Archive - 2010
November 6th
RIP: Florence Rush Nance Woodiel
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sat, 11/06/2010 - 16:16The Unitarian Meeting House in Hartford, CT was packed with family, friends, and neighbors gathered to honor the memory of Florence Rush Nance Woodiel and I was prepared for yet another memorial service this year, but not for the memorial I attended.
Noted violinist Paul Woodiel started off the ceremony talking about his mother and playing W.A. Mozart’s Sonata no 21 in E minor, K. 304 Tempo di Meuetto. It was a piece that the young Mozart composed after the death of his mother. When he completed the movement, the congregation applauded.
He told us that Florence Rush Nance Woodiel was born in China and named after her grandmother, Florence Rush Nance, who had been in China as a missionary around the start of the twentieth century. He noted that Florence Rush Nance had been one of the first women to receive a degree in science from Vanderbilt.
A little research reveals takes us to the Vanderbilt University Quarterly of January, 1904 It reports that Walter Nance was accepted by the Board of Missions of the Methodist Church, South for work in China in July, 1895. On September 27, 1897, he married Florence Rush Keiser. Florence Rush Nance taught mathematics and chemistry in the McTyeire School for Young Ladies.
The Open Library provides information about two books written by Florence Rush Nance, The love story of a maiden of Cathay published in 1911 and Soochow, the Garden City published in 1936.
Earlier this summer, I attended a memorial service for Evelyn Lull who had been a close friend of my family when I was growing up. Evelyn, and Flo both came from liberal traditions growing out of missionary families committed to the arts and fighting for the rights of all people, especially women. Like Flo, Evelyn was also the granddaughter of a strong, science oriented missionary woman. I wonder what sort of stories the grandchildren of the current generation will have to say about their ancestors at the turn of the twenty first century.
Later, Flo’s second cousin, Hodding Carter III spoke more about Flo’s unabashed liberalism and spoke about how we need people with Flo’s spirit now more than ever. For those who do not remember who Hodding Carter III is, back in the 1970s President Carter, who I do not believe is an immediate relative, appointed him Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs and State Department spokesman. He was often on the air during the Iranian Hostage Crisis.
In the congregation, Congressman John Larson, State Representative Andrew Fleischmann, and other dignitaries sat with others that had come to remember Flo. The great music continued. There was J.S. Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins in d minor: Largo, ma non tanto. At the end there were bagpipes.
Hodding Carter III went to Philips Exeter and later to Princeton. Others spoke about fellowships at Harvard, and one person quoted Emerson. This was elite eastern intellectual liberalism at its best.
I come from poorer stock. Generations of New England farmers, and nurses that had been raised as orphans in Canada and come down to New England for better jobs. Yet the underlying ideals of the people that gathered to honor Flo were the same ideals that the nurses and farmers in my family tree held and that we desperately need more of today.
There are some today that sneer at intellectualism, that would trample the arts, and that appear to have little use for the compassion that led ancestors to serve as missionaries over seas, to fight for women’s suffrage, or show concern for the impoverished of today. They are willing to trade everything that has made our country great in defense of selfish tax cuts for the most wealthy amongst us.
As for me, I am glad to stand with Flo, her ancestors, and everyone that gathered to honor so much that she has done. Rest In Peace, Florence Rush Nance Woodiel.
November 5th
“O.R.?”
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 11/05/2010 - 10:07When I was a kid and my little sister or I were bothering our two older brothers too much, one would knowingly look at the other and say “O.R.?” The other would nod, and the two of them would disappear into their bedroom. My sister and I were always a bit miffed to be left out and wanted to know what “O.R.” really meant.
One day, I was fortunate. It must have been my little sister that was annoying my older brothers, because they said I could tag along. We entered my brothers’ bedroom and they sat on their beds. One of them told a story to the other, or at least that is what it seemed like to me. They might have been recounting a strange dream, or just about anything else, but it became clear to me that “O.R.” meant to go into one’s bedroom and tell stories.
Later I explained this to my little sister and after that she would often suggest, “Let’s have an O.R.”. Later, I found out that “O.R.” really simply meant, “Our Room”. My brothers would escape to their room to get away from my sister and me.
Yesterday was my wife and my tenth wedding anniversary. We had a simple celebration at home. It was also the second meeting of a group of Connecticut bloggers which I couldn’t make it to. I’m not sure how many people did make it, but I received an email afterward asking everyone what the goals of everyone in the group are.
I started off with my story about “O.R.”s because it provides a valuable context to understand what I look for in any social media gathering: community and narrative.
My sister and I didn’t want to feel left out. We wanted to be part of a community. We ended up creating our own little community with its rituals. I think of blogging in a similar way. Good blogging is about being part of a community, or perhaps many different communities of bloggers. What holds the community together is the story telling, is the narrative. I hope that the new blogging group can embrace community and narrative.
Today at noon, there will be a story.lab event at The Grove co-working space in New Haven. This seems like another good opportunity to explore finding community and narrative, whether we are bloggers, other social media enthusiasts, or however else we chose to define ourselves.
Where do you find community and narrative?
November 4th
"And then one day you find..."
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Thu, 11/04/2010 - 13:13Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
Fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way
Well, today has not been a dull day for me. They rarely are. The moments fleet quickly by. Yet at the end of each day, I look back and wonder what I’ve really gotten done.
Here it is 12:30 in the afternoon on the day of my tenth wedding anniversary. I started gathering ideas for this blog post a few days ago and hoped to have it up early in the morning.
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way
What is the way? Kim and I have been very involved in politics over the past few years. We’ve struggled financially and with our health. We don’t have much of anything solid to point to. We’ve worked on many Quixotic causes. Yet we aren’t waiting for someone or something to show us the way. We are out trying to forge a new way.
Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain
And you are young and life is long and there is time to kill today
Well, it is a rainy day today. Rainy days always slow me down. But I am no longer young. I hope my life will be long, but there is not time to kill. As if you could kill time without wounding eternity.
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun
Well, now we get to the key line, the line that made me think of Pink Floyd’s Time. Ten years have got behind us.
No, I didn’t miss the starting gun. My first career was pretty successful. I got married, had two daughters and worked hard. I made a lot of money and then it all fell apart.
When Kim and I met we were both rebuilding our lives. Trying to learn from what had gone wrong in the past, to find new priorities, new ways of doing things. We had a daughter of our own who is growing up loving her older sisters and having very different experiences than they did.
I’ve been thinking a lot about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs recently. It seems like in my early years, I spent much of the time pursuing my physiological and safety needs. Even when I was making more money per year than probably 99% of other Americans, I was still stuck on the baser needs. Loving, belonging, esteem and self-actualization all suffered. I wonder how much this is the case in politics today. Are the small government conservatives stuck pursuing physiological and safety needs and missing needs of loving, belonging, esteem and self-actualization?
And you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again
Anyway, I digress. Yeah, I didn’t miss the starting gun. I ran the race pretty well for forty years, but the sun was sinking, always coming up behind me again.
The sun is the same in a relative way, but you're older
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death
For me, back when I was stuck pursuing physiological and safety needs, and I suspect for many others stuck in similar ruts, the sun is the same in a relative way. Yet for me now, things are different.
Yes, the race to meet physiological and safety needs has gotten much more difficult. It has also, perhaps, gotten a bit less important. What matters is loving, belonging, esteem and self-actualization. It makes it possible to see the sun and moon in new ways.
Today, Kim and I celebrate the tenth anniversary of our wedding. Loving, belong, esteem and self-actualization have flourished during these ten years, even as our physiological and safety needs have been more difficult. I think of everyone who is so caught up in making sure that the big old government doesn’t take away some of what they’ve stashed away to meet their physiological needs. Then, I think of the old zen monk.
Ryokan, a Zen master, lived the simplest kind of life in a little hut at the foot of a mountain. One evening a thief visited the hut only to discover there was nothing to steal.
Kyokan returned and caught him. "You may have come a long way to visit me, " he told the prowler, "and you should not return empty-handed. Please take my clothes as a gift."
The thief was bewildered. He tool the clothes and slunk away.
Ryokan sat naked, watching the moon. "Poor fellow," he mused, "I wish I could give him this beautiful moon."
Sitting at my computer at home, I muse about all those tea partiers afraid that the ultrarich will have to pay more in taxes. I wish they could find a relationship as beautiful as my wife and I have found.
Two Governors
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Thu, 11/04/2010 - 09:56One of the local blogs that I really enjoy reading is Small Town Mommy. Her post this morning is about how we now have two governors, or at least two candidates, both of whom claim to have won. She writes:
It would seem to me that there are a finite number of votes for each guy. Why can’t someone figure it out? And how does everyone have such different numbers? Who knows.
Well, we will figure it out, and until it is figured out, there will be lots of political posturing and probably even law suits. However, after raising three girls, I’ve learned to be patient. I remember when they were young listening to them count to twenty. They would always end up missing a number, I think it was fifteen, and then they’d hop back to thirteen. Something like that. It seemed pretty confusing.
Here in Connecticut, there were over a million votes cast in the Gubernatorial race. That’s a lot of times to get tripped up counting past fifteen. To make it even more worse, all the time that you’re counting you have people arguing over whether or not this ballot or that ballot should count.
November 3rd
Enlightened Voting
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Wed, 11/03/2010 - 11:40A monk told Joshu, "I have just entered this monastery. I beg you to teach me." Joshu asked, "Have you eaten your rice porridge?" The monk replied, "I have." "Then," said Joshu, "Go and wash your bowl."
At that moment the monk was enlightened.
I do not claim to have attained enlightenment, but as I thought about the elections yesterday, the old Zen story came to mind.
I spent yesterday slicing and dicing voting data to provide call sheets to volunteers for a State Rep candidate in Connecticut. When all was said and done, the candidate did not defeat the incumbent and ended up with the same percentage of votes as previous challengers had received.
In the evening, I read through the election results. State Reps whom I respect and call friends lost their bids for re-election.
This morning, I read an email from a list of group psychotherapists. They have been discussing “collective intelligence” which has been written about it bit recently in some of the scientific journals. One friend commented about obsessing about the election results and saying that it was clearly, in her opinion not a case of collective intelligence.
I noted that when politicians supporting ones views wins, it is collective intelligence. When the opponents win it is the electorate acting as an angry mob. A friend on Facebook shared a similar observation that David Brooks made from his particular perspective.
At noon, Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz will hold a media briefing at the State Capital about the latest vote totals from Connecticut as well as an update on the Bridgeport Ballot Situation. Attorney-General Elect George Jepsen, Secretary of the State Elect Denise Merrill are holding a question and answer session at the Legislative Office Building half an hour later. They moved the time of their session back half an hour to avoid a conflict with Secretary of State Bysiewicz’s news conference.
Meanwhile, I am digging out of the emails that have piled up, doing a little laundry, and continuing my quest for enlightenment.
