text:
Old Tales of Nevada with April Kempler Episode 212

Joseph Kempler family photo.

Joseph Kempler family photo.

I’m really excited and pleased to share the interview I did with John O’ Brien host of Old Tales of Nevada, a local television show. I was actually filling in a late notice cancellation, but hey, I’m not too proud! It was a real honor and a treat. I enjoyed it, and was thrilled by the prospect of sharing Joe’s story through this medium. It was my very first television interview, and I hope not my last.

Primarily, the interview had to do with Joe’s memoir THE ALTERED I, MEMOIR OF JOSEPH KEMPLER HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR. Joe was a young boy when WWII broke out in his home city of Krakow, Poland. He and his family had to pack up leave town when he was 13 years old, and by the time he was 14 he was working in a forced labor camp in Rakowice, Poland. He spent the next three years in six different concentration camps, Plaszow and Mauthausen being the most famous. Plaszow was known from the movie Schindler’s List, which parallels Joe’s personal experiences for a time.

Joe’s story isn’t an easy one to hear or tell about, but I’m grateful people want to hear it and have supported me by purchasing the book, liking my Facebook page, and leaving reviews for The Altered I.

I thought I’d share the interview here with you. I welcome your comments, or any additional questions you might have.

The Altered I is available in paperback and e-book on Amazon, Google Play Books, and directly from the publisher Lerue Press at 775-849-3814.

You Are Telling an Important Story

Joseph Kempler and his older sister Dziunka (Judy) Laub

Joseph Kempler and his older sister Dziunka (Judy) Laub

Last night I received the sweetest email from a reader of THE ALTERED I: MEMOIR OF JOSEPH KEMPLER, HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR, and I wanted to share it. I might add that Deb, the writer of the email, is also compiling her father’s memoirs into a book. Reading Deb’s words touched me to the heart. I feel sad that her father had to walk a similar path and endure all the horrible things Joseph did in order to survive, but I feel connected in some way by the shared memories of a father who went through the Holocaust.

To ensure the information Joseph gave me was reliable and accurate I researched diligently, giving all I could to the task. I had to dig deep, so it is always reassuring, and validating when I get feedback saying exactly that! It isn’t that I wrote such an important story, it’s important information that must be related accurately. To speak the truth  is a heavy responsibility for any writer of history, but to track down the facts is equally important for such a topic as the Holocaust. I never want room for doubt that the Holocaust didn’t happen.

I hear often, and honestly it’s too often, how some young people today are being taught by their parents that the Holocaust is a myth, a legend, a fabrication. I struggle to understand this belief. So each time a young person has an opportunity to learn the truth, that is a victory. I encourage young people to read more memoirs of survivors. Not only of Holocaust survivors but read the memoirs of people who saved others who weren’t Jewish and could have been killed. Read the memoirs of soldiers who were there and witnessed it all. There are countless books written by people who were in the concentration camps, not only as prisoners-of-war, but as people who worked for the Nazis and who saw, and sometimes took part, in the atrocities taking place. Also, there were many others imprisoned in the concentration camps who weren’t Jewish but suffered alongside for their crimes against the state. Reading from various viewpoints and backgrounds will give a fuller understanding of that time and hopefully will substantiate that the Holocaust was real.

I realize this is getting more rare, but when a Holocaust survivor visits a  school a student should view this as an opportunity to ask their questions and get answers from the source.

Joseph and I have some upcoming Holocaust presentation events where people, old and young alike, can meet him personally, (shake his hand!) speak to him and feel connected to that particular time in history. Yes, it’s a hard history, which none of us likes, and would rather didn’t happen, but it’s important to keep it fresh in our minds because it truly wasn’t that long ago.

As time progresses and these survivors and soldiers who fought for their liberation die, so does the intensity of that event.

My words seem inadequate so I will let the letter explain everything.

Dear April

I am reading the book you wrote about your father in law. This is unbelievable, the dates and journey your father in law took was the same as my dad.  My dad was in ghetto in Boryslaw then forced labor then Plashow to Mathausen (dates match up with my father’s transport) to Melk, eventually to Ebensee where he was liberated. My dad met a soldier years later who liberated Ebensee.

In 2007 to the date of his liberation I found his brother’s children. My dad believed his brother was killed in war. When his area was annexed to Russia his brother was drafted. The last my dad heard before he went to Plashow that his brother was severely wounded. After the war he contacted Russian military and there was no record of his brother. Can you believe the Russians changed the spelling of his first name by one letter and because of that he could not be found.

My dad is going to be 90. He still plays tennis goes to gym a few times per week.

You are telling a very important story.  I am humbled by your dad’s experiences. Your book is unique in so far as your father in law acknowledged what he had to do to survive. People don’t talk about that. Very painful.

How is he doing?

I will finish his book probably tomorrow.

Excellent job

Warm Regards,

As always you can find your copy of THE ALTERED I: MEMOIR OF JOSEPH KEMPLER, HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle, Google Play Books, LeRue Press 775-356-1004, and announcing The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum store.

Cutting Floor Excerpts: Childhood Antics Or Growing Up a Poor Jewish Kid in Kraków During WWII.

Some of the antidotes from THE ALTERED I had to be cut out entirely, but this one, like so many, was always a favorite of mine. It’s about how Joe would ride the tram to see a young friend. This sounds like a simple enough action, just get on a tram and go see a friend. But this was during Nazi occupation in Kraków, Poland and Joe was a little Jewish kid who wasn’t allowed to ride a tram. He wasn’t allowed to do anything he previously had done: sit on a park bench in a beautiful park called the Planty and watch the swans swim in the lake, go to a library, buy anything from a store, ride a train, or be out on the street after curfew. Joe was precocious. He got around these rules. He tried to pass himself off as Aryan, or at the least a Polish citizen. In some cases he succeed, and in others he had some close calls. These were scary times, especially if you were Jewish.

So I give you this short excerpt:

V & T Train

The Virginia and Truckee Railroad Steam Locomotive.

“My parents were very preoccupied during this time, trying to survive and keep their heads during conditions that were more dangerous and desperate to live with. However I continued with my childish lifestyle and behavior. To my way of thinking it appeared as if Mamusia and Tatuś encouraged me to do whatever I wanted. They never said no to me, and whatever I decided to do that day I simply accomplished it.

I lived in my own fantasy world, often pretending to be one of those trains I greatly adored. I walked the streets like I was a train. Whenever I was free to roam the streets I moved like I was a train. When I encountered a corner on the sidewalk I slowed down, then chugged around it like it was a mountain pass. Then I increased my speed having successfully made the  turn onto the straight-away. My world was fantasy trains and trolley’s, characters in my favorite Karl May action books, and of course movies. Movies were another joy I was prohibited from because I was a Jew. But, this didn’t stop me, or any of the other kids who ran wild on the busy Kraków streets. Often we sneaked in at great risk of discovery. But, I loved movies so much it was worth the gamble.

The V & T Steam Locomotive

I became friendly with a Jewish kid who lived across the street, with hair so blond it looked snow white. I called him Biały, Polish for”white”. He was an exact miniature of his father who had the same white hair. Whitey was a mean kid, but I liked playing at his apartment. His father and mother seemed to like me and I always felt welcome there. Whitey’s father was indulgent and his mother was a mouse. She was nice, but without a backbone at all. Whatever her son wanted he got. Mousey’s father was a very religious bearded older man. He lived with the family, praying all the time. Whitey and I loved to play nasty tricks on him while he was in one of his deep prayers. Usually, as the grandfather prayed, his daughter, who I called Mousey, would pour him a cup of coffee and leave it on the table in front of him. We did whatever thing we could think up to his coffee, we added salt, or pepper, whatever was on the table. Another time I dipped the tip of an umbrella in it, swirling the cream around. This resulted in a big mess with a puddle of coffee on the table, but he was so deeply involved in his prayer he didn’t notice the antics going on right under his nose.  After his prayer he would take a gulp of coffee with great gusto, but then to our delight, splutter with disgust and spit it out in a long arching spray. Mousey, hearing the ruckus, shuffled in and squeaked, “Get out of the kitchen and leave grandfather alone.” It was halfhearted at best because I could see she was trying to hold back her own laughter.

When we weren’t pestering the poor praying grandfather, we played one of the myriads of Whitey’s games. Monopoly was our favorite. Ours was a Polish edition with the street names from the city of Warsaw. Unfortunately for me, Whitey and his family moved out of the Kazimierz. They moved far out of town beyond the tram line. Whitey’s father saw that I wanted to keep visiting his son so he arranged for me to have a tramway pass, valid for one month. This pass allowed me to ride any tram without paying the fare. I was so happy even though I had to walk about two kilometers by foot, but we could continue our Monopoly game anytime we wanted.”

Photo credit: Michelle Staryos, The Rusty Curio (Etsy)

Photo credit: Michelle Staryos, The Rusty Curio (Etsy)

Cutting Room Floor Excerpts: On the Farm (Polish Village)

On the Farm

Shortly after my Bar Mitzvah, life on the farm became more active as winter was replaced by spring. Seedlings planted in winter began to grow and there was much work to do on the land. Important crops to the farmstead were mostly grains: rye, wheat, barley and oats. The other major crop was potatoes, which were planted in the spring.

The Biernat’s owned approximately three acres of land which was located in different parts of the village, all of it a little distance from the hut where we lived. On a typical American farm there is a homestead with the land stretching out from it, but in a Polish village, the farmland was divided in a different manner. The land was portioned and handed down to each successive generation. Various crops were planted and there was plenty of work, rows had to be plowed, seeds planted and carefully watched over, weeds would have to be pulled, and everyone pitched in to help.

A reliable horse and plow were needed. When other villagers were enlisted in the labor they might have the horse, another might have the plow. In this way everyone worked together. In time the favors were returned to fill whatever need someone else might have. Since Roman Biernat didn’t have a horse, he provided some form of labor to another villager and they provided him with a horse. This was an excellent exchange system.

As my contribution to living in the hut with the Biernat family it was expected that I should work on the farm. I was willing and ready to work. So reading and writing were put on hold and I learned how a Polish farmer plants his grain and potatoes. As head of the household, Roman sowed the grain. He wore a large apron with a front pocket. Inside the pocket he kept the seeds, sometimes these were oats or barley. He reached into the pocket, grabbed a handful of seeds and flung them over the readied soil.

During World War Two the Polish farmers paid taxes, not in money, but in specific amounts of grain to the German government. This was paid during the harvesting time. Pigs were also considered government property and each pig on the farm had to be registered. It was illegal for any farmer to slaughter a pig, but occasionally the farmers came together and managed to hide one from the German officials. When it came slaughtering time the neighbors shared the meat. Usually this was done inside a villagers hut. This happened in the Biernats hut while we were living there. Not only was it disturbing to witness the animal’s demise, but afterward it was a bloody mess where we lived and slept. As Jews it was especially upsetting because a pig is considered an unclean animal to eat, by Jewish law we didn’t want any part of it.

Other times were more enjoyable and less violent, like when we ventured into the dense forest and picked wild blueberries. I filled my basket and my mouth with the sweet and refreshing fruit.

Once a month a small bag of flour was distributed to all the inhabitants in the region. We’d have to get our rations from the nearby village of Niegowic. This was a task that the girls of household were usually sent out to do,  but since there were only two boys living in the hut, me and Janek, the errand became mine. I stood in line five hours before the mill opened its gates. I dared not leave my place in line because once the gates opened villagers flooded in with their flour sacks and once the flour was gone, that was it, no more flour for anyone. I stood patiently waiting while all around me chatty girls entertained each other with their stories. They seemed to be enjoying themselves while I became painfully aware of my Jewishness and loneliness. I especially couldn’t speak to the girls in this village because I was concerned I would be identified as a Jew. Also, because I was from the city, I didn’t speak like a Polish peasant, so I didn’t want to stand out as different. Normally shy and timid around girls, the only girl I could ever speak openly to was Anita. This made me more lonesome for her companionship and homesick for Krakow.

Four kilometers away, in the next town, was a kosher butcher. Someone in the village gave us a chicken in exchange for tailor work by Dolek. Mamusia sent me to the village of Gdow to have the chicken slaughtered kosher style with a special knife and bled properly. A number of Jews lived in Gdow, some of whom had come to my Bar Mitzvah. Once in a while Mamusia sent me to the butcher for a chicken. Mamusia sent me to the village so frequently on various errands that I became familiar with the route, I knew every step there and back.

A priceless book to me was the Farmer’s Almanac. I read it deck to deck. I found a section about herbs and leaves and learned that nettles where edible when cooked. There were plenty of nettles around the hut, and because I wore short pants at the time, I was stung by those annoying plants often. The little hairs on the leaves of the plant inflicted an irritating rash. One day after my herb research I asked Mamusia to cook the nettles.

Her eyes widened. “Joziu, where did you learn about cooking nettles?”

“In the farmers book. It said they taste like spinach when cooked. We have so many of them around here, I want to try it,” I said.

“You go pick them, I won’t risk getting stung.” She lifted her eyebrows.

I turned, and skipped off to gather some nettles, they will go great with eggs.

When I returned with the nettles, Mamusia took them with tongs in one hand and shears in the other and cut them up right into the cooking pot. “It’s the heat that destroys the venomous part of the plant hairs,” I said. She looked dubious. I tasted the cooked greens and they did indeed taste like spinach. “Here, try it, they’re good for you.” Mamusia touched her throat and shook her head. She trusted me enough to cook them, but not enough to eat them.

The Farmers Almanac contained useful information about herbs, fruit, and the weather. There were certain leaves that could be brewed into a tea. I learned how to identify edible berries. I collected the berries and leaves and experimented with them. Most of what I learned stuck in my mind so that I could call it back from memory if I needed it.

On the farm I liked playing with the animals. The cow was friendly and had just given birth to a calf. The calf was silly and inexperienced. She often wandered into places she didn’t belong. She found a patch of nettles and ate them. My skin puckered with goose bumps. How could she stand the sting? The mother cow stood mutely and watched her calf munching at the nettles without a care. The Biernat’s had given me my own tiny plot of soil to grow vegetables. I planted beans and other greens and surrounded the area with a primitive stick fence. I was proud that I would soon present Mamusia with food I had grown. One day, the stupid calf wandered over to my plot. She stuck her head over the stick fence and ate everything within reach. I stamped my foot in frustration and shouted at the calf, but the Biernat’s and other villagers laughed at my unhappy situation.

The Biernat’s also had a white cat. She became my dear friend. She was pregnant and ready to give birth. Because I liked her she spent a lot of time with me. Maria Biernat laughed at me. “Look out for her Josef, or she’ll be sneaking into your bed to have those kittens!” she said. Janek was the recipient of that gift. Later, the old man, Roman, took those kittens and drowned them. This news upset me and I often wondered how he could have been so cruel.

Life went on in the village. helping the other farmers with the chores took up a lot of my time. There were fields to plow, planting and weeding to tend to, plus milking the cow, and churning the butter. Maria made the butter and I would have to keep the white cat away, whose favorite pastime involved licking the churn.

August was harvest time. This was hard word work, but I readily participated and worked beside the villagers. The grain was bundled by Roman and pitched onto a flat-bed wagon with two ladders on either side. Then it was brought to the barn where there was a threshing floor. Four people worked rhythmically in a circle removing the grain from the stalks. I could see maintaining the rhythm was a challenge. Gradually I learned how to imitate the workers. Together we beat the grain with wooden flails seconds apart from each other, which required good coordination. After the stalks were removed what was left over was used to roof the peasant huts. The grain was then poured in bags and hand sifted.

Overall, I found life on the farm interesting. So many things fascinated me. Everything was new and so different than life in the big city of Krakow. From spring until the harvest time in late summer it was a steady stream of hard work. No matter how strenuous the labor, I did what was asked of me. As I learned and assisted with the work, the Biernat’s became friendlier toward me and treated me as one of them.

The fields and forest were pleasant to me. I came to look back at this time in the village as the happiest time of the war. The Polish farm and village were peaceful, yet structured. If we could have survived the war there I would have been very happy.

–Excerpt from THE ALTERED I: MEMOIR OF JOSEPH KEMPLER, HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR available on Amazon.com, Google Play books, the publisher direct LeRue Press, Reno, Nevada, and Sundance Books and Music in Reno, Nevada.

Hope you enjoyed this cutting room floor excerpt. To read more from THE ALTERED I click here.

International Holocaust Remembrance Month

Top-035Technically the International Holocaust Remembrance Week started April 27 and continues through May 4, 2014, but I’ve been busy sharing the event since April 5.

Library Presentation

We kicked off the month with a special library presentation at the Reno Northwest Library. It was a warm day for early April and I was already sweating before the event took place. I was speaking for forty minutes about my father-in-law, Joseph Kempler who is a Holocaust survivor. People crowded into the room, which when empty looked plenty big enough. Soon, we had to scramble for more seating. Finally, people and children sat on the floor or stood in the two doorways, eight people deep I was told. We had 188 in attendance! This was a number beyond my expectations. But, it goes to show that people, young and old, are intently interested in the Holocaust. Carla Trounson, the librarian, prepared the room beautifully. The soundtrack to Schindler’s List was softly playing in the background. It matched the mood perfectly, somber and thought-provoking. While I was speaking about Joe’s life during 1939-1945 I had a slide show presentation of family photos. After the biography and description of the six concentration camps where Joe was imprisoned, we had a Question and Answer session. One of the questions was, ” How did you get all the old photos of your family?” The answer is simple: Joe’s sister survived the war. She and her husband, Jack were hidden in the home where he taught the daughters violin. Dziunka, Joe’s sister, was able to smuggle some family photos into hiding with her. What a treasure for us! I’ve been sharing them on a special Pinterest board. After the Q & A we had a book signing! Joe was asked many times by students if he would take a picture with them, and if they could hug him. That’s the most popular request Joe gets: Can I hug you? By all means, yes!

UNR and Osher Lifelong Learning Institute Day of  Remembrance

Next Joe, Paul, and I were invited to the second annual Day of Remembrance, hosted by Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI), and  UNR, in partnership with the University’s Interfaith Students Club. This was the second annual Day of Remembrance for the University. I was asked to speak on the subject of genocide. Genocide is a term that didn’t even exist until after 1944. I thought it would be interesting if I shared the stage with Paul, a second generation Holocaust survivor. Who better than to talk about how he was affected personally by the Holocaust? There were other fantastic speakers. A particular highlight for me was the testimony of another survivor named Lydia Lebovic. She held the audience captive with her harrowing tale of survival in Auschwitz. Vic Thompson, a World War Two veteran, who participated in the liberation of Landsberg concentration camp, contributed his heart-breaking essay “Just One Page from the Holocaust.” This was a beautiful, yet sad, night to remember.

The Great American Authors Expo

At The Great American Authors Expo I was scheduled to read some excerpts from my book THE ALTERED I: MEMOIR OF JOSEPH KEMPLER, HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR. This was a great honor and a fantastic opportunity to draw awareness to the Holocaust during this month of remembrance. Two young ladies present said they came specifically to hear the reading. They were touched and purchased three books!

Parent Teacher Aids Store of Reno, Nevada

Next on the agenda was an author appearance at the local Parent Teacher Aids store. A pretty amazing store if you haven’t checked it out yet. Inside is every kind of tool to help teach kids in a fun and colorful way. I was able to speak to a couple of  patrons about the Holocaust and hand out some sample chapters and book marks. People really respond to the subject of the Holocaust and everyone I meet who is interested in the THE ALTERED I (as I like to shorten it!)  feels very deeply about it.

So, while I am exhausted from all the wonderful activity, I’m proud too. As one reader of my Facebook Author Page put it: “Thank you April Kempler for educating and being relentless about this.” – N. S.

I have done my job!

If you would like to read THE ALTERED I it is available on Amazon.com, Google Play books (there are excerpts from the book you can read here), and on the nonfiction table at Sundance Books and Music, Reno, NV.

Also, please visit my author page on Facebook and click Like. You’ll get updates to future speaking engagements and book signings! Thanks!

Question and Answers with Holocaust Survivor Joseph Kempler

Question: Did any of your family survive the Holocaust?

Dziunka (Judy) Laub Billys

Joe: Yes, my sister Dziunka (Judy) survived. She and her husband were hidden by a Christian family, an early group of Jehovah’s Witnesses. I began looking for any surviving members of my family after liberation. I asked anyone I met if they had known or heard of my brother, my sister, or my mother and grandmother. One man said he knew a Dziunka Laub that she was in a displaced persons camp in Germany. I wrote to her: Judyta Laub (German for Dziunka) Someplace in Germany. I gave it to him. By some miracle this man delivered the letter to her and she made her way to Linz, Austria, where I was staying and found me. Together we went to the displaced persons camp in Landsberg, Germany.

Question: Did you ever find out what happened to the other members of your family who didn’t survive?

Joe: Some of them. My father, Max died in the Bochnia ghetto of a stomach ailment. My mother, Malka and Babcia (grandmother) were transported from Bochnia to Auschwitz, and it is my belief that they died there. My brother Dolek was with me from Rackowice, to Plaszow, and Mauthausen. We were separated in Mauthausen and I never saw him again, but I found out that he died of typhus in Gusen.

Question: I notice from the photos that you were in the National Guard. Considering all the things you experienced in the camps why did you join the National Guard?

Joseph Kempler Sergeant 1st Class Joe in uniformTop-036

Joe in uniform

Joe:The Korean War had started, and I wanted to avoid the draft. A very good friend of mine, Leon Sperling, who I went through Landsberg DP camp and knew in New York, came to me one night and said that the draft law went into effect at midnight, but if we joined the National Guard we could avoid it. So that is what we did.

Question: You only had an education to the fifth grade level. What kind of work did you do after you came to this country?

Top-013I.D. Card from Landsberg

Joe:I did a lot of different jobs. When I was in the DP camp I went to a radio school, even in the National Guard I was in communications. I had a strong interest in Hi Fidelity sound and gravitated to that field. I worked at Jewel Radio as an assembler, and then moved on to Fisher Radio. I was looking for work in electronics and was hired by American Measuring Instruments Corporation. Near the end of the 1950s I started work with Audio Devices which was bought by Capitol Records. I worked in the tape division, for over 30 years until Capitol Records closed that division.

To read more about Joseph Kempler click for excerpts from his memoir THE ALTERED I: MEMOIR OF JOSEPH KEMPLER, HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR.

Available on Amazon.com and Google Play.

2nd Annual Holocaust Remembrance Day Event Guest Speaker: Me!

Joseph Kempler

April 7 is a special day for me and Joe. This year we were invited to speak at the Second Annual Holocaust Remembrance Day event at the University of Nevada, Reno. This is event is sponsored by the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute in partnership with the University’s Interfaith Students Club. We were invited to speak on the theme Genocide. We have been generously given twenty-five minutes in which I will speak for ten minutes about Joe’s history and the six concentration camps he was imprisoned in as well as a plug for Joe’s memoir THE ALTERED I. Then I thought it would be neat if Paul (Joe’s youngest son) would speak for five minutes on what it was like to have a Holocaust survivor as a father and how genocide has affected his life as a second generation Holocaust survivor. And the crowning jewel of our presentation: Joe will have ten minute for a Question and Answer session. I think this will be a stupendous opportunity to spread Holocaust awareness as well as share Joe’s story. I’m nervous but happy and greatly honored that we were asked to speak at this important event.


Content-Type: application/http; msgtype=response

WARC-Identified-Payload-Type: text/html

WARC-Type: response

text:
Summer Language Abroad Program Helps Students Prepare for Future through Immersive International Experiences

Author: Grace Guibert

Michaela Larson In Ireland Michaela Larson in Ireland.

Junior Michaela Larson began her first year at Notre Dame not knowing a word of the Irish language.

Now—after being one of about 60 participants in the 2016 Summer Language Abroad (SLA) program through Notre Dame’s Center for the Study of Languages and Cultures—the history major is able to translate articles and converse in Irish.

“I was amazed by the amount my Irish improved in just my first two weeks there,” Larson said. “I was able to communicate with cashiers at the shops and locals who spoke Irish in the pubs. I found myself listening to conversations, and I was able to interject into them.”

After studying Irish literature in a University Seminar course, Larson’s professor encouraged her to pursue an SLA grant to immerse herself in the language she had grown to love.

Through intensive language coursework and daily interaction with native speakers, the SLA experience allows students to rapidly enhance their command of a foreign language—be it Arabic, Cantonese, Chinese, French, German, Irish, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Spanish, or Swahili.

After her summer in Gleann Cholm Cille and Gleann Fhinne in northwest Ireland, Larson is now minoring in Irish language and literature and hopes to incorporate the language into any research she does in the future.

“The experience has helped me narrow my search of what I want to focus my studies on in my next two years at Notre Dame,” Larson said. “The Irish culture is a huge part of my heritage, and it has now become a huge part of my life.”

Regina Ekaputri In Italy Regina Ekaputri in Italy.

Learning on foot

During her summer in Siena, Italy, junior psychology major Regina Ekaputri developed a favorite way to learn—taking walks.

She found interesting stores and alleys, unexpected openings between buildings that revealed spectacular views, artwork on the streets, vibrant markets—and, once, a parade of people marching in medieval costumes.

Exploring on foot allowed her to interact with locals, too.

“My first day in Italy, I struggled to ask for directions,” she said. “It’s crazy to realize that after five weeks, I was able to have conversations comfortably with the many Italians I met.”

With minors in Italian and art history, Ekaputri was particularly keen to experience the way in which Italy’s rich history, culture, and language were intertwined.

“Walking around, I discovered more about each of the cities I visited,” she said. “In some ways, the cities are like artworks themselves—beautiful piazzas and green parks among surrounding buildings, cobblestone streets, and blocks of sunlight shining between the trees and buildings.”

Needless to say, one of her most frequently used Italian phrases was “facciamo una passeggiata”—let’s take a walk.

Finding inspiration

Joshua Kuiper Joshua Kuiper with his host family in Japan.

Language immersion isn’t an easy feat. But for English and Japanese major Joshua Kuiper—who spent the summer in Kanazawa, Japan—adversity led to profound moments of reflection.

At times, learning the language seemed difficult and daunting. But over the course of the summer, he was invigorated and inspired.

“The relationships I made in Kanazawa—such as with my host family, local university students, and Shinto priests—reminded me of why I began to study Japanese: to connect with the ideas and emotions of a country I have found fascinating since I was a child,” he said.

His experience did more than aid in language acquisition. His summer in Kanazawa informed his plans for the future.

Kuiper opted to spend this fall semester abroad in Nagoya, Japan. After graduation, he hopes to pursue a career in Japan in a field that can combine his two majors and involve the intersection of language, like comparative literature or media translation.

“On reflection, I find that my summer helped me examine my goals,” he said, “encouraging me to ask myself, ‘What do I care about? What do I want to do?’”

Building toward a career

Casey Kennedy In Tanzania Casey Kennedy in Tanzania.

Political science major Casey Kennedy hopes to pursue a career in international development, and knows language acquisition will be key to finding success.

After taking a year of Swahili elsewhere, Kennedy took a specialized directed reading course in the language with Rev. Robert Dowd, C.S.C., an associate professor of political science. Striving toward fluency, she decided to apply for an SLA grant.

The program allowed Kennedy to spend the summer studying Swahili in Morogoro, Tanzania, where she grew both as a language speaker and overall learner.

“The teachers were excellent and encouraged using Swahili in and out of class,” she said. “The method of teaching was largely based on listening and speaking, which—as a visual learner—was difficult for me at first, but pushed me to learn more effectively.”

When the program ended Kennedy spent another month in East Africa to continue her study of the language, and she intends to return to the region to conduct research. She believes that her experience and command of the language will be critical in her future career.

“What surprised me most was how interconnected the language and culture are,” she said. “As I would spend time studying Swahili every day, I was also learning about Tanzanian and East African culture.”

Originally published by Grace Guibert at on November 22, 2016.

warcinfo:
robots: classic
hostname: ip-10-164-5-214.ec2.internal
software: Nutch 1.6 (CC)
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2017-47
operator: Common Crawl Admin
description: Wide crawl of the web for November 2017
publisher: Common Crawl
format: WARC File Format 1.0
conformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf


WARC-Identified-Payload-Type: application/xhtml+xml

WARC-Truncated: length

text:
Tag Archive: Gnomes

(And then we went and beat up Al’akir)

If you have never done the Al’akir fight before, and you hear your raid leader say “okay, I need a ranged dps and a healer to volunteer for Rohash”, do not happily move to where he indicated volunteers should go. Especially don’t do it if you notice the other healers backing away from that location.

Conclave of the Four Winds!

I was on Rohash with a warlock. Yes, there were only the two of us. The warlock was tanking Rohash, and I was healing and tossing random wraths at Rohash when I had the time.

We both failed on wind blast a few times, but then I had a GREAT IDEA. This was to run into Rohash when he was about to cast it, and then just stay directly behind him the entire time, with much less movement needed to stay the heck out of it.

…You know, I’m not certain what everyone else was doing…

I heard something about switching targets, blah blah “oh noes switch NOW!” “ULTIMATE COMING!” and things like that. I just, uhm, avoided tornados and windblast and kept the ‘lock and myself alive. Eventually we finished beating him up after we failed a few times and the other groups failed a few times.

This nasty little &@$^@*# son of a misbegotten wind camel and a particularly nasty-tempered banana pudding was VERY annoying. Mainly because on wipe #1, we were in phase 1 and everyone failed to squall line. The next 8 or so wipes were on phase 3 with him at anywhere from 100k-800 health. Yes, really 800 health. That was the very last wipe of the night, after that everyone got so annoyed that he died rather than face our wrath.

Phase one:

I was assigned to one group of 3-4 people, depending on how it had been shifted around, and this did not include a tank.  I kept them alive, and watched for squall lines, which are lines of tornados with a gap in them. You need to stand in this gap. We also all ran in on Wind Blast, where Al’akir blasts everyone away from him. Sometimes these coincided with squall lines, at which point I wondered if Al’akir had broken his programming and was being sadistic.

Phase 2:

Not that much different from a healing perspective. There’s now Acid Rain, which is consistent raid-wide damage. Since the nerf, I didn’t even notice it was there. Everything else is the same for healers, but for dps there’s now adds that need to die because they apply a stacking debuff to Al’akir. Once the dps have beat up on him enough..

Phase 3:

He gives you the ability to fly and breaks the platform. (Why is he giving us the ability to fly? What the heck, does he WANT to die?) At this point you’re in a race against time. We popped hero here as soon as everyone was gathered at the bottom of Al’akir, right above the Lightning Clouds that he spawns at the very bottom. We moved up every time he spawned more of those, and dpsed him like mad while the healers tried to keep everyone alive. We were definitely sloppy on this phase, as not everyone would be in my range the entire time, and we were supposed to stay grouped up. Actually, the Lightning Rod,(or whatever) targets were not supposed to be in my range, but besides them. The time we killed him, I turned into a tree and did mad wrath spam once we reached the top while tossing lifeblooms around.  He died after tree form wore off.

Hate: OMG NO HEALS WHERE ARE THE HEALS OH GO— *fakedead* *mobs resist* *dead* Need…haelz… please…

Love: Haha, go Spect! (my ghostsaber kitty, full name Spectress) Pew-pew-pew-pew-pew wow 112dps at 32? Pew-pew-pew-pew-AGGRO-FD-Hahaha I don’t have to worry about anything. No tank/healer pressure or guilt, just Pew-pew-pew-pew-I think you get the idea.

Eagleb the hunter started as something for my sister, way back in the year 200X (where X>6 but <9). She was watching me shoot Wraths at bears, and she said she wanted a character. I shrugged, logged out, and took her to the character creation screen where we made a lil’ baby hunter that I never actually intended to play. A couple of years pass, and she’s sitting at level 30, dusty and fully rested. STV defeats 75% of all my characters. (Note: 86.9% of all statistics on blog are made up or are approximation.) So we went into STV and ran away crying, and that was it until the LFG tool came out. Now she’s 32 and a lot and I’m thinking she might make it farther, if only so I can tame a Devilsaur and name it ‘Omnomnivour’. Yes, Eagle has been BM from the start and I’m not changing her now. Rawr! -toddles off to read hunter blogs before remembering that I have an announcement-

I’m Exalted with Gnomergan!

*whirrr*  *clank*  *giggle*

I also have my mutant drake.

For Gnomergan!

You might be saying: “But Alienea, you’re a druid! Gnommers can’t be druids!” And yes, that is true. But I ❤ Mechanostriders. Those polluting, noisy, clanking metal birds. So I’m grinding up the rep, bit by bit, to get to exalted. I’m 2/3 of the way through revered, and grinding runecloth, (you see, the AH prices are ridiculous and I’m poor after buying my red drake), but darnit it’ll be worth it! One of my friends has acted like I’m crazy when I say I like mechanostriders. I was a little baby druid running around Duskwood and she’d brought her baby mage out. Her mage was level 41 or something, and it had a mechanostrider. I was in the high 20’s range of levels, and back in those days we got our mounts at 40/60/70, not 20/30/60 or whatever crazy thing they use these days, gol-darnit. I said something along the lines of ‘Ooo, that’s really cool, I like it.’ She responded with something like ‘Are you crazy? I hate this nasty noisy metal bird. I wish I could use anything else!’ So I mumbled something about how I thought it was cool and we continued on our merry way, and I got beaten up by Stitches later. I think it was around then I acquired a 2nd stalker, although at that point he was just a nice in-game friend. It was later he turned into a stalker. -waves at stalker, realizes he hasn’t been on in a while, check the armory, finds a ring from PoS, shrugs and remembers that there’s no way he could know about the blog- So, here I am, grinding runecloth. I also dusted off my hunter and you might get a post about either: “omg, I REMEMBER why I abandoned her now!” or “Oh hai LFG it’s not so bad now.” Also, I just realized what with patch 3.3.5 or whatever coming and all, I could probably get rep that way. But haha no. FOR METAL BIRDS!


text:
Search Results

Your search for thoracicsurgery did not provide any results.
However please call (615) 342-1919 to find more thoracicsurgery providers.

* The physicians displayed on this site are associated with our hospital. Physicians can be found in an alphabetical listing or searched based on individual patient needs or preferences. When the search tool is used, physicians are presented randomly based on location to the searcher. Physicians employed by the parent company of the hospital may appear before other physicians.


text:
Dane Zagar

Boozhoo (hello) everyone my name is Dane Zagar. My ancestors are from a several different places, but I identify myself ethnically as a member of my community. Until I was twelve, I lived on the Oneida reservation in Green Bay Wisconsin. After that, we moved to the Fond du Lac reservation in Minnesota where I am currently living. My parents and I enjoy participating in local cultural activities like pow-wows, sporting events, and community feasts. Consequently, I made several friends with diverse cultural backgrounds and learned things that made me who I am today. Also I enjoy playing chess, camping, hiking, and mountain biking. I am looking forward to getting to know you all better, and learning more about everyone’s projects this summer.

Dane's Bio Pic

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out / Change )

Google+ photo

You are commenting using your Google+ account. Log Out / Change )

Connecting to %s


text:
Featured Story

Top Sports Stories 2016: Tuthill ends Mercy career in style

01/01/2017 6:00 AM |

Bishop McGann-Mercy runner Meg Tuthill 031716 copy

The list of school records Meg Tuthill owns following her brilliant track and field career at Bishop McGann-Mercy could fill up a page on their own.

A standout runner who competed all three seasons in her high school career, Tuthill saved her best for last as a senior this past year. She was one of the top middle distance runners in Suffolk County for both indoor and outdoor track, helping lead her team to a share of the league title in the spring.

At the small school county championship meet in February she was the champion in the 1,500, winning a packed race that featured several other elite runners like Shoreham-Wading River’s Katherine Lee. She followed that up with a victory in the 1,000 at the state qualifier meet, running 2:55.26. She placed fifth overall in the event at the state championships.

Her spring track season featured just as much success. At the division championships she competed in three events, placing second in the 800, third in the 1,500 and first as the anchor of the 4 x 800 relay. She went on to win the 800 at the state qualifier meet, placed second in the 1,500 and again ran on the 4 x 800 relay that finished third, earning a trip to states in every event.

She earned all-state honors at the spring state championships and ran on the 4 x 800 relay at the New Balance Outdoor Nationals, where she and her teammates finished ninth.

Tuthill now competes for Dartmouth University.

Top 10 Sports Stories

SWR junior wins Yaz Award

Riverhead, SWR cheer teams compete at county meet

New tennis courts at Mercy

SWR lacrosse wins L.I. title

Riverhead’s star runner, Luke Coulter

Third straight L.I. title for SWR football

Two SWR wrestlers earn all-state honors

League champs for Riverhead girls hoops

Lee, SWR race to state title


text:
The River of Life

Find healing and forgiveness here

September 2016

Do good things and keep it in Secret

Matthew 6 King James Version (KJV)

In doing charity

Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.

Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth:

That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly. Continue reading “Do good things and keep it in Secret”

Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees

Catholic Nazareno Priest on Holy Week, Italy. 1 Corinthians 11:7 A man is ought not to cover his head since he is the image and the glory of God; but a woman is the glory of man.
Matthew 23New International Version (NIV)

A Warning Against Hypocrisy

1 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.

Continue reading “Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees”

Mystery, Babylon The Great, The Mother Of Harlots And Abominations Of The Earth

Revelation 17 King James Version (KJV)

17 And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:

With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.

So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.

And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:

And upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon The Great, The Mother Of Harlots And Abominations Of The Earth.

Continue reading “Mystery, Babylon The Great, The Mother Of Harlots And Abominations Of The Earth”

Beware of False Prophets with crooked gospel

Matthew 7:13-27 King James Version (KJV)

13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:

14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?

17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.

Continue reading “Beware of False Prophets with crooked gospel”

Pray in Solitude

Mark 1

35 And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.

Matthew 14

23 And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone

Hebrews 5

Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;

Continue reading “Pray in Solitude”

Blog at

Up ↑


text:
Profile: Nicola Tesla

“Universal peace as a result of cumulative effort through past centuries might come into existence quickly – not unlike a crystal that suddenly forms in a solution which has been slowly prepared”.
Western master – alchemical electricist.

Serbian born electrical engineer, he saw his first light at midnight, during an electric storm in Smilijan, a mountainous village that is now part of Croatia. He arrived to the US with 4 cents in his pocket, some of his poems and a series of illustrations about flying machines designs.

Considered as one of the most important contributors to the scientific development in electricity and magnetism, and the greatest electrical engineer. He’s also famous for designing a system that lead to the creation of worldwide communication with artifacts such as radio, fax and radar.

Among his most important inventions we can find:

Vacuum tube amplifier
Fluorescent bulb
Neon lights
Automobile ignition system
Electron microscope
Microwave oven

“The chief cause of war is the vast extent of this planet. The gradual annihilation of distance will put human beings in closer contact and harmonize their views and aspirations.”

Pop-metal band formed in Sacramento, California, in 1985.

Nikola Tesla (1977)
Tv series by Eduard Galic, Yugoslavia.

– Cinema

Tesla ’76 (1977)
Yugoslavian short film (documentary) by Nicola Stankovic.

Tesla: Tripping the light electric (2000)
By Lance Acord, USA.

The Visionary (2005)
By Joel Shapiro, USA.

Tajina Nicole Tesle (1980)
By Krsto Papic, Yugoslavia.

The legacy of his geniality is printed in today’s daily use on many electrical devices. His work eventually represented fundamental contribution in deferent fields such as robotics, computer science, nuclear physics and electro-domestics.

It is said that Tesla worked with time-travel technology. Some of his studies have been used in different space projects over the last decades.

Free electric energy for everyone was Tesla’s most profound desire. He even created a special panel that’s serves as a homemade receptor of energy. It’s built with very cheap materials and with not necessary knowledge in electricity matters.

“My wireless transmitter does not use Hertzian waves, which are a grievous myth, but sound waves in the aether…”

For his epic electrical rivering, Nicola Tesla is a luminous riveron friend.

Tags: , , , , ,

One Response to “Profile: Nicola Tesla”

  1. Muzica Noua Says:

    i heard about this scientist at my school ! he was an very good ingenier… you can find something about him on -> http://hituri.net/

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out / Change )

Google+ photo

You are commenting using your Google+ account. Log Out / Change )

Connecting to %s

%d bloggers like this:


text:
People’s Market

by newintstudents

Image courtesy of People’s Market site

The People’s Market is in Collingwood and it is one of the popular outdoorsy Summer Markets.  It is open on Wednesdays- Sundays and except for Saturday it is free entry. You only have to pay $2 on a Saturday.

Here they sell a lot of food and drinks and stuff.

They also sell heaps of arts and crafts. There are more stalls on Saturday.

There is a live band on Friday night and Sunday afternoon.


text:
About the roadmap

Identifying smart solutions and sharing good practices between businesses and organisations, could make a tremendous difference. How? It would reduce workers’ exposure to carcinogens, and it would improve the survival of many workers today and tomorrow.

Across Europe, organisations join forces to make a change that is unstoppable. On May 25th 2016, six key European organisations took the initiative to develop a voluntary action scheme to raise awareness about the risks arising from exposure to carcinogens in the workplace and exchange good practices. This action scheme is titled “Roadmap on carcinogens”. Moreover, these parties signed a covenant to commit themselves to stay active for the next three years.

One of the main aims of the Roadmap on carcinogens is to share good practices between companies and organisations.

The parties that paved this Roadmap are:

One of the main aims of the Roadmap on carcinogens is to share solutions between companies and organisations. We know that, across Europe, initiatives are already being taken by local companies and organisations to apply solutions and prevent or reduce carcinogen exposure. The aim of the Roadmap is to propel these solutions towards innovative practices that are used across Europe. Therefore, we encourage you to share your best practices and ideas about preventing and reducing exposure to carcinogens at work with the rest of Europe!

The second important aim of the Roadmap on carcinogens is to encourage and help others to raise awareness and share knowledge. The roadmap will function as the hub of activities undertaken in industries, companies and governments.

Start sharing knowledge by letting others know about any activities regarding the prevention of carcinogen exposure, that are being hosted near you. So, if you are organizing a meeting within your company or a local or (inter)national conference, you are invited to share the initiative on the activity calendar of the Roadmap. As more organisations and companies share their activities, we will see an increasing number of lightbulbs of knowledge appear on the map, so that all of Europe will become aware of actions and be enlightened by innovative solutions to prevent and reduce exposure to carcinogens at work.

What you can do right now

As we are building a community to raise awareness about carcinogen exposure and share our best practices, we need your support! Join the roadmap on carcinogens today, receive updates about the Roadmap, and become a member of a unique valuable community in which workers health, innovation and solutions go hand in hand across Europe.

The Roadmap on carcinogens needs your ideas, your best practices, and your network. In return, you, your organisation or business and workers can benefit from the knowledge and activities that are shared within the Roadmap community. If you are willing to dedicate a few moments of your time, leave your contact information and become part of the Roadmap community today!

Further information:

Share this page


text:
Friday, January 09, 2015

A ‘best of’ (dusie) list of 2014 Canadian poetry books

It’s been a stellar year for Canadian poetry, and I haven’t even been able to talk about everything yet (given my baby-distraction of the past year, and a couple of titles I haven’t even seen yet), so my usual ‘best of ten-or-so’ over at the dusie blog [now posted here] is slightly longer. And yes, this is my fourth annual list (see 2013 here; 2012 here; 2011 here), with my regular caveat that the misnomer ‘best of’ is simply a list of Canadian poetry titles over the past year that I think are worth seeking out and reading. A ‘worth repeating,’ more like.

No comments:


text:
Berlin speaks English + Twitter

I have been 1 week in Berlin. The German Capitol with 3.5 Million citizens.

It is a very international City. There are people from all around the world. I went to some conferences and events. All sessions/events have been holden in english. And many times in coffee shops and bars I could hear people speak english. And many people asked me to follow them on Twitter. The Berliner Folks is using Twitter & Foursquare as much as the SF Folks. If you want to play the game in Berlin, better you learn how to use Twitter right!

There is a lot to see in Berlin. For example the Siegessäule

And of course the Brandenburger Tor. The most famous Building in Berlin.

And this here is Checkpoint Charlie.

This was the border between the russian sector and the US sector during the cold war between 1961 and 1990.

And when you are in Berlin you have to try Curry36. This is the most famous place for Curry Wurst. A german speciality. The people are staying here in line.

The classic one is “Curry Wurst Ohne Darm!” 🙂

And there is much more to see in Berlin. I just didn’t had time to visit all interesting places. That’s why I still have a reason to go back 🙂

Berlin is poor but sexy. Everything was surprisingly cheap. I had all you can eat breakfast for 5 EUR, a big Burger for 3.5 EUR, really good Sushi in a japanese Restaurant for 8 EUR and good beer for 2.5 EUR. And that all at popular places in Berlin Kreuzberg and Prenzlauer Berg.

Posted in Uncategorized

One thought on “Berlin speaks English + Twitter

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: Logo

You are commenting using your account. Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out / Change )

Google+ photo

You are commenting using your Google+ account. Log Out / Change )

Connecting to %s


text:
Honey Ginger Pork Tenderloin

A Dad-friendly dinner with honey!!

two 3/4-pound pork tenderloins
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup oyster sauce
2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon minced peeled fresh gingerroot
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon ketchup
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Garnish: fresh flat-leafed parsley sprigs

Pat pork dry and arrange in a shallow dish. In a bowl whisk together all remaining ingredients and pour marinade over pork. Turn pork to coat well. Chill pork, covered, turning it once or twice, at least 8 hours and up to 1 day.

Prepare grill.

Remove pork from marinade, reserving marinade, and arrange on a lightly oiled rack set 5 to 6 inches over glowing coals. Grill pork, basting with reserved marinade and turning it every 3 minutes, 10 minutes total. Discard marinade. Continue to cook pork, turning it every 3 minutes, until a thermometer diagonally inserted 2 inches into center of tenderloin registers 155°F., about 10 minutes more.

Let pork stand 5 minutes before thinly slicing.

Serve pork garnished with parsley sprigs.

2 thoughts on “Honey Ginger Pork Tenderloin

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out / Change )

Google+ photo

You are commenting using your Google+ account. Log Out / Change )

Connecting to %s


text:
Here’s the answer..
EVERY relationship has a cycle. In the beginning, you fell in love with your spouse/partner. You anticipated their call, wanted their touch, and liked their idiosyncrasies (unconventional behavior/habit) .

Falling in love wasn’t hard. In fact, it was a completely natural and spontaneous experience. You didn’t have to DO anything. That’s why it’s called ‘falling’ in love… Because it’s happening TO YOU.

People in love sometimes say, ‘I was swept off my feet.’ Think about the imagery of that __expression.
It implies that you were just standing there; doing nothing, and then something came along and happened TO YOU.

Falling in love is easy. It’s a passive and spontaneous experience. But after a few years of marriage, the euphoria (excitement) of love fades. It’s the natural cycle of EVERY relationship. Slowly but surely, phone calls become a bother (if they come at all), touch is not always welcome (when it happens), and your spouse’s idiosyncrasies, instead of being cute, drive you nuts.

The symptoms of this stage vary with every relationship, but if you think about your marriage, you will notice a dramatic difference between the initial stage when you were in love and a much duller or even angry subsequent stage.

At this point, you and/or your spouse might start asking, ‘Did I marry the right person?’ And as you and your spouse reflect on the euphoria of the love you once had, you may begin to desire that experience with someone else. This is when marriages breakdown. People blame their spouse for their unhappiness and look outside their marriage for fulfillment.

Extramarital fulfillment comes in all shapes and sizes. Infidelity is the most obvious. But sometimes people turn to work, a hobby, a friendship, excessive TV, or abusive substances.

But the answer to this dilemma does NOT lie outside your marriage. It lies within it. I’m not saying that you couldn’t fall in love with someone else.

You could.

And TEMPORARILY you’d feel better. But you’d be in the same situation a few years later. Because (listeread thi carefully):

SUSTAINING love is not a passive or spontaneous experience. It’ll NEVER just happen to you. You can’t ‘find’ LASTING love. You have to ‘make’ it day in and day out. That’s why we have the __expression ‘the labor of love.’
Because it takes time, effort, and energy. And most importantly, it takes WISDOM. You have to know WHAT TO DO to make your marriage/relationship work.

Make no mistake about it. Love is NOT a mystery. There are specific things you can do (with or without your spouse) to succeed with your marriage/relationship.

Just as there are physical laws of the universe (such as gravity), there are also laws for relationships.
Just as the right diet and exercise program makes you physically stronger, certain habits in your relationship WILL make your marriage/relationsh ip stronger. It’s a direct cause and effect. If you know and apply the laws, the results are predictable. .. you can ‘make’ love.

Love in marriage is indeed a ‘decision’.. . Not just a feeling.

Remember this always:

‘God determines who walks into your life. It is up to you to decide who you let walk away, who you let stay, and who you refuse to let go.’

I think what was said above is very true. It is ALL UP to YOU. And YOU make the marriage work. And BOTH must want it to work.

~ oleh andong sari di April 15, 2008.

Tinggalkan Jawapan

Masukkan butiran anda dibawah atau klik ikon untuk log masuk akaun:

WordPress.com Logo

Anda sedang menulis komen melalui akaun WordPress.com anda. Log Out / Tukar )

Twitter picture

Anda sedang menulis komen melalui akaun Twitter anda. Log Out / Tukar )

Facebook photo

Anda sedang menulis komen melalui akaun Facebook anda. Log Out / Tukar )

Google+ photo

Anda sedang menulis komen melalui akaun Google+ anda. Log Out / Tukar )

Connecting to %s

%d bloggers like this:


text:
Archive | blogging and networking RSS feed for this section

Focus Aspire Inspire – an update…

12 Oct

So way back in February (because by resolve somehow missed January ), I wrote a blog Focus, Aspire, Inspire.  I meant to assess my progress quarterly by Blog and ‘regularly’ (?!) in my thought process.  and to be fair I did review my progress in May, and was actually pretty chuffed with myself.  Somehow I was largely on track with my aspirations and inspirations.  I’d tried to keep them realistic and it seemed to be working.  Now its blooming well October and  it seems I have lost a little focus, as I do, so I thought a little readdress would be a good thing

Goal 1: Twitter following:  @Berni_Benton I have 556 followers but to be honest I’m more interested in engagement and interaction.  I love it when the little counter shows a notification for a comment or retweet .  I have become needy for these affirmations of my wit and relevance.  I don’t know if I’m getting it right.  I spend most of my time on twitter slagging off Donald Trump. AND I’M NOT EVEN AMERICAN!!! – See, loss of focus.  But he is such an easy target….

Goal 2: Sort out my twitter lists: yep, pretty much done that, but now I have ’em what shall I do with ’em.  Still.  Tick.

Goal 3: Blog following: I just looked.  I always forget to look.  I have 140.  which, considering I only aspire to 150 by year-end is not bad.  In Feb there was 114 of you, so weyhey and ‘welcome’ my new friends.  Perhaps you might share me and help me find that final 10 souls who might like to read my random rantings, musings and insights on no particular subject and no particular time.  I can but ask eh?

Goal 4: Blog viewings: well they are heading in the right direction, but I guess they would, you can’t ‘unview’ something so the only way is up, baby (sorry, just Yazoo popped into my head right then…Focus damn it!)_

Goal 5: Teaching:  Yes. Am doing more this year and am planning to run private sessions for small groups from my home studio in 2018 so again, tick. tick

Goal 6 & 7: OOPS – this was the big old one that required FOCUS .  Start making Christmas stock of stained glass goodies by August including two new bespoke designs.  Are we there yet?  Oh shit its mid October.

colleen commissionGoal 8: Commissions – well I have done the preliminary drawings for 3, that was my target, but none of them, to date have resulted in any glass being cut….however, i remain optimistic for this one

Goal 9: Run retreats: Nope.  This one involves the coordination and cooperation of Hubby and we’re just not that organised together.  Maybe 2018.

Goal 10: YEAH – if you read the interim report in May you know I’ve got an exhibition pending!!! My first EVER solo exhibition.  I actually visited the exhibition space yesterday and spoke to the curator.  So now I’ve paced it out and I know exactly how many pieces of work i need (15) and how many I have ready (13).  Well, 12.  Actually 11.5… the point is, I’m (almost) on track and most importantly I have some friends who want to sort out the private viewing and promotion for me , so that means there’ll be prosecco and CAKE.

Goal 11. Facebook:  I’ve been pretty proactive here.  I split myself in two.  There is now a page @CerdynvillaBandB for all things relating to life at the guesthouse and tourism related snippets; and there’s @BerniGlassArt for all things arty and crafty, including news on my own imminent exhibition and any classes I might be teaching…. I’ve even included a shop…..  Between the 2 there are 1000 followers  but again its interaction that’s needed and i have no idea how to improve that (don’t worry, I’m going to book a course!)

Goal 12: Vlogging…well. Errr. Um… I’m going to blame technology.  No?  Ok I’ll blame my relationship with my technology.  I guess that won’t wash either.  I will get on with it.  Promise. Sorry Dinah. #hangsheadinshameandgoestositonthenaughtystep

So that’s how I’m doing against my overall targets.  I’m going to pat myself on the back, because I’m pretty happy with what I have done and I promised myself I would focus on what I had done rather than what I hadn’t.  I also have to remember all the other things I have done that weren’t on the list like;

  • Joined and started using Instagram and Pintrest (again, I’m booking a course as I have no idea whats going on really!)
  • Busy season in the B&B – more new and loads of repeat visitors
  • Massive stained glass community project (Jan – June)
  • Several regular gardening jobs
  • Extra work for my friends who run a caffi
  • fitted in a little mini break to Rome
  • Family wedding
  • New grandson

little D

and there are still two and a half months to go…..

how are you getting on with your annual targets, if you have them?

It’s all about the Blog/Vlog etc…

12 May

omega centuri

I love the blogger Rhyming with Wine, her poetic interpretations and observations have me in stitches.  Her most recent blog “The Stats Race”, sits perfectly with my views of social media and the knots I tie myself up with in an attempt to achieve my goals.  Basically, this blog is where I dump all the shit that pops into my head!.  However, I do it in the hope of entertaining, inspiring or provoking a reaction in you lovely lot (my readers…I say in the hope that there really is someone or sometwo out there).

Three months ago I set myself some challenges for 2017

Focus, Aspire, Inspire

I thought it would be helpful to me and hopefully not too boring for you, if I were to check out my own progress and possibly re-evaluate

  1. Twitter: my following has just overtopped the 500 mark and I’m delighted, For me its quality rather than quantity so I shall start focusing on interactors more (when I work out exactly how to do that)… but if you are following me on @berni_Benton, then “thanks” and if you are also interacting with me then I think I’m a little bit in love with you because I love a good bit of banter
  2. I’m still trying to tidy up my twitter lists – I’ve started some, “fave bloggers”, ” fave artists”, ” fave…” etc… then i need to talk to these groups more – so I can get more out of them – I’d prefer dialog to monologue, and that’s down to me, timing and organisation (neither of which are in my current ‘strengths’ corner)
  3. Blog: my following is now 133, from 114, I’m aiming for 150 and my views are up from 13.5K to 15K and there’s still 6 months to go to make my 20K goal
  4. Teaching: I have massively enjoyed and proved myself to be pretty darned good at teaching, check out Community Project – progress report to see whats been going on.  I wanted another teaching commission out of it and the group I’m teaching are keen to have more sessions so we-hey!!! more teaching is on the cards
  5. Vlogging: I’ve started in a very very very small way, to vlog, I’ve not included my face or my voice so far but I have started to include video content into my blogs….I don’t know if you guys like it, perhaps you can let me know.
  6. I’ve joined Instagram – that’s an extra, wasn’t on my list at all but I think I can get to grips with that – lovely visual app and quick and easy to use… still working out how to use it properly but early days
  7. Facebook: not sure whats happening here , page likes down from 778 to 768… anyone fancy taking a look? It’s where I share stuff going on in and around our home and village, it’s a B&B in Mid Wales, very rural, extremely tranquil, and slightly crazy.. Pink Butterfly Art & Glass at Cerdyn Villa…
  8. Art: I’ve already done 3 more pieces of art this year, speculative spacescapes, have booked my FIRST EVER solo exhibition slot for March/April 2018 and have the rest of the pieces sketching out nicely in my head… it’s going to play on light and dark.  With black canvasses painting with colours and patterns emulation images from outer space and then representations of space made from stained glass and back-lit by natural light.  I have one commission glass panel confirmed and one pending approval (god i hope to get to make it, I always get excited once I’ve done the drawings).

perseus galaxy cluster witches broom nebula

Glass panel - based on Whirlpool Galaxy

All in all I’m pretty pleased with my progress.  I think my report card might read ” Is trying hard, achieving many of her goals, still some way to go, but with sustained commitment and the right support and determination there is no reason why Berni can’t make it”

Do you have a bucket list for your year? Hows it going?

Lucy At Home
Brilliant blog posts on

Diary of An Imperfect Mum

BC – Socialising with social media…

2 May

This afternoon I had some super quality time with my absolutely fantastic friend and superstar motivator, Dinah. I’ve written about her before, but just in case you missed it I will tell you that she is absolutely amazing, and hugely inspirational.

Today after tea and choc brownies in the garden surrounded by some of my free roaming hens, she set to work helping me to refocus my mind on where I want to be in the mysterious world of social media.

The dark art of www presence and successful social media integration. We (she), added vloggin’ to my bloggin’!

Seriously guys I now have a YouTube channel, the means to upload a video to my (this) blog, and I’m on Instagram (ooo, get me, down with the kids!)

My promise to her was to take photos of EVERYTHING and share my moments on there ( there being the aforementioned Instagram). AND, write a blog EVERY DAY for two weeks under a different category… If you’ve seen my blog ( @and I know you have ‘cos you’re here reading it), then  you can see there are several subject headings under which I ramble.

Anyway. I like a challenge and I hate to disappoint, so you guys are my witnesses and this is the first blog of the fortnight… I shall categorise this under ‘friends….’ but also under ‘social media & networking’ so tomorrow’s will not be there, I promise…

Oh, and here’s a little “cerdyn villa cwtch” ( yes I’m calling it that because the phrase came up in conversation with Dinah, and I thought it was brilliant!)…

Lucy At Home

Focus, Aspire, Inspire

23 Feb

I have been inspired, as I often am, by certain bloggers I follow.  This time my muse is Debbie of My Random Musings.

As I flutter around in random formation, flitting from this project to that; this passion to that; this idea to that; this demand on my time to that; I get through my days,week and months in a blink of an eye.  Completing a lot of stuff; dipping my toes in many a pond and having a great deal of fun but it all kinds of floats around in a mishmash of activity without borders, direction or guidelines.

That’s all very well.  A nice, jolly, unfocused existence, guided by optimism and chance, but I really would like to look back on a year without being completely surprised by how I got from January to Christmas and the circuitous route I took to get there.

I’m not saying I don’t love the surprised.  I do.  That’s the problem.  I enjoy the freedom of it a little too much.  Sometimes to the point that at any point in the year I’m not really sure what sort of ground I might find under each footstep.  More importantly I’m not moving forward.  I’m treading the beautiful waters in which I wallow and am allowing myself to enjoy things as they float by; maybe latching onto them for stability for a few moments; but never really reeling myself in.

I’d like to be able to say my starting point was A by goals were B,C and D with a few distractions via M,Q and W, but I made it to D by the end of an allotted time.  I’d like to measure my achievements as well as list them.

So *deep breath* I’m taking Debbie’s advice and starting with a bucket list:

1.TWITTER – I’d love to have over 500 followers before the end of the year, a small hop rather than a leap  – in my mind I already know I really want 1000 but let’s be realistic about these things. This is me

2. ALSO TWITTER – I need to find help and learn how to use it more effectively – I love talking politics, parenting, art, religion, tourism – I don’t want to focus on one topic – I love to RAMBLE and REACT and REFLECT as he mood takes me and the words grab me but I must more effectively access the right people for each topic otherwise I am aware I may bore, or worse, annoy my followers

3.BLOGGING – again I want to ramble randomly so I’m aware I need to be smarter with my tags/metatags/linky’s/sharing . Again I need advice .  I can find lots of blog share site but I’m not interested in fashion, cosmetics, hair and makeup and I’m in the UK… I need to find other companions  – as fun as some of those I follow are – I need more of the random eccentrics out there.  I won’t put a link as you’re already here but feel free to have a look round if you can make it to the end of this post 😉

4.ALSO BLOGGING – I need to set a goal for ‘followers’ but I don’t really want followers so much as interactors – I’ll continue writing it even if no-one reads it because sometimes I can’t sleep until I get whatever it is out of my head.  however, it would be lovely to have a few people who felt inspired to discuss my content… Lets say I’ll aim for 36 new followers / contributors in 2017, 20,000 views

5.TEACHING – this is new to me, I’m loving it – teaching stained glass to members of the community as part of a funded Community Project – my goals are to be proud of the finished product, have it installed by the end of summer and to both blog and Vlog the process.  My aim is to obtain another teaching commission for 2018

6.STAINED GLASS ART- let’s get proactive instead of reactive.  Last year I started thinking about Christmas stock mid October – about 3 months too late when I had zero old stock to sell and had to close by order book on 5th Dec because for some reason we decided a holiday before Christmas would be relaxing.  It was.  The run up to it was definitely not.  So. START making Christmas glass in the summer.

7.ALSO STAINED GLASS – I am really really bad at marketing myself, my skills and my ETSY shop (I bet you are thinking ” whoa, she has an Etsy shop?!”) – I looked at my Etsy shop today and all items have expired.  I’ve not been updating my existing ‘made to order’ items or creating any new ones.  Target – never have my shop empty. Create 2 new designs before summer (lets say end July).  Anyway, here’s a link to the shop ..don’t look yet, I’ve written this but I haven’t done it yet, give me a few hours!!

8. ALSO STAINED GLASS – my favourite moment in the artistic process is creating a new design and making it for the first time.  I love most of all the commissioned one-off pieces.  As an artist rather than a commercial maker, the fun and challenge is in the original design and the presentation of it to the individual who asked for it.That said I really need to focus on marketing myself as a designer and maker of one off commissioned glass panels… If I could get 3 more commissions for 2017 I’d be a very happy bunny.

9.BED AND BREAKFAST – Cerdyn Villa is, in my mind small and perfectly formed .  I love that we run it like we are having friends over.  I love that we spend hours talking to our guests over breakfast or sharing our wine/beer in the garden on a rare warm sunny day.  Yes its a business, but mostly its a lifestyle choice.  What I wanted to do last year was to start running weekenders for like-minded people – eg: an artists retreat, a classic car enthusiasts retreat; that sort of thing.  Basically fill our 3 rooms and maybe have 4 or 5 campers come along – welcome drinks evening around a bonfire, breakfast together, some form of group activity, an evening meal together, possibly everyone heading to the local pub together for a pint, some other activity and away they go – fulfilled, enlightened and loving our home and this little village. My target is to run a first one in 2017…In September *better warn hubby*

10.ART  – as an acrylic artist I am again pretty crap at self promotion.  I would however be very happy to paint 2 more original spacescapes to add to my series and arrange for them to be exhibited somewhere before Christmas.  I’m not a mass creator of sellable art I just want to follow my passion and paint these for me – but be brave enough to put them out there for others to look at.

11.FACEBOOK.  I amalgamated my art page (Pink Butterfly Art & Glass) and our B&B page (Cerdyn Villa B&B into one with a view to create a ‘lifestyle hub’  The page is Pink Butterfly Art & Glass at Cerdyn Villa B&B or @CerdynVilla – I’d love to grow that to 1000 likes.

12.LIFESTYLE HUB – with so many facets to life I set up (with a lot of help from my friend and  mentor, Dinah) a ‘one-stop-shop ‘Lifestyle Hub’ combining my blog, Facebook, B&B website, art and twitter into one place from where everything can be accessed.  I need to make it more visible (how? – ok arrange more time with the gorgeous Dinah – for that but mostly for coffee and cwtches).  Plus I promised I’d start a VLOG... so my target is to set up a VLOG!!!

So there you go.  I shall continue fluttering about randomly rambling my way along but at the same time (yes I do plan to multi task), I shall keep my mind on these goals and moreover I shall report back in January on my success/failure/adaptations to the above.

Wish me luck, I’m going in!

I Wanna Know What Love Is… The Ultimate Blog Party!

8 Feb

This sounds like my kind of thing – now I jkjust need to master the ‘less is more’ approach and try and sum up what I feel love is in a few sentenses….. so much to say so little space!

Reblogged on

Source: I Wanna Know What Love Is… The Ultimate Blog Party!

Episode 2 of #Reid2Write – Suzie from ‘Suzie81speaks’ talks Networking and Building Traffic

5 Feb

i’m still learning about blogging – even if I’d been blogging alll my life i’d still be learning, things constantly change…. I write what pops into my head, i don’t often get it’seen’ but i love doing it and would love to do more… so i will continue to ramble in my usual rose tinted way and see what happens….

Aidan J. Reid

SIX DEGREES OF Kevin Bacon is a fun game.

The premise is that the Hollywood actor can be linked to any other celebrity by six degrees of separation – typically through his wide and varied film roles.

If there was a similar game played out in the world of WordPress, Suzie81speaks would be the blog at the centre of that Universe, connected to other bloggers by far fewer than six degrees.

View original post 1,482 more words


text:
Thursday, March 01, 2007

The Universal Empire of Love...

My final set of first year poetry classes for the term will fall one day after the 200th anniversary of Parliament passing the act abolishing the slave trade. We are set to look at poems about the topic by Southey, Wordsworth, Coleridge, and the poems of Phillis Wheatley. I have James G. Basker’s Amazing Grace: an Anthology of Poems about Slavery 1660-1810 (Yale, 2002): surely the most important collection of historical witness ever compiled in the form of a poetry anthology.

These will be interesting sessions. My son’s recent glancing contact in his school history lessons with the subject of the slave trade does suggest that even in history taught empathetically (‘What was it like being a slave?’) there is still some evasion of the facts about Britain’s ghastly dominance in 18th century slave trading.

But Basker’s verse-writers are 99% on the side of the angels: women writers, churchmen, transported felons, witnesses to slavery, and, of course, freed slaves variously condemn, or dramatise the iniquities of the trade. The former slave ship captain, John Newton, provides the titular poem, the Olney hymn recovering its dignity and proper meaning in this context (for anyone who remembers its appearance as a best selling single).

But here, I post from Basker, for the convenience of my students, and for its inherent (if repulsive) interest, extracts from James Boswell’s piece of anti-abolition verse polemic, and a couple of Boswell’s own astonishing notes on his performance:

‘No Abolition of Slavery; Or the Universal Empire of Love’

Noodles, who rave for abolition

Of th’Africans improved condition*

At your own cost fine projects try;

Don’t rob – from pure humanity.

Go, Wilberforce, with narrow scull,

Go home, and preach away at Hull,

No longer to the Senate cackle,

In strains which suit the Tabernacle;

I hate your little wittling sneer,

Your pert and self-sufficient leer,

Mischief to Trade sits on thy lip,

Insects will gnaw the noblest ship;

Go, Wilberforce, be gone, for shame,

Thou dwarf, with a big-sounding name.

What frenzies will a rabble seize

In lax luxurious days, like these;

Must fix our rights, define our truth;

Weavers become our Lords of Trade,

And every clown throw by his spade,

T’instruct our ministers of state,

And foreign commerce regulate…

… He who to thwart God’s system** tries,

Bids mountains sink, and valley’s rise;

Slavery, subjection, what you will,

Has ever been, and will be still:

Trust me, that in this world of woe

Mankind must different burthens know;

Each bear his own, th’Apostle spoke;

And chiefly they who bear the yoke ….

Lo then, in yonder fragrant isle

Where Nature ever seems to smile,

The cheerful gang! – the negroes see

Perform the task of industry:

Ev’n at their labour hear them sing,

While time flies quick on downy wing;

Finish’d the bus’ness of the day,

No human beings are more gay:

Of food, clothes, cleanly lodging sure,

Each has his property secure;

Their wives and children are protected,

In sickness they are not neglected;

And when old age brings a release,

Their grateful days they end in peace.

But should our Wrongheads have their will,

Should Parliament approve their bill,

Pernicious as th’effect would be,

T’abolish negro slavery,

Such partial freedom would be vain,

Since Love’s strong empire must remain

O ------! Trust thy lover true,

I must and will be slave to you…

* That the Africans are in a state of savage wretchedness, appears from the most authentic accounts. Such being the fact, an abolition of the slave trade would in truth be precluding them from the first step towards progressive civilisation, and consequently of happiness, which it is proved by the most respectable evidence they enjoy in a great degree in our West-India islands, though under well-regulated restraint.

** The state of slavery is acknowledged both in the Old Testament and the New.

I only give one of his personal lampoons on the abolitionists, that on Wilberforce himself. Boswell casts his polemic as a defence of trade, but he really means a general defence of property, of private ownership of all kinds, including ownership of other people. After his blasé account of the pleasures of plantation life, he frivolously segues away into the assertion that slavery cannot ever be abolished while hearts like his are enslaved by love. I suppose he meant to sound charming and witty, and he liked this crass idea enough to build it into his sub-title. The assertion of the perpetuity of ‘love’s strong empire’ lets him try to cloak what the British empire was doing with some relation to benign or even loving sentiments. Strange that contact with Dr Johnson hadn’t lifted Boswell above this: into this episode (1777) in his Life of Johnson, Boswell retrospectively inserts his disagreement, though at the time, the two fell out about British taxation in America, not the slave trade.

“After supper I accompanied him to his apartment, and at my request he dictated to me an argument in favour of the negro [i.e. Joseph Knight] who was then claiming his liberty, in an action in the Court of Session in Scotland. He had always been very zealous against slavery in every form, in which I, with all deference, thought that he discovered ‘a zeal without knowledge.’ Upon one occasion, when in company with some very grave men at Oxford, his toast was, ‘Here’s to the next insurrection of the negroes in the West Indies.’ His violent prejudice against our West Indian and American settlers appeared whenever there was an opportunity. Towards the conclusion of his Taxation no Tyranny, he says, ‘how is it that we hear the loudest YELPS for liberty among the drivers of negroes?’ ”

I have always thought that William Empson’s 1964 essay on Coleridge’s ‘Ancient Mariner’ was New Historicism decades before Greenblatt. Marina Warner summarises:

“William Empson linked the Ancient Mariner to Coleridge's anti-slavery stand in the years he was writing the poem: the extreme, anguished guilt the Mariner feels arises from Coleridge's view of the personal effects of public wrongdoing. The Ancient Mariner, Empson wrote, is "the great ballad of maritime expansion and empire".

(at,12084,824036,00.html )

which links to a text of the 1807 act:

The image is Sir Richard Westmacott's memorial for Fox, in Westminster Abbey, with the (white marble!) African kneeling to the expiring abolitionist.

Decidedly Bookish said...

My favourite part of that poem is that he calls abolitionists "noodles." What a brilliant insult.

DrRoy said...

He just can't establish the tone, even of his contempt, can he? 'Noodle' is from 1720 in English, as an insult, 1769 as a foodstuff, in jazz from the 20th century, and in Australian as the word for searching for opals in the spoil heaps of mines, themselves known as 'mullocks'. Ah! The OED!


text:
Monday, July 07, 2008

At Whitchurch Canonicorum

Two objects that, in terms of theological history, ought not to have co-existed so harmoniously as they have done over the centuries. At the right, a beautifully preserved octagonal Jacobean pulpit, where an angled door admits the preacher to read the word of God, and then deliver a sermon on a Bible text. It looks like something from a cruet set, and, from it, the divine word was judiciously sprinkled down on the congregation.
In the background, against the wall of the north transept, the almost unique English survivor of a former way of faith: it is the tomb of St Wita (St White, later latinised as St Candida). The oval apertures allowed those in need of the saint's intervention to insert affected limbs - or maybe their heads - and leave their votive offerings. The saint's coffin is above, and inside that, a leaden reliquary box containing bones of a woman that were old when the shrine was built. She might have been a Breton 'Saint Blanche' martyred by Vikings.
These two objects should not co-exist, but this deeply enfolded part of the Dorset landscape must have harboured sufficient Catholic sympathy for the relics not be be cast out. Edward the Confessor is still in Westminster Abbey, and Becket must be under Canterbury Cathedral somewhere, but St Wita is the only saint who remains in the parish church founded for her. There must once have been hundreds of shrines like this.

Whitchurch Canonicorum concentrates history: Sir George Somers is buried (at least, most of him) somewhere under the chancel. He had died in Bermuda on 9 November 1610, ‘of a surfeit of eating of a pig’ and "his nephew Matthew Somers decided to go against Somers's wishes that he return to Jamestown with supplies, and, burying his uncle's heart and entrails in Bermuda, carried his body back to England, where it was buried at Whitchurch Canonicorum, Dorset, with pomp and ceremony in 1611" (ODNB) There's an early 20th century plaque to the man whose first shipwreck and miraculous preservation on the 'still-vexed Bermudas' was written up by William Strachey, read by Shakespeare, and went into The Tempest.

1 comment:

Ben W. Brumfield said...

Isn't there a similar reliquary/tomb in the transept of Hereford Cathedral?