Today’s offering was entitled “Just don’t make things worse.” After a rather stiff and formal quote from the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, Holiday begins with that opening line above, and then continues.
“This might be the most violated piece of commonsense wisdom in the world. Because what most of us do when something happens, goes wrong, or is inflicted on us is make it worse — first, by getting angry or feeling aggrieved, and next, by flailing around before we have much in the way of a plan.
Today, give yourself the most simple and doable of tasks: just don’t make stuff worse. Whatever happens, don’t add angry or negative emotions to the equation. Don’t react for the sake of reacting. Leave it as it is. Stop digging. Then plan your way out.”
Reminders worth repeating. Don’t add negative emotions to the equation. Stop digging. Plan your way out.
It is no coincidence that these were words I needed to hear. Perhaps they will resonate with you.
As always, this Weekly Reader features links to recent articles that grabbed my interest or tickled my fancy. I hope you find something that makes you laugh, think, or cry.
Grober begins with the set-up:
“’We were taught from day one to respect the game, respect the competition, respect the opponent… You don’t swing 3-0 when you’re up by that big a lead.’ — White Sox manager Tony La Russa, expressing disappointment in star rookie Yermin Mercedes for hitting a home run when his team was winning, 5/18/21“
And then he helps explain it all for you by writing out those unwritten rules, beginning with Rule #1:
“If a team is down by a lot of runs, they should stop trying to win. And the other team should stop trying to score. And the fans should fall into a deep, awful sleep….
We’ll be back in a minute to Rule #8:
“Don’t do anything new….If you figure out a novel way to score or win or whatever, you’re just making everyone who used to play and never thought to do that feel bad.“
And finally, Rule #10:
“If a player breaks any one of these rules, someone else should throw a hard baseball 90 miles per hour at their head. This is completely reasonable and totally normal.“
Javy Báez DEFINITELY violated Rule #8 last week.
With two outs, the first baseman simply had to touch the bag for the inning to end. Instead, he had a brain lock when the baserunner began running BACKWARDS! However, if he had tagged Báez BEFORE he reached first — even after the runner touched home — the inning would have been over and the run would not have counted.
But he didn’t. This became many fans’ instant candidate for wackiest baseball play ever. It shows the value of perseverance: don’t ever stop trying, because you never know when the other guy’s brain will lock up.
Every time I go to the ballpark I see something I’ve never seen before. This definitely qualifies.
“The world of sports media is basically where American men go to avoid therapy, where they can project their wounds and failings onto strangers and referees,” writes Sam Anderson in an insightful piece in the New York Times Magazine. Kevin Durant and (Possibly) the Greatest Basketball Team of All Timeis full of gems about this most graceful of players and the changing nature of the NBA.
With superteams constructed largely by the best players the changes to the game haven’t been well received by some fans. LeBron James started this trend with his “decision” to “take my talents to South Beach” from Cleveland.
“This inspired exactly the kind of panic you might expect in certain quarters of America, given the racial dynamics involved: a redistribution of power from (mostly) old white executives to (mostly) young black players.“
After playing with his original team, the Oklahoma City Thunder, for longer than most superstars, Durant decided to test the free agent market in 2016.
“He conducted his free agency like the superstar that he was: He rented a mansion in the Hamptons, where he hosted waves of N.B.A. suitors…in the end, Durant made a choice that just about ripped the basketball world in half. He left OKC to join the Golden State Warriors, the best team in the league, one of the greatest teams in history and the team that just barely knocked the Thunder out of the playoffs five weeks earlier. It would have been like Jimi Hendrix, after narrowly losing a battle of the bands to the Rolling Stones, signing on as their new lead guitarist. To many sports fans, Durant, like LeBron James before him, became an absolute villain. He had taken player empowerment too far, critics said, violated a sacred code of competitive pride. Also, he hurt their feelings. ESPN’s most famous bloviator, Stephen A. Smith, called it ‘the weakest move I’ve ever seen from a superstar.’”
Calling out Stephen A. as a bloviator won me over. If you can get past the paywall, this long piece is worth the read.
NOTE: This post originally began with the Durant piece in the lead, but after major injuries to Harden and Irving, the Nets lost in the Eastern Conference semifinal, making this much less relevant. So I moved the baseball stories to the top.
Recently, while considering ways to use focus to enrich my life, another f-word kept appearing in the works I was reading: forgiveness.* Being better at focusing than forgiving, I suspect this is no coincidence.
“Problems among people are solved by forgiveness, not force. It is generosity that heals and cleanses, not genocide. Mutual hope is what makes us safe. Trust is what we need, and we will never, ever get it through triumph in any form.“
In 50 very short rules for a good life, number 34 is: forgive, forgive, forgive. The repetition suggests we should apply it on a daily basis.
These two passages from different traditions spurred the thought that perhaps we do not conceive of forgiveness as a solution for horrific tragedies such as mass shootings because we so seldom consider forgiveness as part of our response to the challenges in our day-to-day lives.
In a recent article on memoir writing, Lisa Cooper Ellison begins with a story where a writing instructor asked the students to bring in a scene from their memoir-in-progress that included the character who challenged them the most. The scene Ellison chose could’ve been titled “The Reason I Hate My Mother.” As Ellison read the assignment on the board she saw:
“Write the scene from your antagonist’s perspective.“
Ellison bit the inside of her cheek to keep from saying, “Do you know what she’s effing done?” In too many of life’s troubled experiences, that’s our response: do you know how I’ve been hurt? By this jerk?! And I’m suppose to forgive them?!!
In my experience, forgiveness, like focus, is hard and requires bravery.
It is hard in part because we misunderstand it, assuming that when we forgive we bury our feelings, forget what happened, and stay friends with one who has hurt us. It requires bravery because it is far easier to have a rehearsed story that may begin with “let me tell you what he did” and inevitably produces gasps from friends. Those rehearsed stories are usually “what forgiveness specialist Fred Luskin calls a grievance story.” While the responses Ellison received to her rehearsed story were highly satisfying, each rendition kept her in the role of victim without any power.
Grievances, like force, never solve problems among people. We don’t understand that forgiveness empowers. We should forgive because it is only then that our personal healing can begin.
And we should forgive even if the other person is not ready to receive it.
I can think of no better example of forgiving even when the recipient is not prepared to be forgiven than one we saw in 2015. A 21-year-old white supremacist had just murdered nine innocent people in a venerable Black church in Charleston. Time and again at the bail hearing, the family members of those murdered simply said, “I forgive you” to the angry young man who found it appropriate to kill their mothers, aunts, brothers, and children because he — in his own misguided way and spurred by the hatred so often found in our public discourse — felt his world was threatened. It was a moving and deep faith-based response in contrast to those who quickly call for violence as a response to violence.
When painful events hold power over us, we give in to the mythologies of separation and violence. When that power overtakes me, I am certain about how things really happened, limiting the frames by which I see the world.
Forgiveness not only helps us write a better memoir, it gives us a power that is stronger than the power of hate. A power that builds instead of divides and denies.
In the midst of growing grievance fueled by those who benefit from our isolation, it is time to give forgiveness a chance to demonstrate its power in the world.
More to come…
DJB
*What? Your mind went elsewhere? I forgive you. Hat tip to Lisa Ellison for the idea.
Guitarist Charlie Rauh, — featured in this week’s Saturday Soundtrack — grew up in Huntsville, Alabama and now lives in New York City. Rauh began playing clarinet and saxophone at age 13, and then began to learn the guitar. “Playing guitar really opened up a lot of creative momentum for me,” Rauh notes, “as I could play chords as well as melodies and form more developed ideas. I was (and still am) very influenced by Duke Ellington. I’d say that he and his music first inspired me to want to be a composer due to his wonderfully lyrical melodic sense intertwined with dense, idiosyncratic harmony.”
Rauh’s quiet but moving solo guitar work, inspired “from folk lullabies, plainchant, and the imagery of various poets ranging from the Brontës to Anna Akhmatova,” is a balm for the soul.
“Acoustic Guitar Magazine notes that ‘Charlie Rauh plays guitar with a quiet intensity, each note and chord ringing with purpose…With these lullabies Rauh gives a gentle reminder that playing soft and slow can be more impactful than loud and fast.'”
To demonstrate that soft and slow compositional style, this first video is of Rauh playing his original composition Arolen from the 2017 release Viriditas. For the guitar geeks reading, Rauh is playing a Waterloo WL-14. The song was named after the street Rauh grew up on in Huntsville and contains the melody from his first “song” written as a child.
Ethereal Lullabies is another gorgeous composition from Rauh, played on a small Collings guitar.
The Fretboard Journal posted a recent video of Rauh, and because this is the Fretboard Journal, they tell you more about the guitar than the composition. Both are lovely.
“The song is ‘Watch Through the Darkest Hours of Night,’ from the album ‘The Bluebell,’ on Destiny Records. The guitar is a custom Collings Parlor he recently acquired — it’s essentially a Parlor 1 T (Mahogany back and sides, Sitka spruce top), with a satin finish, no fretboard markers, ivoroid trim (bindings, tuners, bridge pins and logo) and no endpin.“
I’ll end this Soundtrack with two duets, the first an improvisation with Rauh and Mark Goldenberg where together they weave some beautiful strands of sound. The second is a special duo arrangement of Rauh’s song, Observer, with Eric Skye (previously featured on Saturday Soundtrack). The original solo version was recorded on Rauh’s album, Hiraeth. The two musicians — obvious aficionados of the luscious sounds they can coax from the small-bodied guitar — pair nicely on this tune.
As always, this Weekly Reader features links to recent articles that grabbed my interest or tickled my fancy. I hope you find something that makes you laugh, think, or cry.
As we face our racist past, many are just discovering the troubling ties between Nazi Germany and the United States.
“‘The U.S. led the world in eugenic thinking in the 1930s,’ said John Treat, a historian who teaches an honors humanities seminar at the University of Arkansas that covers Krieger. ‘We were the model for the Nazis.’…
Not much is known about Heinrich Krieger. He was a German lawyer who attended the University of Arkansas in 1933 and 1934 to study business and American race law — particularly laws regarding Indigenous Americans. The Nazis had long been interested in American race law; in his book ‘Mein Kampf,’ Nazi leader Adolf Hitler said the U.S. was ‘the one state’ in the world creating the kind of racist society the Nazi regime wanted.“
In the battle with home-grown fascism in America in 2021, this is a history that needs to be understood, not swept under the rug.
“Mr. Biden is currently the subject of some bishops’ braying and bleating about his fitness to receive communion. From the time of his election, through the upcoming annual June meeting of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the right flank of the Conference has been rehearsing its old songs…(and) set up a committee to consider how to respond to a Catholic president who doesn’t interfere with the law of the land when it comes to abortion. How do you solve a problem like Joe Biden? was their hit tune.“
“stood in sharp contrast to Pope Francis’ kind, diplomatic words of welcome to the second Catholic president of the United States. The Bishops acknowledged Mr. Biden’s personal piety, but charged that he “has pledged to pursue certain policies that would advance moral evils and threaten human life and dignity…” They weren’t referring to building walls, supporting the death penalty, interfering with voting rights, and/or withholding healthcare from those made poor. The chorus was a tired refrain: “abortion, contraception, marriage, and gender.” It was as if Catholics cared about nothing else during a global pandemic when systemic racism and economic inequality reign. The timing was rude, the content familiar, the impact minimal.” (emphasis added)
With the archbishop who chairs the Conference’s Pro-Life Activities Committee, “we have a bishop, not of the president’s diocese, who tells a practicing Catholic that he is not devout.” In terms of hidden agendas, Hunt suggests that the most vociferous bishops on these questions “tend to be the ones who’ve had their heads measured for new regalia because they’re banking on being named cardinals, especially after Pope Francis is conveniently, for them, out of the picture.”
The radicalization of politics
Ted Cruz’s agenda is never hidden.
Author and lawyer Teri Kanefield has an interesting piece on her blog entitled The Radicalization of the Republican Party. She begins with a Wall Street Journal op-ed by Cruz where the Texas Senator calls out corporate America for pushing back against the Republican party’s radical politics, and he ends by posting his conclusion, which he also tweeted:
“Social media understood right away this was a stunning admission that Ted Cruz takes corporate money in exchange for doing their bidding. But of course we know that. The other reaction on social media was, ‘Ted Cruz turn away corporate money? Don’t make me laugh.‘
…Are the right wing extremists and Corporate America on a verge of divorce? Is Ted Cruz singing, ‘You’ll be back?’…Will the Republican Party, which started as the party of business and industry, jettison the industry and business portion and become purely the Party of White Grievance and extremists?“
The party that began as the anti-slavery pro-business party would end up, Kanefield notes, as the party of white supremacists and insurrectionists.
This weekend our family has been celebrating what I will call a “significant” birthday for my wife.
When Andrew, Claire, and I began to think of ways to recognize this milestone, we settled on something called a Boombox.* Through the wonders of the internet, we invited others to join us in sending best wishes. More than 100 of Candice’s friends and family members responded with cards, notes, poems, photos, newspaper clippings, and anecdotes.
Candice’s Big Birthday Boombox
In our combination in-person/Zoom celebration on Saturday, Andrew, Claire, Blair, and I gave the gift and — knowing the good wishes she would discover — sat back to enjoy the reaction.
Candice opens her Boombox as Claire and Blair join in from California.
Candice has touched many lives in so many positive ways that this project was an easy sell. Today I’m sharing how a sampling of those who have been part of Candice’s life expressed their appreciation for, as one person described it, the “blessing of our friendship.”
Candice with her parents, Dr. and Mrs. Andrew C. Colando, 1955
Forever friends…for friends around the world
Childhood friends, siblings, and cousins reached out with the perspective that more than one individual described as, “I knew you when…” and then proceeded to use a childhood nickname (that we don’t mention!). These “almost forever friends” had stories of birthday parties, Girl Scout cookies, measles outbreaks, and more for someone who has “such a warm and good soul.”
One reason she has so many friends from every part of her life is that Candice stays in touch. “I remember I always looked forward to the cards from Uncle David and Aunt Candice growing up,” wrote one niece. Then she added a line that was mentioned again and again: “The great handwriting always inspired me.”
“Your warmth and humility shine through your eyes and your smile and it’s a magnet,” wrote a friend from the World Bank.
Amazement at the calm in the middle of a (twin) storm
Several friends reached out with stories from when our children were young and as they grew into — in the words of their first grade teacher — “two adorable, talented, and thoughtful young people.” But man, were they a handful when they were little!
“I realised how challenging it was to be the mother of twin toddlers when one day you asked me to watch Andrew and Claire in the children’s library while you popped upstairs to the adult section,” wrote a friend who now lives in Europe but whose children shared play dates with the twins in the early 1990s in Staunton.
“‘Sure!’ I answered, without a second thought. Within two minutes, I had no idea where either of them were! Fortunately, they couldn’t go too far in that safe environment, but I felt tremendous respect for the energy you had to keep up with your busy little two!”
“Although we haven’t lived in the same place for many years, you and your family have had such an influence on me,” wrote a young friend who now has a family of her own. “You and David trusted me with your BABIES, even though they could outsmart me even back then!” Another friend we’ve known since her birth mentioned the time that she “stayed” with Andrew and Claire…when she was five years old. “Thanks for letting me ‘babysit’ your twins so many years ago — didn’t know then it was training for my future!”
Did I mention that this young woman now has twins of her own?
“Your unconditional love,” wrote one of my brothers, “has found its finest expression in the lives of Andrew and Claire.”
Flowers for a special birthday
One who lives as if what we give is more important than what we get
Candice was a Bible & Religion major at Agnes Scott College, and she has forgotten more scripture than I ever knew (and I was raised a Baptist, where quoting scripture is what it takes to get into the dining hall at summer camp!) But she has gone well beyond the simple memorization of text to living her faith in a way that is recognized and appreciated by a wide circle of friends. Not with a certainty of what scripture says and certainly not bound up in a cultural Christianity, but with a seeking mind and loving heart. A wise person “of intelligence and discernment and faith” as a dear friend/priest wrote.
Candice happens to havea number of friends who are in the priesthood, permanent diaconate, or work professionally in spiritual formation. Many of those priests/friends are female. One with a good sense of humor wrote,
“’Birthdays are good for you. Statistics show that people who have the most live the longest.’ I am grateful (understatement) to have been around for at least two decades worth of yours. That gratitude is evoked by things like countless occasions of worshipping with you, watching you mother — and listening to your stories of mothering — two wondrous children (now adults themselves!); sharing vicariously in the kind of joy you express over delights of family time, of travel, of deep wisdom; of giving of yourself so generously to church, community, school, friends; being beneficiary of having a bird’s eye view of your gifted ways of moving through challenges of health, disappointments, and more. Much more.“
When the twins were still toddlers, Candice undertook a four-year Education for Ministry(EFM) class through the University of the South. I said she took it because it required that I watch Andrew and Claire one night at home each week while she went to class. That, of course, wasn’t anywhere near the truth.
EFM required extensive reading and study. One of her classmates wrote, “Candice, you are one who loves to be engaged in serious things, and you take them on with enthusiasm and vigor….You were always prepared in EFM for anything the mentor threw our way.” Another long-time friend who is also a priest wrote, “I am blessed with your friendship, a friendship spanning many years and much of life….I have learned so much from you. You inspire me and are an amazing, wise, and delightful woman.”
Reading with her great niece and great nephew
Time to listen, with respect, empathy, and love
Over and over again, Candice’s friends mentioned her willingness to stop what she is doing and talk with anyone, anywhere, for any length of time.
Listening is an act of love. Time and again individuals mentioned the way Candice makes herself accessible and vulnerable in a most direct and powerful way: by listening.
“I think we first met in the Nave of the Cathedral on some music-oriented occasion where 10-year-old Andrew and our daughter were performing,” wrote another friend. “You were instantly warm, friendly, and inclusive, qualities I saw in abundance over the next fifteen-plus years with many others.”
“You have a wonderful way of making me, and others, I am sure, feel as if you have all the time in the world to have a conversation. I have enjoyed our wide-ranging chats about our children, our lives, big ideas, and art.”
“Your ability to genuinely care and a willingness to listen to and not be afraid of the burden of others’ pain is extraordinary. It is a courage that I envy and admire,” wrote another friend. “Once…I was overwhelmed with single motherhood and sobbing in a church pew. You found me and told me what a good job I was doing. Your reassurance was repeated often in the following years, and it nurtured me.”
Several friends also mentioned Candice’s ways of connecting with children. “I have learned so much from you about how to honor and support children, particularly in their lives of faith,” wrote a priest/friend. “I love how you notice the details with the kids in our Sunday School — their talents, their questions, the things they love and the things they pray for. They’re blessed to have you as a mentor.”
“Love is both presence and action,” wrote a family member, “and I can’t tell you how grateful I am that I’ve always felt both throughout my life, at peaks and valleys alike.” That presence at all stages of life came through time and again.
Food, a thirst for travel, more conversation, and love
We made several new and life-long friends during our six weeks at the American Academy in Rome in 2016, where we got to know people from around the world over those amazing dinners of food and wine from the Rome Sustainable Food Project. One of those friends knew instinctively that Candice would hear from a large number of individuals, given “the gentle, insightful, and nurturing kind of person you are.” A priest/friend added the hope “that you know beyond words just how deeply and truly you are loved.”
Candice and Margaret – two thirds of the catering team at Table Grace
Longtime friends from our life in Staunton wrote, “We treasure the shared history and long easy conversation, the pleasures of preparing and eating superb food together, the comfort and inspiration of your spirituality and your loving concern for others.”
And another friend from that time told of a “fabulous contribution” made to her family’s culinary repertoire.
“One summer you tutored our son, who was struggling in school after a year with a hard-nosed and unsympathetic teacher. In the course of the fun ways of learning you showed him, you provided a recipe for shortbread that a young child could make successfully. He took to it and made a pie-pan of it for every big family and church occasion the rest of his years at home. I took it up from there and over three decades must have made hundreds of pans of shortbread for entertaining friends, for gifts, and in huge numbers by popular demand for church bazaars and bake sales that have raised hundreds of dollars for good works….Wherever you go you become a blessing to those whom you meet.“
Candice enjoys a morning coffee at the Marcel Breuer House, a National Trust Historic Site
Role model
“You have been a role model to me as I’ve grown into a woman and mother. You’re a phenomenal mother and wife, yet you have maintained your own identity as you’ve supported your family,” wrote a friend we’ve known for decades. “I admire your values and the way that you have remained true to yourself over the years.”
Another friend also spoke of her presence and thoughtfulness.
“You are such a positive influence on those around you that my goal is to think of others and chart my own path as thoughtfully as you have done. All our lives are all greatly enhanced by your extraordinary love and care.“
A friend who has been through a difficult time recently with the loss of a spouse wrote, “You have been such a wonderful friend: kind, considerate, encouraging, spiritual, compassionate, a fabulous mother, and an amazing cook. Your thoughtfulness about life, friends, family and the world are an example for us all.”
Another friend who is a priest (see the pattern here) wrote that “The first time I heard your name, it was on a sick list. They told me you’d been badly hurt. That you had a long recovery.” (Candice had fallen and suffered a serious concussion where the recovery took 12 months.) “But when you came back to church, you had a smile on your face and in your heart — because nothing can keep you down.” This friend has seen Candice as a mother and wife and much more “but above all, as a person who knows how to love well, and to tend the hearts of all those around her.”
A dear friend and former colleague of mine summed up Candice’s impact on the world very well when he wrote, “She is fantastically lovely in every way!”
Happiest of birthdays and much love, dearest Candice, from all your family and friends.
Two quick confessions. First, I can’t play a lick of jazz. Second, my idea of great jazz is clicking on the Oscar Peterson playlist and sitting in amazement as I take it all in. The bassists highlighted in this Soundtrack primarily come out of that tradition, swinging with style, verve, and technique.
Ray Brown (1926-2002) is the bass player I most associate with Oscar Peterson and the swing rhythm section. Brown played 15 years with Peterson who once said, “I don’t think another group has achieved that closeness, that ‘breathe together’ bond that we had.” But Brown and his warm mellow tone supported countless incredible musicians throughout his stellar career. Since we ended last week’s post with Christian McBrideplaying a bass duet with Edgar Meyer, we’ll start this one with McBride and Brown kicking off Now’s The Time. Oh, and did I mention that Herbie Hancock and Hank Jones are playing piano, Kenny Burrell is on the guitar, the rest of the band is equally accomplished…and then Betty Carter joins in on vocals!
At the 1977 Montreux festival, Peterson and Brown played a concert together with another giant on the acoustic bass, Niels Henning Ørsted Pedersen (1946-2005). NHOP as he was known is my favorite acoustic bassist in jazz and many consider him among the best on the instrument. His technique was incredible and those in the know point to the ways he elevated others around him. Just listen to these three masters play off each other, first in You Look Good to Me and then in No Greater Love.
Rick Beato has an informative video on the “insane playing of NHOP.” Go to the 4:10 mark and watch the Joe Pass/NHOP duet. Caution: when they take off on the melody your head might explode! As Oscar Peterson says, “Niels didn’t play the bass, he was the bass.”
I listen to Christian McBride more than any current jazz bassist through his Conversations with Christian show each Saturday morning on the SiriusXM Real Jazz channel. Take in his opening solo on Steps with the late Chick Corea on piano, Kenny Garrett on saxophone and the ageless Roy Haynes — at 85 years old, mind you — on drums. Music is the fountain of youth!
Charles Mingus (1922-1979), another of my favorites, is among the most influential bassists in jazz history. I love this version of Take The A Train. As one commentator noted, only Mingus can have a band with a stride piano break followed by the most progressive Free Jazz bass clarinet solo you’ll ever want to hear. It is like a history of jazz in one performance.
Ron Carter is the most recorded jazz bassist in history. “After playing with Chico Hamilton, Jaki Byard and Milt Jackson in the early 60s, Carter joined Miles Davis’ quintet in 1963, and stayed for five years, playing on classic albums such as ESP and Miles Smiles.” For some great Ron Carter, give a listen to Third Plane.
Another jazz bassist who has grabbed my attention through the years is Dave Holland. He replaced Carter in Miles Davis’ band and has had a remarkable and lengthy career. Enjoy the warm tone he gets out of this solo blues piece.
I know I’ve left out so many talented jazz bass players. (Where’s Jimmy Blanton you might ask). But perhaps this sampling will whet your appetite to jump in and hear some yourself. And because I simply cannot get enough of Peterson, Brown, and NHOP, let’s have them take us out with a spirited Reunion Blues.
We are approaching the 100th anniversary of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, among the worst single instances of racial terrorism in American history. While many recognize this event and its aftermath as the horrific tragedy it is, there are others who are using the weapons of choice for those who want to push back against history and shift responsibility for racism to others. If we are to live so that we will be a people worth remembering, we must learn to follow and understand the truth of our memories. Of our history.
As always, this Weekly Reader features links to recent articles that grabbed my interest or tickled my fancy. I hope you find something that makes you laugh, think, or cry.
“In the span of about 24 hours between May 31 and June 1, 1921, a white mob descended on Greenwood, a successful black economic hub in Tulsa, Oklahoma then-known as ‘Black Wall Street,’ and burned it to the ground. Some members of the mob had been deputized and armed by city officials.
In what is now known as the ‘Tulsa Race Massacre,’ the mob destroyed 35 square blocks of Greenwood, burning down more than 1,200 black-owned houses, scores of businesses, a school, a hospital, a public library, and a dozen black churches. The American Red Cross…said the death toll was around 300, but the exact number remains unknown….Those who survived lost their homes, businesses, and livelihoods. Property damage claims from the massacre alone amount to tens of millions in today’s dollars. The massacre’s devastating toll, in terms of lives lost and harms in various ways, can never be fully repaired.“
What the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Destroyed is a 3D model in the New York Times of what was lost in terms of property and intergenerational Black wealth. It is worth your consideration.
Blowback against the impacts of racism can be seen in conservative attempts to take one of the aspirations for the civil rights movement — King’s famous line that individuals would one day “not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character” — and strip it away from considerations of power, hierarchy, or structure. Sociologist Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, author of Racism Without Racists, notes that color-blind racism is an ideology that “explains contemporary racial inequality as the outcome of non-racial dynamics…(W)hites rationalize minorities’ contemporary status as the product of market dynamics, naturally occurring phenomena, and blacks’ imputed cultural limitations.” Such explanations “exculpate [white people] from any responsibility for the status of people of color.”
“(T)his new (Oklahoma) law undermines efforts to reckon with our collective past, and it will chill classroom discussions of this history. H.B. 1775 instructs educators to emphasize that although the perpetrators of the Tulsa Race Massacre did bad things, their actions do not shape the world we live in — even though White rioters murdered scores of Black Tulsans and destroyed more than 1,200 buildings in the Black Greenwood neighborhood, annihilating decades of accumulated Black wealth.” (emphasis added)
As the reality of our nation’s deep racial divide highlights white privilege and white terrorism, many who have benefitted from those systems and actions feel uncomfortable. Generations are affected by actions such as occurred in Tulsa in 1921. Yet too many would rather our history be taught in the old “patriotic” way. The attempt to shift blame onto anyone but those who have controlled power since our nation’s founding shows the desperation felt by the country’s shrinking but well funded and highly vocal group of white supremacists.
We should understand our history and live out those consequences so that we will be a people worth remembering.
More to come…
DJB
(Image: During the Tulsa race riots in 1921, more than 1,200 black businesses and homes in the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma, were destroyed at the hands of white residents. Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)
The first time I met my new boss was at a one-on-one getting to know you session over lunch. At some point over the salads and iced tea I heard, “I don’t understand your job.”
Gulp #1. And it wasn’t the tea.
I no doubt stumbled a bit in describing my work and finally turned to the truth. “As the job is currently configured,” I responded, “it lacks clear-cut responsibility and authority.”
Gulp #2. What had I done?
This individual went on to become one of my most influential mentors and a good friend, but at that first meeting I certainly could not predict what lay ahead.
Without knowing it at the time, what was taking place was the first of many lessons on maintaining focus in the face of an unpredictable world. In trying to handle all my responsibilities and whatever else the job threw at me each day, I found myself struggling to set priorities.
So much of how we focus is making intentional choices about what to do and what not to do. I had practiced making focused, intentional choices during different parts of my life. In leading a start-up organization early in my career, we engaged with more than 150 groups and many wanted very different things. Over time we honed in on two key elements of our mission.
It turns out I was very good at one of our priorities and not as skilled at the other. After losing a bruising legislative battle and learning that lesson the hard way, I hired someone who could provide the leadership we needed in that part of our work while also pushing myself to learn more about the ins-and-outs of this critical piece of our mission. We allocated our resources, made clear-cut choices about how to compete, and came back with a legislative victory that proved transformative. In other words, we focused.
I knew the importance of focus, but needed to grow in turning that knowledge into lifelong practice. My mentor helped me see how one inculcates these short-term bursts of sharpness into a way of life.
The work of staying focused never ends
Peter Drucker said that “People in any organization are always attached to the obsolete — the things that should have worked but did not, the things that once were productive and no longer are.”
Staying focused is hard work. People and organizations go through periods of focus and then quickly forget what it was that brought success. Too soon they have faced a crisis; taken on more work that they have the capacity to complete; seen leadership changes; grappled with personal challenges; or — no surprise here — get caught in trends and cross-winds that are difficult for even the best to navigate. The long-term performance of the businesses Tom Peters and Jim Collins highlighted in their management bibles is a cautionary tale.
Saying no is just as important — perhaps more important — than saying yes
“People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on,” said Apple founder Steve Jobs. “But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the 100 other good ideas that there are.” Organizations and people fail far more often from trying to do too much, than trying to do too little. One has to choose carefully. Ryan Holiday, in distilling the wisdom of the Stoics, suggests we “say no (a lot).”
The unpredictable nature of life must include clarity about the right resources needed to focus
Focus in an unpredictable world requires working with real people, not burying your head in technology and data. Technologies try to “force fit a predictable model onto a world that is infinitely surprising.” Instead of relying solely on technology, try to associate with the smart, strategic, and nimble people who make you better. Being focused on what matters isn’t always the most efficient way forward, but it does require relentless preparation, the ability to attempt new things, and the ability to discard those things that don’t work.
“Preparedness, coalition building, imagination, experiments, bravery. In an unpredictable age, these are tremendous sources of resilience and strength. They aren’t efficient. But they give us limitless capacity for adaptation, variation, and invention.”
Finally, it takes bravery to be focused
My mentor showed me time and again how hard it is to stay focused, and the bravery that is required to succeed. It is actually much easier to be unfocused. If you can stand the clutter, you can give the appearance of being busy. But clutter is costly.
Sometimes I think we chose not to focus because we fear making choices. Rich Harwood makes this point in his upcoming bookUnleashed: A Proven Way Communities Can Spread Change and Make Hope Real for All. As human beings, he notes, we fear the ambiguity and uncertainty.
“There is concern about being blamed for something going wrong or awry…But here’s what I know, more than anything: change only happens when we make intentional choices.”
Focus is all about intentionality. Building a daily practice of intentionality that leads to a focus in your life is satisfying. You can still be imaginative and creative as you live a life of focus. But without committing to focus on what really matters, the work you imagine and create will fall short of its true potential.
As Saturday afternoon’s bright sunlight faded and darkness descended on the eve of Pentecost, I found myself in the nave of the Washington National Cathedral, fully enthralled with Les Colombes, the multimedia art installation of German artist Michael Pendry.
Andrew, Candice, and I had come to an evening exhibit walk, which is part of the public showing that began this month as the city opens up. Les Colombes means “white dove” in French, and the installation has three components: a flock of 2,000 origami paper doves hung in a winding column down the nave, a lighting display, and a mystical soundscape.
Just before Christmas, Pendry installed the Les Colombes exhibit in the grand nave of Washington National Cathedral. Across cultures and religious traditions, doves represent hope, peace and rebirth. Many of the over 2,000 paper doves that make up Les Colombes are inscribed with hopeful and prayerful messages. The doves were installed to encourage a feeling of optimism as we ended a challenging 2020 and began a new year. The Cathedral notes that “This sculpture is arranged to give new life to the Cathedral, embody our resolve to be kind to our fellow human, and to do our part in making a better tomorrow.”
Les Colombes has previously appeared in Salisbury Cathedral in Salisbury, England; St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London; Mount Zion in Jerusalem; Heilig-Geist Viktualienmarkt in Munich; and Grace Cathedral in San Francisco.
“What does the symbol of the spirit, the white dove, look like in our present days? Does this symbol still exist and is it still appropriate? Does it function properly when transformed into the 3rd dimension and what does that possibly mean for a modern art installation today ?
The spirit – a very abstract term in our modern hightech and consumer orientated society – apparently of little importance and difficult to understand. The installation is seeking an approach to the idea of the spirit, the “Holy Spirit” on various levels and angles with a full range of stylistic devices – a physical and emotional experience in unique spaces.”
MichaelPendry.de
Andrew, Candice, and I all felt a real sense of optimism as we entered the Cathedral for the first time in more than a year — a space where we’ve worshipped, made music, learned, and been inspired hundreds if not thousands of times since we moved to the city in 1998. We were not disappointed.
If you are in Washington and have the chance to see Les Colombes, I encourage you to do so. Hopefully the doves — simple yet powerful — can point us towards a more peaceful world.
MORE TO COME... 