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.

Laryngitis brings a whole new meaning to Silent Night!

Well , friends, here we are, about to bid adieu to the ghosts of Christmas past and gearing up for New Year’s resolutions. Don’t reflect too much on either, but hug someone close by, find the good in today,  and aspire to ______ next ______.  

That’s right, you fill in the blanks. What you put there is up to you, but write something.  Humans are aspirational creatures and we need mission more than pleasure. 

I’m not sure what I’m aspiring to do in 2013. There were some high points for me  in 2012 (and some lows), but definitely room for improvement in 2013.

What is your mission going forward?  Earning more for the security of your  family? Pushing forward a civic goal? Stronger  faith? Working toward inner peace, better health,  better communications with friends?  How about goals -- Filing a patent? Writing a book? Running a marathon?

The strength of  any community (a city, a church, a company, a club) is the diversity of strengths and aspirations of its members, offering opportunities for mutual support.

Something to think about  while standing in the return line at the department store this week!

Black Friday Has Gone and I still Don’t Know What to Buy You

So the winter calendar goes Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Office Holiday Party Debacle, Christmas, After Christmas Sale, New Year’s Eve, Join A Gym Week, Super Bowl. All are ancient traditions handed down from consumer to consumer over hundreds of hours in front of the TV.

The internet (thanks Al!) has now given us Cyber Monday and, I think for the first time, Giving Tuesday. Maundy Thursday is later in the year and has nothing to do with the internet as far as I can tell.

It is my duty as a long-time non-profit person to tell that that maybe this Giving Tuesday thing is okay.  Your mailbox is going to be absolutely jammed up with moving letters from worthy causes over the next couple of weeks (possibly including one from me – please open it before you throw it away, thanks).

It is also the end of the semester, the end of the program and/or fiscal year for some outfits, and the season of recitals & musical event and holiday TV classics.

To recap, we have actual holidays, fake holidays, shopping frenzy, holiday family distress & guilty, charitable pressure, and deadlines all wrapped up into about a month. Small wonders people turn from aspirin to sterner stuff this time of year.

So what to do? The answer is do what you can. You can’t do everything. You can’t go to every party (I do try ) or find the perfect gift for every quirky relative or give to every worthy charity. But you do what you can. You are the only one who knows when to say “when” for you.  Assess, prioritize, give it your best shot, rest, and feel okay about it all. In approximately that order.

That’s my gift to you. Merry happy blessed, etc. 

I saw an elderly lady in a wheelchair handing out food to runners the end of a 5K

Yesterday I saw an elderly lady in a wheelchair handing out food to runners  the end of a 5K.  She could not run to support the charitable cause but she found a way to help. This morning I met a different elderly lady coming out a church I was visiting who me asked for help with her car. I found a way.

Government, police, schools, companies, computer, crosswalks – we live in a very complex society full of systems, methods, protocols, and organization that should take care of us or at least give us direction from cradle to grave.

But things fall through the cracks and more often than not it is volunteers who step up. Volunteers fuel our community – thanks to all who do.

Your skill set or comfort level may incline you to help out in different ways – reading to kids, mentoring an adult in literacy, building a wheelchair ramp, serving a hot meal, helping organize a fundraising event,  checking on your elderly next door neighbor. It  all counts and it all helps.

While you think about some ways that you can serve, let me list a couple of things going on next weekend which I hope will be of interest:

1)      Carnival Cares Youth Engagement Summit

How to volunteer.  Success stories told by youth and by organizations are not only inspirational but also instructive, i.e. here is a “how to” laid out from beginning to end.  With over a dozen sessions in the half day conference, the is a tremendous resource for service learning, volunteerism, and engagement.  The event will be very valuable for teachers, youth leaders, volunteer coordinators, high school students, college students, and community volunteers. The morning sessions will be followed by a luncheon featuring Bill Courtney of “Undefeated” fame. After the luncheon, everyone is invited to a service project cleaning up Zion Cemetery. Sessions are free for students. For more information see http://www.facebook.com/carnivalYES?fref=ts  , for reservations see http://yesummit2012.eventbrite.com/#

2)      River Arts Festival

Like the outdoors? Arts & crafts? Music & food? Then the River Arts festival has need of YOU and 349 people just like you next weekend. This year’s RiverArts Fest will be held on Friday, October 26, Saturday October 27^th and Sunday October 28^th.  This three-day street celebration of the visual, performing and culinary arts with attractions and activities for all ages could not take place without scores of volunteers who work together each year to make this event a success.  Over 170 artists from around the country will gather in the historic South Main District to present their unique selection of original fine arts in what has become this region’s largest outdoor juried artist market and urban street festival.  A festival of this size takes almost 350 volunteers to put on. Volunteers will receive free admission to the festival ($5 value), a 2012 Festival T-Shirt, snacks, water and the satisfaction of helping us put on a great fine arts festival!  Please visit our website (http://riverartsmemphis.org/volunteers/) and view the various volunteer opportunities and shifts available.  The volunteer  application is at  (http://riverartsmemphis.org/volunteer/) and only takes a few minutes to complete.  On the application you will select which activity and which time(s) you wish to volunteer.  Many positions fill quickly, so we just ask that you be flexible in case we need you in another area.  

And there are many other ways to serve of course. As we come closer to Thanksgiving and Christmas, serving will be top of mind…but why wait!

Remember Thanksgiving?

Do you remember around Thanksgiving (and again at Christmas) when everyone was scrambling to find a place to volunteer? to serve meals ? to help the less fortunate?

Yesterday I had lunch with Estella Mayhue-Greer, Executive Director of the Mid-South Food Bank, who told me about the shortages they are currently experiencing. When a dollar was donated a few years back, they were able to leverage into $9 worth of food, but with rising costs, they are now only able to leverage it into $4 worth of food. What that means is a goal of providing 12 million tons of food fell short by about 2 million tons.

Mathmatics aside, what this means is more unemployed and hungry people create more demand for food when there is less food on the shelves. What we are facing is hungry families and hungry children.

So now that the weather is wonderful and our thoughts turn to gardening, sports, beaches, picnics, and more, we must remember that hunger is a year round problem. It is a problem just as heart wrenching in March and June and August as it is in November and December.

Please consider holding a canned food drive or contributing to an existing one. I am pleased to announce that my friends with the Greater Memphis Asian American Pacific Islander Task Force are holding a food drive on April 21 at 315 S. Hollywood (between the Children’s Museum and the Stadium) from 11:00 am – 3:00 pm. Please drive by and drop off a bag of canned goods. Or if you can’t make it out that day, go online to support the GMAAPI food drive www.midsouthfoodbank.org