be bored
Save me from the clutches of the
Grasping, wailing hoarde
I want to go to be where there’s no necessity
Where no one even speaks of responsibility

He finished, looked around the sanctuary, decided that he probably needs to retire. But he put his guitar away and went back to his office to put the finishing touches on his sermon on Matthew 28:31-46 before the rest of the folks got there.