Category Archives: We’re the People

find your powerful…

24 Saturday Mar 2018

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There is something happening. Now. It is sad and it is uplifting at the same time. Probably all of you know about the tragic shooting of students in Parkland, Florida on February 14th. Maybe you are even sick of hearing about it. I have been following what has happened afterward fairly closely. A few days after the event I was explaining to my husband an interview I had seen where a father spoke of the loss of his son. Among other things, the father said he was ‘pissed’. I’m sure. My voice cracked and I began to cry, having to pause to be able to finish the story. Imagine losing your child to such senseless violence.

In their abject grief and shock, the students of Margory Stoneman Douglas High School, wasted no time. While grieving their best friends and classmates, their anger cut through the BS that has surrounded this issue for decades. Because they are young, a large portion of their journey has played out on social media. It is one of the times when I have been glad to have some connections on Twitter and Instagram. It has been so impressive to see how these young people handle themselves. There has been very little ego, hubris, double talk or any of the things adults are given to using. They just tell it like they have experienced it. This has happened to THEM. To their friends. They are the targets.

It is humbling. It is powerful. And totally frightening.

Things do not ever stay the same. Change happens whether or not we are ready for it or invite it. The United States is the country of my birth. It is where I lived the first 30 years of my life. I still carry an American passport as well as an Australian one. But most importantly, I am still a member of the human race. I’m a human who values life. I’m a human who doesn’t want to see senseless tragedy.

We should all care about violent death from terrorism, war and oppression in every country. But it is nearly overwhelming, and hard to know what to do. In this instance I have seen enough to recognise a genuine movement and one to which I can contribute a small amount. My small amount has been to follow the students, trying to understand and support their journey with comments and sharing. And this blog post. This week I also downloaded a song from iTunes, part of the proceeds from which will go to support the students who have organised Marches in all 50 states of the United States. The song is a ‘mashup’ (combination) of two songs from two major Musicals, ‘Hamilton’ and ‘Dear Evan Hansen’. The songs are titled ‘The Story of Tonight’ and ‘You Will Be Found’. The creative genius of Lin-Manuel Miranda, who wrote ‘Hamilton’, has penned this anthem called ‘Found Tonight’. Miranda and Ben Platt, winner of a Golden Globe for ‘Dear Even Hansen’, sing it and I have included it here for you to… contemplate.

Saturday, 24 March is the March for Our Lives day. I hope it is a peaceful but powerful day. In his Golden Globe acceptance speech Ben Platt said:

‘Don’t try to be anyone but yourself, the things that make you strange are the things that make you powerful’.

Let’s all find our strange and powerful selves, and strive to make a difference. Lots of little tiny powerful moments together can cause a big thing to happen. The students are showing us the way.

vale Phillip Hughes 1988-2014…

29 Saturday Nov 2014

Posted by in Life, People, We're the People

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In my experience most humans are at their best when times are the worst. Sure there are a few that will loot during a riot, or take advantage of a situation, but for the most part when things are tough, people rise to the occasion. It has always touched me deeply when a stranger performs a kindess.

This week the tragic loss of a young sportsman rocked the entire sporting world, but especially here in Australia. He was one of our sons. Several moments have brought the tears, but none more so than last evening during the news when the Captain of the Australian Cricket Team choked back his own tears and quoted the young man:

Where else would you be, boys, but playing cricket for your country? –Phillip Hughes

 

Phillip would have been 26 today, the exact same age as our daughter.

Our daughter is in Human Resources management at the South Australian Cricket Association, Phillip’s adopted home ground. Needless to say she and everyone there was rocked by this tragedy. Some tragic events are especially evocative and galvanise people in extraordinary ways. On the day Phillip died, Twitter spontaneously erupted in a series of memorial tweets and photos that were hashtagged #putyourbatsout. Then again on Instagram more bat photos with a hashtag of #63notout (which was the score Phillip had when he was hit by the bowl that took his life) Never has social media been better.

The photo taken by SACA of the memorial bat and hat and retired #64 shirt

The photo taken by SACA of the memorial bat and hat and retired #64 shirt

At his young age, Phillip had already covered himself with glory, both as a batsman and as a loveable, cheeky and humble young man. Several of the broadcasters have tried to add their insights, but it is very difficult for everyone to grasp. One mentioned the following though I’m not sure all of us would agree with it:

“One crowded hour of glorious life is worth an age without a name.” -Sir Walter Scott

To be sure, there are many thousands of people dying in the world every day from tragic, and probably heroic, circumstances. We don’t know them we don’t even hear of their deaths, but we know it happens. Perhaps when it is a situation such as this, and we not only feel we know the deceased, but had the unusual and disturbing occasion to see the impact that took his life, we are awakened. Why must it take this kind of thing to make us pause and realise how tenuous is life? Perhaps it will bring new gratitude to the fore of our minds so that we can realise what is truly important in life, especially at this time of year when it is easy to become swept up in the frenetic sale-abrations and celebrations.

The images of bats set out all over the world in memory of a man most of us have never met will live long in my mind. Adding to the poignancy is the term ‘vale’, an old English word derived from Latin, used when someone has passed. It means ‘farewell’ or ‘goodbye’. A Valedictorian gives the ‘farewell’ speech at a school graduation.

Vale Phillip Hughes, may your passing remind us to be grateful for what we have.

We’re the People – Sydney jogger

30 Tuesday Sep 2014

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Lunch time jogger Sydney Harbour

This morning, early, I heard the weatherman say Sydney would be having the warmest two September days in succession for 150 years! I harkened back to a winter day in July, when we stopped in Sydney on our way back from overseas. We found an inviting bench near Circular Quay and did some people watching at lunch time. There were dozens and dozens of joggers, this being one. All the times we have been here in the middle of the day, it has been like this. I wonder what someone transported from 60 years ago, into this situation, would think?? Some of the joggers might be tourists, but I wonder if people who have long commutes find it easier to fit their exercise in at lunch time than before or after their work day? I admire their commitment, regardless.

My morning walks are done as a moving meditation and contemplation time, as well as to keep my lower back in check. Usually, they are a time to soak in the serene arid land beauty and listen to a bit of music. Lately, they have become occasions for photography too. But this morning, two rogue Spurwing Plovers chased me! I stared them down and clapped loudly, which sent them in another direction, eventually. But they had a few jolly good dives at me first! Goodness knows what the neighbours thought!!

Plovers aside, those of us who walk or jog as a diversion lead privileged lives indeed.

Have a great week.

~Ardys

 (This is part of a series of photos based                                                                     on an original post titled ‘We’re the People‘)

We’re the People – Alice Springs – Beach Volleyball

16 Tuesday Sep 2014

Posted by in Alice Springs, People, We're the People

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Pick a Saturday morning in Alice Springs, or any town in Australia, and you will find a ‘sausage sizzle’ going on somewhere! As far as I know this is a tradition unique to Australia. When I grew up in the USA in the 60’s our fund raising activities of choice were the ‘car wash’ or a ‘bake sale’. Bake sales are popular here too, but the sausage sizzle is king. I can’t eat anything they serve at one of these, but I loved that this group was so happy to be spending their Saturday morning outside of K-Mart, raising money for something I didn’t even know was going on here in Alice– Indoor Beach Volleyball! Not only is it going on, this is their 10th year!!!

I do lead a sheltered life.

I donated to their funds and wouldn’t accept any food but I asked them for a photo and said I’d promote their activity. They loved the idea. The game they play is apparently a mix of beach volleyball and indoor hard court volleyball. Their season commenced on 25th August and runs through until 5th December and is played at 11 Kennett Court, when they are at home. They travel interstate for games as well.

I say, thumbs up for the Desert Sands group, doing something wholesome, but tongs up for the Aussie sausage sizzle, and all the funds it has raised over the years!

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Desert Sands Indoor Beach Volleyball Team

 (This is part of a series of photos based                                                                     on an original post titled ‘We’re the People‘)

We’re the People – Granada, Spain

07 Sunday Sep 2014

Posted by in People, Travel, We're the People

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Penance Procession, Granada

This may seem a strange photo to show when talking about ‘people’ as it almost seems devoid of them. However, if you look closely you will see dozens of feet showing at the bottom of the skirt of the “Pasos”, or float, carrying the statue. One of these floats is carried by each brotherhood in the city. It was Holy Week, the week preceding Easter, four years ago. I wish I could tell you how clever we were to plan to be there at that moment to see this stunning week of processions, but the truth is, it was an absolute fluke. The first evening we arrived at our hotel, we took a little walk before dinner and noticed something appeared to be about to happen in the pedestrian area of the city. In a short while hundreds had gathered and then in the distance we heard the somber music.

We have since learned that the people carrying the Pasos, practice for months ahead of the event. The weight is considerable and it takes great skill and strength to work in unison to move the heavy float from church to Cathedral. At some points the doorways are too low, so the penitents must kneel on pads and move forward to get the statue through.

The first sight we saw, preceding the Pasos, was that of the other penitents, wearing traditional cloaks and hoods. Having grown up in the years of the Ku Klux Klan and their much feared white hoods of similar design, it was a confronting sight. When I look at these photos I am reminded how educational and transformative travel can be.

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Traditional robes and hoods

and regardless of the robes, how much children are the same, everywhere!!

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children in procession

(This is part of a series of photos based                                                                      on an original post titled ‘We’re the People‘)

Have a great week.

–Ardys

We’re the People – Alice Springs

29 Friday Aug 2014

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Grocery store fairy

We are the people. Even the little people. Especially the little people. I have been dwelling in a parallel universe this week–the Past. It is for good reason I have gone so far afield from my usual space. I have been assembling an album for our daughter, of photos, poems, mementos from as far back as four generations before her. A nearly overwhelming task.

In between assembling pages I have done the usual domestic chores of washing, ironing, cleaning, cooking and grocery shopping. One of the highlights of my week was this tiny person skipping up the isle at the grocery store… in her fairy costume. Not wanting to seem like a stalker, I held some distance between us as the little fairy gazed at some strategically placed items on the shelves, would you believe it— at just her height!! (Thank you Walt Disney.)

She reminded me of the fairy and princess costumes our own daughter wore out in public at that age; the age before we stop believing we might actually be a fairy. I love that it is still winter here, and, to keep warm, she had the appropriate leggings and tights on underneath the fairy dress. Her mother’s influence no doubt, because fairies do not feel the cold. I love that with all the troubles going on in the world, somewhere a little fairy has gotten her wings and is learning to fly.

Have a great weekend.

–Ardys

We’re the People – Alice Springs

22 Friday Aug 2014

Posted by in Inspiration, People, photography, We're the People

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When I was a young girl, Dad taught me to do a good job of sweeping grass clippings from the foot path. He used this phrase ‘Always do this little test, make your good better, and your better best‘. He was teaching integrity and work ethic. He taught it to many of the young men who worked for him over the decades, as well as his children. Our Mother was, and still is, a role model of integrity.

That is how I know it when I see it.

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Delivery man

I was going for my usual walk one morning this week when I saw the man depicted putting advertising flyers into letter boxes at a nearby complex of units. I couldn’t help but notice the precision with which he was working. Notice how nicely all the flyers are tucked into the slots. The flyers were neatly folded and organised in the bottom of his delivery wagon, too. He was so mindful about his job I couldn’t help but admire him, even though I dislike the ‘junk mail’ as much as many people do. Here was someone, no doubt making small money, but doing the job with integrity.

So, when I look at this photo I see, the smallness of the task need not reflect smallness in the person. I shot the photo from a lower angle so that we could all look up to him.

And when I got home from that very same walk, there in my letterbox was the following notice…IMG_2036

I wonder how many will do the job with this man’s integrity?

(This is part of a series of photos based                                                                      on an original post titled ‘We’re the People‘)

We’re the People – Istanbul

15 Friday Aug 2014

Posted by in Travel, We're the People

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Alone in a crowd

Hasan was our tour guide in Turkey. He was a lovely, open man. He was of Syrian and Arab derivation but born just inside the border of Turkey. I can’t imagine a better tour guide. In fact, he told us more than I could possibly process and remember! Here we are in the Blue Mosque and I have edited this photo to emphasise what he was demonstrating to us. In response to a question, he went through all the motions that a woman would go through when praying in the Mosque. There we stood, among hundreds of people, without our shoes and with our heads covered (women) and were riveted on his demonstration. He even went down on the floor and did the entire sequence of movements. This photo speaks to me of his willingness to share everything he possibly could with us, so that we might understand as much as possible about Turkey.

Masallah,* Hasan.

 

(*Arabic for Blessing someone, or something that happens)

This is part of a series of photos based on an original post titled ‘We’re the People‘

We’re the People – Budapest

08 Friday Aug 2014

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There are amazing sights to be seen when travelling, but none more amazing than the people. Architecture can be looked up in a book or on the internet, but watching people is the biggest thrill for me. I try to be respectful of personal space, and usually ask, if I’m in doubt, whether a person minds having their photo taken. Sometimes I’m told ‘no’ so I back off. Not everyone wants their image ‘captured’.

I spend a lot of time in solitary pursuits when at home. People are often a mystery to me. But looking back over photos of our recent travels, it is the photos with people that I value the most. I thought I would publish a series called ‘We’re the People’, named for the post I wrote a couple of weeks ago of the same name. Mostly I won’t know much about the strangers in the photos, but I’d like to share my thoughts with you.

I took this photo fairly early on a humid, warm morning in Budapest. We were happy to find a beautiful tree-shaded street. The two young men appeared to be workers, dressed in the traditional blue workers outfits, and one carrying his case of tools to their job for that morning. I liked the juxtaposition of the workers against all the neatly folded umbrellas of the cafés, ready for the tourists, and locals, who would be relaxing beneath them. Someone has to work, right?

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Going to work in Budapest

–all the best, Ardys

We’re the People

19 Saturday Jul 2014

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As I warned you a few weeks ago, we have been traveling. Upon return, a few days ago, I had no idea where I would begin to write about our experiences. And then, sadly, I woke to the news of Malaysian Airlines passenger plane that had been shot down over Ukraine. My thoughts brought into focus several threads of our travel experiences that I wanted to share with you.

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Croatian Memorial for mass grave from war of Independence 1989

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Budapest citadel, scars of 1956 war of Independence from Russia

All during our travels from Hungary to Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria and finally to Turkey, we saw signs of war. Not only scars of distant wars, but the still healing wounds of recent battles; bombed out buildings, memorials to brave patriots, graves of entire families. It was sobering, as well as educational. Local guides in each of these places tried their best to tell an accurate version of their country’s story. We tried to make sense of it. But the complexity is mind boggling.

At the end of the tour we took a side trip three hundred kilometres west of Istanbul, to Gallipoli. Over 40,000 lives were lost there in WWI. Next year is the 100th anniversary of that battle. Strangely, it was one of the things that galvanised Australia into the country of today. The events there have not been glorified, but have been lovingly and respectfully acknowledged by the Turks as well as the invading forces. In some places the trenches between the Turks and the Aussie Diggers and New Zealand troops were only 30 feet apart. Some of those trenches still remain.

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Site of first landing, Gallipoli, Turkey

When we first arrived at the viewing point just before Anzac Cove, the bus stopped and we got off. This was the mistaken landing, the point the troops were sent to, incorrectly. The beauty of the coastline belied the horrors that happened there. As my feet touched the ground it was as if the pressure sent fluid straight to my eyes, welling to the brims. What I can only describe as the presence of many souls, surrounded me and I wept for my adopted land and all those who perished on that inhospitable and impossible terrain.

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Anzac Cove, Gallipoli

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preserved trenches-Gallipoli

A couple of years ago we also visited Russia. We were fortunate to have a guest speaker on the cruise. She was a professor at a Russian University and through her wonderful talks she passionately expressed, wars are not a direct result of the people’s desires, but the so-called leaders, often not even elected by the people. That insight was shared again and again on our recent trip. When pushed to desperation, the people will rise up against the politicians/leaders/insurgents. But based on what we have seen, and the people we have spoken to, if the general population had a viable choice, there would be no wars.

On our return flight, I found an old classic movie I had never seen before—The Grapes of Wrath (1940). I’m not a particular fan of old movies but something about the timing and my state of mind caused me to select it. It was good. For those uninitiated, it is a story of the terrible ‘dust bowl’ days (1930’s) in the USA and how people were driven from their land and forced West to look for work and begin life again. Thematically, it reminded me of some of the countries we had just seen; people starting again, through no choice of their own, and with nothing.

The final lines in the movie stayed with me, an echo of many of the voices we have heard all over the world:

Ma Joad (matriarch of the story, talking to her husband, Pa):

Rich fellas come up an’ they die, an’ their kids ain’t no good an’ they die out. But we keep a’comin’. We’re the people that live. They can’t wipe us out; they can’t lick us. We’ll go on forever, Pa, ’cause we’re the people’.

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one of ‘the people’ of Turkey

In the coming weeks when we are listening to the various versions of the Malaysian Airline tragedy, let us all remember to keep cool heads and encourage our leaders to keep cool heads. Those who do these things are the minority, not ‘the people’. There are myriad options, other than war and bombs. Whoever shot that missile and killed 298 people, were desperate rebels, which in no way justifies their actions, and they should be accountable. But let us remember, those who pick up the pieces and rebuild and go on forever, are the people. It is just so, everywhere.

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Lone Pine, Gallipoli