Hold the totalitarianism, please

"Our country is going through a terrific period of unrest. Something is wrong...Where starts the mighty river of discontent that is destroying our respect for government,, uprooting faith in political parties, and causing every precedent and convention of the old order to strain at its moorings?"
                           Amos Pichot, 1912

Thanks to Nicholas Lemann, writing in the Nov. 18, 2013 New Yorker, for digging up this great lead. His book review on the Progressive movement is worth reading.

I'll add this: the only form of government which exists without compromise is totalitarianism and that is a form to which no sane mind would aspire. The childish among us, and there are many, will quickly equate compromise with surrender, with weakening of stands and values. Not so fast.

What we are really talking about is cooperation. The stone polishing approach of knocking off rough edges, the idea of thesis + antithesis = new thesis, the whole better-than-the-sum-of-the-parts for of thing. 

Our government has inspired monumental mistrust at local, state, and national levels of late, principally because of one-side, partisan bullying that these days passes for a legislative process. As the man said - there is a payday someday. It is time for the moderate, centrist grown ups to take stand before this country reaches the point of no return.

Good things going on in Memphis? I’m glad you asked!

Hey Ken --
Please tell me about some of the good things going on in Memphis.
Dave Cooley

Good things going on in Memphis? I’m glad you asked!

On the “banks of the river,” as Lt. George W. Lee said, things are shaping up nicely. Stupendously might be a more apt term just now. Consider:

• 1      ESPN this week named the Memphis Grizzlies as the Best Sports Franchise in the nation. Not best in the Midsouth or best farm club or any other qualifier. Just Best.  And  that makes perfect sense in terms of what the team does to unite and lift spirits in our town. Glad ESPN took notice.
• 2       We’re getting ready to walk across the Mississippi on a very nice, 14’ wide  walkway attached to the old Harahan Bridge. Talk about the best view of the river – try smack dab in the middle. And so much easier to navigate than the arch thing upstream. I predict this walkway will be a regional tourism magnet that way Graceland is on a national level. 
•      Overton Square is unrecognizable! Coming back  or  perhaps better described as reinvented in a  whole new, fabulous way – great restaurants, a theater district, and a much need parking garage. And just minutes via car, bike, or foot from the thriving restaurant district in Cooper-Young.
•       The tiny, old, and beloved Seessel’s on Union is poised to become an expansive, up-to-date Kroger with enough parking  to decrease a trip to the grocery by about 95%.
•       The Levitt Shell is offering top quality, safe, clean, fun entertainment in Overton Park – and did I mention free? – to the tune of about 50 concerts a year.
•       The Greenline is a re-purposed railroad line which makes walking, running, or biking from Tillman to Shelby Farms downright fun!  Full of people all the time.
•      Two dog parks. A skate park. Shelby Farms Park Conservancy. Overton Park Conservancy.
•      About a dozen great ways for young professionals to get engaged in the community, from the Community Foundation’s brilliant Give 365 group to Young at Art at the Dixon and many more beside.
•       Opera Memphis has virtually reinvented the art form as smart, sassy, and fun with a great regular season, something called 30 Days of Opera which is way too much fun to describe in this short space, and a Midtown Opera Festival that is cutting edge in the nation.
•      We’ve had two mayors for some time, we now have to Fairs – Mid-South and Delta. And more festivals than you can shake a pronto pup at – Stone Soul Picnic, Cooper-Young Fest,  RiverArts Fest, Carr Ave Fourth of July, Pink Palace Crafts Fair, Mid-South Music & Heritage Festival, and more.
•      Music is celebrated regularly with the new Memphis Music Hall of Fame,  a coming Blues Foundation museum, everything from films to student recitals at Stax Museum/Stax Museum Academy, the Beale Street Brass Note Walk of Fame, the International Blues Challenge.
•      And our people who give and lead continue to make this  city great – from the Crystal Awards for philanthropy from the Association of Fundraising Professionals to great panel luncheons from the New Memphis Institute to grassroots initiatives of all sorts made possible by people with ideas, guts, heart, and sweat equity. Memphis Fashion Week. Clean Memphis.  Memphis Urban League Young Professionals. Phoenix Club. Carnival Memphis Children’s Charity Initiative. Church Health Center’s national replication workshops. Indie Memphis film festival. On Location Memphis film festival. Visible Music College.

And that is approximately the tip of the iceberg.  New ideas, old initiatives revamped,  traditions honored, new traditions begun.  Business as usual for a town that looks inward for inspiration and always finds a way.

Fun Things Coming Up!

Mark your calendar for fun !

8/28       Tugs,  Harbortown – dine at Tugs and 10% of your tab benefits the Church Health Center

8/29       Wrong Again Gallery, Marshall – Greely’s cooking up some skype stew

8/30       Gallery 363, Leadership Memphis – exhibit opening of Catherine Erb’s  photography

8/31      Mid-South Music & Heritage Festival AND Stone Soul Picnic AND Ernestine & Hazel dance party

9/5-7     Rock for Love – music events benefiting Church Health Center

9/7         Art on Tap, Dixon – beer, yum

9/8         Webb Wilder, Levitt Shell

9/13       Jerry Lawler vs. Austin Idol., Resorts Casino -Tunica

9/14       Cooper- Young Festival AND Ptolemy Poker Run

9/15       WineStock, Old Millington Winery – portion of proceeds benefit CHC

9/21       Celebrate Munford, Munford

9/26       Marcus Orr Center lecture, U of M – Origins of the Banjo

9/27       Gallery 363, Leadership Memphis – art by Jay Etkin

10/3       MIFA’s Feed the Soul, The Warehouse

10/5       Mikado, Opera Memphis

TABC Gone Wild!

The Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission which began requiring a notarized Declaration of Citizenship with a photocopy of your driver's license earlier this year will now up the ante to TWO official IDs. And just's just to take the class and apply for your server permit. So unless you have your passport or birth certificate handy (no student IDs or library cards please), don't plan on slinging liquor in this state. Thankfully, no IDs yet required for voting -- bring on the dead and the stand ins!  Apparently the guv'ment  thinks your beer is more important than your vote.

NOTE as of 8/15/13 - The TABC has backed off the two ID requirement, and we are back to one PROVIDED THAT students legibly print their SSN on line 11 of the Declaration of Citizenship form.  No scribbling, kids!!

Iceberg People

Iceberg People

 

Resume. Obit.  Citation.

Summary of long ago and unfamiliar.

We did. We achieved. Felt. Thrilled.  Loved. Admired.

New ideas. Breaking new ground. Solutions.

Pride and honor.

The big sky. All the eye can see from horizon to horizon.

Capture it in a camera framed shot.

Big is small, has boundaries.

Time is a camera frame.

How big is a life?

In one page?

In a couple of paragraphs?

Peers may remember. Spottily or fondly.

Young people smile politely.

Your life is the tip of the iceberg they see.

Reflections on Chautauqua

It has been some years since I went on a vacation that was not part of a business trip or a volunteer project. I get fidgety sitting idly on a beach as I proven on my last Destin trip a decade ago, abandoning a free week in a condo  after only three days. A trip to The ChautauquaInstitute, however,  was as fully engaging as anyone could want and should, in fact, come with a warning not to overdo.

On the western shore of Lake Chautauqua - about 10 miles east of Lake Erie and 70 miles south of Buffalo - the Institute  covers an expansive 700 acres of rolling hills, shady groves, and lakefront views. Founded in 1874 by two men who sought to offer a two week course to better prepare Methodist Sunday schools teachers in arts, culture, science, and national affairs, the Institute grew to welcome people of all faiths. There are denominational houses spread around the grounds - Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopal, Luthern,  Catholic, Baptist, and more. There are evening services at each house, a daily plenary chapel service ( last week featuring Rev. Tony Campolo) , and occasional afternoon presentations ranging from a priest's slide show of a pilgrimage to Rome to a Muslim prayer service welcoming outsiders.

The four pillars - knowledge, art, religion, and music - as inscribed on the four-sided fountain in central Bestor Square - manifest themselves in program of all sorts, especially lectures. Each morning at 10:45 a prominent figure gives a talk in the elegant wooden amphitheater constructed in 1893.  The  5,000 seat facility (and by seat, read wooden pew and bring a seat cushion) is covered and may fetch a breeze in good weather.  Among this week's amphitheater speakers  were  David Brooks of The New York Times, George Packer of  The New Yorker, and Alan Schwartz of Guggenheim Partners. Next week will be Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg. Past speakers have included William Jennings Bryan, Theodore Roosevelt, and Franklin Roosevelt.

Preceding and following the main morning lecture are numerous small lectures, guided walks, classes in art and music, and recreational activities. At 2:00 another keynote lecture is presented in the Hall of Philosophy, a somewhat smaller but still impressive pavilion.

Rvening concerts in the amphitheater ranged from the Chautauqua Symphony (playing Wagner, Britten, and Shostakovich) to Travis Tritt.  Arts and entertainment abound due in part to multi-week summer camps for orchestra , opera, visual arts, and theater.  I saw a compact but magnificent production of Mozart's Don Giovanni  by students from Julliard, and attended a brilliant artist’s talk by an instructor for the arts camp.

Lodging on the grounds looks very much like it would have 100 years ago. Vehicular traffic is discouraged except for loading and unloading.  Walking, bicycling, and the occasional shuttle golf cart are preferred.  The grand Anthenaeum Hotel dates from the mid-1880s. Many cottages, houses, and boarding houses date from 1880 to 1910, with a few newer constructs outside the core area. The challenges of a third floor walk up with one and a half bathrooms per floor (about seven rooms per floor) and no air conditioning can be a jolt to modern sensibilities, but also add to the focus and deliberation of the experience.  Lack of TV or reliable cell phone service can be a blessing.  The porch of the boarding house is a place for strangers to become friends, discussing  the day's  lectures and activities.

There are a few restaurants on the grounds - some elegant, some modest - but no liquor by the drink. You’re allow to purchase wine with dinner but dinner is not served past 7:30 pm.  Many people who stay for a week or more bring food to make sandwiches or cook in the common kitchenette of the boarding house.

Most of the accommodations on the ground are only available in weekly increments; only a few offer nightly rates. Most people stay a week but some stay two or more weeks. Some stay the entire nine week season.  A day pass is required to be on the grounds (and thus enjoy free access to all lectures and many activities ). If you drive, you must park in the main lot across the street from the grounds. Attendees from within two or three hours drive  - or further -  bring cars in order to have the option of making a quick trip into town (Mayfield is 5 miles away, Jamestown is about 15 miles away) to the grocery or for other supplies which might not be readily available on the grounds.

Of the few thousand people who will attend over the summer, the profile is solidly middle class, middle age to elderly, generally Christian, and always interested in life long learning.  Still there are plenty of children on bicycles, swimming and playing frisbee because entire families come. many  families have  come for decades and grown children now accompany their parents with their own children in tow.

The result is a community of boarding house rooms with no keys and no locks. No litter, No unruliness. clean, safe, polite, and welcoming.  Favorite haunts are the bookstore and the ice cream parlor.

And  there is a sense of spiritual renewal.  A community of believers -- even with slightly different beliefs -- is an atmosphere of quiet, almost automatic renewal and well worth two airplanes, a rental car, and a long trudge  with luggage to reach.

NOTE: this past week saw record high temperatures for a couple of days before cooling off to normal pleasant conditions.  It can just as easily be chilly. it is advisable to closely check  (and re-check) the weather forecast and pack accordingly.

Volunteer recognition nomination forms

Look for the Helpers.. they are all around us

By now you’ve encountered the Mr. Rogers’ quote a few dozen times. I don’t get tired of it because it rings so true.

I saw the helpers by the hundreds on 9/12 bringing donated water, blankets, and more to a couple of tractor-trailers in the Fox 13 parking lot on Highland. I saw them at Hands on Memphis Serv-a-thons and United Way Days of Caring and Temple Israel Mitzvah days. You see them too. Not always in huge group on project days, but sometimes in ones and twos, maybe tutoring an adult learning to read or mentoring a child and taking food to a bereaved friend. It all adds up, the little acts and the big projects, to a culture of Good. We are better than evil. We will survive and prevail because we support each other and that syngery trumps the bad guys over time.

I spent about four hours last night and another hour & a half early this morning before work reading through 81 nomination forms, literally hundreds of pages, which outlined the accomplishments and contributions of some of our community's most dedicated volunteers. The Volunteer Mid-South recognition event will celebrate these good works.  Our friends with the Jefferson Awards, with Carnival Cares,  with the Volunteer Tennessee Commission, and many with other  individual organizations & non-profits will similarly hold some sort of volunteer recognition event. We cannot celebrate the Good too much or too often – it is a tonic, an inspiration, and hopefully a catalyst to more Good.  Look for the helpers – they are all around us.