Postcards and Bagels

 

Postcards. When you go on vacation, do you send them? Do you enjoy receiving them? Has their meaning changed over the years? Now that anyone can go online and enjoy vistas from far away places, does the shiny image of the Statue of Liberty or the Eiffel towel have the same impact?

I’m inclined to believe that the relationship you have with the person who sent you the card has become far more important.

Last week this postcard image popped up on BlueSky. I did not know there were Columbia postcards.

Image from BlueSky account postcardbot, this card sent by Ann from Southern, Maryland, U.S.A. on December 20, 1994.

Text on the reverse: 

Columbia, Maryland

Completed in 1967, Columbia was one of the the first of the modern planned cities. Designed by the Rouse Co., the city was termed a "garden for the growing of people." In the foreground is Lake Kittamaqundi; the background, office buildings and Columbia Mall.

Does any word there leap out at you? Read the blurb again.

“Completed.”

I’m not sure what word would have been exactly right, but “completed” is not it. I think of 1967 as much more of a birth year than a completion. We could safely say that Columbia was “something-something” in 1967 and people have pretty much been arguing about it every since.

No, that’s not right either. I’ve only been here since 1999 and I can’t possibly speak accurately about life here before that. Research, yes. Learn, yes. Speak authoritatively - - no.

I think we can safely say that 1) the New American City drew unto itself people with plenty of opinions and 2) it was not completed in 1967. This may be a question for the Columbia Maryland Archives.

What do you think? 

*****

People are buzzing online about the new bagel place on Broken Land. Have you heard? It’s called 

Über Bagels and it looks to me as though they originated in Ocean City. On Friday my husband drove me to a doctor’s appointment in Glen Burnie and I asked him if we could get some breakfast on the way home. 

“How about a bagel?” he asked me. He grabbed his phone and started looking for something.

And that’s how I ended up at Uber Bagels on their opening day, no less. I was worried that it might be too crowded. My husband talked me into it with these words:

“You might get a blog post out of it…”

It was not too crowded. The bagel was tasty. We will be back. 

Have a great Monday.

Village Green/Town² Comments 

Think, Play, Tinker, Celebrate

 

Today is one of the coolest events of the year and it’s free.

Downtown Columbia Maker Faire , Merriweather Park at Symphony Woods, 12  - 4 pm.

I’m not recovered enough yet from surgery so I can’t be there but I hope you will go. If you are as intrigued as I am by this quirky and wondrous celebration of creativity, tinkering, and just plain fun - - don’t miss it! 

It’s more than just looking at things. It’s a very open-ended, hands-on experience. So, if you have kids, or you happen to be someone like me…Maker Faire is for you. And there are plenty of well-cared for trees in The Park so you will have shade if you need it. 

Tickets are free but you must pre-register so they know how many people to expect and how to manage the parking logistics.

Downtown Columbia Maker Faire Registration 

From the event page:

Maker Faire is a gathering of fascinating, curious people who enjoy learning, creating, and love sharing what they can do. From engineers to artists to scientists to crafters, Maker Faire is a venue to show off hobbies, experiments, projects, and careers.

The Inner Arbor Trust is happy to bring this fun, educational, and creative family friendly event back to Merriweather Park in Symphony Woods, right in the heart of Downtown Columbia, MD!

Join us for family friendly workshops, demonstrations, and presentations on painting, sculpting, robotics, digital art, and so much more!

Curious about what kinds of things you’ll see? 

Makers and Exhibits

I want to tell you that food and drink will be available for purchase but, as of this moment, I can’t find a link for that. Will update as soon as I nail that down. And here it is!

Last year I fell in love with this guy and started following him on Instagram. You never know who you’ll meet at the Maker Faire.

I am putting it out there to the universe that it is my wish to be at next year’s Maker Faire as an actual maker. You heard it here first. 

If you do go, and you’re the kind of person who likes to take photographs, send them my way or post them on social media so I can enjoy it vicariously.

Village Green/Town² Comments

This Is What Changed Me

 

Fear. Everyone has it. Here are my top three fears from my early childhood:

• Being forced to participate in gymnastics activities in PE class.
• Going for car rides after dark with my family.
• Old, wrinkled, dusty balloons.

My top three today look different:

• Having my Social Security cut off.
• What the future holds for my children.
• Unremediated pain or asthma

But I’m not here today to talk about what I’m afraid of. I here to talk about what I am not afraid of. 

I am not afraid of Zohran Mamdani. 

There are a lot of folks out there telling me I should be, but: I’m not. I spent some time on Thursday investigating my feelings about this and I realized I have been blessed by something that a lot of people haven’t: I have a Muslim friend. 

I’m not saying: I can’t be Islamophobic because I have a Muslim friend. That’s not a claim I could fairly make because I was raised swimming in white culture and I make mistakes all the time. I am saying that I look at this candidate for mayor, read about his proposed polices, his professional background, and not for one moment does the fact that he doesn’t look like me or share my religious beliefs evoke any fear inside of me.

The fact that I have a Muslim friend is largely due to her persistence. In general I’m a very shy and insecure person and it’s hard for me to believe someone would want to be my friend. It’s far, far easier to crawl back in one’s shell than to keep moving forward and see what happens. What if I fail somehow? What if something bad happens?

And yet, here we are. Hopefully I’m getting better at it.

When you decide you are going to keep moving forward with someone in friendship, you learn things. You learn what you agree and disagree on. You share the stories that made you who you are today. You discover the rough places where you will need to negotiate or apologize. You learn the deep joy of acceptance and support.

These days I have begun to realize that so many hateful responses to things on social media could truly be replaced with the words “I don’t understand.” Whether it’s LGBTQIA rights, social justice, fair housing, or a new community initiative, when trolls come out of the woodwork what they are are betraying more than anything else is that they don't understand.

And, somewhere along the line, they have been taught that the natural thing to do in those circumstances is this:

• I don’t understand and I am afraid.
• I don’t understand and I mock this.
• I don’t understand and I reject this.
• I don’t understand and I must destroy this.

The opportunities we have in life to move beyond that can come at school, in libraries and in neighborhoods where not everyone is like us. Have you noticed that those are the precisely the places that are under attack right now?

Any place where it is safe to say “I don’t understand” and then be welcomed to learn what you need to know to understand is a place where bridges of empathy can be built. That is why Social Emotional Learning is so important. That is why the Arts and Humanities are so important.

We all have fear. We all have things we don’t understand. It can wreck us, or it can invite us into a different place. A better place. Not perfect, and not without fear, but a place where we have more of the tools to be fully human.

What changed me? Having a friend.

******

nota bene

If anyone comes back at me after reading this to lecture me about what’s wrong with the candidate from New York I will know that they really, really didn’t understand.

Back to Work

 

Good morning, beautiful people. It has been oh, so therapeutic to talk to you about my life for the past few days. But now I think I should try to get back to work. 

****

Elections. We haz ‘em. If you haven’t noticed, the magic alarm clock that indicates the next election cycle has sounded. People are “declaring.” There’s some preliminary info on that over at The Merriweather Post Blog, along with commentary if you are interested. 

So far I’m noticing candidates for County Executive, County Council, and State Delegate. Have I missed anything?

Here’s my question. How do you feel about these upcoming local elections? What are you looking for? What issues are the most important to you? 

Are there qualities of the public servants we have now that you truly value and you’d like to see more of? Are there things you really wanted out of the last election and they didn’t materialize? 

I will make an embarrassing confession here: one of the things I dearly wanted out of the last local go-round was for the different factions of the Democratic Party to make peace and work collaboratively with each other. What can I say? I’m a sap. 

The possibility exists that they could have come together in a group hug and committed to loving one another and then gone forward to govern terribly. I’m not sure my wish was a fair or realistic one. You work with the people you have. If that doesn’t work, you try again.

Many of my friends are extremely informed about local politics but I’d like to be clear that I’m asking these questions of anyone who is reading this piece. Think about it. Ask your friends. There’s no perspective to be gained by asking the ten people I know already. 

If you don’t feel comfortable sharing your opinions publicly, feel free to message me through the blog. 

There’s only two groups I’m not particularly interested in hearing from: people who don’t live here and people who are running. Of course everyone is valuable but you aren’t my target audience for this. Bear with me.

As always, if I get enough response I will write a follow-up piece. 

Before I go, one thing: The Doubletree on Twin Knolls has great breakfast coffee. They may have to kick me out. 

Village Green/Town² Comments 

The Cool Kids Redux

First things first: thank you. Thanks to everyone who reached out yesterday, who helped yesterday, who offered words of advice and encouragement. You truly helped carry me/us through. A special thank you to Howard County Constituent Services, most especially Paul Thompson, who managed to listen with empathy and make me feel as though I was the Queen of England at the same time.

There are other folks who went above and beyond but I don’t know if I have permission to name them, so: if you are reading this: thank you. I sincerely hope you know who you are. 

A special shout-out to the friend who taught me the magic words: I would like to escalate this to a manager. 

A quick update: I am eating breakfast at the Doubletree which, if you know where I live, is almost like walking down the street to stay with Grandma. We finally got authorization for emergency housing late yesterday afternoon. It turns out the delay in getting help from our insurance company was that someone at Liberty Mutual was sure we lived in Columbia, South Carolina.

At least, that’s their story and we’re not going to quibble now that we are finally getting somewhere. 

By the end of the day all of the appointments were set and dates finalized to assess damage, clear away debris, etc etc etc. Insurance seems to think it will take a week. I do not, but I have the advantage of having seen it. We shall see.

But we are safe and have somewhere to be and I am content.

Now, about the Cool Kids. The Cool Kids appeared rather regularly in the blog during its earlier years. I guess you could say they are the spectre of the popular kids in high school you can never seem to emulate successfully. Think of that, but on a local scale. 

I was forever dogged by the feeling that I was never going be one of the folks who was invited to restaurant openings, received preferential seating at public events, whose blog was mentioned in the Columbia Flier, etc, etc, whose photo was taken with the Important People. 

Over time I realized that what I was envisioning was not even really what I wanted and that the most important thing to me was for people to value my writing. The only way to achieve that was to keep writing and to push myself to get better. Period. 

Yesterday was a huge lesson for me. As the day went on I realized that every single person I reached out to made time for me right that very minute. Everyone listened, connected me with help, gave valuable advice that helped everything else in our day make more sense. 

While I wouldn’t recommend having your ceiling fall in as a way of finding out one of life’s great lessons, the fact is you don’t get to choose when they come your way. No, I won’t ever be one of the Cool Kids, but the validation I received from my community yesterday was something that mattered far, far more to me. 

It was there all along. I just didn’t see it.

The past few days have been rough. But each of them had moments of sweetness, humor, and deep gratitude. And, although he’ll probably squirm a bit to see this in print: my husband is a prince. There are times you are overwhelmed by how right a choice you made to spend your life with someone. I am blessed. 

Village Green/Town² Comments 

TMI

 

 

On a painfully hot Monday afternoon Mr. Howard County Teacher lay down to take a nap after a morning of music curriculum writing. As he drifted off he thought he noticed a crack on the ceiling. When he awoke it looked as though the crack was getting bigger. That’s when he heard the crackling noises.

Alarmed, he grabbed his phone and sprang from the bed as the seam connecting the sheets of drywall opened up and pieces began to fall. He ran downstairs. His wife, Mrs. Retired Teacher, sat in the recliner recovering from recent abdominal surgery. She could tell from the look on his face that something was not good.

As he recounted the series of events they heard a heavy thump. A big chunk of their bedroom ceiling was now on their bed. 

Telephone calls were made. A report to insurance was filed. The insurance company requested more photos which is how Mr. Howard County Teacher happened to be in the bedroom when the rest of the ceiling collapsed. He escaped, as they say, with minor cuts and bruises. Everything in their bedroom was now covered in pieces of drywall and insulation.

On the advice of a family friend, who is a professional contractor, they spent the night in the first floor of their small Columbia quad plex. Mrs. Teacher lucked out and got the sofa. Mr. Teacher had a rough night in the La-z-boy recliner.

It is safe to say that:

1. There was no sign of a leak or anything leading up to this event which would have indicated a possible cause. 

2. Neither Mr. or Mrs. Teacher have undergone any kind of previous life experience that would prepare them to handle this. 

Wait, here comes:

 3. The primary bedroom is the one room in their house which is completely and thoroughly a total mess because they were planning on working on it over Mr. Teacher’s summer vacation. 

Sorry, one more thing: 

4. Mrs. Teacher has severe asthma so probably won’t be able to help in remediating the mess.

Did I mention she is also recovering from abdominal surgery?

Mr. And Mrs. Teacher are both inherently shy people who hate to trouble anyone and actively go out of their way to avoid asking for help. I suspect they may need some help this time, though they are too dazed at the moment to figure out where to start. 

*****

Dear friends, 

Yesterday was a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. I fear that, for the first time ever, it will be necessary for me to say in a very public way: 

Help. We need help. 

Mr. Teacher is now asleep on the couch and doesn’t know I am writing this. So be it. I can’t help clean and I can’t lift heavy objects but I can write. 

If you have been through a similar situation and have pointers I am all ears. This is not the summer vacation that Mr. Teacher and I have been looking forward to. 

The tagline for this blog is: Where Columbia and Howard County Intersect. Yesterday my life suddenly became all about the place where our ceiling and bed intersect. It’s going to be a long, long day.

Village Green/Town² Comments 

Seven Years

 

The original date on this post is June 22, 2018. I’m sure that not everything I have written has aged well. This, on the other hand, has become even more true. - - jam

*****

Proactive 

Leadership looks forward. It is proactive, not reactive.

After the hateful rhetoric of the 2016 presidential election there were some very wise people who read the signs and saw what was coming. All those hate filled rallies on the campaign trail had everything to do with demonizing brown people at the border. Any border, any brown people.

Locally in Howard County there were many who didn’t take the proposal of CB9 seriously. They accused its proponents of nothing more than petty politics. There was no danger. We were doing just fine the way we were.

I wonder if any of them knew what was coming? ICE agents searching Greyhound buses demanding papers? Children separated from parents without plans for return? Travelers refused entry because of their religion? Maybe some did, and that’s exactly what they wanted.

But I’m guessing that some just didn’t think that could happen. They didn’t connect the dots from the campaign speeches to policy after policy designed to demean, discriminate, and deny basic human rights. They shrugged if off as an over exaggeration, fear-mongering.

It wasn’t.

Around the County there are still plenty of folks who think it would be wise to tar and feather (metaphorically speaking, of course) any public servant who supported CB9. They want to use it as a way to frighten the base. And perhaps they think that there is shame merely in its failure to pass.

Over the last week I hope that at least some people have gotten the point that acknowledging the universality of basic human rights is every bit as much a local issue as a national or international one.

There is no shame in looking forward, in being proactive. The shame comes from ignoring what is right in front of you and refusing to take action. Then the only course left to you is reaction.

That’s not leadership. And that makes none of us safer. We who live in Howard County must still grapple with our responsibility in responding to over-reaching policies from the current administration that threaten the very foundation of our cherished democracy.

Think it’s just politics? Think again.