Archive - 2015
May 4th
Woodbridge, CT - May 4th 2015
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 05/04/2015 - 22:05It has been a very long day, starting off with people wishing “May the Fourth” be with you, or singing, “Tin soldiers and Nixon coming.” I thought about Kent State. I was there ten years later. I thought about Baltimore, and Texas and how divisive our politics has become. Some friends have been saying it’s going to be a long hot summer.
But I had work to do. I took the day off from my paying job to volunteer to help get the vote out in the Woodbridge municipal election. There was a lot of data entry and number crunching, but not much time for reflection.
Now, I’m finally home, and I can reflect, but I’m too tired to go into detail. The incumbent Democratic First Selectman, Ellen Scalettar narrowly won re-election. The Republican under ticket did well, and it looks like, after a very divisive campaign, we will have mixed government in Woodbridge, perhaps doing as well as our mixed government in Washington has done.
May 3rd
Election Eve
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 05/03/2015 - 20:32It is Election Eve in Woodbridge and Bethany, and a few other towns around Connecticut as well. There are a handful of towns that have their municipal elections in May.
For the past week, I’ve been doing what I can to help with the Democratic ticket. Most of my focus has been on data. The signs are all up and we are ready for the election.
As I drove home from election headquarters, I felt a certain excitement. Elections are important, especially local elections, and too many people don’t appreciate that.
My writing has fallen behind schedule over the past week, but I’ve managed to organize some of my thoughts, so I hope to get back in the swing of things soon.
However, April was a very busy month and May is looking the same, so we’ll see.
May 2nd
The Stories of John Cheever
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sat, 05/02/2015 - 22:06Back in college, a classmate of mine recreated a psychology study where participants read either the story of the Good Samaritan or some neutral text and then encountered a person in distress. The goal of the experiment was to see if reading the story of the Good Samaritan affected the likelihood of the person stopping to help someone in distress. I was the person in distress for the experiment. I wore shabby clothes, and when the person approached I started coughing and the fell down. I don’t know the results of the experiment, but I just remember while some people stopped to ask if I was okay, most just walked by, seeming not to notice.
For my efforts, I was given a gift certificate at the college bookstore. With that, I picked up a copy of a new released collection of short stories by John Cheever. Life is full of these short stories.
Today, I got up early. I went to the transfer station for the first time in several weeks. April was a long month. I said hello to various people there and wondered, what there short stories were. I then drove to Meriden where CHC sponsored a 5K race to raise funds for mental health services. Again, there were so many stories there behind the running numbers.
The next stop was Putnam, where my daughter Miranda was helping with a Tiny House workshop. I met various people involved with Tiny Houses, and the stories were a little closer to the surface. Then, I proceeded to visit my boss in his suburban subdivision. From the outside, it looked like just about any other house, but my boss collects magical apparatus, and each item could have been a John Cheever short story.
I drove home, thinking about the stories I’d crossed paths with today. I thought about writing this blog post. Then, I received a text message to stop by campaign headquarters, where another set of stories was waiting.
May 1st
Political Comments
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 05/01/2015 - 20:54A comment and a post I put up on Facebook today. The comment was in response to a friend who posted about “a segment of the population that acts as if anyone who is accessing their government benefits, they paid into their entire lives, is ripping off the government.”
I often think that people who protest too much about one thing or another are actually reflecting their own fears or weaknesses. They worry about others ripping off the government, because deep down inside, they know that they are getting more out of society than they put in.
I believe that I get much more that what I am justified receiving, not only in terms of services from the government (good libraries, schools, roads, police and fire, etc) than I actually pay for in taxes. Yet I believe that this also reflects the greater condition of mankind, receiving more from God's abundant grace than we deserve.
The other was a snarky comment about a post that one of the campaigns in this year’s Woodbridge Municipal election made about people in local politics having spouses that are involved in local politics. I noted that my campaign manager from my 2012 may have been a distant cousin of mine.
All of these are things I’d like to expound open, if I wasn’t so tired. The next three days will be pretty busy, but then I hope to get a little down time.
April 30th
End of Month Checkpoint
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Thu, 04/30/2015 - 22:08A sixteen hour day leaves little time for writing, and there is so much to write about. We are in the final days of the municipal election in Woodbridge. Elections are a lot of work, but they are also a lot of fun.
#rhizo15 continues to give me lots to think about. Content, Connection, and container, after thinking about measurement, mastery, and mystery.
There are the bigger issues from Baltimore to Bernie. There is poetry to read and written, along side the news, and the Gospel.
Then, there are all the events at work and at home. It looks like it will keep up this pace for at least a few more days. Instead of trying to go into any of these in detail this evening, I’ll wait until my mind is fresher and I can spend more time writing.
