Prefiguring Salvation –Manna in the Desert and the Bread From Heaven, Part I

The Master of the Hours of Margaret of Cleves, The Fall of the Manna
From a Biblia pauperum
Dutch, c. 1405
London, British Library
MS King's 5, fol. 10

This is the first of a series of three articles regarding the interpretation of the miracle of the manna and its relationship to Jesus' statements about his flesh as the bread from heaven.  Please be sure to read all three.  Links to the second and  third essays are found at the end of this essay.

















“When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there,

they themselves got into boats

and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus.

And when they found him across the sea they said to him,

"Rabbi, when did you get here?"

Jesus answered them and said,

"Amen, amen, I say to you,

you are looking for me not because you saw signs

but because you ate the loaves and were filled.

Do not work for food that perishes

but for the food that endures for eternal life,

which the Son of Man will give you.

For on him the Father, God, has set his seal."

So they said to him,

"What can we do to accomplish the works of God?"

Jesus answered and said to them,

"This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent."

So they said to him,

"What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you?

What can you do?

Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written:

He gave them bread from heaven to eat."

So Jesus said to them,

"Amen, amen, I say to you,

it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven;

my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.

For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven

and gives life to the world."

So they said to him,

"Sir, give us this bread always."

Jesus said to them,

"I am the bread of life;

whoever comes to me will never hunger,

and whoever believes in me will never thirst."

John 6:24-35 (Gospel for the Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B)

On the eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time of Year B in the Sunday cycle, the church begins a series of Gospel readings, which continues over the next three Sundays, that tells us of the disciples’ reaction to Jesus’ revelations regarding his intent to share his eternal life with humanity.1  Several times he tells them how, through his self-sacrifice and through his establishment of the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, he will accomplish this.  He offers them the “true bread from heaven”, which is himself, his own flesh and blood, and does this through reference to the account of one of the miracles given by God to the Israelites during their forty years of desert wandering.  These food miracles, found in Chapters 16 and 17 of the Book of Genesis, are manna and quail, both of which God gives them from the sky, and water from the barren rock, struck by Moses at God’s command (Exodus 17:3-7). 

The Isrealites Gathering Manna
From Weltchronik by Rudolf von Ems
German (Regensburg), c. 1400-1410
Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum
MS 33, fol. 81v

In this first of the series of Gospel readings the scene for this teaching is set immediately after Jesus has miraculously fed 5,000 people with just a few loaves of bread and some fish.  People are, naturally, drawn to him, hoping to get some more, hoping to see the miracle repeated, hoping to see this newest prophet with the amazing powers.  Just hoping…..

Eager to witness a miracle they goad him by asking “What can you do? Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written: He gave them bread from heaven to eat." (John 6:30-31) In fact, the Church has chosen the passage from Exodus which presents this exact story, as the first reading for the same Mass of the eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time.  “The whole Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, "Would that we had died at the LORD's hand in the land of Egypt, as we sat by our fleshpots and ate our fill of bread!  But you had to lead us into this desert to make the whole community die of famine!" (Exodus 16:2-3)

In answer Jesus promises them “true bread from heaven”.  Later, he will make clear that this “true bread” is his own Body and Blood, something that many of them will find hard to understand or to believe in, just as many have struggled with trying to come to terms with this right up to the present day, a struggle that can only be ended by trust in God’s Word.

The connection between the manna of the Old Testament and the Eucharist of the New Testament is an old one, going back to Jesus himself in these Gospel quotations. Many times the Gospels suggest that he mentioned the episode of the manna in preparing his disciples for the gift they would receive at the Last Supper, along with the command to “Do this in memory of me.”

The Miracle of the Manna in Christian Art

It also has, as we shall see, a long tradition in the history of Christian art.  Early Christian art often called attention to pre-figurations of Jesus’ actions that can be found in the Old Testament.  One favorite topic was the story of Jonah and the Whale.  The three days Jonah spent in the whale’s belly was equated to the time Jesus spent in the tomb before the Resurrection.  Other Old Testament scenes were also seen as pre-figurations of the life and ministry of Jesus. 

In the fourth decade of the fifth century, AD 432, the newly built church of Santa Sabina in Rome received a set of wooden doors carved with scenes from the Old and New Testaments.  These doors still survive in place today, miraculous witnesses to more than 1,500 years of prayer and devotion, but also of wars and “renovations”.  One of the most famous panels on the doors is the very first representation of the Crucifixion.  Another, less well known set of panels depicts three miracles of Jesus, including the feeding of the 5,000 and the Miracle of Cana, while its companion depicts the Miracles of Moses, including the miracle of the Manna in the desert and the water from the rock.

 

Moses in the Wilderness, Miracle of the Quail,
Miracle of the Manna, Water from the Rock
Late Antique/Early Christian, 432
Rome, Church of Sainta Sabina

Miracles of Jesus:  Curing the Blind Man,
Multiplying the Loaves & Fishes,
Changing Water to Wine at Cana
Late Antique/Early Christian, 432
Rome, Church of Santa Sabina

This proves the point that even as early as 432 this was a firm belief of the church, that the Eucharist/Body of Christ is foretold not only by the actions of important figures in the Old Testament, but also by the actions of Jesus himself in the New.  Consequently, many images of the fall and gathering of the manna in the wilderness are paired with other events, taken from both the Old and New Testaments.

 

The Miracle of the Manna Paired with other Old Testament Scenes

When paired with other Old Testament images of actions or events they are understood to forecast actions or events from the life of Jesus, especially events that foretell his sufferings in the Passion and his establishment of the Eucharist.  

Moses Summons Water from the Rock and The Miracle of the Manna
From a set of Old Testament Miniatures
French (Paris), c. 1244-1255
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M638, fol. 9va

Lest the viewer forget who is the real source of these miracles, a small figure of God looks down from heaven in each. The miracle of water from the rock was seen as a forecast of Baptism.

The Master of James IV of Scotland, The Israelites Gathering Manna
From the Spinola Hours
Flemish (Ghent), c. 1510-1520
Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum
MS Ludwig IX 8, fol. 49

Here the scene of gathering manna is paired with the meeting between Abraham and the priest-king of Salem, Melchisedek, himself seen as a foreshadowing of Jesus, as his sacrifice of bread and wine foreshadow the Eucharist too.

The Sacrifice of Isaac and the Isrealites Gathering Manna
From a Missal
German (Maria Laach), 1558
London, British Library
MS Harley 2835, fol. 145

The Sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham, averted by divine intervention at the last moment, alludes to the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus in obedience to his Father's will, while the fall of manna is a foretaste of the Eucharist, the True Bread from heaven.

This study continues in two more articles, with the images combining the Miracle of the Manna with the events of the life of Jesus from the New Testament and with more interesting images.

• Prefiguring Salvation -- Manna in the Desert and the Bread from Heaven, Part II
• Prefiguring Salvation -- Manna in the Desert and the Bread from Heaven, Part III

______________________________________________________________________
1,  These readings are: 

• Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time – John 6:41-51   
• Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time – John 6:51-58                                                     
• Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time – John 6: 60-69

© M. Duffy, 2018

Excerpts from the Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States of America, second typical edition © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC. Used with permission. All rights reserved. No portion of this text may be reproduced by any means without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Oh My Aching Back!

The Alexander Master, Jesus Curing the Paralytic Woman
From a History Bible
Dutch (Utrecht), c. 1430
The Hague, Koninklijk Bibliotheek
MS KB 78 D 38, fol. 170r

In the course of the next day or so I will be posting my latest article, which has been a long time in the making.  There has been a long time between this and the last post of any substance.  Several have been begun, but not completed and they will have to wait for another time.

The reason for all this lack of action is my back.  For the last twelve years I have been experiencing the onset and gradual worsening of the condition known as spinal stenosis.  Put very simplistically, that is arthritis of the spine.  It affects the vertebrae and other bony structures of the back.  It has gradually worsened over the years, but a mixture of medication, physiotherapy, massage and a few cortisone shots have helped me maintain an active life, especially since I retired, when the daily trauma of sitting for hours at the computer was removed from it.

Starting in mid-September of last year a series of spectacular falls, only one of which really caused me any serious pain or loss of mobility, may have added to the stress on my lower back, which is where the most damage has been done.  Nevertheless, there was no reason to suspect that anything dreadful was about to happen.

Around the middle of June I began to notice that when I first stood up in the mornings, I had some pain that was not relieved immediately by my "first thing" exercises.  However, on moving around a bit the pain went away.  Then I began to experience some pain on moving from a seated to a standing position.  But, again, once in motion the pain went away.  I continued with my routine daily activities, resolved to mention it to my physiatrist (Specialized MDs whose field is Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation) at my next appointment at the end of July, following her return from vacation.

Then, came the morning of June 30.  I had gone to bed the night before feeling tired from my normally busy day at one of the Metropolitan Museum's information desks, but no more than tired.  When I tried to get out of bed the following morning, I was in pain.  Trying to stand up was unbelievably painful.  I was completely unable to do it.  The only way in which I was able to walk was bent at a 900 angle.  In that dreadful angle I managed to get through the weekend, while I waited for Monday to speak to a doctor.

Unfortunately, through a series of regrettable occurrences, I had a great deal of difficulty in reaching a doctor who could help me. Everything was compounded by the fact that this butted right up against July 4 and many doctors were on vacation.  I remained in the position of the old woman shown in the manuscript illustration above, bent over at the waist, leaning on a cane for support, for two weeks.  When I emerged from the elevator for the first time, the shock on  the doorman's face was very evident.  Ditto for my internist whom I saw around this time as well.  Since most of the relevant doctors were unavailable the only suggestion around was to go to an emergency room.

The trip to the emergency room was of little help, however,  for the poor resident or intern or PA who saw me could do little for me.   I did eventually get to my physiatrist (a specialized MD who is board certified in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation) during the second week of July, having already suffered for a full two weeks.  So began the search for a medication that would help with the pain and a search for a more permanent solution.

It took several tries at combinations of medicines to finally reach something that helps.  In the two and a half weeks I've been taking it I have begun to experience a bit less pain.  I still have a great deal in the mornings and walking more than a few feet brings on dreadful, stabbing pain, but I can stand a bit taller, am not so hunched, and can tolerate short distances better.  I can now make it to the garbage chute on my floor, as well as to the elevator, though I still need to collapse in the lobby for a bit.

I have learned the value of car hailing apps, although I still refuse to use Uber or Lyft, in favor of Arro and Curb (which call medallion yellow cabs).  I am using them to transport me door to door for appointments.  And I am leaning as never before on food delivery services, thankful that I live in an ares (Upper East Side of Manhattan) where such services are readily available.  Friends have been filling in the blanks with visits to Trader Joe's (love their garlic roasted hummus) or local groceries and delis.  Other friends have been coming to help by doing the laundry and changing the sheets.  I can never repay their kindness enough.

I am now engaged in interviewing different surgeons to see who will get the prize of operating on my back.  An MRI has revealed that in one area (and one area only) the spinal stenosis has become quite severe (in the rest of me it is described as being "mild" or "moderate".  Basically, there is so much arthritis in this one place that there is no room left for the nerves to pass and they are being painfully compressed.  Should this continue, over time I could lose the use of my left leg.  In addition, I have a herniated disc between two of my vertebrae and the upper of these two vertebrae has also moved (slipped) slightly over the edge of the one below, further squeezing the already over-squeezed nerves.

With all this going on I have found it difficult to complete work on at least two major planned articles.  The one I will present has been long in the planning, but the research for it has had to be done in very small chunks of time, only so much as I can tolerate.  I'm afraid it will be like this for some time to come.

I ask if, in your charity, you will say a prayer for me, that I may find the right surgeon to operate with the right technique to help me continue to live the life I was living up till June 30.  Pray that I find in his or her hands the healing power of Jesus shown in the picture above.  Thank you for your prayers.  

2018 Saint Anne Update

Andrea di Bartolo, Saints Joachim and Anna Giving Food to the Poor  and Offerings 

to the Temple

Italian, c. 1400-1405

Washington, National Gallery of Art

July 26th is the feast day of Saints Anne and Joachim, the parents of the Virgin Mary and the grandparents of Jesus. They, especially St. Anne, have been important saints for most of the life of the Church and are frequently featured in Christian art. 

Over several the years, since my first post in 2011, I have added various images of Saints Anne and Joachim. The number keeps growing because, as the internet has become a more widely available tool, the number of museums and libraries that make their collections available online keeps growing. Further, museums and libraries that made their collections available several years ago continue to release more material from their holdings and to upgrade the quality of those they had already shared as they continue to enhance their online presence. Since Anne and Joachim have been important for so long, we are still only seeing the tip of the iceberg of images that probably exist.

Each year I propose to continue to add to the collection of images available through this blog as new ones become accessible. I will link these images with the essays about their iconological type which I did in 2011. 

In addition, in each of these last two years I have identified new subjects within the general "Saints Anne and Joachim" theme.  Last year, for example, I came across several images that fit into a new category that I called "Parental Love". Like pictures that imagine the life of Jesus as a boy in His home in Nazareth, these images imagine the relationship between Mary, as a little girl, and her parents. 

This year I have encountered two pictures that I call "Mystical Reflections".  These differ from earlier images of Mary with her parents in that Mary is presented as the woman of the Apocalypse, the Immaculate Conception instead of as a little girl (even a little girl attended by angels).  Both the pictures belong to the later part of the Counter-Reformation era, in the late 17th to mid-18th centuries.  

So, now I present the 2018 additions to the iconography of St. Anne. Each section heading is also a link to the original article which explains the iconography. Click on the section headings to learn more.

Annunciation of Mary's Birth 

Cristobal de Villalpando, Annunciation of the Angel to Joachim
Mexican, c. 1690-1700
Mexico City, Church of San Felipe Neri

Meeting at the Golden Gate

Luca Giordano, Annunciation of the Angel to St. Joachim and the Meeting of Joachim and Anne at the Golden Gate
Italian, c. 1696
Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum

This painting combines the subject matter of the painting just above, the angel's announcement to Joachim that on his return to his wife, she will become pregnant with a special female child, with the joyful meeting of husband and wife at the Golden Gate of Jerusalem.  In the far background one can also see them climbing prayerfully up the the steps of the Temple to thank God for this great gift.

Saint Anne as Teacher (Education of the Virgin)

Education of the Virgin
German, c. 1720-1730
Fürstenzell, Former Cistercian Church of the Assumption

Anne, the Root of the Tree of Salvation (the Anna selbdritt image)

Anna Selbdritt Wall Painting
German, c. 1446-1455
Lieberhausen, Evangelical Church (painted over in 1589, restored 1911-1913 and 1954)

Anna Selbdritt between Saint Nicholas and Saint Martin with Donor
German, c. 1500-1515
Frankfurt-am-Main, Abbey Church of Our Lady, Saint Anne Chapel

Anna Selbdritt Statue
German, c. 1500-1510
Paris, Musée du Louvre

Attributed to Meister mit dem Brustlatz, Anna Selbdritt, Center of St. John Altar
German, c. 1510-1520
Kiedrich, Catholic Parish Church of Saints Dionysius and Valentinus

Anna Selbdritt Statue
German, c. 1520
Unterthingau, Catholic Parish Church of Saint Nicholas

Saint Anne, Matriarch of the Holy Kindred

Meister R. L., The Holy Kindred
Austrian (Salzburg), 1518
Vienna, Belvedere Museum

Mystical Reflections

Francisco de Zurbaran, The Immaculate Conception with Saints Joachim and Anne
Spanish, c. 1638-1640
Edinburgh, National Galleries of Scotland

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Vision of Saints Anne and Joachim
Italian, 1759
Dresden, Gemaeldegalerie

Traditionally, a novena (period of nine days of prayer) precedes the feast day of Saints Anne and Joachim on July 26th.  It begins on July 17th.  You might want to join in this novena by reciting the following novena prayer each day.

Novena Prayer to Saint Anne

"O glorious St. Ann, you are filled with compassion for those who invoke you and with love for those who suffer! Heavily burdened with the weight of my troubles, I cast myself at your feet and humbly beg of you to take the present intention which I recommend to you in your special care.

Please recommend it to your daughter, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and place it before the throne of Jesus, so that He may bring it to a happy issue. Continue to intercede for me until my request is granted. But, above all, obtain for me the grace one day to see my God face to face, and with you and Mary and all the saints to praise and bless Him for all eternity. Amen."

Luca Vescia, St. Anne and Mary
Italian, 1911
New York, St. Jean Baptiste Church, 
Shrine of St. Anne

If you are in the New York City area, please join the 136th novena at the Shrine of Saint Anne in the
Church of Saint Jean Baptiste on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
The schedule can be seen by clicking here.

Please note that for 2020 due to COVID-19 the novena will be drastically shortened and condensed.  Details may be found on the parish website (www.sjbny.org).

To view the iconography updates from previous years see:

Saint Anne at the Met

2016 Update

2017 Update

© M. Duffy, 2018

In Praise of Fathers

Studio photograph of my parents in 1943.  Taken in Charlotte, North Carolina, 
where my father served as an MP (Military Policeman) in the US Army Air Corps 
during World War II.  The Air Corps became the US Air Force after the war.

This is going to be a bit of a departure from my usual topics.  However, one day last week I got to thinking about fathers and the important role they play in their children's lives.  I thought especially about my own father and how much I owe to him (and to my mother, of course). 

My father was a simple, good, man.  He was born in Ireland in the last few years of the nineteenth century, a fact that still surprises me.  He was the third child and second son of a fairly prosperous farmer from County Longford.  

It has been fascinating to me to find him among the rest of his family in the Irish census reports for 1901 and 1911.  The first lists him as a toddler, the second  dignifies him with the term for a schoolboy “scholar”.  There too are his brothers and sisters and my grandparents and, in the 1901 census, my great-grandmother.  

He was living in Ireland at a time of great turmoil and change.  At the time of the Easter Rising he was just 18 years old.  During the bitter years of the Black and Tan War he was in some way associated with Michael Collins, one of the most important rebel leaders, primarily because Collins was engaged to a local girl, Kitty Kiernan, and was frequently in that corner of Longford.  He seldom spoke about this period of his life, perhaps because there were things in it that were painful to remember.

In 1927, at the age of almost 30, my father came to America, driven, as most immigrants were and are, by the hope of finding employment.  He never talked very much about his life before arriving here, nor of the first years he spent in the US.  I know he lived for a time with some cousins, until he was able to find a steady job. 

The job he found was a tough blue-collar one, as it often is for immigrants.  He was hired as a conductor on the New York City subways.  At that time, in the early 1930s, the subway was not yet owned by the city of New York.  Rather, it was the property of the various investors who had built the lines at the turn of the century.  He found work on the IRT west side division, the second oldest line.  This is the job he held for the rest of his working life, broken only by the two years he spent as an MP in the US Army Air Corps (which later became the Air Force) and a long vacation leave for a trip to Ireland when I was three years old.

The current job description of a subway conductor shows that there has been little change in the duties.  
Conductors are

“responsible for the safe, timely and proper operation of the Transit Authority’s trains in

customer, yard and work train service. In customer service, they open and close doors,

make proper announcements to customers and set up the automatic announcement

system. While in road service, they interact with the Train Operator, Supervision and the

Control Center when necessary. They provide flagging protection service duties, such as

setting up flags and light signals and take other required measures for the protection of

workers performing work on or near trainways. They work as platform conductors in the

stations; patrol platforms; assist customers in safely entering and exiting trains, and assist

in the timely dispatch of trains from key stations. They operate hand-thrown switches in

the yards; make reports of unusual occurrences; and perform related work.

Some of the physical activities performed by Conductors and environmental conditions
experienced are: walking along subway tracks; stepping over rails (including live third rails);
ascending and descending from trains and catwalks to roadbeds; responding to audible

signals such as alarm bells, train whistles, horns and radio conversations; responding to

visual signals including distinguishing colored lights; using manual equipment related to

train operation; remaining in a standing position for extended periods of time; and lifting

heavy equipment.

Special Working Conditions: Conductors may be required to work rotating shifts including
nights, Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays.”¹              

Just about the only thing in that description that seems new is the reference to the automatic announcement system.  Everything else is very familiar, including those rotating shifts and weekend and holiday work.  He usually managed to get Sundays and holidays off, but there was always the possibility that the phone would ring and he would have to go to work.  I particularly remember one New Year’s Eve when the call came around 11:00 PM.  He was needed to replace someone who hadn’t come to work so that the Times Square revelers would have trains to take them home.  He quickly put on his uniform and left my mother and myself to somewhat glumly watch the ball descend on TV.

Subway conductor at work today.

What the job description cannot convey, of course, is the actual sense of working.  In summer the heat in the subway tunnels is infernal (and this was largely before the trains were air conditioned), in the winter it can be freezing during the periods in which the trains run in the open, as most subway lines do for some part of their runs when outside Manhattan.  It can be hazardous, not just from the obvious dangers mentioned in the job description, but from the violence that exists just below the surface in any crowded city.  The conductor is in a fixed location, a small cab in the middle of the train.  At every station he (or she) has to lower the window of the cab and lean out in order to see each end of the train to ensure that no one gets caught by a closing door and dragged by the train.  While thus exposed, they can be subject to attack.  My father occasionally came home from work with bruises from thrown objects and once was delayed for hours due to having to have stitches to a long graze on his forearm where someone on the platform had knifed him just as the train began to move.  Another time he had gashes on his face from being attacked by someone wielding a broken bottle.  Happily, these instances were rare and none were very serious.2 

My father’s normal shift began in the early morning, well before the start of the “rush hour” that would see the great majority of office and factory workers traveling to reach their jobs.  So, he would have to get up between 3:00 and 4:00 AM.  As I grew older I would sometimes wake up at that hour and see that the light in the kitchen was on.  When this happened I would usually get up and visit with him as he ate breakfast and prepared food for his mid-morning lunch break, usually a simple sandwich and a thermos of hot tea with milk and sugar.  Then he would be off to work and I would return to bed since there were still hours to go before I had to get up for school.  When I was in high school I would sometimes be able to catch him on one of his morning runs and ride with him on my way to school.  I think those short visits made him very happy.  They made me happy too.

My father and little me, aged around 7.  Taken at the Belvedere Tower in Central Park, one of our favorite haunts.

Like many Irish men and women of their generation my parents married later in life.  My father was 49 when I was born and my mother was 38.  I was in my second year of college, aged 19 when my father retired.  It ought to have been a comfortable retirement as his union, the Transport Workers Union (TWU), for which he and others had fought very hard during the 1930s, had wrested decent provisions from the city, when the city took over administration of the subways.  But, it wasn’t to be.  Within a few months of retiring he began to show the symptoms of what turned out to be lung cancer that had metastasized to the brain.  Barely 12 months after retiring he was dead.  My mother, who was totally broken by his loss, developed leukemia within two years and died 11 years later of its complications.

With both my parents at Grants Tomb a year or so later. 

As I thought about him and his dogged daily effort to get up in the wee hours every morning, winter or summer, to work at a job that is little considered by those he served, that could at times be dangerous, I realized that he did it to ensure that I would not have to endure such conditions.  In a sense, he did it so that I could be one of the unconcerned public, so wrapped up in my own affairs that I do not see those men (and now women) who are his successors in the same job.  And I realized too that there are still hundreds of thousands of men and women whose lives are ruled by the very same clock, who are getting up in the small hours and doing the same kind of thankless jobs in order to feed and educate their families so that one day their children can have a better life.  It’s a humbling realization.

So, let us praise those fathers (and mothers) who do the hard, unsung, unglamorous jobs of this world out of love.  And let us honor them as they deserve.

Thank you, Daddy, from my heart.  I still miss you very much.

© M. Duffy, 2018 and 2021

1.  Job description for Subway Conductor, from New York City MTA website www.mta.info

2.  2021 Update:  

The dangerous aspect of subway jobs was driven home early last year.  A number 2 IRT train was deliberately set on fire by a presumably deranged individual in the early morning hours of March 27, 2020.  The operator (once called the motorman) and the conductor on that burning train assisted the passengers in exiting.  While the conductor, some passengers and some firefighters were injured, the operator died of smoke inhalation.  He was 36 years old, and left behind a wife and two children.  This is the kind of thing that terrified my mother whenever my father was even slightly late in arriving home.  My heart goes out to the family of that operator who was just doing his job, a job that is virtually invisible to the passengers.  And I am especially sympathetic because that train route was the one to which my father was assigned for most of his working life.

Many of the people who kept the city and the country functioning during the darkest days of the pandemic of 2020/2021 are the same as my father in their dedication to doing what has to be done.  They got up every day, knowing they risked exposure to the virus.  Their jobs can't be done from home on the net.  They kept public transportation, food production and delivery, mail and packages moving.  They staffed the hospitals, doing the doctoring, the nursing and the lab work and keeping the facilities clean and functioning.  We owe them much and deserve our praise, our gratitude and a raise in both their compensation and their dignity.