Thursday, March 26, 2009

Another Man Done Gone

What a difficult week. This head is a refrain from a famous Odetta folk song and that's how I feel learning that worker and folklorist Archie Green has died at 91. I recommend his "Only A Miner", stories and songs of the mines, and this post from the rural blog Daily Yonder: http://www.dailyyonder.com/archie-green-1917-2009-called-labor/2009/03/24/2015

A Wonderful Mentor is Gone

Professor John Hope Franklin has died at the age of 94. It wasn't as if I didn't know that one day age would catch up with him. But if anyone should have been granted immortality, it would be Dr. Franklin. His writing of history blazed new trails, as did his life. http://www.duke.edu/johnhopefranklin/ I was privileged to be a student during his tenure as Chair of the History Department of Brooklyn College. He defended me when an overzealous President tried to suspend me for my civil rights work. He recognized me many, many years later when he gave the Jefferson Lecture at the Library of Congress. We met on and off in DC over the years. I grew through his books and public statements. He created an intelligent awareness of the debilitating heritage of slavery and discrimination from which our entire nation suffers. Everyone should read his book: "Mirror to America" (an autobiography).

Sunday, March 22, 2009

What a Great Party!

Our children (all adults) and grandsons put on a wonderful celebration in our old neighborhood in DC at a wonderful new restaurant. We had many of our oldest friends and neighbors along with new friends from Pennsylvania. Good food, fun conversation and a delightful celebration of our anniversary (40) and my birthday (not talking). You'll get a hint from the poem that follows. We can only say than you, thank you, and thank you again for the party to our kids!

I’ve stayed at sixty much too long
Hugging the walls of the decade
Reluctantly changing the number on the door each year as I passed through
Looking backward at what might have been, should have been,
Sadly remembering the ones who have gone, missing their solace,
their knowledge, their balm.

But now it’s time to take a giant stride into the waters that remain
(As if I had a choice)
Admit myself into the next house, the next street,
Allow myself to ricochet from one year to the next like a piece in a pinball machine
Just hoping that I’ll win the game, not fame, just time

Thursday, March 19, 2009

It's Spring Again!

This year my vegetable and flower beds are in better shape thanks to more careful fall cleanup by my daughter and son-in-law, and of course my grandsons. I've added some mulch to the beds and started some seeds. The little green guys are sticking their heads up and soon there will be daffodils. I already have enjoyed the white snow bells and the brilliant but tiny blue scilla siberica. I'll put my peas and garlic in next week when the soil dries out a little more. The Philadelpha garden show was definately an inspiration even though I know I'll never have the displays and elegant designs they featured. It does make you aspire to be a better gardener.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

On the Generosity of Friends

“Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.” Martin Luther King, Jr.

We have recently been the beneficiaries of extremely generous acts by a friend of ours. She likes to drive, it's true, but she'd gone beyond the call to drive us to and from an airport more than four hours away. She's driven a group of us from Greencastle to Philadelphia for the flower show. She's a wonderful friend. I greatly appreciate her gifts. Her actions make me think of this quote from Dr. King. This commentary on personal altruism holds true for politics as well.

Each member of society must decide whether or not they will advocate the generous policy that helps everyone or,instead, demand the lowest taxes, the most mean spirited programs, and the least communitarian solution to our problems. As for me I was raised by my parents to believe that our work on earth is to make a change for the better, no matter how small. I'll continue to try.