REFLECTIONS ON LIFE –
August 2016
REFLECTIONS ON HOME IN COLUMBIA
During the warm summer months, one of our greatest joys, Lloyd
and I, is stopping by Clark’s vegetable stand on Route 108, just about a mile
from our front door, returning home with fruits and vegetables - oh so fresh.
We visited Senator Jim Clark in the living room of his ancestral
home on Clarksville Pike while he was resting in his hospital bed in the living
room several years ago. He was uncommunicative and appeared unaware of our
presence. After sitting alone with him for a bit, we were asked by a family
member if we would agree to stay while she ran a quick errand. We were happy to agree and sat with him for a
while by ourselves in the home. Lloyd
soon went out into the beautiful farmland outdoors, and I sat alone with “Jim.”
I overcame a fear of acting inappropriately and spoke softly to the senator
giving voice to his beloved wife’s name, Lillian. When the family member
returned in about half an hour, Lloyd and I returned to our car and headed
home, stopping by their vegetable stand on our way for fresh corn and tomatoes
which we ate for dinner in celebration of Senator Clark’s life outside on our
deck. We toasted a glass of wine to Jim
and Lillian. The next day we learned that Senator Clark had taken his last
breath.
Jim had for years been one of my most influential teachers and
mentors on environmental issues, including farmland preservation. He had sponsored Maryland’s signature farmland preservation
legislation when he served as the President of the Maryland Senate. He also
took the lead on “no till” farming which we can observe first hand in autumn
passing through the now heavily travelled intersection of Route 108 and
Centennial Lane. I can only hope that I
served in public office with some semblance of his dedication and integrity.
Knowing full well that my re-election campaign for Howard County
Executive in 1990 would not be an easy one, largely due to my environmental
protection and planned growth programs which had “stirred up” the development
community and Chamber of Commerce, Jim more than willingly and without question
volunteered to serve as chairman of my campaign committee. He didn’t flinch in his commitment when
farmers’ (land owners’) tractors lined up in protest in front of the County
Office Building in Ellicott City. When an anti-incumbent wave ran throughout
Maryland and beyond, I lost that election by less than
one tenth of a percentage point. Senator
Clark later told me it had been well worth the risk.
Jim’s daughter, Martha, and her daughter now operate the family
fruit and vegetable stand. They have
added an impressive choice of home fed meat and a lovely pick-your-own flower
garden. They have also taken on the
mantel of their father and grandfather as strong land preservationists.
Senator Jim Clark, with his humble ways, stands out as one of my
greatest teachers, not only in politics, but in life as a whole. …and WOW!
those Clark tomatoes can’t be beat! Just
ask Lloyd…and serendipitously, I don’t believe it’s likely that we would now be
married if I had won that election.
Historic Ellicott City
Our hearts go out to the shop owners and artists who lost so
much in the recent floods in Ellicott City.
Two friends – Robin Holliday owner of Horse Spirit Gallery and Len
Berkowitz of Great Panes – have experienced immense loss. Tragically, insurance
claims are being denied left and right.
The historic significance of this small town as the site of the
first passenger train ride in the U.S. and the first national road to the west
is without rival. It was a high priority
of mine when I served as County Executive to preserve as many historical sites
as possible in this town – the first firehouse, the first courthouse, the log
cabin to name a few.
I extend my deepest gratitude to county government in doing the
best they can in restoring this gem of an American town.
Downtown Columbia Housing
I would so love to be able to report that progress has been made
on this most important economic justice issue.
So far, that is not the case. On
the positive side, neither has there been approval granted by the County
Council to move forward with the future of Columbia as an exclusive
community. We still have the opportunity
to continue Jim Rouse’s plan of having a community where the CEO and the
janitor can live side by side.
May it be so.
REFLECTIONS ON ZACH
As each of our seven living grandchildren – Julia, Patrick,
Katerina, Crew, Greta, Will, and Christine – moves on in school, Lloyd and I
speak and think of them in relation to – as distinguished from in contrast
with – Zach. We now have three in college, and four in
high school. Zach’s high school friends
graduated from college this year. When
we married almost 23 years ago, Zach was five months old. There were about 100 attendees – family and
friends -in the Wilde Lake Interfaith Center.
When the audience was asked the standard question of whether anyone
present knew of any reason why we should not marry, there was a resounding
belch from Zach, which brought forth a burst of laughter from all present. He never tired of hearing us tell that story.
This month we spent our 19th consecutive year in the
same beach house right on the North Carolina coast. This was the third year in which Zach was not
physically present. As in the past two
summers, he showed up in the waves, the sand, the wind, and the starry night
sky. The stars were particularly
brilliant this year since there was virtually no moonlight. We spent a lot of time on the deck tracking
star formations we could identify. This
was our last year in that house, since most of our seven grandkids are almost
six feet tall and we are in need of more sleeping space. We will be moving to a larger house just five
lots south on the beach. Although Zach
will have never slept bodily in this new summer vacation home, we are certain
his spirit will be present with us, as strong if not stronger than ever, just
as it always is no matter where we go.
As I compose this message, I am looking out our living room
window at a long sloping green hill from the street. There are several trees on this hill
remaining from the time the property was the farm home of the Kahler family.
One of them, a maple with its double trunk forked about one foot from the
ground, was a favorite for Zach and Julia to climb in when they were about five
and two years old. They dubbed themselves “Chipmunk and Squirley.” These old
trees have lost more than a few brittle branches during this summer’s
storms. Our homeowners’ association has
brought in a tree expert to check them for safety. They said that these double trunked tree
should come down. I have asked the
president of our HOA – such a generous dedicated neighbor - to please be sure
to notify us before it is removed.
Perhaps we will ask that the lower two feet or so be kept and
transformed into a simple memorial of some sort. At the least, Lloyd and I will design a ritual
to commemorate the beautiful times we had with those two precious grandkids in
that tree. Rituals and commemorations
are so important in feeding our souls.
REFLECTIONS ON BALTIMORE, MY HOMETOWN
I have mentioned that I love the surprisingly large number of
comments I receive on each month’s message.
One from last month’s shout outs needs to be reported. It was about my memories of our parish church
and school and the surrounding points of interest in my young life, including
the shoemaker across the street who gave me old rubber heels from men’s shoes
with which to play hopscotch. None other
than our state senator, Ed Kasemeyer, replied that he attended a public
elementary school virtually adjacent to my private Catholic school and that he
was “the school champion at hopscotch.”
The three articles above make
it clear that we still have a long way to go in understanding just what is
going on in Baltimore regarding social and racial justice, much less how best
to address it. We must make this a
priority of the highest order and be prepared to work at it until we succeed.
Betterton and Tolchester
beaches were the only beaches I knew as a kid.
Our church, St. Bernardine’s on Edmondson Avenue, chartered a boat that
held about 200 and departed from Baltimore harbor (pre Jim Rouse’s Harbor
Place) and took we parishioners across the Bay to Tolchester for a day of sun
and fun. I can still feel the excitement
I felt in anticipation and the fatigue on the way back across the Bay.
REFLECTIONS ON PUBLIC POLICY IN OUR STATE AND NATION
When you read the article below, keep in mind that Under Armour
is Baltimore’s “titan”. Howard Hughes is
ours right here in Columbia.
REFLECTIONS ON OUR PLANET BEYOND THE UNITED STATES
India, the birthplace of
Rudyard Kipling
Michael Dirda, former Poet
Laureate and Washington Post book reviewer par excellence (according to me)
raises the very important question of whether we are justified, or wise, in
rejecting the writings of a master because of some involvement with
imperialism. Gunga Din, Rikki Tikki Tavi
and scores of other Kipling masterpieces are some of the best-written stories
in history, according to Dirda and we would cut ourselves short by refusing to
read them. I agree.
India, teeming with humans, provides the backdrop for the
largest competition among computer program developers on our planet. I’m sure these astronomical numbers are not
as shocking to those younger than I. One
of my fondest memories of visiting India three years ago being led on an
invitational tour by Gandhi’s grandson, Arun, we observed scores of college
students walking into a university lecture hall carrying what appeared to be
identical briefcases of the size that would contain a laptop. In fact, they each contained a small spinning
wheel, which each student set up to spin during the lecture, just as Gandhi had
done when he was speaking to his Indian students. Contrasts.
REFLECTIONS ON OUR UNIVERSE
“The real voyage of discovery lies not in finding new
landscapes,
but in having new eyes.”
~Marcel Proust
“If you understand, things are just as they are.
If you don’t understand, things are just as they are.”
~Jack Kornfield
On September 5 at 7pm I will be speaking about my retreats with
Jack Kornfield and Pema Chodron at the Kittamaqundi Community in Oliver’s
Carriage House in Town Center. Then,
later in the month, while Lloyd and I are visiting friends in California, I
will, for the third time this year, attend one of Jack’s retreats – this time
for one day only at Spirit Rock, a retreat center that he founded in Marin
County.
Pools
of sorrow, waves of joy
Are
drifting through my open mind
Possessing
and caressing me
Across the
Universe
~Lennon and McCartney
Love life and
be well.
~ Liz
