The Case for Western Civ

If there is one course everyone should take in college, my high school civics teacher told us, it's the history of Western civilization. But I didn't. Now, 35 years later, I am.

Was he right? Yes, and better late than never.

Team taught by two faculty members who specialize in different regions and periods, my course in European history surveys four centuries of ideas and movements across the U.K. and east and west Europe. My professors complement each other's differences in  knowledge bases and personality. But they also share a fabulous rapport, a talent for teaching and good humor.

On the first day, Holly Case introduced herself after Robert Travers. In her dead pan manner she commented, "Ok. You met him. He uses words like 'liberating' and 'thrilling.' I -- don't. He's wearing colors. I'm in black. So you met good cop. I'd like you to meet bad cop."

More serious, she observed that ideas can be fascinating (the role of education, religion and economics for example)  but also dangerous (excessive nationalism, imperialism, anti-Semitism to name a few).

Moving through the 15th-19th centuries, there is a particular suspense in approach of the 20th century and legacies that now challenge our world.

My reactions to the huge wealth and complexity of information and ideas presented in this course, has steadily ran from "Hunh!" to "Oh-h-h-h-h...." to "Aha!" These spring forth in my mind -- guttural and spontaneous-- whether from hearing about the Hungarian Comenius, an early believer in open access and universal education; enlightenment ideas used to justify colonization and imperialism; finding out how 16th century exploration brought home new colors of indigo and carmine; Baroque art and music as a communications medium for the Catholic Church; the ingenuity of the Lyonnais silk industry in launching French fashion and marketing with neckties.

But what it does best is to highlight intellectual history and its role in power, politics, and economics, as opposed to, say, one that focuses more on science and technology.

For me what is most valuable, what moves me most deeply, is following the the long pathway of human rights across the European continent through centuries: for the serfs, the poor, Protestants, slaves, factory workers, women, Jews, and others; and from the right to reap rewards from hard labor and worship according to beliefs, to the right to vote, to learn, to hold property and on. It is in this way that I see today's struggle for human rights among gays, lesbians and transgender persons as a continuation of that pathway.

How can we fully appreciate where and what we are without knowing how we got here? It's why I believe my high school teacher spurred us onward.

European history is my start. But there's a vast world out there to explore.




                                                                   

On Eating Well

After hearing both Toni Morrison and Mark Bittman last week, I'm noticing even more how memorable food and meals can be.

Morrison named food among her three top memories of attending Cornell in the 50s. She recalled the campus beauty and a progressive political and religious community. She also remembered savoring affordable food.

She loved Cornell bread -- a fortified loaf with a recipe landed in many cookbooks -- and 25 cent eggs from the Ag school. She said they always seemed to have two yolks.

She mentioned growing up in a time when there was little trash to take out. Food did not come in plastic containers. Fruits and vegetables came from the garden. Waste was composted.

New York Times columnist Mark Bittman was also in town. He is a generation younger than Morrison and said, "My mother saw it as her duty to put meals on the table 7 days a week, about 330 days of the year. No one feels like that today."

By the 1980s and 1990s, he said, home cooking was as bad as it would get and that the level of food in supermarkets was plummeting. His column, "The Minimalist," was born when he noticed two trends that had been ignored by the food press: the decline in home cooking and an increase in junk food.

Bittman stayed on campus for several days chiefly to press people toward becoming political about  food and press our government to put food issues on legislative agendas and make policy changes.  Of course he also encouraged everyone to cook and eat more of what's delicious and nutritious and less of what's bad for us.

In round one he talked mostly to undergraduates about his writing career pathway and how he made it in journalism.

His last talk was in a room filled with Ithacan foodies who are as crunchy and smart as it gets in our town (witness the presence of both a Moosewood restaurant founding member as well as an Ag School researcher who called Bittman to task on issues related to GMOs and countering him with his view of the advantages of biofortification for poor people around the world.) I had the impression that the week in Ithaca was rewarding but also challenging. Maybe it pushed a few of his buttons. Running into him in a hallway at week's end, I could see he was ready to get home to Manhattan.

On Friday I stopped in to see Joyce McAllister, in her 80s,  who went with me to hear Bittman. Her home is filled with several hundred cookbooks, in addition to volumes of poetry, biographies and novels. On her dining room wall is a hobbyist's oil painting of the small dairy farm where she grew up outside of Dryden, NY.  After her family sold the farm, it deteriorated. She no longer wanted to drive by. But now at least a small grant has helped its owners restore the barn.

On that farm,  she and her mother canned thousands of pounds of fruits and vegetable. When she first tasted pasteurized milk as a college student she could not believe how bad it was. She still buys organic eggs from free-range chickens and suffers no others.
She points to Julia Child and Craig Claiborne for starting to turn things around in this country. And, she said "We didn't go to the table just to eat, but to talk."

Then she sent me home with about 15 pounds in cookbooks, including Bittman's How to Cook Everything.

Bits from Bittman:

• You changed your light bulbs. You bought a Prius, How about eating a freakin' salad?
• We need more farmers.
• If I could get people to cook rice and beans once a week I would have had an amazing career.
• No one gives sweet potatoes enough credit.
• Consumerism is not inevitable.
• We have too many "unidenitifable food-like objects" in grocery stores.
• We should all try to be more vegan-ish.

Extra Minute: Bittman explains the 'cut and paste" function in the old newspaper paste-up days, before digital design.

Toni Morrison on Goodness

In fiction evil too often makes for blockbusters. Goodness is equated with weakness and lurks backstage.

So says Toni Morrison. She counts a some characters created by Faulkner, Melville, and Coetzee among her exceptions. But most contemporary literature, she believes, is not interested in goodness. The author's language can be beautiful, but it explores the corrupt.

Morrison said she does not find that interesting.

"Goodness is really and truly hard. You can't seduce it," the Nobel Prize winning writer told a reverent, excited audience of hundreds on March 7 at Cornell. "Writing about it and trying to find language for it is all I've ever done."

Morrison is a regal presence. She commands, speaking truth with grace. With a light touch, she takes your hand and leads you deeper into the sea of your heart than you thought anyone could help you go.

"You are a person, and deep down is this free person. That is the person you should use for good."

Watch President David Skorton's introduction

Hear Toni Morrison read from her new novel Home

Also view Morrison's lecture on Goodness: Altruism and the Literary Imagination delivered at the Harvard Divinity School in 2012.

My Mind in Training

Left to its own devices, my mind is like a puppy -- eager, unfocused, prone to distraction.

That first leash promises a certain freedom to take to the trails, but it also brings out excitability and rebelliousness. Our puppy strains, pulls, and bounds off to follow first one scent, and then another, losing all interest in whatever quest was so captivating before. Puppy wanders off until reminded of what we were doing.

That's my mind as I start to develop a focused practice of meditation.

In January, I took a four-week course from Diane Hecht through Cornell's Wellness Program. She's upbeat and encouraging. She's able to laugh at our community's earnestness and the natural propensity for people to be offended, especially herself. I like her evidence-based approach, her background in integrative medicine, and the authority she brings as a longtime practitioner.

Now, two months into establishing my regular practice, my most noticeable benefit is in the battle against distractibility.

You know how it is. I sit down to pay a bill or answer an email and then start wondering what's new right now at the New York Times. Reading the headlines leads to an article on where boomers like to travel in winter, which leads to idle speculation about available rental houses in the Outer Banks next summer, or maybe a trip to Costa Rica.

Ten minutes are gone before I return to the project of recalling my password so I can pay my bill.

But now I find that I'm getting better at sticking to the task at hand. I'm learning to do one thing at a time, and -- high five! -- to remember what it was I was intent on doing!

There is renewed interest in mindfulness meditation, in part because research shows its benefits for stress reduction, anxiety management, and overall well-being -- all benefits I hope to experience as well. Jon Kabat-Zinn first studied and applied ancient meditation techniques in hospital settings with positive results. Today mindfulness meditation is endorsed by the psychological and medical communities and incorporated into many treatment modes.

In my beginner stage of meditation, I am also looking at compassionate awareness meditation traditions out of Buddhist and yogic traditions. Thich Nhat Hanh, Pema Chodron, BKS Iyengar, and Tara Brach all have wisdom to share. But more on that another time.

Check out this recent synthesis of research looking on mindfulness meditation's effects from the American Psychological Association.

The Welcome Center at Cornell Plantations was 

a peaceful location for winter meditation classes.