REFLECTIONS ON LIFE
January 2017
REFLECTIONS
ON HOME IN COLUMBIA
Even in the presence of tragic public policy in our nation, the
views from our bedroom windows remain beautiful.
Through the window above our headboard raindrops on the bare
maple tree branches sparkle like diamonds in the direct morning sunlight. Although
the row of raindrops dangling from the wood deck railing outside my bedside
window gets no direct sunlight to transform them into gems, they dazzle as they
jiggle in the breeze from fluttering wings of birds at the feeder on the rail.
Squirrels, quite frisky in the cool January air, scamper from their
nest in the maple tree outside the window above our headboard, land with a
light thump on the roof above us, jump to the rail outside the bedside window
and then to a pine branch. Minutes later
we observe their reverse journey - pine branch to deck rail to wood frame of
steep roof to maple outside window above headboard.
This repetitive pattern of sounds and sights, along with our
realization that these cute critters are oblivious to the tragic alterations to
public policy and human rights taking place in our nation and throughout the
planet even as they scamper. In some way
it is somewhat comforting.
____________
I am usually awake and “up” at 5am, before daylight. After putting on my robe and sitting in the
corner of the couch in Lloyd’s office adjacent to our small bedroom, I read a
few pages from either Thich Nhat Hahn or Jack Kornfield followed by a brief meditation. Then, I
usually read the Washington Post. One recent morning I chose instead to look
through and sort some old literature course papers. I was a literature major, and for the past
two years since completing more than 30 years of elected public office have
been sorting, organizing and disposing of many sorts of papers - handwritten
compositions, flash cards by subject in rubber bands used for test prep, some
brief poems. From this particular carton
I designated about 80% for recycling, organizing those remaining in neat
folders by subject and form.
Just as I was completing this task filled with memories mostly
pleasant, I heard the recycling truck coming down the street. Most of our recycling – newspapers, magazines
and glass bottles – had been placed by the curb of our cul de sac the night
before. I hurried downstairs to carry the small carton from my morning sorting
project arriving at the curb just as the truck turned in. I quickly placed the carton on the curb and
began walking briskly, in raincoat and slippers, back to our front porch in the
6:30am dawn. I began to turn the doorknob and then, without intention, dropped
my hand and turned back away from the door to watch that small carton being
picked up by a Latino workman and thrown in the back of truck just as the big
heavy metal compressor came down on it - so much thought and time in its
contents in just a few seconds, crushed flat.
As I had instinctively turned to watch I was aware of an anticipation of
a sense of sadness and loss. Not
so. I had kept the framework (skeleton?)
of all that year’s work. Those papers
remain, and the words and thoughts of the crushed ones continue to exist in the
universe. I opened the door, took off my raincoat and went back to bed to hug
Lloyd, feeling at peace and alive with a sense of completeness and somewhat
more order. I love early mornings. I learn so much about myself then.
________________
My office is on the ground floor of our three-story
townhome. Lloyd’s is on the third.
After two years, I have finally transformed mine from a legislative home
office to my personal one with a comfortable sitting area, many of my favorite
books, and artwork –photographs, paintings, etchings and sculpture.
One most precious is a large framed photo of Obama and Michelle
after his first inauguration in 2008. I had the great honor and joy of being
the one to cast the Electoral College vote for my congressional district. In that photo their image is adjacent to that
of Martin Luther and Coretta Scott King with the caption “The Dream
Realized.” The Electoral College program,
with the signatures of its members from each of Maryland
During the past eight years I have frequently paused in front of
that frame reflecting on the deep significance of its contents. Now I find myself involuntarily comparing it
with the 2016 Electoral College vote and the presidential inauguration this
year. The word “incomparable” clearly
applies here.
_____
Shortly after being elected county executive in 1986, I moved
from Ellicott City to our current home in Columbia
Not many years later, David began having serious health problems
of his own. There were several
surgeries, and then, about three years ago he was told that he likely had
months left on this earth. We had a
luncheon here in our home for him and all of his and Lloyd’s weekly lunch bunch
buddies. There was a single chair on
the Lyons
This week workmen began building a new deck on the back of the Lyons
Seasons change, neighbors die, new neighbors move in, presidents
change and with them public policy, and life goes on, at least for now. Eternity holds no earthly promise for us
human beings on planet earth.
“There may be more beautiful times,
but this one is ours.” Jean Paul Sartre
REFLECTIONS
ON ZACH
During more than a few of the many exquisite conversations I had
with Zach in the last years of his life, very few were about politics. He was not very interested in that
topic. Philosophy, spirituality, ethics,
justice, sports, science, nature, poetry, psychology, nature – he had a
voracious appetite for all of these and more.
Not so with politics. That was
perfectly fine with me. Although I
devoted quite a sizeable portion of my life to holding political office and
have no regrets that I did, my passions were in the content of my conversations
with Zach. Then one recent afternoon,
while looking out our kitchen window at a newly arrived pair of mallards and
reflecting on my deep sadness and, yes, anger, over the recent election with
its many transgressions – some within the party of my own political affiliation
– I experienced an insight. What is
politics truly about, if not the subjects of Zach’s passions?
Thank you, Zach. You
continue to teach me from beyond this earth.
REFLECTIONS
ON BALTIMORE
Particularly in the areas of education, public safety, and
justice, the City of Baltimore Maryland Baltimore
“Balanced on city’s back” - the governor’s proposed budget wipes
out the legislature’s efforts to help the city recover from the 2015 riots
_____________
Most mornings Lloyd and I have coffee together while reading The
Washington Post and The Baltimore Sun.
He, a devout and passionate Phillies fan, spotted the article below as
so descriptive today of my hometown, Baltimore
“Being on third base, and being picked off of third base, became
a moral metaphor, based on the famous saying about those who were born there
and think they hit a triple.” I had many
friends who found themselves on third base, and I realized how important it is
to be mindful that we are there partly by luck.
The appreciation of luck can appear to be a simple concept, but Michael
(Lewis) has made it a subtle but profound basis for a moral outlook. It is the underlying message of his book
“Moneyball.” “Life’s outcomes, while not
entirely random, have a huge amount of luck baked into them,” he once told students
at his alma mater, Princeton “Above all,
recognize that if you have had success, you have also had luck – and with luck
comes obligation.”
For those of us who have experienced luck, let’s remember that
obligation to our neighbors who were not “born on third base.”
Michael Lewis: In life,
if you’re on third base, it’s partly because of luck
___________________________________
Catherine Pugh, Baltimore Maryland
REFLECTIONS
ON PUBLIC POLICY IN OUR STATE AND NATION
The Baltimore Sun reported last
week that a “quarter of Maryland
Yesterday, Attorney General Brian Frosh spoke to a group in Annapolis Annapolis
I awoke this morning and, as I do every morning when I am home,
retrieved the Washington Post from our front porch. I removed the plastic covering and unfolded
the paper revealing the following headline:
“Refugee plan causes worldwide fury”
The article covered what was all over the TV last night when
Lloyd and I returned from a fantastic jazz performance led by Tom Benjamin in Columbia U.S.
This was the latest in a line of opposition demonstrations since
the presidential inauguration. I have
been receiving hundreds of e-mails, possibly more, asking what we should
do. I am also included in scores of list
serves and websites that have sprung up for causes I have espoused for
years. Clearly, this activism is very
good, AND we must be very careful not to allow ourselves to become overwhelmed
by them. I am focusing in participating
in many of these positive outreachings, AND equally if not even more important
I will intend to be calm and focused. I
am picking up even more frequently my favorite “Peace is the Way” by Thich Nhat
Hahn. In it he writes of inner and outer
peace. If we allow ourselves to spin
out in all directions, we will contribute to the chaos. One of my meditation teachers, Jack
Kornfield, urges us to use these times as a teaching moment to presence peace
in the midst of chaos.
I recently read in the Washington Post that two influential
prolific and acclaimed writers about our current culture have announced that
they were “logging off of Twitter…because its negatives increasingly outweigh
its positives.” Too much clutter and
noise in our brains keeps us from thinking clearly and with insight.
Not surprising that since the inauguration George Orwell’s
“1984” has skyrocketed in sales far above any current “best sellers”.
___________
This past Tuesday morning, Lloyd’s 83rd birthday, I
could not have been more grateful and proud (generally not an operative word
for me) upon picking up the Sun and Post from our front yard, getting our
coffee and tea, and opening the former to the front page. There before me was the photo of Lloyd’s and
my (along with hundreds of thousands of other citizens in Howard
County and other jurisdictions in Maryland
“What I have decided to do is to use whatever time I have here
on this earth to fight back…in this struggle for the soul of democracy.” He continued “I have a duty to work with this
president…he is my president and your president for now.”
Knowing that MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” is one of the President’s
favorites, when Elijah appeared on that show he made it known that he wanted to
meet with the President. He described
their subsequent meeting about drug prices as speaking “briefly and cordially.” What a shining example of calling on simple wisdom
in the face of a complex and potentially volatile setting.
“Cummings to battle, and work, with Trump”
Congressman leads push to oppose flurry of actions proposed by
administration
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/bs-bz-cummings-trump-20170126-story.html January 27, 2017
I loved the holiday greeting that Congressman John Sarbanes sent
out
“Ring the bells that still can ring. Forget your perfect offering.
There’s a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.”
- Leonard Cohen
…and of course Mozart’s words…one of Zach’s favorites
“Music is not in the notes, but in the silence between them.”
REFLECTIONS
ON OUR PLANET BEYOND THE UNITED STATES
We are clearly not the only nation experiencing an upheaval on
planet earth – Britain with Brexit , Germany
with strong opposition to Merkel who has been and continues to be a strong
spokesperson for refugees as well as other progressive public policies, those
European nations with fear of their proximity to Russia
Washington Post Editorial “The Western alliance in danger”
Once broken, essential relationships will not be easily rebuilt
Brexit all of Europe ,
________________________
How is this for timing?
Lloyd and I fly on January 31 to Leon, Mexico, 120 miles north of Mexico
City, with the searing imprint of the Washington Post’s very recent headline
“Trump orders wall to begin” still fresh in our minds. We will spend two weeks
in three small towns in the central Mexican high plains: Queretaro Mexico
To be caught up in the excitement and joy of returning to these
Mexican towns with their friendly, smiling people against the backdrop of an
article in the Washington Post reporting on our president’s preparing for the
first steps in building “the wall” seems so surreal, until reality sets in and
we realize it IS real. Despite our timing, we anticipate the usual warm welcome
we have always received from the Mexican people. We feel certain that we will not be
disappointed
REFLECTIONS
ON OUR UNIVERSE
“I want to know God’s thoughts.
The rest are details.”
-Albert Einstein
(does that
mean the universe is a detail?
Pools
of sorrow, waves of joy
Are
drifting through my open mind
Possessing
and caressing me
Across the
Universe
~Lennon and
McCartney
Be
well and love life….no matter what
~
Liz
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