Personal
Personal reflections, comments about things I've been doing, etc.
Looking for Flowers
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 05/11/2012 - 06:35Every day at work, I scan Twitter, RSS feeds, Google Alerts and other sources for articles that I believe would be of interest to my coworkers. Sometimes it might be ideas for our radio show. Often, there are stories about the evolving health care policy in our country, or recent articles about health outcomes from peer reviewed journals. I keep my eyes open for articles about social media and technologies' role in health care, and try to find something unique from time to time.
Recently, I came across, The Power Of Flower Photos. The article starts, "I can't remember exactly when I received the first flower email, but I do remember it was sometime in 2005." It goes on to explain the backstory, related to a man dying of a rare disease, and ends off with"Just a quiet meditation from the dawn or the dusk — an homage to the power of friendship and the beauty it inspires."
The article struck me, as it did some of my co-workers. So, I've started adding a picture of a flow at the end of my Articles of Interest email each day. So far, these have been photographs that I've taken, modified and shared via Instagram. I have been cross posting these photographs to Twitter and Tumblr, and in turn, they get cross posted to Flickr and Facebook.
Yesterday at lunch time, I took a walk down to the river, keeping my eyes open for flowers to photograph. I saw many more flowers than I had seen other days on my walks. It reminded me of an aesthetics class I took in college where the professor bewailed those who quickly move through museums, as if they are checking off items on the bucket list; need to see Mona Lisa before I die. He spoke of these people as museum runners and reflected about how many people are museum runners in daily life.
Besides the newly discovered flowers on my lunch time walks, I've been fortunate with a few developments in my life. We've recently bought a new house and friends have been bringing us flowers as house warming gifts. At work, we are opening a new building and there have been many beautiful flowers in the new building. As I look through the photographs of my friends on Instagram, I find a lot of photographs of flowers.
It is interesting to think how dying one man's request of photographs of flowers has rippled through emails, through a story on NPR, and into my life, my blog and my social media channels.
Maybe, its time for more of us to stop and share the roses.
An American Wedding
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 01/29/2012 - 23:01This is America, the land I was born in, the country I love, with its ever shifting traditions as the current inhabitants meeting newcomers. At our best, we welcome newcomers and add their traditions to our own. At our worst we build walls and battle between different groups.
I write this sitting in a hotel in New Market, Virginia, on my way back from my niece's wedding. New Market was a battlefield in the Civil War. My niece's ancestry includes English and French that fled religious persecution in the 1600s. It includes Irish ancestors fleeing famine and seeking a better life.
This weekend, she married a young man from India that she had met in college. On Saturday, there was a Christian Wedding. I've been to many Christian Weddings and this one was a beautiful as so many others that I've been to.
Today, I experienced something very new and different to me. My new nephew-in-law arrive and a Hindu community center to celebrate his marriage to my niece. We threw rose petals as he arrived, we ate nuts, fruits and nougat. There were many other symbolic events in the ceremony, many which I probably missed.
Yet what was most important to me was seeing what I believe makes America strong, the celebration of people of different backgrounds coming together to love and serve one another.
A Moment of Darkness
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Tue, 01/17/2012 - 20:27Monday evening, I left my office, headed down the cinderblock lined back stairs and out into the back parking lot. I climbed in the old black car and prepared for my commute home. When I turned on the car, the radio sprung to life with the latest from NPR. It was Martin Luther King, Jr. day, and all the stories were about his life and legacy. As a clip of church music played from Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, a moment of sadness swept over me.
Some of it surely was feeling the grief of the death of a great man. It was probably compounded by my thoughts following a tweet chat during the day, about how much remains to be done. All of it came together into something perhaps best captured in the end of Lord of the Flies when "Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy".
Yet it seemed like something more, something bigger, "as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced".
When I went through a particularly rough period in my life, I experienced a deep depression and read a bit about it. William Styron's book, "Darkness Visible" always seemed to be one of the best descriptions I've read of depression. It wasn't quite like a Darkness Visible. It wasn't as deep, and it was fleeting.
I pulled out of the parking lot, and headed down the side street. The moment was over and I was on my commute home.
When I got home, I had a bad headache, and went to bed early.
This morning, a slushy snow covered the ground. Was the moment of darkness, or the headache just a reaction to the coming storm? Or, had something else happened, perhaps as far away as Alderaan.
At lunch time, I took a walk. As headed down Main Street, an unexpectedly large number of people greeted me. Was this just a bipolar swing in the other direction? Or, had I passed through something, sort of like leveling up in empathy? Had the moment of darkness been crossing some threshold in my personal rendition of the monomyth?
As I headed back to the office, I passed a sign on the side of a church, "God is speaking still," Was there some spiritual element to the moment of darkness?
I pause before I post this on my blog. What sort of reaction will this elicit? Will a psychologist seem some sort of warning sign in this? An insurance company some reason to decline coverage? Will my friends who read marketing blogs understand this? How will it relate to their online world views of trying to monetize blog posts?
And for me, what does this mean for my blog, my writing, and anything else this might portend?
Fiona's First Press Pass
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sat, 12/31/2011 - 13:34For nearly four years, Fiona has been doing an Internet based radio show on Blogtalkradio. Earlier this month, she interviewed Jen Alexander about Middnight on Main, a big New Year's Eve celebration in Middletown, CT.
I've been working to help promote the event and I asked if Fiona could get a press pass. Everyone agreed, so she will be attending the celebration as a journalist. She is very excited.
We've spent time pouring over the list of great bands and other performances, as well as the food trucks and other wonderful eating opportunities. I've tweaked Kim's phone to make it easier for Fiona to tweet and blog and do interviews from Kim's phone.
I've also set up some new pages for Fiona. She is too young to have a Facebook account according to their terms of service. However, an older person can set up a Facebook page for her, so I've set up Facebook Fan Page. I also set up a page on about.me to make it easier to find some of her postings.
With that, it is time for us to rush out and begin the festivities and the coverage.
"Day is Done"
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 12/19/2011 - 20:20It's coming on Christmas
They're cutting down trees
They're putting up reindeer
And singing songs of joy and peace
Oh I wish I had a river I could skate away on
Well, yesterday, we cut down a tree. It is up in the living room, but not decorated. That will wait until my eldest daughters show up. I haven't put up any reindeer, but we did sing songs of joy and peace and the Christmas Pageant yesterday. Oh, and yes, I wish I had a river I could skate away on.
My sleep last night was disturbed. Perhaps it is because thinking too much about semiotics and structuralism as it applies to social media and virtual worlds before going to bed. Maybe it is because stress at work. Or maybe it was because of things going on in other worlds.
I don't have any particularly personal reaction to the death of Kim Jong Il. It was a shock. I hope it leads towards better relations between the U.S. and North Korea, or at least not a worsening of relations.
Yet, today, I received news that a friend had died yesterday. Rich Sivel, a political activist I've known and respected for several years died unexpectedly yesterday. On top of the lack of sleep, stress at work and just generally trying to make it though the holidays, I am deeply grieved.
It was another day that it was hard to drive home, I was so tired. Yet as I sit to write, the words of Day is Done come to mind.
All will be well when the day is done.
Day is done, Day is done
