Friday, August 19, 2005
FENCE SITTERS Sitting astride most fences can never be comfortable. Neither humans or fences are made for that so they sag under sheer weight or boards pop off which wave the wind. The sitter never finds out what is in either field. Curiosity alone should help overcome such wasted time “on the fence”, on any “in- between” islands, or temporary havens of hesitation. Get off of your fence; get your feet on solid ground and start to enjoy work or play in either field. Not being able to make a choice; to openly state your true feelings , is a common condition, too. You might be fence sitting in more places than you know about. It is often found to be acceptable in political life and many of us insist that the “secret ballot” concept makes it valid. Rest assured that the candidate you favor suffers – may even lose his or her political battle - because you, and voters like you, did not speak out “loud and clear” to support them. Verbal support - taking sides - is more and more important in our political sphere. Fence sitters just sit and look and often wish they were somewhere else. They do nothing whatever to improve or modify conditions in anything to any of the fields and forests on either side of their secure perch. We see people torture themselves in health situations for days, weeks, even month as they stubbornly refuse to seek a medical doctor's help. For a while, Time is on our side but that fades quickly with senseless delay. Major among all such points is for the “patient” or “subject” to freely admit he or she needs such a change. You can say: “I am...” then , if you will simple come down from your deceptive roost and face reality can make it: “I can be....” A L.M. August 19, 2005 [c316wds]
Thursday, August 18, 2005
MY MIDDLE NAME One of our grand daughters - Katie McCaskey - who an active, oncoming artist and designer currently a Graduate Student at NYU, wrote to me asking about my rather unusual middle name. It is written as “Loeffert” but said as “Leffert”. So Katie was correct in assuming that an umlout is properly used over the initial “o.” (That's two dots over certain letters in Teutonic writings. Those two dots tell the reader that the next upcoming vowel is to be pronounced with it as an “e” as in “eh”. I can remember being puzzled about all that as small child. It was “different”, so I insisted on using it when I wrote or printed my full name. I stopped using it when a smart aleck classmate started calling me “Umlout” out loud. The exact date of the first arrival of this Loeffert group is not, as yet, known but we do have authentic birth certificate attesting to the arrival of John( Johann) George Loeffert at a house on Madison Avenue, in Pittsburgh, Pa. He had brother named Henry and a sister, Emma Loeffert who married a Reise. John, my grandfather, - a musician at heart – a “bandsman” – accepted tradition and stayed with his father's trade as a carpenter. John married my grandmother - Ida Armanda Lenz. A quick glance at eleven year old Henry Lentz and a younger boy thought to have been a brother, were on a small, wooden ship for ninety days in passage from Darmstadt, Hessen, Germany. He, like the Loeffert boys and others were escaping military drafts which demanded that all twelve year old males standing and breathing be in the army. Thanks for writing, Katie. I think it is a good thing for us to look back now and then and try to understand some things about life in the olden days No, I don't know what the word “Loeffert” might have meant. I don't know enough German to delve into such inviting depths but I have always had a feeling it is occupational in nature, possibly stemming from old guild organizations of the 12th Century of so. It might stem from a woodcraft or forestry concern. A.L.M. August 18, 2005 [c373wds]
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
CRY UNCLE!
Year ago when we, as boys, engaged in quasi-mortal combat we made occasional use of an expression which was available to us from adult thinking of that era, which enabled us to “give up”, “quit” or “stop fighting” without being considered as having been ”chicken”. If a combat loser felt he was in such a desperate moment, he could always cry out the word : ”Uncle!” Just exactly who or what this body-saving entity might have been I have not the slightest idea, but I do remember the magic word working at the extreme moment in which victim was flat on his back being physically choked by a bully seated on his chest. When those gathered nearby hear that whispered gasp: “Uncle!”he witnessed the muscular assailant relaxed and released his grasp on the victim's throat. I sat up. I breathed deeply and he stepped away as he bystanders made a path ready for him telling all: “He said Uncle!” I had to show him who is boss around here – which he ain't He said 'Uncle!” We need something like that today. It is needed in “combat areas” around the country and the troubled world as well. I have no trouble at all in accepting WAL-MART's “Always!” but I do find it difficult with the television networks who seem to be determined to celebrate “Aruba Forever” with continual delving, detailing and dredging into the Natalee Holloway case. Enough! Uncle! Uncle! A.L.M. August 17, 2005 [c253wds]
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
WHAT'S NEXT? We are in a phase so often of late in which we wonder what may possibly happen next? We should not expect to see speedy solutions of such problems. This morning I have heard much comment pro, con and non-committal, concerning the national constitution the leaders of Iraq are supposed to come up with this week. We forget that we are fairly young as nations go and that it has not been too long when we, too, were in such a waiting period. As I recall my version of our history lessons, it took some time to get the colonies to agree to discuss such matters, and even longer for them to approve such a document once basic principles had been written down. It took time for the participants to decide what was good and what was not suited to their common needs. And, if we think our constitution came into being as a fully blown bloom you are dreaming. It did not come off the presses all finished with all “t's” crossed or jotted and all “I's” and “j's” properly tittled .Why do you think those twenty-one plus amendments had to be appended? They are added to patch up the holes in the original documents statements or to give meaning to new concepts generated though living by democratic principles and beliefs. The people of Iraq, so long without any mode of self-expression will now have a state document which assures that each of them has equal rights. The words of the document are a guide by which they may keep it that way it that way and the exact words are not something to be rushed or faked. Even if they happen to have another Thomas Jefferson at hand to dash off a finished document it will still have to be put to the tests of time, trials, and tests unknowable. A. L. M. August 17, 2005 [c330wds]
Monday, August 15, 2005
AND MORE OF SPAIN... In 1561, when Pedro Menendez de Avila sailed into a broad bay on the coast of Florida and north of his temporary home port of Havana to the south, he named the spacious body of water “Bahia de Santa Maria”. The bay retained that name for over half a century until in 1607 the English started Jamestown settlement several miles up Powhatan’s River and came to accept the Indian name for the wide waters. They called it the “Chesapeake” meaning “great shellfish bay” which was that to them, has been to us for a time and can be again if we take proper care of that which remains. During that 1561 trip, Menendez was able to, either from force or persuasion, to convince the seventeen-year-old son of an Indian chief of the Chiskiak tribe on the York River to go back to Spain with him. His name was Paquiquino. . The two visitors were ”exhibited” to the Royal Family of Spain and to the best society of the land. Menendez used the twosome to help raise fund as backing for future exploration trips and the two Indians absorbed a great deal of European culture. They were taken to Mexico,, as well,for additional training and from that point on only Paquiquino/Don Lois is mentioned in the story. The Spanish made another attempt to establish a footing in the area. They sent in a group of twelve Jesuit priests and one, small boy. They depended on Paquiquino to supply when they had traded away all heir tools and other equipment. It was a famine year and Paquiquino refused He had decided to return to his tribal ways. He had moved to a new village and had, according to local custom, which did not set well with the needy Jesuits. No one knows, of course what pushed the Indian leader to such an extreme, but he followed those begging food of him and killed them – all except the young boy. Less than a year later a Spanish ship which happened to pass by learned of the boy being held captive decided to rescue him and avenge the deaths of the twelve priests a year earlier. They attacked the village and killed forty natives including seven whom they hanged from the rigging of their ship in full view of the natives watching from the shore. As a result of this incident in the York river district natives had a rather warped idea of how Europeans might be expected to act. There can be little doubt it affected he way in which Indians greeted arrivals of 1607 or later. The Indian lad Paquiquino may well have left another heritage to us. Chief Powhatan had an organized Confederation made up of thirty-two rather weak family-tribe units brought together to be strong and meaningful. One wonder if he had discussed organization with a nearby Virginian who had observed European politics for nine years or so. A.L.M. August 15,2005. [504wds]
Sunday, August 14, 2005
OUR SPANISH BACKGOUND We, here in the Commonwealth of Virginia, have for so long, been schooled in our complex English heritage that we have overlooked the natural interest the Spanish explorers and adventurers must have had in this area of the Atlantic rim. It appears they investigated just about all of the world known to Man at that time - some really strange areas. They have been taken by surprise when they found that it was the far off, inland areas of South America - Peru and other Andean mountain nations- which held the wealth of which they dreamed. It proved to be even greater than they had anticipated. Small wonder then, that the Spanish efforts at exploration avoided the coast of the new world to the north and west of the area and aimed, instead, for the high, inland wilderness where, they hoped, perhaps, even greater wealth awaited them. They were bit too early for Sutler's Mill and the Klondike and other such northwesterly gold and silver strikes, but their plan was a sensible one in many ways. There could have been some hesitation , of course, about getting involved in the north because England and France had shown aggressive interest in that area beyond fishing attractions off Newfoundland. The need for some type of Spanish base on the east coast grew as their ships began to carry more and more shipments of gold from the Andean mountains as well as elaborate gold pieces. Those treasure laden ships became the main targets for numerous government sponsored privateers - their semi-legal next-of-kin. They preyed upon the gold-moving caravans of the high seas with militant exactitude. Privateers, of course, had to share their ill-gotten gains. Noted pirates came to both fame and fortune along this golden opportunity offered by the Spanish galleons along this route within easy sailing of havens of escape along the coasts what would become North Carolina, Cape Hattress and the Chesapeake Bay. Which they called by the Danish name “Bahia de Santa Maria”. (To be continued) A.L.M. August 13, 2005 [c352wds]
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