crystallize!

My friend Myles sure knew how to turn a phrase—and also, in this particular case, how to align his expectations for what kind of experience his new computer might bring. Sadly for both of us, one thing the new computer ended up bringing was an end to our years of voluminous email correspondence. He and I became prolific penpals when he served as my grad thesis advisor at Buffalo (c.1993), a friendship that helped carry us each through some very rough times. But somehow the new laptop brought him too many new challenges at once, and he let his inbox overflow ignored until it would accept no more messages. We fell back on non-email connections, which neither of us managed nearly as fluently—until eventually I grew so accustomed to the new silence that I switched over into wondering how he was doing without even trying to pick up the phone, and thus managed not to learn of his death until recently,  months after the fact.

Myles Slatin   .:.   March 3, 1924 – May 9, 2010
beloved mentor, confidant, teacher, scholar, artist

Myles drawing on Cape Cod, 9/03

Myles & lydia, 12/08

Strangely, I was not only thinking actively of Myles for much of that silent time, I was even launching a new project inspired directly by him, and by my grandfather whose situation is similar. I’ve been looking for a way to help prevent that same kind of disconnect from befalling the elders who are geographically nearer to me, within easier reach. It seems profoundly wrong that comfortable computer users, early adopters even, just suddenly hit a wall when their systems are upgraded under them one notch too far, and almost overnight the technology that’s supposed to help far-flung friends keep in touch becomes a mystifying and bothersome mess. Surely I can invent a way to help bridge this gap for others.

Two Coots in a Canoe: An Unusual Story of Friendship, by David E. Morine

The New North: An Account of a Woman's 1908 Journey through Canada to the Artic, by Agnes Deans Cameron

Two recent favorite reads, forming an interesting study in contrasts:

• The new North: an account of a woman’s 1908 journey through Canada to the Arctic, by Agnes Deans Cameron
• Two coots in a canoe: an unusual story of friendship, by David E. Morine

Cameron was a remarkable character. After a 20-year career as a schoolteacher in Vancouver, ended abruptly as a result of her flouting a rule she deemed unfair — she allowed a student to use a straight-edge to draw a straight line, in order that his otherwise promising academic career not be jeopardized by such a trivial requirement, and her superiors could not condone such misbehavior — she moved to Chicago, became a journalist, and thence undertook her impressive voyage, with her niece as traveling companion. She documents her nearly-six-month trip in crisp and vivid language, providing enough detail to paint an interesting story without ever becoming bogged down in minutiae. Her descriptions of the people who host her, the towns she passes through and their agricultural outputs, the culture of the Hudson’s Bay Company, the local flora and fauna, the river, the scenery, her fellow travelers — all are engagingly presented. Her discussion of the Eskimos she meets, especially, is a fascinating study, since they are quite unlike what she had expected: a tall, regal people, for whom she expresses great admiration.

Morine’s book documents a modern adventure, a trip down the Connecticut River from source to sea. Before he retired, Morine served as head of land acquisition for the Nature Conservancy; his traveling companion was an old friend from grad school whom he hadn’t seen in years. The gimmick for the trip was that instead of camping, they stayed each night with different hosts, “relying on the kindness of strangers.” Since I live right next to the Connecticut myself, midway along their route, many of the places he describes are familiar to me, so it was especially interesting to read about who he met along the way.

I wonder what Cameron’s journey would be like in this century, or what Morine’s would have been like in hers.

Interesting recent NYTimes column by Nicholas Kristof: What Could You Do Without?, profiles a family’s startling adventures. They took the “crazy, impetuous and utterly inspiring” step of “selling the luxurious family home and donating half the proceeds to charity, while using the other half to buy a more modest replacement home.” Their forthcoming book, The Power of Half, chronicles their story.

Also interestingly, they are evidently getting negative reactions from folks who consider them “sanctimonious showoffs,” when their actual goal in sharing their story is to demonstrate that an initially selfless gesture turned out to be of at least as much benefit to themselves.

Lots more about the project, the book, and an encouragement to find your own “half”: thepowerofhalf.com.

Learned from a recent NYT article about this interesting new start-up in Brooklyn. Kickstarter calls itself “a funding platform for artists, designers, filmmakers, musicians, journalists, inventors, explorers…,” and is quick to say that it’s not about lending or charity. Instead, it says it provides “a sustainable marketplace where people exchange goods for services or some other benefit and receive some value.”

Kickstarter is a funding platform for artists, designers, filmmakers, musicians, journalists, inventors, explorers...

Which reminds that I’ve been wanting to post also about Kiva, which has had an enormous impact in its several years of “loans that change lives.” Entrepreneurs from all over the world (Lebanon, Nicaragua, Uganda) submit their project proposals and photos, along with how much money they need to raise ($230, $375, $1200). For just $25 (or more), you select an entrepreneur whose project and profile appeal to you. Kiva takes care of updating you on the project’s progress, and maintaining public records about how much of the loan has been repaid. When your money is repaid (current repayment rate is over 98% — see lots of interesting stats), you can withdraw it or reinvest in another project.

Kiva lets you lend to a specific entrepreneur, empowering them to lift themselves out of poverty

This interesting new program launched today: the Obama administration is calling for widespread volunteerism from “all Americans.” They’ve cooked up a new open-source app (called All for Good) that makes it easy not only for existing non-profit organizations to solicit help, but for anyone at all to announce a new project and drum up helpers. Projects are tagged, and thus searchable, by topic keywords and locations, and by date if applicable. It’s useful and nicely built — by volunteers, of course, from places like Google, Craigslist, and UCLA.

serve.gov site

It will be interesting to see how this plays. Are people who don’t volunteer their time really just waiting for an invitation? From the level of vitriol in the comments on the YouTube video (if you view it there instead of embedded on the official site), it seems there are other loud voices as well: “Volunteerism is slavery,” “I serve by paying taxes,” and a great many inarticulate remarks too rude to repeat, signed with usernames like “fartingpenguin.” So certainly we will fall short of participation by “all Americans.” On the other hand, the folks who do volunteer will find this tool useful, and they’re certain to gain some new recruits.