The Quiz

I am the product of many things including twelve years of parochial school and, yes, four years at a Jesuit college.  The headline "Basic Religion Test Stumps Many Americans" grabbed me because the last time I took a religion quiz was, well, quite a few moons ago.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/us/28religion.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=homepage

The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life surveyed 3,412 Americans on a myriad of basic facts about a variety of religions and the results, as evidenced in the New York Times headline, were not impressive.  Laurie Goodstein of the Times writes, "On average, people who took the survey answered half the questions incorrectly, and many flubbed even questions about their own faith."  Mystifying? Well, knowing the essential facts about any organization in which we are members seems like an innocuous expectation. But is it required?  Does one's membership in an organized religion carry this presumption? 

It can be argued that if we are citizens of the world, basic knowledge about the variety of religions, especially those with huge numbers of followers, is a reasonable expectation. What intrigues me about the quiz is not knowing the facts, but how we interpret the results.   The Pew web site provides a detailed explanation about the survey they developed and the results. 

http://www.pewforum.org/Other-Beliefs-and-Practices/U-S-Religious-Knowledge-Survey.aspx

You can even take the fifteen question interactive quiz, which, of course, I did. http://features.pewforum.org/quiz/us-religious-knowledge/index.php 
Lastly, the complete questionnaire used in the study is also available on the web site.
http://www.pewforum.org/uploadedFiles/Topics/Belief_and_Practices/religious-knowledge-questionnaire.pdf

I think if someone is a member of a secular group, say the Lions Club or the YMCA, they may or may not know the nuts and bolts of the club's history but their membership is no less valid than the club's historian.  Religion, however, carries a certain "x" factor because the spirituality within religion translates personally to each believer. Does my relationship with whomever or whatever I behold as greater than myself rely on facts and figures?  I think not.  Yet, it is interesting to see how people fared because the group whose performance garnered the most correct answers was atheists.

The Times article asked Dave Silverman, president of American Atheists, his thoughts on the Pew Trust's findings. “I have heard many times that atheists know more about religion than religious people,” Mr. Silverman said. “Atheism is an effect of that knowledge, not a lack of knowledge. I gave a Bible to my daughter. That’s how you make atheists.” The Times article did not have comments from any leaders representing those groups whose correct answers put them in second and third place namely the Jews and Mormons.

The US population has topped the 300,000,000 mark - so a survey of less than 3,500 citizens paints with a fairly narrow brush.  The Times article also notes, "there were not enough Muslim, Buddhist or Hindu respondents to say how those groups ranked." Understanding the narrow scope of the results, I think it still makes for an interesting discussion. Whether or not one knows Mother Teresa was Roman Catholic (not a Hindu) working in a nation largely made up of Hindus does not undermine how one feels about the work she did.

I know what you're thinking - blah, blah, blah - how did I do in the surveys?  Well, the Times article has a mini version of the survey with six questions and I scored five out of six. The Pew Trust's fifteen question interactive survey on their website (the link is above) stumped me twice so I got thirteen out of fifteen.   More importantly, I thought alot about what is it that I value about religion? I think feeling grounded in something spiritual coats me in love.  I think the Beatles nailed it when they sang, "And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make."  Keep the quiz - I'll answer to love every time.

Heads Up!

I was recently walking on a college campus in the lingering warmth of a pre-dusk Indian summer evening and noticed how the edges of everything seemed to soften in the sun's late-day glow. The moment felt like neither summer nor autumn - it seemed to be the best of both seasons.  Students were emerging from their late day classes and I wondered if they noticed the glimmering sight in front of them as what Jon Stewart might characterize as a "moment of Zen." 

 

The first few people were walking briskly, heads down, texting.  Then a couple passed me, each talking on their respective phones, heads down.  Two coeds came next, heads down, texting and holding a conversation (the skill sets involved here impressed me mightily).  I began to count how many people I walked past who were on their phones and stopped at fourteen. No one - not one soul - was looking up.  Now the students were emerging from classes that run two-and-a half hours long so being incommunicado for that period of time has its drawbacks.  I understand that people were plugging back into their non-academic lives. I do the same thing. 

When we use the phrase "to give someone a heads up" it's a physical direction for a non-physical action.  It invokes the physical act of actually looking up and being aware but it is for something not at all physical.  Its counterpart -"heads down" - prompts me to recall first grade when my teacher would instruct us to rest our heads on our desks as sort of timeout. On that warm September evening I wanted to announce a heads up to all the heads down.  In the age of instant communication, are we ironically missing what is going on around us?


Last Saturday, when Delta Airlines Flight 4951 from Atlanta made an emergency landing at New York's Kennedy International Airport, two young passengers decided to video their view of the harrowing landing using their phones.  In that moment of "will we make or not?" the two men chose to be uber-aware of their surroundings and capture it with seemingly little regard to the possible outcome. On one of the videos, the flight attendant's persistent and commanding reiteration of "Heads Down! Stay Down!" made me almost want to comply with the direction as I sat at my desk watching. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMaps7aBI6E


For forty-five seconds the flight attendant barks that dual command fifteen times - yet the amateur videographer continues to secure the view from the jet window of the sparking wing as it scrapes the runway. As the plane successfully lands without incident and the cabin erupts into applause, I clapped along and then thought "what were these guys thinking?"  This is an awareness that boggles my mind!


In her Salon.com article, Mary Elizabeth Williams suggests the pair of twenty-somethings were simply following a generation's ingrained need to get the image.  She writes, "Perhaps part of the explanation for (their) choice is that they belong to a generation accustomed to regular self-documentation. There's an entire population that photographs and tweets whatever is on the dinner plate in front of them. A plane crash? That's considerably more interesting." http://www.salon.com/life/internet_culture/index.html?story=/mwt/feature/2010/09/28/delta_flight_4951_video

Are we ever, really living in the moment? When we are documenting the moment, does that diminish the experience even just a hair because we are thinking about how it will look or sound instead of being completely immersed in it?  Did the Delta passengers who had their heads down have the full experience of uncertainty as they considered a possible fiery landing while the passenger taking the video experienced a sliver of distraction in his need to get the images on his phone? In my final moments, do I want to be thinking of how this will possibly look to the folks at home?


When Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger miraculously landed his jetliner in New York City's Hudson River in January 2009, I don't recall seeing any videos taken from inside the plane. Having never (and hopefully will never) had the experience of a crash or near-crash landing, I can only speculate on the reasons why no one inside the aircraft taped a passenger's-eye view of the watery landing.  I feel certain all of those passengers were most definitely living in that moment. 

Twitter's website proclaims that its social networking and micro blogging service "is without a doubt the best way to share and discover what is happening right now." To somewhat paraphrase actress Betty White, I am not on 'The Twitter,' but the pull and tug of documenting what is "right now" keeps me guessing how we can be here and now if we are doing something that puts a sort of thin scrim between what is happening and recording it for posterity.

Kodak's tagline "Share Moments. Share Life." is one I have bought into for much of my life.  Taking photographs, keeping mementos, documenting the breadth of experiences with family and friends has been an activity I have happily embraced.  I wonder now, though, how much I may have missed because I was too busy capturing the moment?  Each 'miss' is probably slight but add up a lifetime of pointing and shooting images from innumerable moments and it gives me pause. 

Wartime photographers deal with this on such searingly dramatic level.  When faced with a situation in which human suffering screams for help and the photographer continues to capture the images, where is the line drawn between being in the moment and being a human being? 
 

My late summer stroll along a college campus walkway certainly did not bring up images of wartime photography, but it did raise the simpler question - are we replacing the experience of real moments with a seemingly insatiable appetite for documenting them?  Are we truly looking at what is right in front of us?  Heads up everyone-what do you see?

Hovering

My email box greets me daily with a few subscription-type notices.  One I particularly enjoy is the e-magazine from my daughter's college, titled BU Today.  It goes inside campus life, both academic and social, with small, detailed views of interesting happenings. It offers quick little bites making the large community more reachable (at least to me). Today's edition contained a video segment called "You Speak" showing students replying to the question: Do you have helicopter parents, and if so, what do they do to keep tabs on you?” http://www.bu.edu/today/node/11571

Predictably, the less than two minute video of brief responses offers a broad glimpse into some students' unvarnished opinions about the amount of parental contact they receive. Between texting, email, and phone calls, reaching out and touching is more like a knee jerk reaction than a planned date on the calendar. Instantaneous gratification - today we expect it and yet we have to harness it as our college age kids work without a net.  It makes me think - do I hover?  Is the fact that I subscribe to the e-magazine for daily updates from school indirect hovering?  Can you hear the whirring of the helicopter blades? 

It makes me chuckle to recall communication with home or friends while I was in college.  The pay phone (I think it was a touch-tone but perhaps a rotary phone) at the end of the dorm hallway was used to call the outside world.  It seems strangely out of touch to consider the unpredictable nature of making or receiving a call to or from home. When the phone rang, some student who happened to be walking by or whose room was nearest to the phone would answer, check the intended call recipient's dorm room and leave a message about the call on the dorm room white board. The pony express seems quicker. My parents couldn't hover even if they wanted to.  I wonder if they knew what a blessing those pay phones really were?

Sandy Hingston, Sr. Editor at Philadelphia Magazine, ends her ten year reign as the voice of the Loco Parentis column this month.  While she will continue her work at the magazine, the editor's column has been, to use a little old publishing terminology,  put to bed.  As her son heads off to his first year of college and her daughter continues with her study abroad, Sandy gives us one more very real, often humorous, always poignant look at her family life through her well polished parenting prism. 
http://www.phillymag.com/articles/loco_parentis_moving_day/ Readers feel as though they know her kids because, well, we've been reading about them for ten years - but thankfully not in a gnawing, endless boast.  She is direct, simple, easy. I wonder, does Sandy Hingston hover?  How well adjusted must her kids be to know that their knucklehead antics, successes, failures, are all fodder for the column? That's one question I would love to have answered. Sandy makes me feel good about my daily BU Today interest.  I love her style.

While visiting colleges a couple of years ago, I was struck by how many admissions office representatives included in their "tips for college" repertoire reminders that parents should not be contacting professors about their child's grades. At first, I smugly snickered at such a preposterous idea.  But I then thought about the simplicity of a school district's online grade book system that makes it easy to check my elementary, middle, and high school student's status regarding every class assignment, test, quiz, project - anytime.  Feeding parents at the banquet of up-to-date grade results probably has nurtured the sometimes ravenous need for academic information. It also explains the need to tell parents the days of talking to the teacher are over. 

I recall one mother in a room of several hundred parents of college freshman vehemently questioning the dean during orientation about the practice of all college communication going only to her child, including grades and financial information. Included in his delicately worded incisive reply, the dean reminded the parent that the college accepted the child, not the parent. The rotors on that helicopter were duly clipped!

The dearth of parenting advice regarding how much or how little attention children should receive overwhelms while it informs. It can be exhausting. In her ample article titled "All Joy, No Fun: Why Parents Hate Parenting," New York Magazine writer Jennifer Senior addresses how parents feel about the job of raising kids.  http://nymag.com/news/features/67024/  She notes, "Children may provide unrivaled moments of joy. But they also provide unrivaled moments of frustration, tedium, anxiety, heartbreak...This makes it perfectly clear why parenting may be regarded as less fun than having dinner with friends or baking a cake. Loving one’s children and loving the act of parenting are not the same thing." Parenting - it's not for sissies.  Transforming parental love from being a director into being a guiding light - now that is magic.

I have read my share of "Now that your child is going to college" type articles. If degrees were conferred for overzealous interest in a subject, I think I could state that I have achieved some credits toward a 'Masters of Science and Art in Letting Go" on my resume.

The science involves survival. It's the rational desire to give your child the tools they need to be in the world. 

The art, however,  involves more elusive efficiency.  It's the trust you feel that your child has access to both roots and wings on their everyday journey.  

Sandy Hingston says it best at her column's conclusion as she considers her children from afar. "They can’t quit me. They were inside me once. Now I’m inside them." 

Safe landing, helicopter pilots.     

Moonstruck

 

Once a year we are treated to a moonrise that outshines all others in drama and color- the harvest moon.  The "Hot Word"  section on Dictionary.com is something I like to check fairly often (geek alert) and it rarely disappoints.  The term harvest moon has an agricultural origin - it represents the additional moonlight the first full moon after the autumnal equinox provided farmers so they could continue to harvest crops after sunset. My favorite description of this moon is that of a celestial pumpkin.  http://hotword.dictionary.com/harvest-moon/

The Franklin Institute's Chief Astronomer (and stargazer extraordinaire) Derek Pitts reminds us that some planets are also in clear view during this moon phase, specifically Jupiter's dark spot is visible. 

http://whyy.org/cms/news/category/health-science/skytalk

While I defer to an astronomer (and dictionary)  to explain the logic of this event, I leave the heart of it where I am most comfortable - with a poet. Enjoy the sky show.

Under the Harvest Moon

by Carl Sandburg

When the soft silver
Drips shimmering
Over the garden nights,
Death, the gray mocker,
Comes and whispers to you
As a beautiful friend
Who remembers.

Under the summer roses
When the flagrant crimson
Lurks in the dusk
Of the wild red leaves,
Love, with little hands,
Comes and touches you
With a thousand memories,
And asks you
Beautiful, unanswerable questions.

Words Worth Saving

Save the whales!
Save the redwoods!
Save the languages!  Say what??? The languages?

Of the 7,000 known languages in the world, one dies every two weeks, according to the National Geographic Society Enduring Voices project.  The languages most at risk are those of indigenous people where "word of mouth" is truly the only form of communication.  No text. No dictionary. No written record.  If the voices are not alive to speak it, the language dies. So how is this tracked?  There is no fancy footwork or cutting edge technology involved in this process - it is about as meat and potatoes as it gets - specialists go out into the field and visit with the people who speak the endangered languages.  I love that.

National Geographic Society, in conjunction with the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages funds the project in which linguists travel the world to identify and help rescue (and by rescue they mean create detailed records)  indigenous languages before their last speaker dies. David Harrison, an associate professor of linguistics at Swarthmore College, is one of the Living Tongues Institute members identifying and recording languages. Someone from our own backyard is doing this work.  I love that even more!
 http://www.nationalgeographic.com/mission/enduringvoices/about-the-project.html

A nifty interactive world map on the Society website highlights where the most endangered languages are located and the severity of their going extinct.  http://www.nationalgeographic.com/mission/enduringvoices/

The death of a language's last speaker is not the only way a language becomes defunct. Another way  is when it is absorbed into a more dominant one.  This somewhat Darwinian pattern ironically occurs through the youngest members of a culture. The areas most prone to losing their indigenous languages are located along historic migration routes or have been colonized, says Gregory Anderson, director of the Living Tongues Institute. As the children consider a "colonial" language (languages such as Spanish, English and Russian) as more current or "better" than their native tongue, they move toward that language and away from their roots. It seems kids wanting to sit at the perceived 'cool kids table' of languages has a universal appeal no matter where you live and what you speak.

This brings to mind the many families who speak one language at home and another in school or at work.  Children of immigrant families are uniquely placed in this arena as they attend schools where English is the instructional language but live in homes where their native tongue is only spoken. While this does not necessarily result in the death of a language, there is some sort of sublimation going on. Children are navigating two worlds and expected to satisfy both, all while addressing a myriad of social and emotional changes.  It is humbling to consider the energy it takes to satisfy all those masters. 

In 2006, Joey Vento, owner of the famed Geno's cheesesteak in Philadelphia, became a lightening rod in a hot language debate when he hung a sign on the window of his business.  It read:  "This is America. When ordering please speak English."  Two years later the Philadelphia Human Relations Commission found the sign and the sentiment did not discriminate and therefore did not violate the city's fair practices ordinance.  Vento's little sign opened up a raucous debate between those who ardently believe that English is the sole  language of the US therefore everyone should speak it and those who feel our diversity is a national hallmark so using other languages alongside English is quintessentially American.  Language wasn't dying in this instance but Vento's sign pried open the fear of some citizens that the English language was being buried under the weight of non-English languages and  Philadelphia joined the controversy that boils in Florida and California.

I don't care about Vento's intention when he hung that famed sign four years ago; what I do care about is the conversation that surfaced about language and who, if anyone, owns the right to it.  Are some English speaking citizens afraid of losing their American identity by demanding that only English be spoken? And can the same be asked regarding Spanish speaking citizens - are they afraid of losing their cultural identity by insisting Spanish be an option?  Is there room for everyone in this conversation?  My immigrant grandparents  first arrived in Philadelphia from Sicily in the early 20th century. They conversed only in Italian and when my dad walked into his first grade class and spoke only in Italian, he was laughed at by his classmates. He complained to his parents, who, in turn, insisted he learn English in school even though they continued to speak Italian.  My dad straddled that familiar line of speaking one language at home and another in the world outside home. He adapted. His parents, however, complied in a very limited way.  There was room for both.

Now imagine the pressure on indigenous speakers and what they face in the way of losing the one thing that unites them as a culture - language specific to their lives. In a NYTimes article titled Languages Die, But Not Their Last Words, John Wilford explained that the Living Tongues researchers focused on distinct oral languages, not dialects. "They interviewed and made recordings of the few remaining speakers of a language and collected basic word lists. The individual projects, some lasting three to four years, involved hundreds of hours of recording speech, developing grammars and preparing children’s readers in the obscure language. The research has concentrated on preserving entire language families."  http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/19/science/19language.html?_r=1

The fact that this work is being done at all speaks loudly about the value of context and origin within any language. It also places value on the people who use it.  It tells the world, this matters because this is how we communicate with one another.  Who is to say one language is more important than another?  Is it easily quantifiable? It pleases me greatly to read about the linguists' work in the Enduring Voices project because it tells me in a world where too much volume is often given to the loudest voices that are in no danger of extinction, attention is being focused on capturing the subtle voices which are teetering on the brink of becoming obsolete.  Small steps in a diverse world.

I remember....

Memory is to aging what summer vacation is to my daughter – fleeting. Determining whether or not I have a good memory is something that stymies me as I get older. Did I remember to turn off the cook top? Did I shut the garage door? Do I remember the name of that woman who is smiling as she approaches me? We are bombarded daily with opportunities to remember or forget information. I jokingly toss out the throwaway line “I can barely recall wheat I had for breakfast” when I flippantly want to brush-off forgetfulness, but it is a tiny bit arrogant to treat memory this tritely. Those diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease hear the daily drumbeat of the ceaseless loss of brain cells and do not have the luxury of responding casually about it. Mental control oozes away thoughtlessly.

The well worn axiom that differentiates someone who has Alzheimer’s from someone who is forgetful - i.e. it’s not forgetting where you put the car keys, but forgetting what the keys are used for - gives momentary relief to some as we wonder about the possibility of the disease striking us.

A front page article by Gina Kolata (her name makes me think of Pina Colada!) in the 8/29/10 New York Times, titled Years Later, No Magic Bullet Against Alzheimer’s details the recent findings from an National Institutes of Health “science court” assembled to hear evidence from numerous research studies regarding what is believed to cause, prevent, and affect the onset of this cruel, mind crushing disease. The court's findings are gravely disillusioning – no one knows the answers.
 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/health/research/29prevent.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=no%20magic%20bullet%20against%20alzheimer's&st=cse

Ms. Kolata cites the panel results, “Currently, no evidence of even moderate scientific quality exists to support the association of any modifiable factor (such as nutritional, supplements, herbal preparations, dietary factors, prescription or nonprescription drubs, social or economic factors, medical conditions, toxins or environmental exposures) with reduced risk of Alzheimer’s disease.”  The Alzheimer's Association has weighed in on and agrees with these findings. Dr. Maria C. Carrillo, a senior director of the organization added,  "The Association agrees that there is not enough evidence to say anything definitive about the prevention of Alzheimer's disease and any kind of intervention."


Part of the problem is that until the mid 1980s, dementia was seen as a sad but expected part of the aging process so no serious studies or research was done about it.  Once Alzheimer's was identified, researchers and medical professionals began the quest to identify causes and prevention.  Sadly, the multitudes of studies done in the 30 years since have offered little in solid scientific proof regarding how to treat or prevent this disease.  The nature of the disease makes tracking those affected by it difficult.  "Alzheimer's seems to progress silently in the brain for a decade before the earliest symptoms of memory problems surface," cites Kolata.   "It can take another decade until the distinctive signs of Alzheimer's appear: profound memory loss and an inability to handle the normal activities of daily life like bathing and dressing.  As a result, the high quality studies of possible risk factors like diet and exercise or mental stimulation before the disease's onset might have to last for decades."

So mentally stimulating activities like doing crossword puzzles and reading have no proven impact on preventing or delaying the onset of Alzheimer's.  Doing crossword puzzles has been a passion of mine for years.  When the Sunday Times Magazine arrives at my home, my family knows to leave me to the cruel, mind twisting game as I slog through the excruciating exercise of trying to fill in as many white squares as possible.  I am disheartened to find this activity has little to no sway in thwarting Alzheimer's-nor does a healthy diet,  exercising and other positive lifestyle choices.  Of course maintaining a healthy lifestyle can only benefit the quality of our lives, but it would be satisfying to find out these choices could be banked away to head off the ravages of the disease. 

Dr. James Burke, Director of Memory Disorders Clinic at Duke University states in the Times article, "We don't have compelling evidence or proof that this (a healthy lifestyle) will prevent Alzheimer's disease but those measures would improve quality of life."


I watched with intrigue during the recent Arizona gubernatorial debates as Governor Jan Brewer, currently running for reelection, stopped in stone cold silence during her opening remarks last month. It was sixteen seconds of dead air. Crickets. Looking at her face during that uncharacteristic quiet I had two thoughts: 1) I know this experience regularly-thankfully not on television! 2) I still disagree with her views regarding immigration. Watching her search for the spark to ignite her stream of thought also ignited quite a moment of empathy. Who, over the age of 50, cannot relate to that very pregnant of pauses? Seeing it play out on the airwaves qualified the moment as quintessential reality TV.  The positive outcome for Governor Brewer was that she received lots of press following her lapse which gave her more camera face time - and to a politician, that is gold.


So, I search for more human tests to check my memory.  What is my childhood home phone number? MAdison 6-9839.  What is the number to my college mailbox?  524 What is the combination? Three lines left of Y and four to the right of V.  What group sang the song "Something In the Air?  Hmmmm - my streak is ended.


We are the sum of our parts - both those that are working and those that are compromised.  Having a modicum of control over those parts makes me feel more secure in my actions, but it is a flimsy security.  Better to  focus on what I do know, learn what I can, and strive for the grace to blend the two for as long as possible.


There is no comfortable conclusion to the Alzheimer's dilemma. One thing that I try to remember is that the moment I am standing in is the one that truly matters after all.