Welcome to my first blog – initially written for my staff newsletter in Jan. 2022. The great feeling of accomplishment I felt in writing it spurred me on to start this blog. It is a good reflection of my writing style and my thought meanderings. I hope others find this as enjoyable as I did writing it. (I did make some edits and based on a suggestion, I will have a rhino reference in this and all future posted blogs)
Breaks
Break – a word that can have very positive and equally negative meanings. A Rhino break out could be the result of the world conforming to everyone becoming a rhinoceros (see the Ionesco play for context). Taking a walk with my dog Midas in January I slipped on the ice and broke my fall with my right hand, resulting in a break to my wrist (and a torn ligament). Since this occurred the week before a planned break to Hilton Head for a week of golf, I had to break-off that idea and instead spend the week with various doctors and radiologists and surgeons. In a lucky break, my break, as described by the orthopedic doctor, is a “trivial” break. In a not so lucky break the torn ligament resulted in surgery and 4-6 months of recovery.
Several years back I was able to take a break to Memphis TN and went to view a place of broken history – the hotel balcony where Martin Luther King was assassinated. It was perhaps most stunning in its normalcy and mundaneness that still struck a broken chord in me for the breaking of hope and dreams that resulted from one man’s horrible actions against another.
During a break from a conference in Montgomery AL, I visited the Rosa Parks Museum where only two other people were there – a grandfather and grandson. I was honored by the unbrokenness of the grandfather as he pointed to a picture and explained to his grandson that was him as part of the fight against the life and soul breaking horrors of racism. I felt so honored to be standing in that spot at that time and have an unbroken view of a sacred moment across generations.
My personal history growing up was one of privilege and, quite honestly, the all too typical ingrained racism of 60’s middle class white suburbia. I, therefore, have only a fractional understanding of all that Dr. King, the grandfather at the museum and so many others were and are fighting for and against. But, as I watched a film, Mangrove (Steve McQueen), about a racial incident / crisis in England, I felt so much anger against the built-in attitude that based judgements and actions on skin color and/or ethnic background. My hope is that we use the positive connotations of the word and truly break these patterns and regard each of us first in the best and positive ways and allow the differences we have define our greatness as a whole and not our weaknesses as broken parts.
Rhino Ramblings 