Personal
Personal reflections, comments about things I've been doing, etc.
Random Stuff
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sat, 09/22/2007 - 21:14Lebanese Nights writes, I love Ramadan... ...because it's the only time I eat with my family on the same table at the same time!!
In honor of whichever comedian did great sportscast that included the line, “Slaughterhouse 5, Kent State 4”, “Little Rock 9, Jena 6”
Today, we went to the Guilford Fair. New photos are up at http://www.flickr.com/photos/aldon/ ref=me>Flickr.
I finally got around to setting up Blogrush. You can see it in the lower right hand corner.
Enough for now, it’s been a long day.
"I’m holding on to six years young for just another day"
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 09/16/2007 - 15:05In the beginning of “Remembrance of Things Past”, Proust writes about being in a borderland between sleep and wakefulness, “I had gone on thinking, while I was asleep, about what I had just been reading, but these thoughts had taken a rather peculiar turn”.
I often work on blog posts as I’m falling asleep and I have many dreamlike half written blog posts waiting in the wings. Today I have spent time with many of these blog posts as I sleep and fight some cold that is passing around our house.
The theme of remembrance has been kicking around in my head. My blog post about Bill Seeley and my reflections of childhood at his house brought a response:
“about preserving childhood and specifically preserving boy-hood, something my oldest son..managed to do with his best friend…It started at about age 7 while devouring the Redwall books by Brian Jacques. They spent a decade in the woods acting out chapters in the books - costumes, props, well developed story lines - decisions about high-tech vs. low tech games, capes were essential…[The parents] observed the lengths that the boys went to to keep their imaginative play secret (it was very uncool in an age of structured sports and competitive travel soccer for 3rd graders). I suspect the boyhood …[they] experienced is becoming entirely too rare.”
Another post I wrote back in July about Falcon Ridge noted Derek Aramburu’s rendition of John Prine's "Paradise" (Muhlenberg County). Derek wrote me a note about his new CD, “Where We Hide”. In his note, he highlights is cover of Leaving on a Jet Plane which he describes as “a very different type of arrangement”. It is very different from so many other covers I’ve heard, but I strongly encourage you to check it out. Also on this CD is “Home”, the other song that he played at Falcon Ridge.
In my post, Second Life Machinima, social change and other media links, Amy Jussel of Shaping Youth pointed out Librophiliac Love Letter: A Compendium of Beautiful Libraries
Everyone has some kind of place that makes them feel transported to a magical realm. For some people it's castles with their noble history and crumbling towers. For others it's abandoned factories, ivy choked, a sense of foreboding around every corner. For us here at Curious Expeditions, there has always been something about libraries. Row after row, shelf after shelf, there is nothing more magical than a beautiful old library.
The post continues on with a wonderful set of photographs of great libraries around the world. This too ties back to remembrances. For me, I worked in my high school library. My “special cup” is still a brown hand crafted ceramic coffee mug that I was given one summer that I worked at the library during inventory. The mug is over thirty years old. It has one chip taken out of it, but I still use it regularly.
As I spend time exploring other blogs, I stumbled across The Hamster Wheel, Eccentricities of a Surgical Resident. He has been putting up a series of posts remembering his experiences in New Orleans after Katrina hit. This blog is a must read. He talks about what it was like at the hospital when things we have taken for granted stop working and life is like it was in those days years ago before pagers.
Then, today, I received an email from Liz Dupont-Diehl. Liz and I worked together during the Lamont campaign, and she has started her blog, Parents on the Path. In her first post, she talks about the difficulty in finding time to meditate as a parent in this crazy world. It is all part of the same problem going back to the comment about preserving childhood.
As I read it, I thought of an old story from Zen Flesh, Zen Bones. I can’t remember the details, nor can I find the story online. My copy of Zen Flesh, Zen Bones is still in an unpacked box somewhere, yet the thing that jumped out at me was the line about the monk attaining enlightenment when he had washed his dish. Perhaps that is where enlightenment occurs, in washing the dishes, getting the kids off to school, stopping at the library, working at the hospital during a crisis, or simply holding your daughter on your lap the day before she turns seven.
One of the other songs on Derek’s new CD, “You are in my heart” captures this very well. It is a love song to his daughter, the day before her seventh birthday, “and the world turns way to fast…you are in my heart and there you’ll forever stay… I’m holding on to six years young for just another day.”
Rest In Peace, Bill Seeley
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Wed, 09/12/2007 - 22:15Bill Seeley died. My mother called and left a message on the machine. I don’t have a lot of specific memories of him, just that he was an important part of my family history. His son Wesley and I were classmates. We both went to the Congregational Church. He worked at Sprague Electric, like my father, and our families would often get together.
One early memory I have is of a summer get together at the Seeley’s house. Wes and I were probably about five years old at the time. I remember running around chasing fireflies in the dusk as our parents sat and talked. I had a speech impediment back then, and my parents got me Dr. Seuss books to read to help loosen up my tongue. Wesley’s parents had gotten him a math book. I really liked math, so Wesley and I arranged a trade of a math book for some Dr. Seuss books. My parents were not well pleased with the trade.
We live up near the top of Henderson Road. It was isolated there and there weren’t many people my age that lived within walking distance. The Seeley’s lived on Summer Street, in much more of a neighborhood. It was easy walking distance from Wes’ house to houses of other classmates. Sometimes, when my mother was busy, I would go to the Seeley’s house after school.
On special nights my mother would go out to gather with friends. I think Mrs. Seeley was part of that circle, as well as several other mothers in that neighborhood. My mother called it “Sewing Circle”. The women would gather, drink tea, eat some desserts, sew, and talk about their lives, perhaps not all that differently than how some mommy bloggers gather online today. My mother would make a “Tea Ring” for these occasions. It had cinnamon, brown sugar and nuts on the inside and was drizzled with a thin frosting made from confectioners sugar and milk. When we were lucky, she would make a second tea ring that we would have at home.
I believe that Mrs. Seeley was my Cub Scout den mother. My mother also helped with the Cub Scouts. Once, our Den went to North Adams State College where Mr. Seeley taught after he left Sprague Electric. I have vague recollections of wandering around the physics lab.
These memories are set in the 1960s and 1970s. From my perspective, it was a peaceful time, a good time, when families had dinner together, went to school, church and work together. It was a time of opportunity, hope and community. In my innocence, I didn’t know of the war in South East Asia, or the social unrest at home. I didn’t know of discrimination or urban blight. In many ways, I wish I could find my way back to a world like that.
Yet, knowing what I know now, I will be restless until the people of Bridgeport and of Baghdad also know of such peaceful hope, opportunity and community.
Rest in peace, Mr. Seeley, you, and my idyllic memories of childhood will be missed.
To The Fightin’ 6th Marines on Sept 11th
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Tue, 09/11/2007 - 10:48This morning, I received an email from Greg at Rhymes with Right. Last night, he put up a blog post, Support A Marine. In it, he urges people to send letters to the Fightin’ 6th Marines. This morning he has another post, In Memoriam -- 9/11/2001. I have sent the following email to the Marines, pulling in my own thoughts from 9/11. Please consider writing a letter yourself.
Six years ago today, my wife had an early morning appointment at the obstetrician’s office. Our daughter was due about a month later. Everything had gone fine. As she stood at the counter scheduling her next appointment, she looked up at the television screen and saw something horrible, smoke billowing out of the World Trade Centers.
She called me up and we talked on the phone as we watched the second plane hit. At the time, we were living in Stamford CT, a short commute from New York City. I had worked in New York and knew a lot of people that worked in the World Trade Centers. I had even worked in a building right next to them years ago and used to walk through them regularly on my way to work.
The freedom and security we have here in America is very important. It includes the freedom to criticize our government and state our disagreement with its policies and actions. I do not believe that we should have gone into Iraq the way we did and I believe that we should bring as many members of the armed services home from Iraq as quickly as possible.
Some people may try to characterize this as lack of support for our men and women in uniform. That is not the case. They are doing important work and they have my utmost respect. I pray for our servicemen and women serving in Iraq, in Afghanistan, and around the world. I pray for their families. I cherish the freedom they defend.
So, on this sixth anniversary of September 11th, my thoughts and prayers go out to the men and women of the USMC Regimental Combat Team (RCT) 6 serving in Iraq. Be well, be safe, and come home soon to the heroes’ welcome you deserve.
Squiddoo, Facebook and links du jour.
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 09/10/2007 - 11:20Recently, Liza Sabater asked the question on Facebook about how people felt about Facebook having public profiles which are searchable by Google. Being the publicity hound that I am, I said that it was probably a good idea and added a link to my Facebook public profile to my list of social networks on the right.
Over on MyLeftNutmeg, BrandfordBoy asked why there weren’t SquidWho pages for Jim Himes, Ned Lamont and others. So, I went and created them. I also created one for myself.
The problem is that they are not showing up when you search SquidWho or Squidoo. I tried deleting and recreating the one for Jim and it didn’t make any difference. Perhaps it is because it is new, hasn’t gotten enough traffic, or simply that there is something weird with Squidoo.
When I tried recreating Jim’s Squidwho page, I saved my first version as XML. Squidoo has a nice and easy way to export a page to XML. However, I can’t find any easy way to import the XML, so it seems pretty useless.
In other news, as did my evening blog surfing, I stumbled across a great posts about 100th ARA Clown Brigade and their action against the KKK. (Hat tip Girly Bits). Wife Power!
