On May 18th, we met at the Kensington Library and held a poetry reading. While I don't remember the names and authors of all the poems, I do recall that Annette read two socialist poems. Sheila read two very personal poems she wrote about her changing feelings regarding a relationship, and Antoinette read a poem she had published, about a country place that meant a lot to her.
I read two of my old poems, because I haven't written a new one in several years. Maybe next year I will have something new to read. Even though not everyone who signed up to read was able to make it, we had eight readers and a very enjoyable time.
Saturday, May 31, 2008
BHC First Annual Seder
On Friday, April 25th, we returned to a tradition many of us used to enjoy, with some modifications. We held the first annual Brooklyn Humanist Community Seder. Using the Seder written in part by Eric Freudenthal and then elaborated on by Lois Kellerman, I borrowed most of it but trimmed it down considerably, and added a few modern touches to our new Humanist Hagaddah.
I added the poem by Hannah Senesh to read before we lit the candles:
Blessed is the match, consumed in kindling flame.
Blessed is the flame that burns in the heart's secret places.
Blessed is the heart that knows, for honor's sake, to stop its beating.
Blessed is the match, consumed in kindling flame.
Other bits I added included the story of Moses putting the coal in his mouth and becoming a slow, stammering speaker. I wanted to illustrate the point that not all speakers for justice and freedom are eloquent, yet they deserve to have their voices heard. We added the Cup of Miriam along with Elijah's Cup. Miriam's cup is full of water, filled up by a woman. The story is that because of Miriam's courage, a well filled with water followed the Hebrews as they trekked through the desert. It's purpose is to honor women's role in the struggles for freedom.
Finally, we added an orange to the Seder plate to symbolize the idea that new rituals can be added to the old, and that there are people still in need of liberation today.
There was such a good turnout that Antoinette and Michael had to split the Seder into two rooms. As usual the food was excellent. We had the traditional items, matzohball soup, matzohs, horseradish, and charoses (Jean brought one made of apple butter and crushed nuts). Roger brought a delicious dish of spicy curried sweet potatoes! Seders are definitely an occasion for a food orgy and this one was surely that.
Annette brought a tape of Passover songs and we listened and sang along to Dayenu and some other more modern tunes. All in all it was a festive occasion and a great success. To an extent it was nostalgic but it was also a great triumph to bring back a joyous ritual we remembered from years gone by.
I added the poem by Hannah Senesh to read before we lit the candles:
Blessed is the match, consumed in kindling flame.
Blessed is the flame that burns in the heart's secret places.
Blessed is the heart that knows, for honor's sake, to stop its beating.
Blessed is the match, consumed in kindling flame.
Other bits I added included the story of Moses putting the coal in his mouth and becoming a slow, stammering speaker. I wanted to illustrate the point that not all speakers for justice and freedom are eloquent, yet they deserve to have their voices heard. We added the Cup of Miriam along with Elijah's Cup. Miriam's cup is full of water, filled up by a woman. The story is that because of Miriam's courage, a well filled with water followed the Hebrews as they trekked through the desert. It's purpose is to honor women's role in the struggles for freedom.
Finally, we added an orange to the Seder plate to symbolize the idea that new rituals can be added to the old, and that there are people still in need of liberation today.
There was such a good turnout that Antoinette and Michael had to split the Seder into two rooms. As usual the food was excellent. We had the traditional items, matzohball soup, matzohs, horseradish, and charoses (Jean brought one made of apple butter and crushed nuts). Roger brought a delicious dish of spicy curried sweet potatoes! Seders are definitely an occasion for a food orgy and this one was surely that.
Annette brought a tape of Passover songs and we listened and sang along to Dayenu and some other more modern tunes. All in all it was a festive occasion and a great success. To an extent it was nostalgic but it was also a great triumph to bring back a joyous ritual we remembered from years gone by.
BHC April Program: Truth of Myth
Monday, April 14, 2008
BHC April Program
"The first days are the hardest days, don't you worry any more
Cause when life looks like easy street, there is danger at your door."
-- The Grateful Dead, "Uncle John's Band"
It's not always simple getting a new organization off the ground, but we've been managing to come up with monthly programs on a variety of issues, and to have plenty of fun too.
Sunday we met at the Kensington Library, where Remi gave a talk on The Truth of Myth. She brought out the psychological needs that are built into our brains and into all societies, a need for a myth or story, as Kurt would put it.
Remi spoke of the disconnect many people have between the mammalian brain, the cerebellum, that rules emotions, and the cerebrum, that gives us the ability to think and be logical. The need for myth arises from the emotional part of the brain, which requires teaching and needs to be helped to grow just as much as the logical part. She mentioned the story of a young boy who had a nervous breakdown, and when his psychiatrist explored the reasons, he realized that the boy grew up in a family of very intelligent, logical thinkers who wanted nothing but scientific facts in their lives. Consequently they never read their son any children's stories, fairy tales, or myths. That side of his development had not kept pace with his high IQ, so he became dysfunctional.
Once this was discovered, the boy began to recover as his therapist read stories to him, and finally he ordered his family to read children's stories to him every night as other families did.
Remi also brought out that the Greek myths were about gods who were not infallible, in fact they were very fallible. Even though they were more powerful than humans they had some very human failings, which helped people to feel that they were not so unreachable. She also pointed out that until a certain age (the onset of adolescence, maybe) children need heroes to help them feel safe and secure. Take away Samson, she said, and he will be replaced by Superman, because children need that super powerful figure to believe in. Later on many people replace the mythical heroes with an abstract figure such as God.
We went around the room and talked about our thoughts on myths and any myths that have been important to us. One person brought up Prometheus, who brought fire to humanity and was punished by being chained to a rock and having an eagle eat his liver every day. I mentioned two children's stories that influenced me a great deal, both Dr. Seuss books: Horton Hears a Who, and Horton Hatches the Egg. Horton Hatches the Egg fits into the BHC ideal of keeping commitments, because Horton the elephant stays on that nest and keeps that baby bird warm no matter what befalls him. Horton Hears a Who demonstrates not only the importance of standing up for the "invisible" and overlooked people in society, no matter how tiny a minority they may be, but also the importance of everyone standing together and speaking out against injustice.
Both these books were an influence on me as a child and I think led me into the ethical path that led me into helping to form the Brooklyn Humanist Community.
After a short break, The Sticker Dude recited the "Storyteller" poem, and then sang folk and protest songs, all selected so we could sing along. He took us from Paradise (Kentucky) to the Promised Land. Along the way we sang along to "Uncle John's Band," "This Little Light of Mine," and many others. It was a rollicking, fun way to finish up the program. We're the Brooklyn Humanist Community, and by golly, BHC Rocks!
BHC April Program
"The first days are the hardest days, don't you worry any more
Cause when life looks like easy street, there is danger at your door."
-- The Grateful Dead, "Uncle John's Band"
It's not always simple getting a new organization off the ground, but we've been managing to come up with monthly programs on a variety of issues, and to have plenty of fun too.
Sunday we met at the Kensington Library, where Remi gave a talk on The Truth of Myth. She brought out the psychological needs that are built into our brains and into all societies, a need for a myth or story, as Kurt would put it.
Remi spoke of the disconnect many people have between the mammalian brain, the cerebellum, that rules emotions, and the cerebrum, that gives us the ability to think and be logical. The need for myth arises from the emotional part of the brain, which requires teaching and needs to be helped to grow just as much as the logical part. She mentioned the story of a young boy who had a nervous breakdown, and when his psychiatrist explored the reasons, he realized that the boy grew up in a family of very intelligent, logical thinkers who wanted nothing but scientific facts in their lives. Consequently they never read their son any children's stories, fairy tales, or myths. That side of his development had not kept pace with his high IQ, so he became dysfunctional.
Once this was discovered, the boy began to recover as his therapist read stories to him, and finally he ordered his family to read children's stories to him every night as other families did.
Remi also brought out that the Greek myths were about gods who were not infallible, in fact they were very fallible. Even though they were more powerful than humans they had some very human failings, which helped people to feel that they were not so unreachable. She also pointed out that until a certain age (the onset of adolescence, maybe) children need heroes to help them feel safe and secure. Take away Samson, she said, and he will be replaced by Superman, because children need that super powerful figure to believe in. Later on many people replace the mythical heroes with an abstract figure such as God.
We went around the room and talked about our thoughts on myths and any myths that have been important to us. One person brought up Prometheus, who brought fire to humanity and was punished by being chained to a rock and having an eagle eat his liver every day. I mentioned two children's stories that influenced me a great deal, both Dr. Seuss books: Horton Hears a Who, and Horton Hatches the Egg. Horton Hatches the Egg fits into the BHC ideal of keeping commitments, because Horton the elephant stays on that nest and keeps that baby bird warm no matter what befalls him. Horton Hears a Who demonstrates not only the importance of standing up for the "invisible" and overlooked people in society, no matter how tiny a minority they may be, but also the importance of everyone standing together and speaking out against injustice.
Both these books were an influence on me as a child and I think led me into the ethical path that led me into helping to form the Brooklyn Humanist Community.
After a short break, The Sticker Dude recited the "Storyteller" poem, and then sang folk and protest songs, all selected so we could sing along. He took us from Paradise (Kentucky) to the Promised Land. Along the way we sang along to "Uncle John's Band," "This Little Light of Mine," and many others. It was a rollicking, fun way to finish up the program. We're the Brooklyn Humanist Community, and by golly, BHC Rocks!
BHC Book Club: My Sister's Keeper
Monday, April 14, 2008
BHC Book Club: My Sister's Keeper
On Friday night the BHC Book Discussion Group met at Sheila's apartment to discuss My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. Sheila provided a delicious dinner: a giant bagel sandwich, cole slaw, potato and macaroni salad, fruit salad, cookies and chocolates.
After we ate the "jury" convened to deliberate on whether the various characters in the Fitzgerald family acted ethically. For the most part, we favored Anna, the main character, who was created as a "designer baby" to be a perfect genetic match and therefore a stem cell donor for her older sister Kate, who had a rare and very dangerous form of leukemia. Most of us criticized the mother, Sara, for her obvious favoritism toward Kate to the exclusion of her two other children, Anna and Jesse. Anna was raised with the expectation that she would always be there to donate blood, bone marrow and even body parts to save her sister. Jesse, the oldest and the only male, has become so embittered by being pushed aside and treated as insignificant that he has resorted to drugs, stealing cars, and arson. The father, Brian, could be viewed as kinder to his youngest child than Sara, or else as passive, letting Sara make all the decisions and not putting in his two cents.
Some people felt that Sara was right to try and save Kate at all costs, even if it meant endangering Anna. Others felt Anna was right to bring a lawsuit for medical emancipation from her parents so that they could not coerce her into giving up a kidney for her sister. The discussion was lively and impassioned, and all sorts of moral criteria came to the fore.
It's a tough book to read, especially with the shocking and tragic ending. But the writing drew me in and I ended up reading it three times.This was an excellent evening, with lots of input from everyone. Our next book will be A Thousand Splendid Suns.
BHC Book Club: My Sister's Keeper
On Friday night the BHC Book Discussion Group met at Sheila's apartment to discuss My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. Sheila provided a delicious dinner: a giant bagel sandwich, cole slaw, potato and macaroni salad, fruit salad, cookies and chocolates.
After we ate the "jury" convened to deliberate on whether the various characters in the Fitzgerald family acted ethically. For the most part, we favored Anna, the main character, who was created as a "designer baby" to be a perfect genetic match and therefore a stem cell donor for her older sister Kate, who had a rare and very dangerous form of leukemia. Most of us criticized the mother, Sara, for her obvious favoritism toward Kate to the exclusion of her two other children, Anna and Jesse. Anna was raised with the expectation that she would always be there to donate blood, bone marrow and even body parts to save her sister. Jesse, the oldest and the only male, has become so embittered by being pushed aside and treated as insignificant that he has resorted to drugs, stealing cars, and arson. The father, Brian, could be viewed as kinder to his youngest child than Sara, or else as passive, letting Sara make all the decisions and not putting in his two cents.
Some people felt that Sara was right to try and save Kate at all costs, even if it meant endangering Anna. Others felt Anna was right to bring a lawsuit for medical emancipation from her parents so that they could not coerce her into giving up a kidney for her sister. The discussion was lively and impassioned, and all sorts of moral criteria came to the fore.
It's a tough book to read, especially with the shocking and tragic ending. But the writing drew me in and I ended up reading it three times.This was an excellent evening, with lots of input from everyone. Our next book will be A Thousand Splendid Suns.
A BHC Reflection on Freedom
Sunday, April 06, 2008
A BHC Reflection on Freedom
Last night we gathered at Rozanne and Michael's home in Park Slope for a Reflection. This was one of the best turnouts we've had so far. We had about 23 people. Rozanne made a "few simple things," and since she's an accomplished chef, they were absolutely wonderful. After we feasted Kurt led the reflection, based on this poem:
True Freedom
To laugh is to risk appearing the fool.
To weep is to risk being called sentimental.
To reach out to another is to risk involvement.
To expose feelings is to risk showing your true self.
To place your ideas and your dreams before a crowd
is to risk being called naive.
To love is to risk not being loved in return.
To live is to risk dying.
To hope is to risk despair, and to try is to risk failure.
But risks must be taken, because the greatest risk in life
is to risk nothing.
The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing, and becomes nothing.
He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot learn and feel and change and grow and love and live.
Chained by things that are certain, he is a slave.
He has forefeited his freedom.
Only the person who risks is truly free
.....Author Unknown
The discussion was excellent. At the end, we spoke about those we admire..risk takers or not. I said I admired Beth, who heard from her doctor that she shouldn't buy birthday candles..and every year that she survived, she sent the twit a box of birthday candles.
I liked Jason's story. He said that he admired an autistic boy he met at the stable, who hasn't spoken before but has started speaking there. He made everyone chuckle when he mentioned that the boy has recently started speaking to "a female."
It was great to see so many of us together again. Some of our events have been well attended, others not so much. This one drew a real crowd. Rozanne's home is a beautiful setting, a large brownstone with antique furnishings. There's a beautiful kimono hanging on the wall behind the piano. You would think it came straight from Japan but it was purchased in Kansas City. They have figurines that look like they came from Mexico or South America, and in the kitchen Rozanne has a collection of serving dishes mounted on the wall, each one different from the others.
The house is lovely, their adopted daughter is a lovely young lady, but it is their graciousness that makes it such an uplifting experience to be in their home. It was a great night, and everyone who attended contributed some unique thoughts. Ruth said something that stays in my mind: when asked about admiring someone who took a risk, she pointed out that as a group we took the risk of forming our own organization, and it is working!
Next we have to organize the Seder on the 25th. I'm going to start making calls tomorrow and get the ball rolling. That should be lots of fun! And it will revive a tradition that went by the wayside for so many years. We're going to revive them all! This was a successful and heartwarming event. There will be many more.
A BHC Reflection on Freedom
Last night we gathered at Rozanne and Michael's home in Park Slope for a Reflection. This was one of the best turnouts we've had so far. We had about 23 people. Rozanne made a "few simple things," and since she's an accomplished chef, they were absolutely wonderful. After we feasted Kurt led the reflection, based on this poem:
True Freedom
To laugh is to risk appearing the fool.
To weep is to risk being called sentimental.
To reach out to another is to risk involvement.
To expose feelings is to risk showing your true self.
To place your ideas and your dreams before a crowd
is to risk being called naive.
To love is to risk not being loved in return.
To live is to risk dying.
To hope is to risk despair, and to try is to risk failure.
But risks must be taken, because the greatest risk in life
is to risk nothing.
The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing, and becomes nothing.
He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot learn and feel and change and grow and love and live.
Chained by things that are certain, he is a slave.
He has forefeited his freedom.
Only the person who risks is truly free
.....Author Unknown
The discussion was excellent. At the end, we spoke about those we admire..risk takers or not. I said I admired Beth, who heard from her doctor that she shouldn't buy birthday candles..and every year that she survived, she sent the twit a box of birthday candles.
I liked Jason's story. He said that he admired an autistic boy he met at the stable, who hasn't spoken before but has started speaking there. He made everyone chuckle when he mentioned that the boy has recently started speaking to "a female."
It was great to see so many of us together again. Some of our events have been well attended, others not so much. This one drew a real crowd. Rozanne's home is a beautiful setting, a large brownstone with antique furnishings. There's a beautiful kimono hanging on the wall behind the piano. You would think it came straight from Japan but it was purchased in Kansas City. They have figurines that look like they came from Mexico or South America, and in the kitchen Rozanne has a collection of serving dishes mounted on the wall, each one different from the others.
The house is lovely, their adopted daughter is a lovely young lady, but it is their graciousness that makes it such an uplifting experience to be in their home. It was a great night, and everyone who attended contributed some unique thoughts. Ruth said something that stays in my mind: when asked about admiring someone who took a risk, she pointed out that as a group we took the risk of forming our own organization, and it is working!
Next we have to organize the Seder on the 25th. I'm going to start making calls tomorrow and get the ball rolling. That should be lots of fun! And it will revive a tradition that went by the wayside for so many years. We're going to revive them all! This was a successful and heartwarming event. There will be many more.
Women Who Changed My Life
I gave this talk at the Brooklyn Humanist Community meeting, March 16, 2008:
Women Who Changed My Life
Helen Keller: The first woman outside my family who made an impression on me was Helen Keller. It happened this way: when I was eight, my mother took me to see “State Fair” and “The Miracle Worker” as a double feature at Radio City Music Hall. She thought I would love “State Fair” and find “The Miracle Worker” too heavy. She was mistaken.
Halfway through “State Fair,” when the actors were singing some insipid song about an elephant on a revolving platform, I jumped out of my seat, put my hands on my skinny hips, and said loudly, “This movie is about absolutely nothing!” Then I sat down in a huff and endured the rest of the film in stony silence.
But when “The Miracle Worker” came onscreen, my whole attitude changed. I was fascinated by Helen. It amazed me that even before Anne Sullivan came to educate Helen, she had adapted herself so well to her surroundings. In her autobiography, Helen Keller mentioned her early childhood days and how she figured out how to steal keys and lock people into various rooms. She locked her mother into the pantry and when Anne Sullivan first arrived she locked her into her bedroom too.
Of course, an ordinary child would have been punished but because of her disabilities Helen was left undisciplined until Ms. Sullivan arrived. Helen described the amazing moment of enlightenment at the water pump when she realized that the letters Anne Sullivan spelled into her hand meant water, the cool liquid flowing over her fingers, and how she put it all together, saying her baby word, “Wa-wa,” over and over again.
Because I was such an avid reader, I identified with Helen’s giddy excitement as she rushed about asking Anne Sullivan the name of each object she touched. It reminded me of the rush of excitement I’d felt just 3 years earlier, when I suddenly realized I was able to read without sounding out the words on the page.
After the movie was over, I wanted to know more. I went to the library and checked out every book there was on Helen Keller. Also at that time, JFK was President, and some toy company came out with a doll called “Caroline” that bore some resemblance to Caroline Kennedy. I received this doll as a gift, possibly for my birthday.
But in my eyes, this doll was not the President’s daughter. She also bore a resemblance to Patty Duke in the role of Helen Keller. So I named her Helen, appointed myself Anne Sullivan, and learned the sign language alphabet (called, in those pre-PC days, the “deaf and dumb alphabet.”). My “Helen” was about three feet tall and her special feature was that she would walk if you led her by the hand. So I led “Helen” about and spelled words into her hand, just as I had seen Anne Sullivan do in the film.
I don’t know how long I persisted in this game with my “Helen Keller” doll but I do know that Helen Keller made a profound impression on me of someone who was handed massive obstacles and yet overcame them to put her mark on the world.
Several years later, I read a Reader’s Digest article by Helen Keller, describing in vivid detail what she would do if she were to receive the gift of sight and hearing for just 3 days. The article could have been, but was not, filled with poignant longing and self-pity. Instead, it was full of a reverence for the world of the senses. It was an inspiration and a reminder to appreciate the precious gifts of beauty we have access to just by virtune of being able to see and hear.
Things I learned about Helen Keller when I researched her recently didn’t quite penetrate into my awareness as a child. I had no understanding yet of what a feat it was for her to graduate from Radcliffe at the age of 24, only 17 years after she understood her first sign-language word! I didn’t realize what an accomplishment it was for her to learn to speak aloud words she could not hear, or to learn French, German, Latin and Greek in addition to English! So as I researched her, Helen Keller has continued to rise in my estimation. Finally, she devoted her life to traveling and speaking on behalf of the Foundation for the Blind. As someone who is very much interested in nonprofit work, I admire her for this as well.
Anne Frank: At first I hesitated to list Anne Frank as a woman who changed my life, because she was murdered in her teens and never became a grown woman. Nonetheless, the budding woman who left her legacy to the world had a profound influence on me.
I must have been 10 or 11 when I first read her diary. Wisely or unwisely, I had already been exposed to images and stories about the Holocaust, particularly at Jewish-run summer camps. In the mid-sixties, there was a definite focus on making sure that children born after World War II remembered the Nazi horror. So I don’t remember now whether I acted the part of Dussell, the old-fashioned and intolerant man who made it so difficult for Anne to sleep, before or after I first read her diary.
But I do know that I immediately fell in love with it. Horrible though their situation was, I found a certain romance in their Secret Annex and the measures they took to keep themselves from getting caught. I impressed my Barbie dolls into service and acted out scenes from the diary with them, with Barbie’s little sister Skipper playing the part of Anne.
I don’t know how many times I read Anne Frank’s diary while I was growing up. I do know she inspired me to start my own, in a daily planner bound as a hardcover book. Some days I had nothing to say, and it was hard to fill up that single page. As I grew older and had more to write about, I found the single page restrictive and sometimes my writing began to spill over onto the next page.
As I entered adolescence, I began to identify with Anne’s teenage struggles to find herself. Her fights with her mother mirrored mine even though the subject matter was surely different. She was critical of the Van Damm’s who shared their hiding place, especially Mrs. Van Damm, who, according to Anne, flirted openly with her father. As an early teen, I could well identify with the feeling of discovering the hypocrisy of the adult world. Growing up in the late sixties and early seventies, it seemed like the whole world was disgusted with the hypocrisy of previous generations.
But here came Anne’s one and only “love affair.” She and Peter both perished, and their brief happy time together turned out to be all they were ever going to get. If they were a little older, a little more rebellious it would have progressed further, and in a sense, why not? But they weren’t despairing. Anne was able to look out at her little strip of sky, all she could see of the outside world, and still have hope that the war would end, that persecution would end, and that she would live out her life in peace.
That didn’t happen, of course. The families were captured and of them all, only her father survived. By a remarkable stroke of luck, Anne’s diary was not destroyed when she was arrested, and that’s why we all know the inspiring story of the young woman who never got to be an adult, yet gave the world the gift of her optimism and courage.
Sometimes I wonder about Anne Frank. Suppose she had escaped and lived to a ripe old age. She might still be alive today. Would she have placed her mark on the world? Was she exceptional in her optimism and faith in humanity despite the horrors happening around her? Or would any other teenager under similar circumstances react the same way?
In fact we know that many people did not react the same way. Depression and suicide was not unusual at that time. In 1998 we visited my cousins, New York transplants living in the Netherlands since 1969. One day Fran took us to a Jewish cemetery in Wassenaar and pointed out that there was a jump in the number of headstones with death dates during the World War II period. Apparently many Jews, expecting the worst and not wanting to allow their fates to rest in hostile hands, committed suicide as the Nazis invaded the Netherlands.
But despite the deprivations, the days of sitting in silence lest the office workers below hear a floor creak above their heads, and the ever-present fear of being caught, Anne never expressed suicidal thoughts. Instead, she and her sister dutifully educated themselves and prepared for an adulthood after the war, an adulthood that never came. How many of us could stick to our lessons under similar circumstances? Wouldn’t it seem futile? And yet they persevered.
Also on that visit to the Netherlands, our very first stop was at the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam. We got to climb up into the Secret Annex, which is now preserved as a museum, even to the postcards and pictures of movie stars that Anne and Margot kept on the wall. I was emotionally touched to be standing in the very rooms I’d read about so many years ago. I can’t say I felt Anne’s presence, but I felt as if the walls remembered her.
Anne Frank’s experiences and her belief in the goodness of humanity influenced me profoundly and started me on a lifetime of journaling, even though I have destroyed some of those journals. I owe her a great debt for being such an inspiration to me, and honor her as a “woman who changed my life.”
Jane Goodall: I was on my way to an interest in anthropology before I ever heard of Jane Goodall, but she was a major influence on me nevertheless.
As a child I developed an early interest in science. I read books about astronomy, and also about Earth’s pre-history. The development of life and the various stages of evolution that plants and animals went through in order to become what they are today fascinated me. So I read books about the dinosaurs, their environment, and the discovery of their bones.
This led me into reading books on human evolution. I read about Lucy, about Peking man, about Dart’s baby. I knew the names of the various species of hominids, knew their eras, and knew their tools and other artifacts. I was fascinated by the cave paintings and the ritual burials, heralding the dawn of a religion. I also was intrigued by the split off of humans from the other primates.
Although we did not yet know just how closely related humans and chimpanzees are, sharing over 98% of the same genes, in the 1960’s we did know that chimps are our closest animal relatives. So in 1966, when I heard there was going to be a National Geographic special on Jane Goodall, a young Englishwoman who went out to the African jungles to study chimps, I had to watch.
I was captivated immediately by Jane Goodall’s fearlessness and her intimate knowledge of the chimps. She actually gave them names, coded by letter for each family. Thus Flo, Freud, and Frodo were all of the same family line. She found a way to categorize the family groups and yet respect their individual personalities. This earned her the ridicule of many scientists who wanted to keep their distance from their animal subjects. Jane Goodall appeared on the cover of National Geographic, something that “serious scientists” never did. This earned her more ridicule, and remarks about “Blondes in the Jungle” began floating around.
Yet, Jane Goodall made discoveries that caused us to redefine our concept of what it means to be human. In the early sixties, she observed chimpanzees not only using tools but modifying natural objects to better suit their purposes. She saw chimps using thin sticks to poke into termite holes, and then withdraw them with termites clinging to them, for a tasty treat. Not only that but she also observed them stripping the twigs of leaves so they would better fit down the termite holes. So, this young woman who grew up in modest circumstances and had only a high school diploma when she began her fieldwork, revolutionized primatology as we know it today.
Later on, Jane Goodall went on to achieve a Ph.D. and to found the Jane Goodall Institute. In her seventies now, she still travels the world for an exhausting 50 weeks a year, speaking on behalf of her beloved chimps, animal rights, impoverished people, and the environment. For two weeks each year, she takes a “vacation” in the Gombe where she first began her studies, refreshing and renewing her spirit.
Dr. Goodall has faced other turning points in her life. In “Through a Glass, Darkly,” she records later observations of chimps that revealed their dark side. In short, chimps, especially young male chimps, make war on their own kind, maiming and killing chimps from other troops. Even female chimps can be killers, sometimes slaying and eating a rival’s infants. This discovery put her at odds with much of the scientific world, that did not want to hear that the human propensity for cruelty and violence may be imprinted in our genes. In her spiritual memoirs, “Reason for Hope,” Dr. Goodall gives us insight into the spiritual struggle she went through while absorbing this unwanted information.
Yet Jane Goodall does find reason for hope, and she finds it in youth. Through the Jane Goodall Institute she has founded Roots and Shoots, which engages young people around the world, from preschoolers to college students, in projects to benefit animals, impoverished peoples, and the environment. As Jane Goodall says, she can’t save the whole world, and these groups of young people are doing the work that she cannot. Yet, she firmly believes that every one of us can make a discernible difference in making the world a better place.
Jane Goodall’s influence led me into majoring in anthropology. I had visions of going on fossil digs, until I realized that one scorpion or one hideously large insect would send me fleeing homeward on the next plane. But all my life I have admired and respected Jane Goodall for what she has accomplished, armed at first with only a high school degree, secretarial training, and a huge helping of courage and compassion. She has spent 50 years following her dream of a better world with kindness for all earth’s creatures.
Jane Goodall is the only one of these 3 women I had the privilege of meeting in person, at Danbury Connecticut last April. It was a peak moment for me to be able to tell her that when I had breast cancer, I put seeing her in person on my “bucket list” and how happy I was to finally speak to her in person as she autographed one of her books for me.
It would not be fair to praise these three outstanding women without mentioning the women who stood behind them. For Helen Keller, it was Anne Sullivan’s love, perseverance and dedication that made it possible to become her best self. For Anne Frank, it was the courage of Miep Geis, a Dutch woman who brought necessities to Anne Frank and her family and helped them to escape detection as long as they did. For Jane Goodall, it was her mother, Vanne Goodall, who accompanied Jane into the bush for the first months of her fieldwork, when Tanzanian officials would not permit a lone woman to camp there. They, too, deserve to be honored during Women’s History Month.
All three women, Helen Keller, Anne Frank, and Jane Goodall, came to my attention and earned my admiration while I was still a child. Today, I still admire them for their determination, their bravery, their compassion, and their hope. They have influenced me in ways I had not examined closely before deciding to make this presentation, and it is my pleasure to bring their stories to you. Thank you.
Women Who Changed My Life
Helen Keller: The first woman outside my family who made an impression on me was Helen Keller. It happened this way: when I was eight, my mother took me to see “State Fair” and “The Miracle Worker” as a double feature at Radio City Music Hall. She thought I would love “State Fair” and find “The Miracle Worker” too heavy. She was mistaken.
Halfway through “State Fair,” when the actors were singing some insipid song about an elephant on a revolving platform, I jumped out of my seat, put my hands on my skinny hips, and said loudly, “This movie is about absolutely nothing!” Then I sat down in a huff and endured the rest of the film in stony silence.
But when “The Miracle Worker” came onscreen, my whole attitude changed. I was fascinated by Helen. It amazed me that even before Anne Sullivan came to educate Helen, she had adapted herself so well to her surroundings. In her autobiography, Helen Keller mentioned her early childhood days and how she figured out how to steal keys and lock people into various rooms. She locked her mother into the pantry and when Anne Sullivan first arrived she locked her into her bedroom too.
Of course, an ordinary child would have been punished but because of her disabilities Helen was left undisciplined until Ms. Sullivan arrived. Helen described the amazing moment of enlightenment at the water pump when she realized that the letters Anne Sullivan spelled into her hand meant water, the cool liquid flowing over her fingers, and how she put it all together, saying her baby word, “Wa-wa,” over and over again.
Because I was such an avid reader, I identified with Helen’s giddy excitement as she rushed about asking Anne Sullivan the name of each object she touched. It reminded me of the rush of excitement I’d felt just 3 years earlier, when I suddenly realized I was able to read without sounding out the words on the page.
After the movie was over, I wanted to know more. I went to the library and checked out every book there was on Helen Keller. Also at that time, JFK was President, and some toy company came out with a doll called “Caroline” that bore some resemblance to Caroline Kennedy. I received this doll as a gift, possibly for my birthday.
But in my eyes, this doll was not the President’s daughter. She also bore a resemblance to Patty Duke in the role of Helen Keller. So I named her Helen, appointed myself Anne Sullivan, and learned the sign language alphabet (called, in those pre-PC days, the “deaf and dumb alphabet.”). My “Helen” was about three feet tall and her special feature was that she would walk if you led her by the hand. So I led “Helen” about and spelled words into her hand, just as I had seen Anne Sullivan do in the film.
I don’t know how long I persisted in this game with my “Helen Keller” doll but I do know that Helen Keller made a profound impression on me of someone who was handed massive obstacles and yet overcame them to put her mark on the world.
Several years later, I read a Reader’s Digest article by Helen Keller, describing in vivid detail what she would do if she were to receive the gift of sight and hearing for just 3 days. The article could have been, but was not, filled with poignant longing and self-pity. Instead, it was full of a reverence for the world of the senses. It was an inspiration and a reminder to appreciate the precious gifts of beauty we have access to just by virtune of being able to see and hear.
Things I learned about Helen Keller when I researched her recently didn’t quite penetrate into my awareness as a child. I had no understanding yet of what a feat it was for her to graduate from Radcliffe at the age of 24, only 17 years after she understood her first sign-language word! I didn’t realize what an accomplishment it was for her to learn to speak aloud words she could not hear, or to learn French, German, Latin and Greek in addition to English! So as I researched her, Helen Keller has continued to rise in my estimation. Finally, she devoted her life to traveling and speaking on behalf of the Foundation for the Blind. As someone who is very much interested in nonprofit work, I admire her for this as well.
Anne Frank: At first I hesitated to list Anne Frank as a woman who changed my life, because she was murdered in her teens and never became a grown woman. Nonetheless, the budding woman who left her legacy to the world had a profound influence on me.
I must have been 10 or 11 when I first read her diary. Wisely or unwisely, I had already been exposed to images and stories about the Holocaust, particularly at Jewish-run summer camps. In the mid-sixties, there was a definite focus on making sure that children born after World War II remembered the Nazi horror. So I don’t remember now whether I acted the part of Dussell, the old-fashioned and intolerant man who made it so difficult for Anne to sleep, before or after I first read her diary.
But I do know that I immediately fell in love with it. Horrible though their situation was, I found a certain romance in their Secret Annex and the measures they took to keep themselves from getting caught. I impressed my Barbie dolls into service and acted out scenes from the diary with them, with Barbie’s little sister Skipper playing the part of Anne.
I don’t know how many times I read Anne Frank’s diary while I was growing up. I do know she inspired me to start my own, in a daily planner bound as a hardcover book. Some days I had nothing to say, and it was hard to fill up that single page. As I grew older and had more to write about, I found the single page restrictive and sometimes my writing began to spill over onto the next page.
As I entered adolescence, I began to identify with Anne’s teenage struggles to find herself. Her fights with her mother mirrored mine even though the subject matter was surely different. She was critical of the Van Damm’s who shared their hiding place, especially Mrs. Van Damm, who, according to Anne, flirted openly with her father. As an early teen, I could well identify with the feeling of discovering the hypocrisy of the adult world. Growing up in the late sixties and early seventies, it seemed like the whole world was disgusted with the hypocrisy of previous generations.
But here came Anne’s one and only “love affair.” She and Peter both perished, and their brief happy time together turned out to be all they were ever going to get. If they were a little older, a little more rebellious it would have progressed further, and in a sense, why not? But they weren’t despairing. Anne was able to look out at her little strip of sky, all she could see of the outside world, and still have hope that the war would end, that persecution would end, and that she would live out her life in peace.
That didn’t happen, of course. The families were captured and of them all, only her father survived. By a remarkable stroke of luck, Anne’s diary was not destroyed when she was arrested, and that’s why we all know the inspiring story of the young woman who never got to be an adult, yet gave the world the gift of her optimism and courage.
Sometimes I wonder about Anne Frank. Suppose she had escaped and lived to a ripe old age. She might still be alive today. Would she have placed her mark on the world? Was she exceptional in her optimism and faith in humanity despite the horrors happening around her? Or would any other teenager under similar circumstances react the same way?
In fact we know that many people did not react the same way. Depression and suicide was not unusual at that time. In 1998 we visited my cousins, New York transplants living in the Netherlands since 1969. One day Fran took us to a Jewish cemetery in Wassenaar and pointed out that there was a jump in the number of headstones with death dates during the World War II period. Apparently many Jews, expecting the worst and not wanting to allow their fates to rest in hostile hands, committed suicide as the Nazis invaded the Netherlands.
But despite the deprivations, the days of sitting in silence lest the office workers below hear a floor creak above their heads, and the ever-present fear of being caught, Anne never expressed suicidal thoughts. Instead, she and her sister dutifully educated themselves and prepared for an adulthood after the war, an adulthood that never came. How many of us could stick to our lessons under similar circumstances? Wouldn’t it seem futile? And yet they persevered.
Also on that visit to the Netherlands, our very first stop was at the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam. We got to climb up into the Secret Annex, which is now preserved as a museum, even to the postcards and pictures of movie stars that Anne and Margot kept on the wall. I was emotionally touched to be standing in the very rooms I’d read about so many years ago. I can’t say I felt Anne’s presence, but I felt as if the walls remembered her.
Anne Frank’s experiences and her belief in the goodness of humanity influenced me profoundly and started me on a lifetime of journaling, even though I have destroyed some of those journals. I owe her a great debt for being such an inspiration to me, and honor her as a “woman who changed my life.”
Jane Goodall: I was on my way to an interest in anthropology before I ever heard of Jane Goodall, but she was a major influence on me nevertheless.
As a child I developed an early interest in science. I read books about astronomy, and also about Earth’s pre-history. The development of life and the various stages of evolution that plants and animals went through in order to become what they are today fascinated me. So I read books about the dinosaurs, their environment, and the discovery of their bones.
This led me into reading books on human evolution. I read about Lucy, about Peking man, about Dart’s baby. I knew the names of the various species of hominids, knew their eras, and knew their tools and other artifacts. I was fascinated by the cave paintings and the ritual burials, heralding the dawn of a religion. I also was intrigued by the split off of humans from the other primates.
Although we did not yet know just how closely related humans and chimpanzees are, sharing over 98% of the same genes, in the 1960’s we did know that chimps are our closest animal relatives. So in 1966, when I heard there was going to be a National Geographic special on Jane Goodall, a young Englishwoman who went out to the African jungles to study chimps, I had to watch.
I was captivated immediately by Jane Goodall’s fearlessness and her intimate knowledge of the chimps. She actually gave them names, coded by letter for each family. Thus Flo, Freud, and Frodo were all of the same family line. She found a way to categorize the family groups and yet respect their individual personalities. This earned her the ridicule of many scientists who wanted to keep their distance from their animal subjects. Jane Goodall appeared on the cover of National Geographic, something that “serious scientists” never did. This earned her more ridicule, and remarks about “Blondes in the Jungle” began floating around.
Yet, Jane Goodall made discoveries that caused us to redefine our concept of what it means to be human. In the early sixties, she observed chimpanzees not only using tools but modifying natural objects to better suit their purposes. She saw chimps using thin sticks to poke into termite holes, and then withdraw them with termites clinging to them, for a tasty treat. Not only that but she also observed them stripping the twigs of leaves so they would better fit down the termite holes. So, this young woman who grew up in modest circumstances and had only a high school diploma when she began her fieldwork, revolutionized primatology as we know it today.
Later on, Jane Goodall went on to achieve a Ph.D. and to found the Jane Goodall Institute. In her seventies now, she still travels the world for an exhausting 50 weeks a year, speaking on behalf of her beloved chimps, animal rights, impoverished people, and the environment. For two weeks each year, she takes a “vacation” in the Gombe where she first began her studies, refreshing and renewing her spirit.
Dr. Goodall has faced other turning points in her life. In “Through a Glass, Darkly,” she records later observations of chimps that revealed their dark side. In short, chimps, especially young male chimps, make war on their own kind, maiming and killing chimps from other troops. Even female chimps can be killers, sometimes slaying and eating a rival’s infants. This discovery put her at odds with much of the scientific world, that did not want to hear that the human propensity for cruelty and violence may be imprinted in our genes. In her spiritual memoirs, “Reason for Hope,” Dr. Goodall gives us insight into the spiritual struggle she went through while absorbing this unwanted information.
Yet Jane Goodall does find reason for hope, and she finds it in youth. Through the Jane Goodall Institute she has founded Roots and Shoots, which engages young people around the world, from preschoolers to college students, in projects to benefit animals, impoverished peoples, and the environment. As Jane Goodall says, she can’t save the whole world, and these groups of young people are doing the work that she cannot. Yet, she firmly believes that every one of us can make a discernible difference in making the world a better place.
Jane Goodall’s influence led me into majoring in anthropology. I had visions of going on fossil digs, until I realized that one scorpion or one hideously large insect would send me fleeing homeward on the next plane. But all my life I have admired and respected Jane Goodall for what she has accomplished, armed at first with only a high school degree, secretarial training, and a huge helping of courage and compassion. She has spent 50 years following her dream of a better world with kindness for all earth’s creatures.
Jane Goodall is the only one of these 3 women I had the privilege of meeting in person, at Danbury Connecticut last April. It was a peak moment for me to be able to tell her that when I had breast cancer, I put seeing her in person on my “bucket list” and how happy I was to finally speak to her in person as she autographed one of her books for me.
It would not be fair to praise these three outstanding women without mentioning the women who stood behind them. For Helen Keller, it was Anne Sullivan’s love, perseverance and dedication that made it possible to become her best self. For Anne Frank, it was the courage of Miep Geis, a Dutch woman who brought necessities to Anne Frank and her family and helped them to escape detection as long as they did. For Jane Goodall, it was her mother, Vanne Goodall, who accompanied Jane into the bush for the first months of her fieldwork, when Tanzanian officials would not permit a lone woman to camp there. They, too, deserve to be honored during Women’s History Month.
All three women, Helen Keller, Anne Frank, and Jane Goodall, came to my attention and earned my admiration while I was still a child. Today, I still admire them for their determination, their bravery, their compassion, and their hope. They have influenced me in ways I had not examined closely before deciding to make this presentation, and it is my pleasure to bring their stories to you. Thank you.
BHC Program on Journaling
Friday, February 22, 2008
BHC Program on Journaling
Last Sunday we had a BHC program on journaling. Roger gave it, with his desultory storytelling style. Sometimes he digressed off the topic but he was speaking of his own memories, some of which very definitely should end up in a journal of some kind.
I mentioned that journaling has been shown to help women with metastatic breast cancer survive longer, and that it can be helpful in all kinds of ways. I also mentioned blogs and the ease of keeping a journal online, protected by passwords or other types of privacy if necessary. What I like about online blogs is that they can be embellished by photos and links to other websites, and now even videos (though, I don't anticipate putting videos on this blog anytime soon).
I mentioned also the most famous diary in the world, Anne Frank's. It was Anne Frank's diary that introduced me to the concept and gave me the idea to keep my own. Her diary shed light on the Holocaust, even if there are some anti-semitic liars who want to deny it ever happened. It also showed me that in other times and places, and even under the most difficult of circumstances, a teenage girl was a teenage girl. She fought with her mother and favored her father, and had her first (and only) love affair with the boy upstairs.
I've kept diaries on and off since I was 11 years old, and I've destroyed quite a few of them. A few years ago I destroyed hundreds and hundreds of pages, ripping them up in a Burger King, because I was afraid someone would find them and read them someday. Now I keep a blog that is open to the public, go figure!
Sometimes I've kept specialized journals, a travel journal for instance. Another example would be the journal I kept when I was pregnant, for a psychology experiment. The purpose was to explore bonding between the mother and unborn child, and whether a difficult pregnancy would interfere with it. I did have a difficult pregnancy so maybe I didn't bond optimally with Jason before he was born but I feel I bonded with him just fine afterwards.
I have so many memories and should probably try to put them into a book. Or, I could write them as separate articles and try to publish them, like "Mom's Egg Creams." That's another thing on my to-do list, write my memoirs. I think everyone should journal, because we've all got a story to tell.
This was an excellent and thought-provoking topic that has inspired me to come back to writing my experiences as I used to.
BHC Program on Journaling
Last Sunday we had a BHC program on journaling. Roger gave it, with his desultory storytelling style. Sometimes he digressed off the topic but he was speaking of his own memories, some of which very definitely should end up in a journal of some kind.
I mentioned that journaling has been shown to help women with metastatic breast cancer survive longer, and that it can be helpful in all kinds of ways. I also mentioned blogs and the ease of keeping a journal online, protected by passwords or other types of privacy if necessary. What I like about online blogs is that they can be embellished by photos and links to other websites, and now even videos (though, I don't anticipate putting videos on this blog anytime soon).
I mentioned also the most famous diary in the world, Anne Frank's. It was Anne Frank's diary that introduced me to the concept and gave me the idea to keep my own. Her diary shed light on the Holocaust, even if there are some anti-semitic liars who want to deny it ever happened. It also showed me that in other times and places, and even under the most difficult of circumstances, a teenage girl was a teenage girl. She fought with her mother and favored her father, and had her first (and only) love affair with the boy upstairs.
I've kept diaries on and off since I was 11 years old, and I've destroyed quite a few of them. A few years ago I destroyed hundreds and hundreds of pages, ripping them up in a Burger King, because I was afraid someone would find them and read them someday. Now I keep a blog that is open to the public, go figure!
Sometimes I've kept specialized journals, a travel journal for instance. Another example would be the journal I kept when I was pregnant, for a psychology experiment. The purpose was to explore bonding between the mother and unborn child, and whether a difficult pregnancy would interfere with it. I did have a difficult pregnancy so maybe I didn't bond optimally with Jason before he was born but I feel I bonded with him just fine afterwards.
I have so many memories and should probably try to put them into a book. Or, I could write them as separate articles and try to publish them, like "Mom's Egg Creams." That's another thing on my to-do list, write my memoirs. I think everyone should journal, because we've all got a story to tell.
This was an excellent and thought-provoking topic that has inspired me to come back to writing my experiences as I used to.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Another Great Evening with the BHC
Last night we had another great evening with our friends from the Brooklyn Humanist Community. We met at Robin and Michael's apartment in Kensington. It's one of those great old buildings, probably dates back to the 1930's, with some lovely detail in the rooms that you never see nowadays. Archways, glass doorknobs, etc. Robin and Michael have two beautiful cats, an orange one and a dark silver tabby with quite a voice. They are both adorable but Falstaff (the tabby) is a real lover.
We got underway a bit late since a few people had a hard time getting there. The potluck dinner was terrific: a huge salad, vegetable lasagne, and a yummy pasta salad with roasted pine nuts on top. For dessert we had strawberry shortcake with a heart shaped cookie in honor of Valentine's Day.
The topic was "Moral Ideals," and the discussion as usual was broad-ranging. Because we started late and spent a good deal of time on the first six paragraphs of the chapter, Kurt decided we would finish up the discussion on the rest of the chapter at next month's Reflection.
It wasn't so much the words that were said but the warmth that was felt in that room.
At the final go-around everyone mentioned that warm feeling and how much we care for one another. I'd like to see us grow and expand but if we never do, we'll still have each other. And that's wonderful.
Another Great Evening with the BHC
Last night we had another great evening with our friends from the Brooklyn Humanist Community. We met at Robin and Michael's apartment in Kensington. It's one of those great old buildings, probably dates back to the 1930's, with some lovely detail in the rooms that you never see nowadays. Archways, glass doorknobs, etc. Robin and Michael have two beautiful cats, an orange one and a dark silver tabby with quite a voice. They are both adorable but Falstaff (the tabby) is a real lover.
We got underway a bit late since a few people had a hard time getting there. The potluck dinner was terrific: a huge salad, vegetable lasagne, and a yummy pasta salad with roasted pine nuts on top. For dessert we had strawberry shortcake with a heart shaped cookie in honor of Valentine's Day.
The topic was "Moral Ideals," and the discussion as usual was broad-ranging. Because we started late and spent a good deal of time on the first six paragraphs of the chapter, Kurt decided we would finish up the discussion on the rest of the chapter at next month's Reflection.
It wasn't so much the words that were said but the warmth that was felt in that room.
At the final go-around everyone mentioned that warm feeling and how much we care for one another. I'd like to see us grow and expand but if we never do, we'll still have each other. And that's wonderful.
Brooklyn Humanist Community is Cookin'!
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Brooklyn Humanist Community is Cookin'!
This past weekend we had not one program but two! We gathered at Maureen's on Saturday evening and discussed the Big Questions. Some of us wanted to know the meaning of life. Others were concerned with relationships, and still others with world events and how we can affect them.
Together we wove a lovely tapestry of ideas and enjoyed the warmth and spiritual uplift of these Reflection conversations, led by Dr. Kurt Johnson. This is a circle of friends and we have known some of them for 20 years, and I'm just so glad that we are able to continue to meet with them and do constructive things, hold discussions, maybe branch out into some kind of ethical action, and most important, keep our friendships with them intact and growing.
The next day we had a program at the Brooklyn Public Library Kensington branch. The theme was Giving. Adriana spoke about Bill Clinton's book, Giving and about the things some of the wealthiest people are doing to make a better world. Tony read The Giving Tree, which brought him to tears. It is a sweet story of a completely unselfish tree that gives everything she has to a little boy who seems to always be asking for something. I actually think it is a model of too much giving but perhaps the tree is a parent. In that case its excessive giving makes some sense, though even parents have to eventually draw the line and get a child to move out, get a job, and do things for himself.
I discussed Rambam's Ladder, Maimonides' 8 step hierarchy of giving, climbing up toward righteousness. He placed giving begrudgingly on the lowest step of the ladder, and giving a poor person the wherewithal to pull himself out of poverty (for instance helping him find a job) as the highest form of charity. Just below the highest form of "teaching a man to fish" is completely anonymous giving. I discussed Maimonides' ideas from the viewpoint of a modern fundraiser and showed where his ideas fit in and where they clash with what we know about the psychology of giving. My audience was entertained by the "Vampires and Charity" story, where a scientist observed that vampire bats sometimes drink more blood than they need and then will give it away to other bats, but only when asked, and mostly only to those bats who have given them blood in the past. (Tony interjected that this is how the Red Cross got started, which cracked everyone up).
At the end I showed them the photo of the young man from Boston who was panhandling near Faneuil Hall last summer. His sign read, "I need a hooker and a beer." I asked whether his cause was worthy and whether anyone would donate to him. In fact, because he was up front about his wishes and wasn't trying to fool anyone, I gave him a dollar and took his picture.
We have a planning meeting on Dec. 2nd, another program on Dec. 16th, a Reflection on the 22nd, and a book club discussion on January 6th. We also have a Winter Party coming up on Jan. 12th. So for a tiny group of about 22 people with only 10-12 active members, we are really going places and doing things. I hope it will grow but in the meantime I am happy that such a small group is able to accomplish so much.
Brooklyn Humanist Community is Cookin'!
This past weekend we had not one program but two! We gathered at Maureen's on Saturday evening and discussed the Big Questions. Some of us wanted to know the meaning of life. Others were concerned with relationships, and still others with world events and how we can affect them.
Together we wove a lovely tapestry of ideas and enjoyed the warmth and spiritual uplift of these Reflection conversations, led by Dr. Kurt Johnson. This is a circle of friends and we have known some of them for 20 years, and I'm just so glad that we are able to continue to meet with them and do constructive things, hold discussions, maybe branch out into some kind of ethical action, and most important, keep our friendships with them intact and growing.
The next day we had a program at the Brooklyn Public Library Kensington branch. The theme was Giving. Adriana spoke about Bill Clinton's book, Giving and about the things some of the wealthiest people are doing to make a better world. Tony read The Giving Tree, which brought him to tears. It is a sweet story of a completely unselfish tree that gives everything she has to a little boy who seems to always be asking for something. I actually think it is a model of too much giving but perhaps the tree is a parent. In that case its excessive giving makes some sense, though even parents have to eventually draw the line and get a child to move out, get a job, and do things for himself.
I discussed Rambam's Ladder, Maimonides' 8 step hierarchy of giving, climbing up toward righteousness. He placed giving begrudgingly on the lowest step of the ladder, and giving a poor person the wherewithal to pull himself out of poverty (for instance helping him find a job) as the highest form of charity. Just below the highest form of "teaching a man to fish" is completely anonymous giving. I discussed Maimonides' ideas from the viewpoint of a modern fundraiser and showed where his ideas fit in and where they clash with what we know about the psychology of giving. My audience was entertained by the "Vampires and Charity" story, where a scientist observed that vampire bats sometimes drink more blood than they need and then will give it away to other bats, but only when asked, and mostly only to those bats who have given them blood in the past. (Tony interjected that this is how the Red Cross got started, which cracked everyone up).
At the end I showed them the photo of the young man from Boston who was panhandling near Faneuil Hall last summer. His sign read, "I need a hooker and a beer." I asked whether his cause was worthy and whether anyone would donate to him. In fact, because he was up front about his wishes and wasn't trying to fool anyone, I gave him a dollar and took his picture.
We have a planning meeting on Dec. 2nd, another program on Dec. 16th, a Reflection on the 22nd, and a book club discussion on January 6th. We also have a Winter Party coming up on Jan. 12th. So for a tiny group of about 22 people with only 10-12 active members, we are really going places and doing things. I hope it will grow but in the meantime I am happy that such a small group is able to accomplish so much.
First Meeting of the "New Society"
Sunday, August 12, 2007
First Meeting of the "New Society"
Rick Blaine: We'll always have Paris. We didn't have, we, we lost it until you came to Casablanca. We got it back last night.
We got it back last night, too. We got back the feelings we used to have when we put our energies together to work toward a goal and went for it. We got back the feeling of being trusted, of being heard.
It was wonderful to sit in a circle of friends again and feel that respect and trust, and the willingness of people to start something new and build it up.
I felt like we were all midwives, birthing a newborn organization. And in fact we were. The baby hasn't got a name yet, and doesn't know what it will be when it grows up. But it was born last night and has about 20 loving and caring parents standing ready to nurture its growth. What an excellent start.
We've already got 3 reflections groups planned and a second planning meeting for September. I've volunteered for a task force and at least one of the committees. Looks to me like we are ready!
First Meeting of the "New Society"
Rick Blaine: We'll always have Paris. We didn't have, we, we lost it until you came to Casablanca. We got it back last night.
We got it back last night, too. We got back the feelings we used to have when we put our energies together to work toward a goal and went for it. We got back the feeling of being trusted, of being heard.
It was wonderful to sit in a circle of friends again and feel that respect and trust, and the willingness of people to start something new and build it up.
I felt like we were all midwives, birthing a newborn organization. And in fact we were. The baby hasn't got a name yet, and doesn't know what it will be when it grows up. But it was born last night and has about 20 loving and caring parents standing ready to nurture its growth. What an excellent start.
We've already got 3 reflections groups planned and a second planning meeting for September. I've volunteered for a task force and at least one of the committees. Looks to me like we are ready!
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