Every now and then in the rush of daily activity, my forward momentum is pleasantly interrupted with an invitation to travel in my thoughts back to another time and place. After spending 9 hours in a human services conference in the bowels of the Cleveland Convention Center Friday I detoured back to the parking lot via City Hall.
There on the back wall of the City Hall rotunda was my invitation, portraits of famous Clevelanders. I recognized many of the names but one in particular caught my attention. Rebecca Rouse, and the inscription below the portrait indicated she had organized the Soldiers' Aid Society during the Civil War. That portrait was as a door to walk through and that evening I started the journey, finding an entry in the online Encyclopedia of Cleveland: http://ech.case.edu/ech-cgi/article.pl?id=RRC1
But my primary interest in this historical character had more to do with linking her story to that of many in my family tree who were profoundly impacted by the Civil War. I thought first of my great-great Aunt, Eliza Savage, sister to my great-great grandfather Martin M. Hester. I thought of her because in our family collection we have a great many letters, perhaps 50 that she wrote to her brother during the Civil War, with three sons in the front lines of battle. We have transcribed about a dozen thinking that would be a good sample, but who knows what thread of thought lies buried within those thin lines of faded ink, lines that get smaller and closer together near the end of the page when there is more to tell than there is room to write and paper is scarce and ink is home-made.
Take a quick view back to March 5th, 1864 with this excerpt....
...we received a letter from James last evening, he left here Friday morning and reached Nashville Sunday evening about 6 o'clock.... they would start the next morning for Chatanooga. Watson has enlisted in the 1st Ohio Battery. We will be left quite lonely. Elisha has some thoughts of selling out [the farm] and renting a house in Berea for the present. He cannot do much on the farm alone, help is scarce and high....
Could she have imagined that these words would be read nearly 150 years later.... Could she have imagined the value they are to us now in capturing our imagination for the otherwise unimaginable tragedy of Civil War? And can we imagine how our own written words will be read in years to come...?
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Saturday, March 7, 2009
The essence of hope
The snow shovel has been idle for quite some time now and it looks like I probably won't need to purchase any more rock salt this season. The commute to and from work these last couple weeks has been a breeze, not having to contend with icy roads. On my neighborhood walk Thursday night people were lingering outside, chatting with neighbors and two boys had struck up a basketball game in their driveway. A guy just down the street had hauled out the hose and was washing a layer of salt from his car. The smell of Murphy's soap in my house is evident that the urge for spring cleaning overtook me today.
Signs for lenten fish frys have been popping up all over town. Department store racks are flush with fresh spring colors and the clearance racks of winter duds are pretty well picked over. Tax preparation offices are lit up at night and people are talking about plans for their refunds.
It's only one week into March but it's warm enough today to have the windows open to get some fresh air circulating through the house. For the first time in many months today I heard the sound of the male cardinal's song, which seems all the more delightful after its long absence.
But the calendar says it's still winter and no one is putting away their snow shovels or windshield scrapers. The tilt of the earth on its axis and its yearly journey around the sun make it a certainty that spring will arrive in due time. But that's just the science of it. The certainty of spring following winter is the essence of hope. And hope has the power to sustain life even in the darkest, wintry seasons of our lives.
Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see. Hebrews 11: 1 NLT
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=65&chapter=11&version=51
Signs for lenten fish frys have been popping up all over town. Department store racks are flush with fresh spring colors and the clearance racks of winter duds are pretty well picked over. Tax preparation offices are lit up at night and people are talking about plans for their refunds.
It's only one week into March but it's warm enough today to have the windows open to get some fresh air circulating through the house. For the first time in many months today I heard the sound of the male cardinal's song, which seems all the more delightful after its long absence.
But the calendar says it's still winter and no one is putting away their snow shovels or windshield scrapers. The tilt of the earth on its axis and its yearly journey around the sun make it a certainty that spring will arrive in due time. But that's just the science of it. The certainty of spring following winter is the essence of hope. And hope has the power to sustain life even in the darkest, wintry seasons of our lives.
Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see. Hebrews 11: 1 NLT
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=65&chapter=11&version=51
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Weavers' handshake
Of course one expects to see art displayed on the walls of art galleries but at the opening reception of a new exhibit at Heights Arts Friday night, virtually every one of the dozen artists were wearing a beautifully handcrafted item, a work of art.... whether a vest, jacket, scarf, jewelry or purse. But of course, since all the artists use textiles in their art work.
I was talking with one of the artists and admiring her hand-woven jacket. It had a wonderful soft sheen that invited to be touched, so I did. She called that touch, the "weavers' handshake," and its that feel of texture that must draw these artists into their work.
I distinctly recall that when I was first learning digital imaging and desktop design at Cuyahoga Community College I just wanted to be able to reach into the computer monitor and manipulate the "objects" with my hands. I am much more proficient with technology now, particularly since I spend so much time on the computer for my work, but I still enjoy the "hands-on" experiences, particularly with interesting textures. That's a big part of the reason I enjoy knitting and exploring the use of interesting yarns.
What I saw was an exhibit of the Textile Arts Alliance which is associated with Cleveland Museum of Art. For an overview of their programs: http://www.taacleveland.org/program.html. For this particular exhibit each of the artists in this organization were offered the opportunity to select a textile object from the museum's collection of items no longer being used for exhibits. They either used that item for inspiration for creating their own piece or incorporated all or part of the original piece in their own work. The exhibit is on until April 4th. For more info: http://www.heightsarts.org/
One artist "Sigrid", had with her a notebook showing the steps she took in designing/creating her piece. She first studied the textile artifact from the museum under 40x magnification. She told me that in studying this 18th century artifact that she learned something new about weaving that she had not come across in her 32 years of weaving. That's saying something about the 18th century artist since Sigrid is widely known for her expertise: www.artsstudio.org/magic.htm.
There's still time this Sunday evening for a little knitting, accompanied by a audio book, a fiction with a central theme of quiltmaking. And that's a subject for another time.
I was talking with one of the artists and admiring her hand-woven jacket. It had a wonderful soft sheen that invited to be touched, so I did. She called that touch, the "weavers' handshake," and its that feel of texture that must draw these artists into their work.
I distinctly recall that when I was first learning digital imaging and desktop design at Cuyahoga Community College I just wanted to be able to reach into the computer monitor and manipulate the "objects" with my hands. I am much more proficient with technology now, particularly since I spend so much time on the computer for my work, but I still enjoy the "hands-on" experiences, particularly with interesting textures. That's a big part of the reason I enjoy knitting and exploring the use of interesting yarns.
What I saw was an exhibit of the Textile Arts Alliance which is associated with Cleveland Museum of Art. For an overview of their programs: http://www.taacleveland.org/program.html. For this particular exhibit each of the artists in this organization were offered the opportunity to select a textile object from the museum's collection of items no longer being used for exhibits. They either used that item for inspiration for creating their own piece or incorporated all or part of the original piece in their own work. The exhibit is on until April 4th. For more info: http://www.heightsarts.org/
One artist "Sigrid", had with her a notebook showing the steps she took in designing/creating her piece. She first studied the textile artifact from the museum under 40x magnification. She told me that in studying this 18th century artifact that she learned something new about weaving that she had not come across in her 32 years of weaving. That's saying something about the 18th century artist since Sigrid is widely known for her expertise: www.artsstudio.org/magic.htm.
There's still time this Sunday evening for a little knitting, accompanied by a audio book, a fiction with a central theme of quiltmaking. And that's a subject for another time.
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