Contrasts

  If one is accustomed to living in rural upstate New York, a visit to New York City and Eastern Long Island is always a study in contrasts.   Upstaters live in a sea of greenery and easy access to wide vistas of rolling hills, farms and a multitude of lakes and streams.   By contrast the city is marked by oodles of concrete, massive buildings, bustling traffic and a cacophony of sounds.   The vistas tend to be marked by iconic buildings such as the Empire State Building, Brooklyn Bridge, and the Statue of Liberty.
   Although millions choose to live in an urban megalopolis, there still is an innate human desire to experience greenery.    Millions will flock to any green space available.  Small havens of greenery are a welcome respite from the concrete jungle.   When I am in the city I enjoy observing the presence of tree lined streets and avenues,  tiny parks, and even larger parks like Central Park.   Recently we visited a relatively new linear park that is elevated above the city NYC streets.  It is the High line park built on the abandoned elevated railroad of the New York Central.   This park was dedicated in 2009 after the concerted effort of several individuals and the support of Mayor Bloomberg.   After this railroad was abandoned volunteer vegetation began to appear and flourish.   Local observers were inspired to build upon the presence of the new greenery with a vision of a linear park including walkways, newly planted grass and plants and areas to rest.  The park is a delightful haven.   In our walk of this park we enjoyed the contrasts of flowers, trees and grass with the surrounding man-made structures.     Within each human is the pride of our ability to create man made structures but at the same time we are nurtured by the gifts of the natural world.   Here is some evidence of our appreciation of both the man-made and the natural world.   Perhaps each of us has an individual perception of the balance of contrasts we wish to live with.   I, for one will tilt my balance toward the natural world - even if I am an engineer!

Old Rails

Turrets of Buildings

Trees, Shade and Rest

Sculpture Among the Flowers

Flowers Proliferate

Empire Sate Building View

Adjacent Church

Museum Learning

Farmer Wayne with Restored Plow

   Thursday's adventure was a journey to the Farmer's Museum in Cooperstown, New York.   Cooperstown is about a two hour drive from our home through the back roads and farms of central New York.   Modern and marginal farming are a part of the rural scene.   The Farmer's Museum captures the essence of bygone farming and rural living with exhibits of tools, businesses, and trades of the colonial through 1800's period.
   I was particularly interested in the farm machines and tools of the past.   Since I have been working with the model artifacts of the now defunct Cornell University Agricultural Museum I was especially interested in the full sized plows and other agricultural machinery on display.  Much to my delight I saw full sized models of ancient plows, harrows, threshers, dump rakes and so on.   Many of these implements were full sized versions of models from the Cornell Agricultural Museum.   During my visit I had a chance to converse with "Farmer Wayne" who serves as a part of the museum crew in period costume welcoming and informing visitors.   We shared stories of plow design and use and the vagaries of proper plow adjustment.   He also showed me a plow they had restored using the skills of the museum's blacksmith and other artisans of their group.  I was able to identify the plow as a late 1800's model similar to a model we have in our Cornell collection.
     In addition to observing the farm equipment Nancy and I also learned about the early practice of medicine, unusual pharmaceuticals, printing, and early law practice.   It was further striking to observe the tools of the various trades of basket making, barrel making, plumbing, leather working, carpentry, tinsmithing and on and on.   There was a huge amount of knowledge and lore on display.   One cannot but wonder how we would be able to recreate all those skills if we were suddenly thrust into a world without cell phones, computers, electricity and all the modern conveniences.  Undoubtedly the old codgers who had preserved the skills of the 1800's and colonial America would be in high demand.
    I have no desire to live in the America of the 1800's, but it is good to admire the ingenuity of our ancestors and to learn that one can survive and thrive in any era.

1800's Era Mower

A Geezer's Love Story

  One of the special privileges of being a pastor's spouse is being a part of the ministry to past and present parishioners.   Today we visited with a previous parishioner whose wife passed away on Friday.   She was 89 and they had been together since 1945 when they were married when he had a brief leave from the service in the Navy.   They had remarkable life together and his stories of their courtship, marriage, and child raising were both poignant and sweet recollections of long loving marriage.   They are both of a generation that served our country and society with generosity and integrity.   Tuesday we will attend her funeral and I am sure the children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren will have more to tell about their great love story.   Nancy, who has considered Marilyn to be a second mother, will provide part of the eulogy.   We will mourn, but we will also celebrate an exemplary life and love story.   Passing with dignity is such a gift!

Days Getting Shorter

  Director, author and celebrity Nora Ephron recently passed away at a far too young an age of 71.   She hardly made it into "geezerhood".    She had written some thing about aging and observed that as one reaches the senior years you should make it a point to enjoy the things your really like since the "days are getting shorter".   I think she meant that one eventually runs out of time.  Our earthly lives are finite.
   I have to agree with her philosophy.   With the shortening of the days available to live life, I plan to concentrate on enjoying my special pleasures and at the same time continue to give back to friends, family and  professional endeavors whenever I can.   Thus, I will continue to enjoy my daily apple fritter, my specially brewed coffee, tooling down the highway in my little Smart Car, and solving my daily crossword puzzles.   In season I will enjoy tennis with my wife and friends and skiing with the geezers as many days as the winter will allow.   I will also endeavor to treasure the remaining days of Nancy's and my now nearly 30 year marriage for the days to come.
    Now that we have passed the longest day of the year, we are in the period of shortening the hours of daylight.  And by late December we will again experience the shortest day.   However, then the days will lengthen once again.   This rhythm of the year is a reminder existence is governed my a rhythm too.   Birth, life, death and rebirth!   The generations go on and on and on.   Each of us has our time.   Make the best of the time you have!

June 20, 2012 Shadow - My Benchmark for the Length of Days

Museum Displays

     I have been writing a history of the Agricultural Museum at Cornell to preserve some of the heritage of  this component of Cornell that was established in 1873.   Between 1873 and today the museum was disbanded and the collections were either lost, trashed or in some cases stored at various locations on campus.  There were six major components to the early museum and only fragments of three of the major components still exist.   I have restored the remnants of  two of the collections; the Rau plow models and the sales and patent models of agricultural machinery.   This activity has sparked my interest in museums in general and more specifically museums that display agriculturally related items.   Therefore, I have been on a quest to understand how museums select and display their wares.   Also the quest has led me to observe displays of artifacts in other settings.   Beyond the Johnson Art Museum on the Cornell Campus one can find a multitude of historical artifact displays in a number of other buildings.

     My curiosity has taken me to observe antique veterinary medicine instruments displayed in a hall way adjacent to the Veterinary College Library, the glass models of invertebrates at the Mann Library and the Corson-Mudd atrium and the Rouleaux mechanical models at Upson Hall.   Each of these sites have done a magnificent orderly presentation of their collections.    Saturday I enjoyed viewing the collections in the Central New York Living History Center in Homer, New York.   Several weeks ago I also had a chance to see an impressive set of displays at the Shelburne Museum in  Shelburne, Vermont.   All of these activities have given me inspiration for setting up a display of  the remaining Cornell Agricultural Museum artifacts in Riley-Robb Hall.

An Elegant Display - Corson-Mudd Atrium

    Our mini-museum now has a proposed site and plans are under way to acquire trophy cases and signage to tell the story of the Cornell Agricultural Museum.   At the same time we look backward at the history of engineering in agriculture as displayed in our collections we will also display items of the present and point to the future.   I think geezers are especially qualified to help preserve history, but also can creatively point to the trends for the future.

    

Being Perfect?

  A couple a weeks ago I heard excerpts from a poem by Ron Padgett about "How to Be Perfect".   I love the comments he makes in the poem.    As we approach Father's Day I think one of the lines is especially appropriate.   "Don't expect your children to love you, so they can, if they want to."  
   As a father and step-father I have had the privilege of parenting seven children.   I always hoped that I would be good in the parenting role and even hoped they would love me.   Especially I hoped they would appreciate my presence and forgive my imperfections since I clearly am not perfect nor ever will be.   I am truly blessed, however.   During this week, leading up to the big day on Sunday, I have received many beautiful expressions of love and appreciation from our brood.   And even received appreciation from a grandchild and family.   What a blessing ti is to move into geezerhood and participate in  the success of generations of family.

Just a Sampling of the Group - June Picnic

Senior Games - Round Robin

  I finished up my New York Empire Senior Games tennis matches this morning.   Five matches over two days was a pretty exhausting schedule.   My opponents were feeling it about as much as I was.   We all were feeling the effects of some pretty competitive matches upon our feet, legs and bodies.   However, it was a great time of camaraderie even though we all have a strong will to win.   There were five men in my singles 75-79 group.  Dave Shannon and Dave Usher certainly were the superior players and proved it with a one-two finish followed by Walt Schoonaker in third.   This years format was lots of fun since we used a round robin scheme which had each one of us playing the other four.   With the 8 game pro set matches the matches were not as long but still had enough games to give everyone a chance to come back from being down.
    Past tournaments have used a one and done for the loser format which can be discouraging for someone to travel hundreds of miles to play and have their participation finished in as little as an hour. The French Open has been played over the last couple of weeks and I truly can agonize with the players that go out in the first round.   One and done has to be tough on the psyche!   I guess they do get some money to show, but that has to be a hard way to make a meager living.   Truly the grunts in the trenches that fill out the brackets in the lower seeds don't get the appreciation they deserve.   In the past Nancy and I have gone to the semi finals of the U.S. Tennis Open and sat high in Ashe Stadium while the stars performed.   More recently we have gone to the early rounds and enjoyed sitting a few feet from the lesser known players competing in their matches on the perimeter courts.   I think I have enjoyed the latter experience the most.   They may not be the very best in the sport, but they are professionals and give it their best.
    I don't know how entertaining the geezer tennis players are for the gallery but we still give it our best shot and thank the Lord we are enjoying life this side of the grass.   Oh for the love of the game!
   As and end note, Nancy and I for the first time competed in mixed doubles.   We had a great time even in a losing effort.    And our marriage remains as strong as ever!

Victor ready to receive.

Dave Usher -Great serves.

Gerry - Post match smile

Walt -Preparing to serve.