REFLECTIONS ON LIFE –DECEMBER 2019

ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED

Since my last Reflections were sent out in November, many of you have contacted me asking whom I am supporting to fill the vacancy in Congress since Elijah’s death.  I have not yet decided.  I will send out another special message when I do.

I have two major criteria for my decision.  I believe it is very important that our next representative in Congress lives in Baltimore City where Elijah lived and where a large percentage of the district’s population now lives.  That city has deep and unique needs on issues like health care and public safety.

One of the candidates who is campaigning to fill this seat is my neighbor, State Delegate Terri Hill.  I made my decision to leave public office in March of 2014 after the death of my grandson, Zach, in March of 2014,  I then invited Terri to visit me in my home just down the street from hers.  Over the years, I had known Terri’s mom and her sister Donna who did such excellent work on behalf of social, economic, and environmental justice in the Maryland Attorney General’s office.  I got to know Terri when she offered to help in my last campaign for office in 2010.  I had not yet told anyone but my family and a few very close friends that I was leaving.  I did tell Terri and told her I thought she would make a good member of the Maryland House of Delegates and that if she decided to run, I would help her and give her access to all of my files, lists and info I had gathered in my 30 years in public office, an offer I had never made to anyone else. After thinking it over for a few weeks, she got back in touch with me and said “yes”.  I have been very pleased with Terri’s priorities in office and believe she has served us who live in District 12 quite well.

In addition to my strong belief that Elijah’s successor should be from Baltimore City, I also believe that at this time we very much need Terri

here in Howard County and Maryland.  We have our own issues, particularly economic justice, as evidenced by the difficulty in finding affordable housing and the recent strong and at times disrespectful debate about school re-districting.  We in Columbia no longer stand out as Jim Rouses’s community “where the CEO and the janitor can live side by side in the same neighborhood”.  I believe Terri is the one to continue to carry those ideals forward.

REFLECTIONS ON HOME IN COLUMBIA

My husband, Lloyd, who serves as the proofreader and science/finance fact checker for these monthly Reflections, requested that he be the author of the opening paragraph this month.  I said “yes”. His work follows:

"Now that winter is here, the view of the sky thru the windows above our bed’s headboard is much different than it is the rest of the year.  The leaves are gone from the trees, giving us a panoramic view of the heavens and all in between.  From six in the morning, when the wind is flowing from the northwest, the parade of airplanes taking off from BWI adds a bit of travel lust to our still-sleepy brains.  When we see/hear the planes, we know that the morning hours will be clear and, probably cold.  It’s a welcome weather predictor.  (In bad weather, planes generally take off to the southeast.)  In fair weather, hundreds of planes a day fly directly over our house heading almost due west from BWI’s two-mile-long main runway.  To reach us, 12 miles from the airport, a plane takes an average of three minutes travelling about 250 MPH and climbing to 7-8K feet in altitude as it passes over.  We enjoy their transit although many living much closer to the airport are disturbed by the noise."  (It’s not too difficult to detect that I didn’t write that technical paragraph, is it?)

Today is the last day of 2019.  I can’t help but wonder whether the cardinals, feeding from the birdfeeder on our back deck outside the window by the kitchen table where we are having our breakfast of cereal, milk, and fruit, are aware of that.  Clearly their lives are not guided by the Gregorian calendar as are ours.  Although I would not be at all surprised to learn that they are aware at some level that my birthday, December 21, is the shortest day of the year according to the that calendar.

* * *

Shortly before Christmas we had very big and very happy family news.  Zach’s sister, Julia, is engaged to be married. Chris and John love Julia’s future husband, Chad, very much, as do we. It is such a joy to see them all so full of happiness this winter holiday season.

The director of the Howard County Historical Society, Shawn Gladden, has asked me, as the first woman county executive in Maryland, to kick off this celebratory Year of the Woman.

Please join us:  January 10, at 3pm, the Old Post Office at the top of Main Street in downtown Ellicott City. It is fitting that this is the building where Elijah Cummings, a champion of women’s rights, had his Congressional district office.

I would love to see you there.

REFLECTIONS ON ZACH

The Christmas stockings, which I cut out and stitched by hand over the years, continue to hang from our dining room sideboard today, five days after Christmas.  They are made of flannel fabric – white, red, and green – and decorated with ribbons and colorful stitching, including our family members individuals names. This year there are thirteen of them – some of our immediate family members not been present with us this year.  Zach’s red stocking continues to hang each year alongside his sister Julia’s and his Mom, Chris and Dad, John. 

REFLECTIONS ON BALTIMORE, MY HOME TOWN

Two old city landmarks are set for renovation and a new life in Baltimore. Although I grew up in Edmondson Village in West Baltimore, I spent a lot of time with my mom in the two landmarks covered in the Baltimore Sun articles referenced below.  It brings a big smile to my face and joy to my heart to see them both slated for much needed renovation.

The Baltimore Sun                                                   December 14, 2019

“Historic Paterson Park house set for new life

$700K renovation planned for neighborhood workhorse” 

by Jacques Kelly

Born near the Baltimore harbor in 1904, my mom, Helen Marie Monnett, grew up in Patterson Park.  I am so grateful to the Friends of Patterson Park for persisting in their preservation efforts.  (In older times it was customary for future grooms to propose to their future wives in the famous pagoda on the western edge of this park.)

The Baltimore Sun                                                         December 15, 2019

“A PLACE FOR ALL OF US TO GO 

“A rebuild of Baltimore’s Lexington Market is set to begin – too late for some vendors, but others are hopeful”                                                             by Lorraine Mirabella

In several prior “Reflections” I have written of weekly streetcar rides to Lexington Market from the Edmondson Village neighborhood where I lived with my parents and my two sisters until they moved - one to enter the convent in Pennsylvania and the other to attend nursing school at St. Agnes Hospital in Baltimore.  I remember the fresh Chesapeake Bay seafood from Fadeley’s (an Ellicott City family) stall and scrumptious fresh baked cookies at Berger’s bakery.  Fast forward to the late 70’s.  I am married and the mother of two, Chris and Cliff, both attending Howard County schools.  I am also a student at the University of Maryland School of Law, which was located in downtown Baltimore, a couple city blocks from Lexington Market.  On most days I walked to that market for lunch.  My favorite food stall?  Fadeley’s for raw shucked oysters and Berger’s for cookies with thick chocolate fudge frosting. Who ever said you can’t go home again?

                             

REFLECTIONS ON PUBLIC POLICY

U.S.A.

The Washington Post                                                December 30, 2019

”Rep. John Lewis, civil rights leader, says he has Stage 4 pancreatic cancer”

The image of this brave and principled man exuded love of freedom as he led the civil rights march participants across the bridge in Selma.

May that same strength aid him now.   His is an irreplaceable voice for justice in our nation’s government.

Several years ago our son-in-law, Smitty,  husband of Lloyd’s daughter, Carolyn,  asked  me if I could arrange a meeting for him with John Lewis whose work he was  studying in an academic class.  I went to Elijah for assistance and Smitty had a long informative time alone with Congressman Lewis.  Earlier this month, before news was out about Lewis’ serious health condition which will keep him away from Congressional meetings for a bit.  Carolyn and Smitty visited us from their home in Virginia earlier this month and gave me a present for my 76^th birthday –“Walking with the Wind – A memoir of the Movement” by John Lewis.  Coincidence?  I think not.

Two amazingly incongruent sources caught my eye as quotes for today:

“If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author.”

                                                                        Abraham Lincoln

                                                                         The Atlantic 12/19

“If necessary, we’re going to have to shut the government down.  And that’s not radical.  What is radical is not doing anything.”

                                                         Jane Fonda

                                                         Washington Post Magazine 12/29/19

             

REFLECTIONS ON OUR PLANET BEYOND THE UNITED STATES

The Washington Post                                                December 31, 2019

“At least 554 journalists killed in past decade        by Siobhan O’Grady

So many brave women and men around the world are willing to risk their lives for truth.  If they can do that for us, we surely can support democracy in our own nation.  Can we not?  (Subscribe to your newspaper of choice today!)

The Washington Post Editorial                                      December 2, 2019

“A ‘bleak’ future

The United Nations releases a deeply troubling report on climate change”

We the people still have a chance to turn this “bleak future” around.  We need the intestinal fortitude to do so.  The opportunity won’t last many more years.

The Washington Post                                                      December 11, 2019

“Greenland ice sheet’s losses have rapidly increased, 89 scientists say”

A situation we cannot ignore, yet we do.

REFLECTIONS ON OUR UNIVERSE

The Washington Post                                                       December 1, 2019

“Scientists discover new black hole with a mass 70 times that of the sun”

by Katie Mettler

This is one of those articles that fills me with awe and simply makes my head spin. The name given by the group of Chinese-led international scientists to this newly discovered black hole inside our own galaxy – the largest ever seen by anyone anywhere?  “LB-1”  After all, it WAS discovered in the month of my 71^st birthday, and my initials ARE “LB”.  Just sayin.

     

Across the Universe

 “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.

~ Liz

PS - My monthly Reflections episodes, the Dragon radio show I record at HCC, can be found at   http://dragondigitalradio.podbean.com/category/reflections-on-life/.

REFLECTIONS ON LIFE – NOVEMBER 2019

ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED
PS - My monthly-recorded “Reflections” episodes on Howard Community College’s Dragon radio program I record can be located at http://dragondigitalradio.podbean.com/category/reflections-on-life/

REFLECTIONS ON HOME IN COLUMBIA

The water in the two ponds behind and alongside our home has turned dark and remains a deep black. Earlier this month, poplar leaves fallen from their tall home, shone as bright patches of yellow on that sometimes still and sometimes shimmering black water.  A few now remain there, although presenting much less contrast in color.  Most of the leaves that have lived through this year on various trees have now fallen to the ground.  A few faded and crinkly orange and yellow ones still hang on to the maples.

Hummingbirds abandoned our feeders and headed south the beginning on November. A large woodpecker with the reddest head I have ever seen on that species feeds many times a day on the suet cakes hanging from the branches of our beloved long-limbed pine tree.    Cardinals feast on the sunflower seeds in the adjacent feeder.  Last winter I wrote about the several days’ vigil we held over those branches when they were so heavily laden with snow we feared they might not see spring.  They did.  Squirrels run back and forth seemingly endlessly on those branches - two accessible from different levels – one outside our bedroom window and the other from the kitchen window downstairs.  

 Throughout this year’s spring, summer, and fall we have felt such joy watching them scamper back and forth from both the windows by our bed and in our kitchen where we often eat our meals.  Now, with winter approaching, we wonder whether these same branches will make it through again.  

Only time will tell.

You may recall my writing in past Reflections about the deep sadness Lloyd and I experienced when The Tomato Palace restaurant on Columbia’s downtown lakefront closed.  We had such great memories of taking Zach and Julia there for summer lunches sitting outdoors by beautiful Lake Kittamaqundi.  As time passed, so did that nostalgia (or at least it lessened significantly).  Last year that building reopened as “The Soundry” a musical venue.   This year we had attended a couple events and found them entertaining.  Then last week Deanna Bogart whom we had heard outdoors many times over the years at the Lakefront during summer treated us to a magnificent performance.  We both loved her great piano concerts (including her sitting on the piano keys) and highly spirited singing.  The ambiance and acoustics inside the Soundry took both of us to a significantly higher level of pure enjoyment.  Deanna was great.  So Lloyd and I now consider ourselves living proof that “old” people can indeed adjust.  Hope to see you back there soon, Deanna.

“The New Yorker”                                                                 November 18, 2019

“The Final Frontier “Star Trek” guides a hospital vigil”   by Michael Chabon

Chabon, Columbia born and bred, the much beloved and Pulitzer prize-winning author of “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay”, more recently wrote about his relationship with his father as well as his own experience as a parent in his new book “Pops:  Fatherhood in Pieces”.  In this article, Chabon writes “My father and I had already done all the talking we were ever going to do”.  It takes me back to my own dad, “Barney” to me, about whom I have written in prior “Reflections on Life”, If you can read this article without tears, I would like to know how.

REFLECTIONS ON ZACH

The annual Zaching Against Cancer Foundation Running Festival

took place this month at Turf Valley. It was quite a cold day.  One thousand plus people turned out to run or walk.  They had three choices:  10K, 5K, or one mile.  Lloyd and I walked the mile with approximately 100 other participants; all the rest ran 5K or 10K. I have attended more than a few outdoor events in my 75 years, and I can honestly (and objectively, I believe) say that I have never seen a more enthused and celebratory event.  The joy and reverence that Zach’s memory brings out in people of all ages and walks of life is nothing short of inspirational – just as our memory of Zach himself continues to be.  I realize that this could easily sound like a grandmother’s words.  They are, and the truth is that everyone present with whom I spoke made similar observations.

Zach’s sister, Julia, now works full time for the foundation, the main mission of which is to provide assistance in many forms to families of kids with brain cancer.  She does such a great job in carrying on the love her brother spread around. We recently received the very happy news that Julia and her boyfriend, Chad, are engaged to be married.   Her parents, Chris and John are brimming with happiness.  Lloyd and I are, too.  Zach’s presence at their engagement party was palpable.

REFLECTIONS ON BALTIMORE, MY HOME TOWN

I have written before about the time I spent as a kid at Edmondson Village shopping center, one of the first of that genre in the nation.  Along with many other kids, I was enamored of the monkeys in the shoe store, which was about half a mile’s walk from our home.  I was equally enamored of the scrumptious chocolate sundaes which I ate sitting with a girl friend at about age seven on a stool at the drug store counter. This shopping center was among the first in the country to include a movie theater, where I went on my first “date” at age 14.  Ever so often I randomly take a ride around my childhood neighborhood including my church and elementary school, St. Bernardine’s, and that shopping center. With these and many other fond memories, I was saddened to read of the serious fire and am hoping for quick repair.

Speaking of fires in Baltimore, my mom was born in that city in 1904, the year of the Great Baltimore Fire, which was the third worst in U.S. history, following those in San Francisco and Chicago.  Twelve hundred fire fighters, including many from surrounding counties, worked continuously for thirty-six hours to extinguish the flames.  Some 1,500 buildings were destroyed over an area of 140 acres.  Some of them came BY TRAIN from Philadelphia!  It’s important that those of us living in counties surrounding Baltimore understand the importance of helping that city succeed.

***

“The Baltimore Sun”                                                Sunday, November 17, 2019

“Forget luxury apartments.  We need affordable housing.”     Editorial

“Developers and city officials are all too eager to welcome in well-to-do residents while forgetting about the city’s poor.  We have enough buildings geared to empty nest baby boomers and young professionals.  Why not build where there is a need?”

With all due respect to baby boomers and young professionals, I agree with this editorial, and the same goes for the need in Columbia.

“The Baltimore Sun”                                             Sunday, November 2019

“You know you’re from Baltimore if…”               by Dan Rodricks

I realize I’m writing quite a few words about Baltimore, but there are two aspects of this regular column by Rodricks that I can’t resist.  First, The mention of Jimmy’s Restaurant in Fells Point, which had been one of my Mom’s favorites, and in later years, mine too.  Second, legendary journalist, H.L. Mencken about whom I wrote in a recent “Reflections,” Rodricks quotes him writing in the Baltimore Evening Sun in 1920;  “As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people.  On some great day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a down-right moron.”  As for our current president, I don’t believe he’s a moron.  He merely acts like one.

The Baltimore Sun                                                  Monday, November 4, 2019

“Pelosi warns Maryland Dems of ‘assault’”          by Lorraine Mirabella

I was in my thirty’s when Speaker Nancy Pelosi’ brother, Tommy D’Alesandro, served as mayor of Baltimore in the 60’s.  This month Lloyd and I went to hear Nancy speak at the gathering described in this Sun article.  We were not disappointed.

REFLECTIONS ON PUBLIC POLICY

Howard County

 “The Baltimore Sun”                                                          November 17, 2019

“Do what’s right to diversify schools in Howard County”  by Arne Duncan &

                                                                                                  John R. King Jr.

The two authors of this letter to the editor each served as Secretary of Education under President Obama.  That carries a fair amount of weight with me, re: their opinions on diversifying schools in our county.

State of Maryland

The Washington Post                                                              November 4, 2019

“Remembrance and reconciliation”                                  by DeNeen L. Brown

“Montgomery County will send soil from the site of an 1880 lynching to an Alabama museum”

With the ever-growing number of historical “lynching” reports, I am taken back to The Water Dancer”,Ta’Nehisi Coates’ magnificently worded novel

with a unique inescapably piercing perspective on slavery.

U.S.A.

The Baltimore Sun                                                            November 29, 2019

“Thank Lincoln, not the Pilgrims, for Thanksgiving” by William C. Kashatus

“Lincoln’s Thanksgiving proclamation”

A few days ago our nation recognized Thanksgiving Day. One way or the other I have managed to live to the age of 75 without reading these wise words in the proclamation of President Abraham Lincoln on this national day of recognition.  I strongly recommend that you read it, particularly these words near the end, regardless of your religious affiliation – if any.

“…with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers …”

When I read this on Thanksgiving Day, it hit me hard to realize that we as a nation continue to allow, if not cause, such pain and harm to many at home and abroad. I yearn for a Thanksgiving Day when this has ceased.

REFLECTIONS ON OUR PLANET BEYOND THE UNITED STATES

UKRAINE

A deep bow of gratitude and sincere admiration for former U.S. Ambassador to the Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, for the deep courage, dignity, respect, and solemnity she presented in testifying recently before the House Intelligence Committee of the U.S. Congress.

MEXICO

“Pilgrimage”                                                             by Jackie Bryant

Sierra (magazine)                                                    November/December 2019

Like me, during the past several years you have likely read various news, literary, financial and other publications about Central American migrants crossing our U.S. border.  They all conjure up images of the few and various such crossings Lloyd and I have made. Here in an environmental publication –“Sierra”- is one such article that may be the most poignant, humane, and spiritual I have read to date.  The image of “where one (nation) ends and the other begins” has come to me countless times since I first read, “Pilgrimage.”

A deep bow to poet, Jackie Bryant.

 ITALY

Lloyd and I love Venice.  When we visited this beautiful city 25 years ago during our European honeymoon, we danced one night in the magnificent Saint Mark’s square.  Last autumn, in celebration of our 25^th wedding anniversary, we repeated the same self-guided tour, starting in Paris then travelling south along the Mediterranean coast by train.  Although it was much too crowded to dance in that square this time, we loved sitting and people- watching while having a glass of wine.  We were heartbroken to see the recent photos in the Washington Post of Venice literally under water. 

Such a stark reminder that the magnificent city by the sea, with all of its precious art, is not immune to destruction.  Venice is a quintessential example of the value of tangible, material objects.

REFLECTIONS ON OUR UNIVERSE

“The Washington Post”                                                       November 5, 2019

“A Cosmic Mystery”                                                            by Joel Achenbach

“Scientists say the universe is expanding – but how fast?  The answer may be found in a “new physics.”

I feel deep gratitude toward Mr. Achenbach and the astronomer whom he quotes, Adam Riess, professor of physics and astronomy at Johns Hopkins University.  No longer do I feel quite so ignorant when reading articles about the universe.  “We are wired to use our intuition to understand things around us”, says Riess,  “Most of the universe is made out of stuff that’s completely different than us. This adherence to intuition is often wildly unsuccessful in the universe.”

Since reading this article a few weeks ago, on clear nights I have lingered longer than usual looking out of the window by my bedside at the stars in the sky.  I repeat to myself the final words of my October “Reflections.” 

“Good night, Elijah.”

     

Across the Universe

 “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.

~ Liz

ps - My monthly “Reflections” episodes on Howard Community College’s Dragon radio program I record can be located at http://dragondigitalradio.podbean.com/category/reflections-on-life/.