Dear Abbie - The Non-Advice Podcast

I would like this podcast to start a conversation with women of all ages, convictions and styles of life – wherever situated on the gamut of experience. In principle, there is no bar to men joining in, since how one defines women has a lot to do with what it means to be a man. But it is women I invite to pull up a chair at this virtual café table and put their questions and views into the conversation. Abigail L. Rosenthal is Professor Emerita of Philosophy, Brooklyn College of The City University of New York. She is the author of A Good Look at Evil, a Pulitzer Prize nominee, now appearing in an expanded second edition and as audiobooks. Dr. Rosenthal writes a weekly column for “Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column,” (www.dearabbie-nonadvice.com) where she explores the situation of women. She thinks women’s lives are highly interesting. She’s the editor of The Consolations of Philosophy: Hobbes’s Secret; Spinoza’s Way by her father, Henry M. Rosenthal. She’s written numerous articles that can be accessed at Academia.edu .

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Dear Abbie - The Non-Advice Podcast

Revisiting Country Gospel

August 29, 2024 • Abigail L. Rosenthal • Season 1 • Episode 204

Being born and raised a Jewish girl from Manhattan’s old-rent, upper east side, the last thing I’m expected to like is country gospel. Or so I’m often told. People shake their heads. Here comes the dog walking on its hind legs. It’s not done well, as Dr. Johnson said, drawing this analogy with the lady preacher, but the wonder is that it is done at all.

Abigail L. Rosenthal is Professor Emerita at Brooklyn College of The City University of New York. She is the author of Confessions of A Young Philosopher (forthcoming), which is a woman's "confession" in the tradition of Augustine and Rousseau. She writes a weekly online column, "Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column" along with "Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Podcast," where she explains why women's lives are highly interesting. Many of her articles are accessible at https://brooklyn-cuny.academia.edu/AbigailMartin. She edited The Consolations of Philosophy: Hobbes's Secret; Spinoza's Way by her father, the late Henry M. Rosenthal. She is married to Jerry L. Martin, also a philosopher. They live in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She can be reached a dearabbiesilvousplait@gmail.com.

“Country Gospel”

I can never remember a time when I didn’t like it – nay prefer it – to almost anything else that calls itself music. (A limitation, I know, I know.)

There were some excruciating years, when I was a graduate student in philosophy at a lonely American outpost, in the days before it was thought that philosophy and feminine intelligence could ever cross paths. I had private stories I could not confide, hopes I could not articulate, companions I could not find. By then, I had stopped believing in God. Yet, this country hymn said it for me:

He will calm the troubled waters of your soul,

Take your broken heart and make it whole,

When the storms of your life are dark and cold,

He will calm the troubled waters—the dark, troubled waters—of your soul.

Another time – it was years later – and my life very much repaired, yet even a repaired life is not immune from heartbreak. It was the only moment in my life when I felt suddenly threatened – as if by a danger coming from outside and against my will – by suicide. There did not seem time to dial 911. There was, however, just enough margin to put on this Red Foley record:

Many things about tomorrow

I don’t seem to understand

But I know who holds tomorrow

And I know who holds my hand.

Thanks, Red.

How is it that a woman who has read many great and profound books, given papers internationally, traveled far and wide, met people high and low, famous and obscure, can be so reached so directly by such simple tunes and lyrics?