April
25, 2016
REFLECTIONS
ON LIFE
REFLECTIONS ON HOME IN COLUMBIA
At 7am this morning the bright sunlight streamed in at my back
through our dining room window as I began composing reflections for April
2016. Outside, just below that window,
six goslings, hatched only three days ago, poked their beaks in the bright
green grass searching for breakfast as they walked along slowly with their
evidently proud parents. Their path
weaves through and around the varicolored blooms of dogwood, azaleas,
forsythia, “snowball” bush, vinca vine,
and violets.
Ahhh, Spring.
Last week Lloyd and I relished our first lunch of the year
outdoors at the Columbia lakefront.
During May’s first weekend, the outdoor live music and films will
commence. We have deeply enjoyed this
lake front area for close to 50 years now.
Thank you, Jim Rouse. The newly
completed pathway around Lake Kittamaqundi provides the welcome opportunity to
combine a good walk with a meal, musical performance, or one of Mr. B’s great
film selections.
As we continue to travel around the globe, Lloyd and I are so
frequently aware that there is no place on this earth where we would rather
live out our blessed lives than right here in Columbia, Maryland.
REFLECTIONS ON ZACH
Next Sunday, May 1, is Zach’s 23rd birthday. It is also the day of the annual “Race for
the Cure” in Washington, D.C. Zach’s
parents, Chris and John, are again organizing a group to participate in our 5th
run/walk in honor of his inspiring life.
Lloyd and I will travel on the Metro and meet up with most if not all of
Zach’s aunts and uncles and cousins along with friends from school. He served
as the speaker at this event of tens of thousands a few years ago after his
surgery to remove a malignant tumor. I
can see him so clearly, in virtually perfect physical condition, easily and
gracefully hoisting his strong body over a low stone wall to get to the
stage. His words were so “Zach” and the
post-race crowd was so moved by them.
Then again, when Zach was 20, and brain cancer’s toll showed clearly in
his body, the contagious smile was still there as Zach and his dad led the race
down Pennsylvania Avenue toward the Capitol. As some of our family members run
and others walk the 5K next weekend, his spirit will be with us every step of
the way.
This week we received an invitation to a Passover Seder at the
home of our dear friend, Ron Mutchnik, director of the Howard County Concert
Orchestra. Very shortly after Zach took
his last breath on this Earth, the orchestra held an all-Mozart concert in a
church in Ellicott City. Ron announced
the dedication of one of the pieces to Zach, bringing such joy in the midst of
loss to Lloyd and me. Although we know
him as a great musician and concertmaster, Lloyd and I were unaware of the
great depth of Ron’s knowledge of the history of Judaism, particularly in
eastern Europe from whence his ancestors came.
He is truly a scholar. We had
previously participated in two Passover Seders at another friend’s home and
loved them. The detail and background of
this year’s was in concert with Ron’s family’s antique furniture. We are so
blessed to have such loving Jewish friends in our community who so generously
share their religious ritual with us. It
is a deep privilege.
Earlier this month I flew to Albany and took a shuttle bus to
Kripalu, a yoga and meditation center located in the Berkshires near
Stockbridge, Massachusetts, to participate in a six-day retreat led by Jack
Kornfield, whose writings have been among the most impactful on my spiritual
life and meditation practice. He is the one who led the daylong program I
attended in New York a few months ago. Although I knew I would love this
retreat, it surpassed my expectations in a manner that is beyond words.
For the past ten years I have attended a weeklong silent retreat
led by an American Buddhist monk outside of Richmond on hundreds of acres owned
by the Virginia Episcopal Archdiocese through which the James River runs. This year’s retreat in Massachusetts was not
listed as a silent one, though by coincidence it coincided with a week of
silence, albeit not as strictly followed as in Virginia, in this center, which
accommodates several varied groups at the same time. Jack Kornfield’s approach focused largely on
the practice of loving kindness, with less attention to meditation technique
than my former teacher. Since our time together in New York, he had again been
in the presence of Thich Nhat Hahn who is recovering in California from a
stroke months ago. Though still paralyzed in much of his body, vision has
returned to one eye along with the use of several words to his voice.
The weather was unexpectedly quite cold with snow flurries,
which cut down somewhat on outside time in this beautiful site. From the small window of my room I could see
a large lake downhill with the magnificent Berkshires beyond. I went out for a pretty good walk each day,
and that along with the distance to my room, which was the furthest from the
meeting rooms and included three flights of stairs, I managed to get sufficient
exorcise to help with optimum concentration during meditation.
With all of that, the most memorable and amazing aspect of this
retreat was Zach’s constant presence – day and night. It was palpable.
I returned home with a renewed determination to meditate daily,
at least for a brief time. On my first
night back, without thinking about it, I chose a different location in our home
to “sit” – the corner of the small couch in our living room where Zach sat more
than four years ago on the day he came to visit me to deliver and exchange
Christmas presents. We sat together for
two hours that day, in the corner seats of two couches arranged at right
angles, knee to knee. During that time
he had a spasm and asked to lean back for a minute. The next day he learned he had another brain
tumor. That corner couch seat, the one
where Zach sat, will remain my meditation location for life.
REFLECTIONS ON BALTIMORE, MY HOMETOWN
The first seven articles contain self-explanatory coverage on
some recent positive and negative recent happenings in or related to
Baltimore. We will know more when the
mayoral election results are in.
Don’t wait for the election
Light city brings hope
Seeds of hope
Investing in Baltimore
A place for Sandtown
Where are our values?
Hiring affordable housing deals reached with Sagamore
These last two articles relate to my Mom’s view of Baltimore,
the city in which she, Helen Marie Monnett Gilner, was born (at home one block
from the harbor on Barry St.), raised, schooled, worked as a legal secretary
and gave birth to three girls – Martha, Mary, and Elizabeth. As a legal secretary she took depositions by
shorthand for one of the firm’s main clients, the B&O Railway. She loved to
sit by the harbor and reminisce. She
also loved Rhebs chocolates, insisting they were the best in the U.S. Every year they appeared in my Easter basket
and Christmas stocking. One of the article’s authors, Jacques Kelly, wrote my
Mom’s obituary for the Sun when she died of heart failure at the age of 94
almost 25 years ago. I inherited my love
of good literature and poetry from my mom, seeing her reading by lamplight on
many evenings. Never having graduated
from high school, she was one of the best educated people I have ever known.
Where you went when you went somewhere
Esther Rheb Harger Obituary
REFLECTIONS ON PUBLIC POLICY IN OUR COUNTY, STATE AND NATION
Current Elections:
When I decided to continue my e-newsletter after leaving public
office, I had not intended to make any recommendations on candidates in
elections. I preferred to keep the life
reflections and public policy discussion on another level. In the past few
weeks I have received such an amazingly large number of requests that I have
not had nearly sufficient time to respond.
So I have adjusted my intention. What follows is how I voted and why.
U.S. PRESIDENT
In every one of my e-newsletters for the past fifteen months I
have written of the existing and growing economic injustice as the deepest
problem by far facing out nation. So it
should come as no surprise that I wholeheartedly voted for Bernie Sanders. I have spoken with numerous long-time and
close friends about this race, some of whom disagree with me. I will quote only one. “I labored over this
choice for months, going back and forth over who was most electable. I finally decided that I am going to vote my
values. I’m voting for Bernie.”
MARYLAND U.S. SENATOR
It is certainly no secret that I am a liberal Democrat who
refuses to describe myself as simply “progressive.” So all things being equal,
or close to equal, I will choose a female and/or minority candidate. In this race, however, Chris Van Hollen has
demonstrated such excellence in public office that my vote clearly went to him
to serve us Marylanders in the U.S. Senate during these crucial times.
U.S. CONGRESS
Elijah Cummings
I told Elijah that if he ran for Senate he had my support and my
vote. He chose to run for re-election to
the House and was the easiest choice on the ballot for me.
HOWARD COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION
Though I am grateful to the incumbent members for the time they
have invested, the following editorial speaks for me and the votes I cast.
Sweeping changes are needed on the County’s school board
MARYLAND
Here is an excellent
example of gross economic injustice on the state level.
Maryland should end corporate giveaways
The following two articles
give fairly thorough and, in my opinion, accurate coverage of the recently
ended session. In some cases what
appears as progress to some shows up as regression to others.
Politics and progress
Highlights of General Assembly’s 2016 session
Another gross example of economic injustice.
Report outlines tax credit give aways
When I was in the legislature, I paid pretty close attention and
sought help in understanding legislation when I needed more clarity. The subsidies covered in the article below were adopted on my watch,
and I didn’t even know it.
The Supreme Court strikes down Maryland power plant subsidies
Only one of the reasons to
be seriously concerned about Congressional inaction on the President’s
nomination.
Immigration plan appears to split Supreme Court
REFLECTIONS ON OUR PLANET BEYOND THE UNITED STATES
ITALY/GREECE
Yet once again, Francis humbly shows the ecumenical way re
migrants. I so love this human being.
Pope talks, then acts, on migrant issue
PANAMA
The tentacles of U.S.
economic injustice have a far reach
The Panama Papers, shell companies and the U.S. real estate
market
PUERTO RICO
Perhaps there is still hope for effective bipartisanship in our
U.S. Congress
A lifetime, not a bailout
ENGLAND
I had difficulty deciding whether to place this piece in the UK
or US and decided on the birth nation of this literary global genius. So grateful that the Baltimore arts scene has
the wisdom and good taste to mark – in so many ways - the 400th
anniversary of the death of this beautiful soul.
The Bard, 400 years after his death
REFLECTIONS ON OUR UNIVERSE
What magnificently clear skies we have enjoyed for most of
April’s nights. What more to say...other
than could it be even remotely possible that old ICBM’s may serve a peaceful
purpose in our universe?
Could those old ICBMs clean up space debris?
Beatles quote
Pools
of sorrow, waves of joy
Are
drifting through my open mind
Possessing
and caressing me
Across the
Universe
- Lennon and McCartney
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