John recently alerted me to a PBS News Hour interview that my brother’s friend Paul Solman conducted with Rosa Finnegan, an enthusiastic 100-year-old worker. That reminded me that I had purchased the September 3 issue of the Christian Science Monitor Weekly largely because that lovely lady was on the cover.
The lead article had an intriguing title and blurb: “The silver-collar economy — More companies are hiring people 65 and older because they believe they are reliable and productive, while the seniors themselves need and want to work. But is the trend squeezing out young people?”
It interested me because I’m an older worker who is not tired of working. I don’t know if all young people feel squeezed out, but just yesterday, a young employee asked a friend of mine, “Are you thinking of retirement? You’ve been here a long time.” My friend made a polite rejoinder about loving the work and the people and not making any plans to leave.
She has many productive years ahead of her.
Mark Trumbull writes of Rosa Finnegan that she “has plenty of similarities with other wage-earning Americans. She hitches rides in with a co-worker, likes to joke around with colleagues, and feels very grateful to have her job. At the end of the day, she’s ready to sink into a cushy chair at home.
“But Mrs. Finnegan is also a trailblazer. She offers striking proof that employment and productive activity need not end when the so-called retirement years arrive. Let’s put it this way: Where many people now nearing retirement can recall Sputnik, civil rights protests, or the pitching wizardry of Sandy Koufax, she mentions memories of gas-lit streets, the spread of telephones, and working at a rubber plant during World War II.
“Having passed her 100th birthday this year, Finnegan is still working at a needle factory in [Needham, Mass.], helping to make and package the stainless-steel products in custom batches. Yes, she walks a bit more slowly now than many of her co-workers. But Rosa, as they all call her, still has willing hands and a nimble mind. And she has no desire to leave her job.
” ‘I’d rather be here than almost anywhere,’ she says. ‘You feel like you’re still a worthwhile person, even though you’re old – [you’re] not sitting in a rocking chair.’ ”
Read the whole delightful story here. And check out the Solman interview and his video clip, here.
And to all who say U.S. manufacturing is dead, I will just point out that there is a needle factory in Needham.
Photograph: Melanie Stetson Freeman / The Christian Science Monitor Rosa Finnegan works on a needle at Vita Needle in Needham, Mass.
Do you remember the scene in War and Peace (I know, I read it a long time ago, too) in which Prince Andrei, lying wounded on the field of Austerlitz, looks up at the sky and experiences a kind of awakening?
Well, there’s an organization that hopes we will all connect with the sky with that sort of attention and feel renewed.
“It began with a cryptic e-mail from an unfamiliar source,” writes Jan Brogan at the Boston Globe.
“ ‘Look at the sky as often as you can — for about 21 days. I’ll contact you again in 3 wks.’ It included a link to a website with clouds.
“Signing off with ‘More Light,’ this guy could have been a total whack job. But something about the writing said this had nothing to do with UFO sightings. I clicked in.
“The website was ForSpaciousSkies.com. The man who sent the e-mail, Jack Borden, a former Boston television reporter, had had an epiphany as he looked up from a meadow one day in the mid-1970s and saw the sky as if for the first time. He has been on a mission to educate people about sky awareness ever since.
“ ‘When we are unconscious in regard to our surroundings, we are irresponsible to them,’ says Borden, speaking of that mission now.
“It began with a series of televised man-on-the-street interviews. Borden stopped pedestrians, covered their eyes, and asked what the sky looked like. Most had no clue. They were rushing through their lives without ever looking up.” More.
I want to take up the challenge, pay more attention to the sky. I’m good about this when I go out early in the dark for my walk and take a deep breath of the moon and stars, but I should be more attentive more often during the day. I think my hiking and skiing and sailing friends must get sky vitamins all the time. They probably don’t even think about it.
I include a couple pictures from times I did pay attention during the day.
Jake Scott, a math teacher and wrestling coach in Silver Spring, Maryland, draws students in with clever ways to memorize formulas.
“Keeping control of the class is one thing, but holding their attention through complicated calculations and theorems is another challenge altogether. So Scott gets a little extra help from his alter ego, 2 Pi.
“About three years ago, Scott started infusing rap into his lessons.”
He describes to NPR’s David Greene his early lack of success in school, his time on the streets, the help he received from taking up wrestling, and the reasons he eventually got into math.
” ‘You know, when my dad lost his sight, I started doing accounting for him, and math was the one area that I was able to succeed in,’ Scott says. ‘Because of my time in the streets, my vocabulary wasn’t very extensive, and so I shied away from English. I was bored to death by history. Math, on the other hand — I didn’t need to know how to speak well in order to do well in math, so that was very helpful, when I look back. It helped me to grow in my appreciation for numbers.’
“Scott says that one of his most important goals as a teacher is to make meaningful connections with his students. This drive to connect with the kids in his classroom influenced him to begin rapping as 2 Pi.
” ‘I mean, I think that we can preach to kids until they turn blue and we turn blue, but if there’s no connection, then there’s no response,’ Scott says. ‘I mean, I constantly search for ways to connect with students — with the language, with conversations, music.” Read more here.
Photograph: Julio Cortez/AP Musician Julio Fernandez during a Voices of Valor music session at Montclair State University.
Today I am returning to the topic of veterans programs that help people overcome post-traumatic stress and reintegrate into civilian life. (Interesting how often these programs involve gardening or the arts — which we always knew were good for us!)
Samantha Henry at the Boston Globe has the story.
“During stressful times as a combat medic in Afghanistan, Mason Sullivan found solace in Vivaldi. New Jersey native Nairobi Cruz was comforted by country music, a genre she had never heard before joining the Army. For Jose Mercedes, it was an eclectic iPod mix that helped him cope with losing an arm during a tour of duty in Iraq.
“These three young veterans all say music played a crucial role in alleviating the stresses of active duty. Now, all three are enrolled in a program that hopes to use music to ease their reintegration into civilian life.
‘‘ ‘It’s a therapy session without the “sit down, lay down, and write notes,” ‘ Mercedes, 26, of Union City, said of the music program. ‘It’s different — it’s an alternative that’s way better.’
“The pilot program, called Voices of Valor, has veterans work as a group to synthesize their experiences into musical lyrics. Guided by musicians and a psychology mentor, they write and record a song, and then hold a CD release party. The program is currently underway at Montclair State University, where students participate through the school’s veteran affairs program.
“Developed by husband and wife team Brian Dallow and Rena Fruchter, it is open to veterans of any age and background. No musical experience is required.” More.
P.S. A word on the power of reddit. John posted my blog entry from yesterday in the Christmas category at reddit and it increased traffic to this site by a factor of 10 so far.
When I take down the tree, I like to allow myself time.
Time to unroll the strings of lights and re-roll them in tissue paper. Time to lift off the sparkly cobwebs of tinsel and store them in a basket for another day.
Time for the ornaments, nearly every one eliciting a memory of something.
The small wreath of green and red puff balls that Suzanne made in the First Parish craft workshop (attended by nearly every kid in town, regardless of religion). The cross-stitch embroidery John made with hardly any help at age 3 or 4. The fishing tackle box and the saxophone representing past interests. The smiley felt-and-sequin jobs that 90-something Aunt Mae kept secret until Christmas. The coffee grinder for my husband. The goofy red ornament that I made from egg cartons when I was first married. The bird-in-a-nest that is supposed to bring good luck. The Chinese doll I got at Niagara-on-the-Lake the year we took turns babysitting the kids in order to see shows at the G.B. Shaw festival. The frosty ball from DeAnna’s winter wedding. And my new “tradition,” quotations hung on a ribbon.
I am the only person who remembers the things I remember exactly the way I remember them; you are the only person who remembers the things you remember exactly the way you remember them.
Unless you are going to the Danforth Museum of Art, I do not recommend ever going to Framingham (traffic issues, strip mall issues).
But I am very glad I finally made it to the Danforth today because it is a lovely museum with a community outreach effort that I admire.
The exhibit I went to see was described in the Boston Globe by by Sebastian Smee.
“One of the things you notice first in ‘Eternal Presence,’ a terrific career survey of John Wilson at the Danforth Museum of Art, is how attentive Wilson is to the faces of children. From his earliest days sketching his brother to his most recent large-scale drawings in charcoal, the impulse has remained the same: It is an impulse toward clarity, toward truth. He doesn’t sentimentalize or caricature children. …
“What you notice later is the high number of pictures showing children in the arms of adult men and women. … Wilson is after something elemental and profound. But the resulting image is not just another mother and child, or dad with young kid. There is instead, each time, something tender and hard-won about what you are looking at. A hope, a promise, a lament all in one.
“Wilson, 90, is one of Boston’s most esteemed and accomplished artists. He was born in Roxbury, the son of parents from British Guiana (now the nation of Guyana), was admitted to the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in 1939 after developing a natural aptitude for art at the Roxbury Boys Club, where he attended classes taught by SMFA students.”
Smee goes on to describe Wilson’s long career, including a stint in France, his interest in the Mexican muralists, and his sculptures of Martin Luther King Jr. (one is in the Capitol rotunda).
Amazing that the artist is around and will be giving a talk at the museum. Try to go. The show is up until March 24. And you may enjoy as much as I did the African American sculptures by Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller from the permanent collection and the joyful Harlem watercolors of Richard Yarde.
Every couple weeks, it seems, I read another story about young people taking up farming. It is not an easy thing to do.
This photographer couple is getting started by attending Farm School in Athol, Mass. They also are recording their progress on a website called Plough & Stars.
“Dina Rudick has worked as a staff photographer and videographer for the Boston Globe for 10 years. … Dina is also an adjunct faculty member at Boston University’s School of Journalism and has worked as a media consultant and media trainer … Her work can be seen at www.dinarudick.com.
“Erik Jacobs is also an award winning photographer … A selection of his editorial work can be seen at www.JacobsPhotographic.us.
“Together, Erik and Dina also run a boutique video production company called Anthem Multimedia.”
But they want to be farmers.
Here is a bit of their blogging about Farm School:
“We’re six weeks into life at Maggie’s and already we’ve established steady working relationships with the all animals on our farm. We lead cows to fresh pasture daily and pull fresh eggs out from under broody hens. We try to our best to keep the peace with Mr. Marbles the pushy ram and I’ve even grown accustomed to the regular mouse fiestas inside my bedroom walls.” You can follow their adventures here.
A blog is not exactly run of the mill when written by award-winning photographers. Their pictures are fantastic.
P.S. Here is a past post I wrote on the young-farmer trend.
Today I had an amusing back and forth with Fire Islanders past and present. It was about a fund raiser for what we used to call “Group” back when I was a day camper and later a counselor and writer-director of teenage musicals.
The fundraiser is to restore the Ocean Beach Youth Group (“Group”) building below, which was pummeled by Hurricane Sandy. From the first e-mail:
“Food . Beer & Wine . Auction . Guest Bartenders . Tequila Tasting
“Sun., Jan. 6, 2013, 4-7 pm @ Rodeo Bar, 375 Third Avenue, NYC
“$50 cash/check at door, 21+
“$30 for 16-20 For advance tickets or to make a donation, visit http://www.nycharities.org/Events/EventLevels.aspx?ETID=5691 OBYG is a 501(c)3 organization.
“As an added bonus Tony Roberts of Broadway fame and Youth Group Alumnus will be our guest.”
I wrote back that I was in one of Tony Roberts’s teenage plays (back when his name was still Dave) and can sing most of the lyrics to the theme song of his show Like You Like It.
I then indulged in some contradictory reminiscing with my first co-writer/director and with the daughter of playwright Arnold Horwitt, who was an adviser on the first show we wrote.
“Memories can be beautiful and yet” … (Oh, sorry, we used to burst into song a lot.)
But about memories. I know I have the most accurate memories for the shows I worked on, yet friends keep remembering differently. And who can blame Arnold Horwitt’s daughter, for example, if she thinks her father wrote all the lyrics to our “Return of the Native” when he only contributed the song that he had already written for a cruise to fight a bridge, “Everything’s Coming Up Moses”? He was a huge support, and that’s what she gets right.
Photograph: Ginnette Riquelme for The New York Times ArtistAmor Muñoz pays workers at her mobile factory about $7.50 an hour. “I’m interested in sharing the experience of art,” Ms. Muñoz says.
An artist in Mexico City hires people off the street at $7.50 an hour to help create “electronic textiles.”
Amor Muñoz uses a megaphone to shout, “One hundred pesos an hour!”
Damien Cave at the NY Times continues the story. “The rush was on. By the time Ms. Muñoz parked in her usual spot outside a hospital in one of Mexico City’s peripheral neighborhoods, a line had already formed. Women of all ages squeezed together — one held a baby, another was nearly too old to walk — as Ms. Muñoz opened up a white wooden box revealing thread, needles, cloth, timecards and employment contracts. The work involved creating interactive art pieces that combine the old craft of sewing with 20th-century electronics and 21st-century tags allowing smartphone users to look up who worked on a given piece. …
“Her maquiladora, or factory, she said, is a ‘fantasy’ meant to condemn the harsh reality of a global economy that uses and discards poor workers, especially women, to keep prices low. …
“She described Mexican wages as an insult to human dignity, and every time her mobile factory appears, the power of work for reasonable pay goes on display. The crowds that gather are typically large. Sometimes people push and shove for two hours of work and $15, though once the day’s employees are selected (first come first hired), a calm tends to follow. …
“Many of the women seemed to appreciate a chance to be involved in an art project. María González, 75, smiled widely when handed a needle and adjusted her purple scarf, excited to be creating something rather than worrying about her husband in the hospital. ‘This,’ she said, sewing without looking down, ‘is a wonderful distraction.’ ”
Read more about how happy the women are to work at that wage on art, even if it’s only for two hours.
My husband and I like Colin Cotterill’s quirky mystery books about Dr. Siri Palboun of Laos. The series starts with The Coroner’s Lunch, in case you are interested.
Cotterill has been involved in several worthy causes in Laos, including one addressing the abysmal lack of children’s books in the country. You can read how he got started on his quest for children’s books, here. That work is now handled by Sasha Alyson at Big Brother Mouse, who writes:
“Do you remember the excitement of rushing home to read a book that you hoped would never end? Many Lao children have no such memories, because they’ve never seen a book that was fun or exciting to read. Some have shared textbooks; others have never seen a book at all. We sometimes have to explain how books work: ‘Look, if you turn the page, there’s more!’ ”
Big Brother Mouse is a “Lao-based, Lao-owned project.” More.
Cotterill also works with http://www.copelaos.org to help victims of land mines left over from the CIA’s “secret war.”
And, pointing out that more than 75 percent of children in the far north of Laos have no schools, Cotterill funds efforts to get hill tribe students into teachers colleges. More.
It should be obvious that being out in nature is good for us, but today it often seems like a foreign concept.
“Take Two Hours of Pine Forest and Call Me in the Morning” is a lovely article, coming to you from Outside magazine. (I got the link from Andrew Sullivan’s blog.)
“These days, screen-addicted Americans are more stressed out and distracted than ever. And nope, there’s no app for that. But there is a radically simple remedy: get outside. [Outside magazine’s] Florence Williams travels to the deep woods of Japan, where researchers are backing up the surprising theory that nature can lower your blood pressure, fight off depression, beat back stress — and even prevent cancer. …
“If the Japanese embrace of forest therapy can be attributed to one man, it’s [Yoshifumi] Miyazaki, a physiological anthropologist and vice director of Chiba University’s Center for Environment, Health, and Field Sciences, located just outside Tokyo.
“Miyazaki believes that because humans evolved in nature, it’s where we feel most comfortable, even if we don’t always know it. …
“Miyazaki has taken more than 600 research subjects into the woods since 2004. He and his colleague Juyoung Lee, also of Chiba University, have found that leisurely forest walks, compared with urban walks, yield a 12.4 percent decrease in the stress hormone cortisol, a seven percent decrease in sympathetic nerve activity, a 1.4 percent decrease in blood pressure, and a 5.8 percent decrease in heart rate. On subjective tests, study participants also report better moods and lower anxiety. …
“The science is so convincing that other countries are following Japan’s lead in studying and promoting nature as a cure. Lee just got hired away by the South Korean government, which is pouring more than $140 million into a new National Forest Therapy Center, expected to be completed in 2014. Finland, an empire of boreal spruce and pine, is also funding numerous studies. ‘Japan showed us that there could be cooperation between forestry and medical fields,’ says Liisa Tyrvainen of the Finnish Forest Research Institute” More.
Apart from just feeling better when I step outside for my walk and breathe the outdoors air, I note that a couple of my hero writers (Dickens and Asakiyume) are known for ruminating on long walks. Nature nourishes creative thought. P.S. Asakiyume also takes great pictures on her walks and posts them on her blog.
May 27, 2013, update from John: Mononoke creator Hayao Miyazaki on how he thinks about his art, here.
Photograph: Casey Yee Mononoke forest, Yakushima Island, along the Kusugawa Trail. This is the forest that inspired Ghibli studio’s “Princess Mononoke.”
[University of Chiba‘s Yoshifumi Miyazaki] believes that because humans evolved in nature, it’s where we feel most comfortable, even if we don’t always know it. “Throughout our evolution, we’ve spent 99.9 percent of our time in natural environments,” he says. “Our physiological functions are still adapted to it. During everyday life, a feeling of comfort can be achieved if our rhythms are synchronized with those of the environment.”
To prove it, Miyazaki has taken more than 600 research subjects into the woods since 2004. He and his colleague Juyoung Lee, also of Chiba University, have found that leisurely forest walks, compared with urban walks, yield a 12.4 percent decrease in the stress hormone cortisol, a seven percent decrease in sympathetic nerve activity, a 1.4 percent decrease in blood pressure, and a 5.8 percent decrease in heart rate. On subjective tests, study participants also report better moods and lower anxiety.
Yesterday, according to WordPress stats, visitors who chanced on Suzanne‘s Mom’s Blog came from the United States, Canada, the Netherlands, the Cayman Islands, Serbia, the Russian Federation, Egypt, India, Nepal, and Ireland.
I don’t know if they found what they were searching on or if they will return, but in case they do, I’m posting a sampling of what happened here overnight. It won’t impress Margareta, who had lots of snow in Stockholm for Christmas, nor will it surprise blog visitors who live in Nepal or Canada, but the ones from India and Egypt might be interested.
The first real snow of the year always feels special. I have a friend who grew up in Hawaii and claims to hate winter, but he’s just as excited as I am to take pictures and post them on the Internet.
I took vacation time Thursday afternoon and went with my husband to the American Repertory Theater production of the musical Pippin.
A polished and charming spectacle — with actual circus performers punctuating stages of Charlemagne’s son’s search for extraordinary-ness — it nevertheless failed to move me. Not sure what I was looking for. I had only the vaguest memory of Suzanne playing the part of Pippin’s grandmother in a church youth group production. The words she sang then, “Time to start livin’ ” constituted my favorite song in the A.R.T. production — utterly hilarious.
The Boston Globe lists certain details: “The show, with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, book by Roger O. Hirson, [has] direction by ART artistic director Diane Paulus … Playing Pippin [is] British-born actor Matthew James Thomas, who made his Broadway debut as the lead in ‘Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark.’ ”
The cast was tiptop. I liked the Bob Fosse dancing. I don’t mind that it is very stylized, but the whole show felt stylized and distancing. I felt I was always being caught up in the “art” of it and I wanted to be in the story.
The original version of Pippin was directed by Bob Fosse in 1972 and won nine Tony Awards. I think the A.R.T. version would do fine on Broadway, and I doubt most people would agree that the spectacle overwhelms the story. Most of the time it is just a lot of fun.
Photograph of Matthew James Thomas in rehearsal: David l. Ryan/Boston Globe
At Nourishing the Planet in October, Molly Redfield interviewed Vietnam vet Howard Hinterthuer, a peer-to-peer mentor for an Organic Therapy Program that helps distressed veterans.
Redfield: “You recently gave a Ted Talk on the Organic Therapy Program (OTP). Can you tell us how the OTP started? …
“William Sims, a Vietnam veteran of the 101st Airborne Division who served from 1966 to 1967, started the Organic Therapy Program. Mr. Sims was wounded after being in Vietnam for about 9 months, and returned home to Milwaukee. He was able to deal with the stress of coming home and experiencing combat by puttering around in his mom’s garden. He remembered that.
“The Center for Veterans Issues [in Milwaukee] has about 300 or more formerly homeless veterans in transition with PTSD, traumatic brain injury, and depression. These veterans come to us and we provide a wrap-around service to deal with their different problems. Mr. Sims figured that if gardening was good for him, then it would be good for other veterans as well. So he began creating raised-bed gardens to help veterans cope with their problems. …
“Gardening is important because it allows our veterans to have … positive experiences. This is almost guaranteed by the act itself, as it creates such a peaceful place. Gardening is meditative and increases self-esteem. …
“After the TED talk I gave, I was contacted by a woman in Scotland working with veterans of the British military. Her program used horticulture for veterans’ recovery, so I think gardening is an approach to dealing with difficult issues that can definitely be replicated in other places.”
Photograph: AP Photo/Chattanooga Times Free Press/Allison Love
Working in community gardening programs is proving to have many good effects on troubled military veterans.
The New York Times recently printed a lovely collection of pop-up music sightings by various reporters. Each unexpected free performance affected New Yorkers like a flash mob.
At the High Line, surprised “participants were given small sets of speakers that could be attached to their coats or backpacks, or held by hand. As you began the walk at the southern end of the High Line, near Gansevoort Street, your every footstep or hand twist kicked the app into action, and you heard various sounds — clinking, chimes, splashing water, car horns, chords on electric guitar and, in a novel touch, occasional rounds of applause.”
Another report notes, “The High Line elevated park does not normally allow group walks or amplified sounds, but it made an exception for ‘The Gaits,’ one of a dozen participatory performances that constituted Make Music Winter.
“The event was an offshoot of Make Music New York, a festival of hundreds of concerts that occurs in June on the first day of summer, in public spaces around the city. Modeled after Fête de la Musique, an annual affair in Paris started in 1982, the New York version is in its sixth year.
“The founder of Make Music New York is Aaron Friedman, a composer and political activist who decided it was time to add a winter solstice edition.”
Several delightful Winter Solstice music events are described here.
Photograph: Todd Heisler/The New York Times
Meredith Krinke, 6, holds Bach sheet music for her father, Brian, December 21 on the G train in New York.
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