Author: Mary

I am a recently retired college professor. Up until June 2012 I taught human behavior and the social environment, social justice and human rights at Monmouth University, in the school of social work. My great joys are reading and telling stories! Reading and thinking about the meaning and implications of what is written. Good literature has the potential of alchemy! of social change toward a world where social and economic justice is respected and where human rights are celebrated.

We are so lucky

On By MaryIn Awareness, happinessLeave a comment

We have all made it through the crazy hecticness of the holidays. We’ve started a new year.  Life is sweet. Or at least it should be. But then many folks are back to work with too many demands pulling in too many directions.  Sometimes we just need to be reminded to take a deep breath, to inhale, exhale … and repeat as necessary.  I found this story. It invited me to smile.  It invited me to take a deep breath, to inhale, exhale and repeat even as I smiled. Because if we are still breathing, we are so lucky.

 WE’RE SO LUCKY

“Honey, would you drop the kids off at school this morning? I’ve got a lot of shopping to do and errands to run.”

“Well, dear, I’ve got a pretty hectic day myself (sigh) …  OK I’ll do it.  But hurry, up kids!”

So Dad and his children jump into the car and they’re off. The busy father glances at his watch. “Why is traffic so slow this morning? Certainly people should drive safely, not speed, but this little old man in front of us must be sight-seeing! I’ll pass him as soon as I can… take a short cut maybe … Oh, no!!”

Wouldn’t you know it! The car approaches a railroad crossing just as the lights begin to flash and the safety gate comes down. Dad’s first thought: “Darn it! We’re going to be held up by a train and be late.”

So, as Dad is fuming in the front seat, anxiously tapping his fingers on the steering wheel, reviewing, in his mind, how to make up some time … a sweet, childish voice calls out from the backseat: “Daddy, Daddy, we’re so lucky! We get to watch the train go by!”

Source | Based on a story told by Jerry Braza, Moment by Moment
(Tuttle Publishing,1997) page 3

 CONSIDER THIS

Awareness of the present moment is always a wonderful reminder to stop and enjoy what the journey has to offer along the way. Often the “now”, called by some “the sacrament of the present moment” or “the Sacrament of the blessed present”, is filled with many gifts if we have the eyes to see, the ears to really listen.

From Philip Chircop’s Wisdom Stories to Live by

 

A Tale of Beatrix Potter

On By MaryIn strong womenLeave a comment

Better than half of the human beings in our world are women. Women work hard and long. And yet, far too often our stories are not told, our contributions to the life and well being of our communities, countries, and planet go unrecognized.  So, I say, let’s celebrate women and our accomplishments, for better or worse, and more often than not for better. Today I would like to celebrate Beatrix Potter.

Many of you will know Beatrix Potter for her Peter Rabbit books. Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail and Peter were early joys and first friends for many of us. And for that contribution alone we owe Beatrix much. Her drawings still adorn pottery, clothing and an array of home goods. Her animals are both realistic and unthreatening, they are downright cute. And Beatrix Potter was so much more than that.

Beatrix Potter was born Saturday, 28 July 1866. She grew up in Manchester England with all the comforts of a home with its own staff of servants.  One of her earliest fascinations was with sketching the pets and small animals that populated her home and surrounding lands.  By the time she was seven her drawings had an individual personality to them.  By the time she was 31 she had submitted a scientific paper to the Linnean Society in London. By the time she was 35 she had produced almost 300 water colors of mushrooms and fungi which are now in the Armitt  Museum in Cumbria, United Kingdom.

But it was her ‘picture letters’ that she looked to as a way of earning a living. She produced the Tale of Peter Rabbit herself as a Christmas gift for family and friends in 1901. Shortly after that Frederick Warne & Company in London began discussions with her about printing it.  By 1902 the Tale of Peter Rabbit was published, and she had The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin and The Tailor of Gloucester ready for publication as well.

One thing led to another and in July 1905 Beatrix and Norman Warne were engaged.  But on August 25, 1905 Norman died of pernicious anemia.  Beatrix was grief stricken. She left London and moved to the Cumbria where she had already been planning to buy a small farm, Hill Top. There she continued to create characters and to write, and she began to develop merchandise that would make her a woman of considerable means.  She steeped herself in the land and the community. She became a champion of farming causes. And she began to buy tranches of the beloved lands around her, gathering together as much as four thousand acres, all of which she left to the National Trust.

In 1913, eight years after Norman died, she married William Heelis, the country solicitor who worked with her to acquire the lands around her Hill Top Farm.  Frank Delaney tell the story of Beatrix Potter walking along the road near Hill Top Farm when she came upon a tramp walking along road. The tramp assumed that she too was a homeless traveler, and he greeted her, “Brave hard weather for the likes of thee’n me, missus.”  Delaney says that she had in that moment done the thing she most desired, she had merged with her countryside.

Indeed, Beatrix Potter merged with her countryside, she lived its life, told its quiet hidden stories, and left it better than when she found it.  What a marvelous legacy.  What a delightful contribution to the dignity of all living beings.

Doris Haddock, John McCain, Robert Lessig and me

On By MaryIn strong womenLeave a comment

It is not very often that I find John McCain and myself admiring the same woman, and yet here I am about to write about a woman who McCain called a true patriot and a blessing to our nation. Something felt a little fishy … but, it’s all Lawrence Lessig’s fault.  You see, in the 2014 Thanksgiving issue of Time Magazine, Lessig was asked to comment on who he admired and was grateful for, and he waxed enthusiastically about Doris Haddock.  So, of course, off I went to find out a bit more about Mrs. Haddock (I am just trying very hard here to refrain from some comment about swimming up stream to find information about her, but that would be too fishy even for me, so I will try to reel myself in).

So then, what is it about Granny D, as Mrs. Haddock preferred to be called that resonates with me?  Well, I have to admit that now that I am retired, there are days when I look back at my life and think, I did OK, but . . . but there are so many things that I wanted to do that I never quite got around to trying, things I started and never quite finished.  And I am inspired by an 88 year old woman who looked around, said to herself, something is not right here, and set out to draw attention to that!  Here’s what she did.

Back in 1995 Senators John McCain and Russ Feingold proposed some legislation to regulate campaign financing.  Short version of that story, their efforts failed.

Somehow, campaign financing caught the attention of Granny D.  The story goes that on January 1, 1999 Granny D left the Rose Bowl Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena California and set out walking.  She walked about 10 miles every day for 14 months.  She walked across California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia, Maryland, Virginia, heading to Washington DC.  Of course she made speeches along the way and gathered mass media attention as she progressed along her 3200 mile route across the country.  On February 29, 2000 a number of the members of Congress walked the last miles with her from Arlington Nation Cemetery to the Capital Buildings on the National Mall.  And, the McCain-Feingold Act addressing federal reform of campaign financing did pass shortly after she completed her walk.

Now, you need to realize that Granny D did not wake up on New Years Day 1999 and say, ‘what the heck, I feel like taking a bit of a walk today.’  Granny D did not decide this on her own. A trek like that takes lots of preparation, planning and people.  Granny D had a team of support people, she had a community backing her up. She had experience – in 1960 she and her husband campaigned against the testing of nuclear bombs in Alaska; in 1972 she served on the city planning board in Dublin, New Hampshire, her home town.  She was well known and active in the community. And at 88 she set out on a 3200 mile walk to raise awareness.

Granny D subtitled her autobiography, which she coauthored with Dennis Burke, “You’re Never Too Old to Raise a Little Hell.” That’s my kind of woman!!  So, let’s go out and raise a little bit of hell today in the spirit of Granny D!.

 

Granny D AKA Ethel Doris Rollins Haddock

Born January 24, 1910 in Laconia, New Hampshire, U.S.

Died March 9, 2010 (aged 100) in Dublin, New Hampshire, U.S.

Occupation Political activist

 

Happy New Year to all the Woodstockers out there

On By MaryIn joy, musicLeave a comment

This is not my usual story kind of blog. But since we are about to change years, and change evokes change and difference I thought I might give a go at a different kind of posting and share something a bit unusual with you all.  This is a blog entry might be more attuned to the Woodstockers among my readers, but there is a certain universality to music, so no matter what your age, read on!

Carlos Santana was interviewed in the November 2014 AARP Bulletin, November 2014. At the end of the interview, Santana shared a playlist that he put together.  He calls it his “masterpiece of joy.”  And I thought, what better way to end 2014 and move toward 2015 than with a masterpiece of joy. Santana also calls the playlist his Playlist for Higher Consciousness because listening thoughtfully to the can make people more compassionate. He says that the lyrics in each of the songs are important, and to experience the proper flow, the songs should be listened to in the order below.

So, with thanks to AARP and to Carlos Santana, here’s the list:

1.   What a Wonderful World
Louis Armstrong
2.   What’s Going on
Marvin Gaye
3.   One Love
Bob Marley
4.   Imagine
John Lennon (Santana recommends Lennon’s version, but personally I like Herbie Hancock’s version on his album “the Imagine Project”)
5.   Blowin’ in the Wind
Bob Dylan
6.   A Change Is Gonna Come
Sam Cooke
7.   No Woman, No Cry
Bob Marley
8. (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman
Aretha Franklin
9.   Just Like a Woman
Roberta Flack
10. Amazing Grace
Lisbeth Scott (you really want to find this version)
11. Redemption Song
Bob Marley
12. Acknowledgement
Doug Carn
13. A Love Supreme
Alice Coltrane

 

Happy Listening!! Happy New Year – may it be one of peace, love, & compassion.

Accepting Others and Opening Your Heart

On By MaryIn Cloister of the Sisters of Mary Magdalene, compassion, loveLeave a comment

Back at the Cloister of the Good Sisters of Mary Magdalene, Sister Septimus and Sister Beatrix were strolling the cloister grounds during the after supper recreation hour. Sister Septimus was sharing some of her struggles in spiritual growth with young Sister Beatrix.

As you might remember from some of the earlier posts about the cloister, dear Sister Septimus has not always been the most empathic or compassionate member of the cloister. But the death of Sister Ludwicka in Hurricane Sandy was an epiphany for her and since then she has become evermore open to accepting the foibles that frolic within human beings.

As they walk, Sister Septimus says to Sister Beatrix, “you know Sister, I think that I have finally learned to be more fully accepting of people just as they are, whatever their eccentricities. However they choose to be in the world, loving or lascivious, optimist or pessimist, thief or philanthropist, I have come to recognize the common core of humanity within them all, they are all the same to me. But, Sister, I must confess to you, that on our special open days here at the cloister, I see a stranger walking down the path to the chapel, and I find myself murmuring, ‘Oh, Jesus Christ, is it you again?’ Dear Sister Beatrix, this is a long road we are walking!”

 

I read a version of this story in Jan Phillips book, “No Ordinary Time” and once I stopped laughing, I found myself thinking about how much the story resonated with my efforts to human rights and to recognizing the basic dignity in everyone. And then I remembered the words of one of my most favorite professors in college, Father Jim Finegan, who would oft opine, “Everyone is redeemable, but some folks are more redeemable than others.” And indeed, I think everyone is loveable, some are more easily loveable than others. And of course it is those who are more challenging to love who are most in need of loving. So, today, for ten minutes, go out there into the world with your heart wide open and accepting, and give it a try!

 

On human interdependence and breathing

On By MaryIn Choices we make, human rightsLeave a comment

Since the failed grand jury decision in Ferguson I have been wanting to write something meaningful here about that. Then the Staten Island grand jury failed to find any cause to indict, and I even more wanted to write something meaningful. But what? what could I say? Eric Garner could not breathe, and I could not find words to write.  Then I cam across this meditation by Jan Willis, and so I share it with you in recognition of our deep interdependence, because breathing is a most basic human right.

Why We Can’t Breathe BY JAN WILLIS 

Lions Roar DECEMBER 7, 2014

http://www.lionsroar.com/cant-breathe/

We can’t breathe!

In Buddhist meditation, our breathing is essential. Anapana, meditation on the breath, was the Buddha’s first meditation instruction and the basis for all further meditative endeavors. Breathing is not only life-sustaining and calming; it is a foremost teaching aid. Breathing, we sense immediately our necessary connection to what is other than ourselves. Without the exchange of air —inner and outer–we would die. We are not independent. We are dependent.

We are interdependent. We are connected with one another. We breathe the same air. That air is neither black nor white. We share the life-force of all.

If one of us cannot breathe, none of us can breathe fully and deeply and we no longer experience our connection with one another.

If Eric Garner cannot breathe, then we cannot breathe. If Michael Brown no longer breathes, we cannot breathe. If Tamir Rice does not breathe, we cannot breathe.

Something is mightily broken. A hard rock of sadness and pain rolls itself up in our hearts and we cannot breathe. We must do something—swiftly and non-violently–to right the moral compass. Because, at this moment, none of us can breathe.

 

The Price of Adultery

On By MaryIn laughterLeave a comment

So, I was channel surfing the other day, and I came across a commercial for “Family Feud.” The question posed in the commercial was “how many of the ten commandments did you break in a day?” The most frequent answer was 7 – SEVEN!! Well, of course I had to run through the commandments in my head to figure out the three that were likely not broken.

  1. I am the Lord your God, you shall have no other gods before me.
  2. Don’t make any idols.
  3. Don’t take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
  4. Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.
  5. Honor you father and thy mother.
  6. Don’t kill.
  7. Don’t commit adultery.
  8. Don’t steal.
  9. Don’t lie.
  10. Don’t covet your neighbor’s stuff.

Well, I thought about it, and thought, maybe killing, adultery, and theft where the three people didn’t violate as frequently. And then I came across this little story on the web …

A man suspected his wife of having an affair. So he waits outside the house one morning when he should have left for work. Sure enough, after a half hour a car turns up, and a man got out and let himself in with a key. The husband waited for 15 minutes determined to catch the man and his wife in the act. So, after a time he slipped into the house, crept up to the bedroom and opened the door. Sure enough he found his wife is naked in bed, but she was alone. Just then our man heard footsteps running towards the kitchen. He followed the footsteps, but when he got there the kitchen was empty. He looked out the window to the yard and sure enough he saw a man climbing over the fence. Our guy is totally enraged at this point. He looked around for a weapon but couldn’t find any. With the strength brought on by his rage, he picked up the refrigerator and hurled it through the window hitting the man and killing him.

The dead man goes straight to heaven and St Peter says, “You’re not due here for 20 years? What happened to you?”

The man says, “Well I was taking a shortcut through someone’s yard and out of nowhere a refrigerator came flying out of the house and landed on me and killed me!!”

St Peter says “Well, wait over there please. We weren’t expecting you so we will need to find you a room.”

In the meantime, the exertion of hurling the fridge killed the husband. He too arrives in heaven.

St Peter says to him “You’re early too. What happened?”

So the husband says “I threw a fridge at the man my wife was having an affair with and the strain brought on a heart attack.”

St Peter says to him “Well, we’re a bit busy today. You’ll have to wait for a room too.” And Saint Peter directs him to the opposite end if the waiting room.

And then there appears a third man who was naked and looking very puzzled.

St Peter says to him “Not another early arrival! What happened to you??”

And the naked man says, “Well, I was hiding in this fridge. . . ”

 

Ah, the price of adultery!!

 

Morning

On By MaryIn AwarenessLeave a comment

I am NOT a morning person. I am just not. I need several hours of quiet to get myself awake and oriented to the day. Then I can usually be civil to people. Well, at least most days I can. So, when I found these two poems each of which celebrates morning in its own way, for some odd, ironic reason they profoundly resonated with me. They called me out to find my own sense of dignity a bit more expeditiously. So, I thought I would share them with you. Hope you enjoy!

 

Morning From Deng Ming-Dao’s 365 Tao: Daily Meditations

 All we need is the morning. As long as there is sunrise we can face all our misfortunes, celebrate our blessings, and live all our endeavors. Acknowledge the mystery of night and the glory of morn­ing. Life begins with dawn, that is blessing enough. All else is fullness immeasurable.

 Greet the dawn. This is your miracle to witness. This is the ultimate beauty. This is sacredness. This is your gift from heaven. This is your omen of prophesy. This is knowledge that life is not futile. This is enlightenment. This is the meaning of life. This is your directive. This is your comfort. This is the solemnity of duty. This is inspiration for compassion. This is the light of the ultimate.

 I arise, facing East by Mary Austin

 I arise, facing East,

I am asking toward the light;

I am asking that the day

Shall be beautiful with light.

I am asking that the place

Where my feet are shall be bright,

That as far as I can see

I shall follow it aright.

I am asking for the courage

To go forward through the shadow,

I am asking toward the light!

 

 

Gifts, abundance, greed and contentment

On By MaryIn laughterLeave a comment

Abraham Lincoln is said to have said, “Most people are about as happy as they choose to be.” When I was a social worker, lo those many, many years ago, I always wanted to have two posters on my wall. One with that quote, and another that simply said, “Get a Grip!” Well, and maybe a third that said, “NO WHINING!!” But, I figured in the context none of them would come across as particularly caring or compassionate. So, I became a college professor instead. Then I retired.

Anyway, I found a version of this story on Paul Brian Campbell’s blog, “People for Others.” He apparently found it on Philip Chircop’s blog, “Wisdom Stories to live by.” Chircop seems to have found it in McMane’s book , “Living Grace: Spiritual Growth in the Everyday World.” (Marlin Press, 2011) page 129. Here is my version of it.

 

Stella walked into her social worker’s office, grunted a non-greeting and plopped down into the comfortable chair, looking depressed, agitated, resentful and a good bit more gruff than her usual.

The social worker, put on her professional compassionate face and asked, “Stella, can you tell me a bit about your feelings?”

Stella replied, “I don’t remember if I told you but, three weeks ago my Uncle Stanley died and he left me $40,000.”

“Hmmm” the social worker replied “And?”

Stella continued, “then, two weeks ago, my cousin Sophie died and left me $85,000.”

“It sounds like you’ve had a good bit of loss in your life lately” the social worker responded.

Stella cut her off saying “You don’t understand. You see, last week, my great aunt Sasha died, and she left me almost a quarter million dollars!”

The social worker nodded empathically and said, “So, Stella, if I may paraphrase, I hear you saying that you are troubled by the paradoxical feelings of great loss for dearly loved relatives, and gratitude for the generous bequeaths they left to you? Is it these conflicing feelings that are troubling you?”

Stella grunted a sigh of disgust and said, “No, you really don’t understand, you see, this week … nothing.”

 

When you stop laughing, maybe spend a minute or two thinking about how easy it is to fall into the greed of wanting more, and to forget to appreciate the abundance that we already have in our lives. We are after all about as happy as we choose to be!

 

Human Rights, Eleanor Roosevelt and Rudyard Kipling

On By MaryIn human rightsLeave a comment

From 1936 until she died in 1962, six days a week, virtually without interruption Eleanor Roosevelt wrote her column, “My Day” which was syndicated in newspapers across the country and in many other countries around the world. In the column Mrs. Roosevelt wrote about social issues that were on her mind, she wrote about her work at the United Nations and for the Commission on Human Rights, she wrote of her travels around the world and her meetings with dignitaries from around the world, and she wrote about her mundane daily activities, she wrote about her day whatever that day might contain.

Here is the text of her column from June 16, 1951. I particularly think it fits here because in the column she highlights the human rights implications of a section from Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book. Check it out!

ER my day

JUNE 16, 1951

 BOSTON, Friday—Kipling has gone out of fashion more or less, whereas when I was young it would have been almost impossible to find a child who did not know the “Jungle Book.” It is a rare thing nowadays to find a child who does. But on the afternoons when I am home some of my grandchildren gather around at 5 o’clock in the afternoon and I read aloud. The other day we read “How Fear Came” from the “Jungle Book.”

Some of my contemporaries will remember from that story a few of the rules of the jungle, as taught by old Baloo, the brown bear. These particular rules apply to the wolves, but as I read I could not help thinking how well they applied to us all. For instance:

“As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk the law runneth forward and back,
For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.”

Isn’t that a pretty good picture of why we should have a United Nations and why each nation in the U.N. should look to its own contribution? The success of the organization depends on what each member is and can contribute.

I could not help looking at my small fry with a smile as I read:

“Wash deeply from nose tip to tail tip; drink deeply, but never too deep.”

And then again:

“When Pack meets Pack in the Jungle, and neither will go from the trail,
Lie down till the leaders have spoken—it may be fair words will prevail.”

So, even in the law of the jungle the value of conversation before action was recognized.

And here again is one of the human rights expressed as the law of the jungle.

“The lair of the Wolf is his refuge, and where he has made his home,
Not even the Head Wolf may enter, not even the Council may come.”

So the right of privacy and the ownership of property was one of the laws of the jungle! Kipling even made it clear that in the jungle you could not be completely selfish. Here it is:

“If Ye plunder his Kill from a weaker, devour not all in thy pride;
Pack-right is the right of the meanest; so leave him the head and the hide.”

In other words, if you can get it, you can take the major part. But don’t take everything or you may regret it later. And now for the last verse:

“Now these are the Laws of the Jungle, and many and mighty are they;
But the head and the hoof of the Law and the haunch and the bump is—Obey!”

E.R.

 (World copyright, 1951, by United Feature Syndicate, inc. Used with permission of Mrs. Roosevelt’s literary estate.)