Religious Holidays

 

Jews and Christians prepare for important religious celebrations.  Is it possible to fully celebrate these individual remembrances as well as recollecting what holds all humanity together?  We sometimes pit our own religious perspectives against the common good without realizing that much of the time these differences can contribute to the common good.  Our other complication is that we sometimes see that our religious perspectives are the only one's that foster the common good.  I would like to commit myself to identifying ways to work with people of all faiths, and even those who find faith commitments to be an impediment, to build a more just just society.    

Share your ideas and actions about ways we can both build stronger personal commitments while vigorously working with all peoples. 

Community Values

Has the Mystic community identified the values that drive our interests?  I am sure there must be some core values that have resided in the hearts and minds of residents.  Have they changed or evolved? 

Every time a budget, corporate or individual, is set one expresses their core values.  In the recent discussions about libraries, ambulances, and public education funding we are expressing our values. 

Have we fostered discussions with individuals and groups about how their core values match or challenge some of the longstanding core values?  Let's enter an online discussion among Mystic residents, our neighboring citizens, and for that matter any community that is discussing community values.

The Journeys of Our Lives - Presentation and Discussion

YOU ARE INVITED

Simplicity and Law 8 on Trust

John Maeda in The Laws of Simplicity (The MIT Press, 2006) tells about learning to swim as an adult. Swimming was not easy until he learned one simple experience. He relates the way his unorthodox swimming instructor taught.  He says the instructor spent most of his time telling him to "lean back" and trust the water.

I kept waiting to learn how to swim, but in the meantime became more comfotable just leaning back or bending forward in the water.  A formative moment occurred when he (the instructor) told us to go ahead and flap our arms and feet, and suddenly I was swimming!  I realized I could always swim--I just didn't trust the water.

He thought of this experience when he visited Bang and Olufsen, the high styled designer of electronic equipment.  They did not focus on the quality of sound but the "quality of leaning back."  Bang and Olufson needs to know about sound but the sound also needs to know about the listener.  

Trust is simple or is it complex? 

Listening Takes Courage



The story is told of the newspaper ad during the great depression.  A young man saw a "help wanted" ad for a telegraph operator. He had studied Morse code at home while he was unemployed, but he had no experience. And his heart sank as he joined a room full of way too many other men seeking the same job.  Not unlike our times where unemployment is so high.

The young man found a chair and sank into it, already feeling dejected because so many people were there for the interview.  After only a few minutes, however, the young man’s face suddenly brightened, he jumped up out of his chair and ran into the interviewer’s office. Within a few minutes the interviewer who was the manager appeared at his door with the young man to announce that the job had been filled.

Everyone was shocked and disappointed.  One of the men who had been the first to arrive and had waited the longest time asked with great indignation, "What did he say that landed him the job?  After all, he was the last one here." The manager answered in a calm manner, "It was nothing he said. All morning long I have been tapping out a message on my office window in Morse code. It was loud enough for all of you to hear. The message was this: 'If you can understand this message, come on in. You're hired.' All of you heard the noise. He was the only one who listened to the message."

Listening is a simple task but we make it very complicated.  Here are some ways to improve our listening.  What actions can you add to the list?

·        Don’t think the other person doesn’t understand.  The problem may reside inside us. 

·        Ask for clarifications don’t be too eager to respond. You may have transformed the comment into something you would have said.

·        State in your own words what you think you heard the other person say. 

·        Have courage, listening takes nerve.

The Bethlehem Baker

On Sunday, January 1, 2012, Dr. Andrew D. Scrimgeour, Dean of Libraries at Drew University, Madison, NJ, will read one of his Christmas stories, "The Bethlehem Baker," at the First United Methodist Church, 23 Willow Street, Mystic, CT 06355.  All are invited. 

He has been writing Christmas stories for some time.  Most recently, December 23, 2010, one of his Christmas stories, “A String of Bulbs Was Our Guiding Star” appeared in the New York Times.  He will be reading for us another one of his stories entitled “The Bethlehem Baker.” 

      You will not want to miss this reading.  So go to bed early enough on New Year’s Eve or stay up all night and straggle into the church, but do not miss this opportunity!

EUGENE A. NIDA

EUGENE A. NIDA (1914-2011)

Celebrating the life of a distinguished linguist and translator may seem trivial to some people.  Today in New York City Eugene Nida's life will be celebrated.  He was born November 11, 1914 and died August 25, 2011. In an ever more complex, connected world there may be no more important task than translation. 

The United States is only beginning to feel the enormity of the issue of translation since English is such a dominate language throughout the world.  Many Americans think of translation as a bit of a nuisance and expense.  Nuisance in that if people are going to come to America they need to learn English.  Expense in that schools (among many private and public entities) need to deal with communicating to people who do not know Englsih well (the Los Angeles Public Schools have over 250 languages spoken by children attending their schools).  It takes money to teach those kids and translation is a very important part of the process.

Nida (pronounced NAY-duh) was a pioneer both in the theory of translation and in preparing people to be translators.  He is responsible for what is called dynamic equivalence translation.  He thought that it was as important to be faithful to the original language and text as it was to make sure the people for whom the translation was being made clearly understood the original.  Merely assuming that a word used in one langage and possible at a different time (as in the translation of ancient texts such as the Bible) is always and in every place to be translated with the same word is not to understand the denotative and connotative elements in languages.   

As reported in one article Nida translated the simple phrase "I am sorrowful" in a variety of ways in one small area in Africa with different languages.  Given the cultural and linguistic differences among those several groups the phrase was translated into what when translated back into English were " my eye is black," "my heart is rotten," "my stomach is heavy," and "my liver is sick." 

The simple solution of saying that translation is merely taking one word in the original language and translating it into one word in the target language often misses the goal of translation, namely to communicate accurately and efficiently one idea/word into another's language's and culture's idea/word.  Translation is not merely finding the right words but understanding at least two cultures.