The Grapple With Podcast: Recent Episodes
Harrison Watters
There are no easy answers. In this podcast, Harrison Watters shares stories from Israel and a pile of books to show the tensions in which we live our lives.
"All holidays are inexpressibly sad," wrote Henry Wadsworth Longfellow on Christmas Eve 1863. Three years later, Longfellow wrote the poem that became I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day in an effort to process the pain of losing his wife and almost losing his son to a confederate bullet in the Civil War. From StoryMaking Studio and the Grapple With Podcast, this is Longfellow's Christmas Bells, a historical fiction novella by Harrison Watters.
Please share the story with friends and family, and as you are able, channel your pain into beauty this coming year.
In this final chapter of the story behind the carol, I heard the Bells on Christmas Day, Henry Longfellow bridges the gap between hope and despair with pen and ink late on the Christmas Eve of 1863.
Read the full story on https://harrisonwatters.myportfolio.com.
Charley is well on his way towards recovering from wounds he got on a Civil War battlefield. His father, on the other hand, is about to slip back into old pain on the train home to Cambridge.
Check your feed next week for the final chapter of the story behind the song "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day."
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow travelled to Washington City to find his son, wounded in a botched Civil War battle near Payne's Farm Virginia. He discovers how deep Charley's wounds have gone.
Read the story and check out more art at https://harrisonwatters.myportfolio.com/longfellows-christmas-bells.
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Original artwork adapted from the photo provided by Trading Cards NPS under Creative Commons licensing (https://www.flickr.com/photos/tradingcardsnpsyahoocom/7222962134/in/photostream/, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode).
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote poems like "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere" from his home in Boston during the American Civil War. In this short story by Harrison Watters, hear the story of pain and hope behind Longfellow's poem "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day." The creative nonfiction is based on a true story, with some details filled in by the author (including who fired the first shot of the Civil War).
On the Eve of 2020, Harrison Watters journeyed to the land of Israel. Hear his commentary, stories, and attempts to understand the local culture, straight from the recording archives.
Hear what it's like to wrap your tongue around the names of places and people in Israel from my trip back in the then new and exciting year of 2020.