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Word
Worth Volume V, 2005, Issues are available by clicking on the name of
the month below.
Adobe Reader is needed to access them. A free copy is available
here: |
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Editorials
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Arts
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Columns
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The Nature of Work—Marien
Helz |
December |
A Corollary to Karma—Charles Miess |
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I have
heard work defined,... as being what
you have to do, while play is what you want or
choose to do. By this definition, however, breathing would be
work. In addition, you can observe a person from the
beginning—at the age of two months—engage in ... what we think of as work. Two-month olds will
move their arms out to reach a toy ...It’s as tricky as an adult learning to
operate a crane... |
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Photography by
Mark L. Kaufman |
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...But in almost every case it is something I’ve done that was
really dumb, and then it came back to bite me later. It’s the
kind of thing that my pride won’t allow me to share with the
world just yet. I am, however, willing to tell about an event
in my life that fits the first corollary to this
principle: if you do sneaky things, you’re going to get
caught. |
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The Teenage Dilemma—Marien
Helz |
November |
The Iceberg and the Jack ...—Charles Miess |
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The concept of being good neighbors and teaching children proper
behavior toward their community has been largely lost. Too many
parents now feel that parenthood consists of providing endless
entertainment for their children. When children grow to the
teenage years, this becomes increasingly difficult because they
develop distinct personalities and are not all amused by the
same things.... |
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Photography by
Armin W. Helz |
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Largely unnoticed...this year is a huge iceberg that broke away
from...Antarctica. They say this monster contains enough water to keep
the Nile river flowing for eighty years! It's thicker than the
Washington Monument is tall. From satellite photos, it looks like an
aircraft carrier—an aircraft carrier bigger than the country of
Luxembourg! And it's on the move. |
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From the Earth to the Stars—Charles Miess |
October |
Calling the Doctor's—Nettie
Veling |
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American
chestnut trees made up a quarter of the immense eastern forests
when Europeans first arrived. They are gone now. In the late
1800’s blight hitchhiked a ride on a ship from the Orient, and
by 1950 chestnut trees from Maine to Alabama were transformed to
stark brown skeletons against the sky. Further back in the
field is a grove of white pine. If green is a measure of
health, they are healthy. But when ... |
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Photography by
Mark L. Kaufman |
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The other
day, I was awaiting a call from my MD’s office. The person who
ultimately called me back was a triage nurse of some sort.
After verifying my name, address and insurance information, the
first question she asked me was, “If this service was not
available, what would you have done in this situation?...1. Wait
until tomorrow. 2. Go to a hospital emergency room. 3. Contact
another emergency health... |
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Verse
Versus Poetry—M.
H. Perry |
September |
The Poet's Art—Charles Miess |
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The most
obvious aspect of poetry is rhyme. What is not as clear is that
not everything that rhymes is poetry. Much rhyme is simply
annoying jingles. The highway department in one state posts
“Making it wider/ For you and your rider.” The rhyme is
intended to be memorable and to catch attention. It succeeds.
It also annoys. Mark Twain was one of the first to write about
annoying phrases that one couldn’t ... |
Humorous Verse
by
John T. Baker |
When
just the right words are combined in exactly the right way, the
meaning becomes much greater than the sum of the individual
words. When this elusive combination has the power to inspire
the imagination, move the emotions, or create pleasure, it is
likely to be poetry. If the meaning reveals itself slowly, and
the experience becomes greater with each reading, then it is
probably good poetry. |
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The Dilemma
of Intelligence—Charles Miess |
August |
The Morgans Are Coming!—Marien
Helz |
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During
prehistoric times, individual people had a relatively poor
chance of survival, yet the prospect for the species remained
bright. With the recent accumulation of technical and
scientific knowledge, we have reversed the odds. We have vastly
improved our chances as individuals to survive and pass on our
genes to the next generation. In the meantime, we have put our
species at grave risk. ... This is simply an attempt to
objectively view the nature of humans and their relationship to
the earth. |
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Photography by
Harvey Kaye |
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The Towne—Marien
Helz |
July |
 Something Borrowed—Charles Miess |
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What such
a plan did not anticipate, however, was that it generated a
lifestyle that became progressively more dependent on the
automobile and also more isolated. Children could be bussed to
school, but if they were to do anything after school—any sports,
see friends who did not live within several blocks, join any
clubs or any organizations, take any lessons—they had to be
driven. Hence, Momism developed and homemakers became
full time chauffeurs. |
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Photography by
Mark L. Kaufman |
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His red
hair was rumpled a bit, but... Unlike the rest of the boys, who
looked like they’d rather be in the middle of oral surgery,
Donnie sported an impish grin and seemed to be having the time
of his life. If you watched him closely, you could catch him
flashing funny faces across the stage at his sister—trying to
make her laugh. I remembered feeling like an invader into his
secret little world. But I was fascinated as I zoomed in on his
sneaky antics with my video camera. |
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The Real Villain—Marien
Helz |
June |
The Dancing Light—Kevin H. Siepel |
Increasing mention is made of data which indicates that
Americans, especially children, are becoming progressively
over-weight. One state legislator is attempting to get a bill
passed which would require children’s weight to be recorded on
report cards. He feels that parents should know what their
children weigh. If there has ever been a more misguided
initiative, it’s impossible to imagine what it would be.
Any parents who are unaware of their children’s weight or of their
size ... |
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On a new group’s first day, following issue of the mandatory
yellow short-sleeved cotton blouse, forest green shorts, and new
pair of U.S. Keds, the children gathered in the large and rustic
Mess Hall for their first noonday meal. They sat loosely
arranged by cabin group, four campers to each small table, with
counselors strategically placed throughout. Following a new
group’s first meal, my father commenced a routine that he took
delight in practicing on every group of campers. |
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Define Vegetative—Marien
Helz |
May |
The Snows of Kilimanjaro—Charles Miess |
The
controversy surrounding Terri Schiavo has continued, weeks after
her death, and will do so for quite some time. Had she ever
been able to regain awareness of her surroundings, that
controversy would have humiliated and degraded her.
On subjects that arouse such antagonism, it’s nice to have a
villain—something or someone on which to focus anger and to
direct action. At first glance,... |
Photography
by
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Something about that title has been a part of my life for as
long as I can remember. There is undeniable poetry—a beautiful
cadence—to the phrase The Snows of Kilimanjaro. ...that
mountain is one of those things that remains changeless
throughout history. With so much of the Earth in turmoil,
places like Kilimanjaro reassure me that the world will be
around for us to enjoy for a long time. It is like having a
treasured friend that you never go to see, but it ... |
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The
Importance of...Enemies—John T.
Baker |
April |
The Ozaenine Effect—Charles Miess |
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I used to
give a talk on “Getting Along With People.” Now I still think
that’s important, .... But ... I began to think about the other
side of the picture. Maybe it was only because I was getting
older – and wiser – and crabbier – but I started wondering if we
shouldn’t be giving attention also to not getting along
with people – with certain people, and with certain
things....who could desire a nobler epitaph than: “He was an
enemy of Hitler”? |
Photography by
Mark L. Kaufman |
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A
revolutionary new aircraft was on display in Paris at the second
International Aeronautical Exhibition. The year was 1910—barely
seven years after the first flight in a heavier-than-air machine
by the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk. Among the features of
this new plane were: wings with steel leading edges, movable
slats on the forward wing.... But the most striking feature,
the one that had the crowds gaping at this aircraft, was that it
had no propeller. |
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Institutionalized Lying—Marien
Helz |
March |
The Good Life...—Kevin Siepel |
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...A
social service official explained that it was typical for the
time when this woman was “in the system” for children to be
switched from home to home—contrasting to the thinking now when
the emphasis is on some type of permanence. As a result, this
individual and those like her are unable to get any medical
records of their family and, as a result, cannot know their own
medical history. In cases like this, in which the person was
switched from one family to another four times, she can’t even
say... |
Photography
by
Charles Bartolotta |
[The
circus], we were told in many ways, prides itself on treating
its animals well, and indeed—despite (as I later discovered)
allegations by animal rights activists to the contrary—I saw
nothing to suggest that they do not. The owners push this
point, doubtless because of their adversaries, but also because
we are all conditioned to viewing captive animals with pity, and
their captors with suspicion.... I generally... find my
conscience working overtime to justify their captivity. |
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The Old Church—Marien
Helz |
February |
Of
Mouse and Man—Charles Miess |
Among the
black and white photographs by Charles Bartolotta on the arts
page last month is one of an old church. The roof is
disintegrating, the sound slats of the bell tower are broken and
some are missing. Boards have fallen from the clapboard
siding. The wood has weathered and the paint worn off.
Eventually, the building will sink into the under growth around
it.
Looking more closely at the picture, one can see proof that the
church was built... |
Poetry
by
Joy Walsh |
When we first moved to that
old house, my mother was alone at night while my dad worked. She
crocheted by the light of a kerosene lantern and kept vigil over me and
my older brother and sister [and a box of 100 chicks] while we slept.
The upstairs had been cleared of the onions and squash, but the rats
remained.... As the night grew longer, the rats grew bolder and
soon they were thumping down the stairs to grab the chicks. Few of
the hatchlings survived ... that night. |
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The
Gulf Between Candidates—Charles Miess |
January |
Conjugating Verbs—Marien
Helz |
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For this presidential election, we
perceived the gulf between the two candidates to be wider than
ever before. We went to the poles in record numbers. Our
passions ran deep as some of us defaced bumper stickers, pelted
political offices with rocks, and committed other acts of
vandalism against supporters of the opposing party....
Sadly, most of our debates were rich in parochial detail and
emotion, but impoverished in global insight and wisdom. |
Photography
by
Charles
Bartolotta
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Bertrand Russell, twentieth century mathematician and logician, was
famous for things like discovering Russell’s Paradox and receiving the
Nobel Prize for literature, and was notorious for things like being
often married—Elizabeth Taylor’s counterpart—and was several times fired
and jailed for, of all things, being opposed to war. One of his
more light-hearted “discoveries” was his conjugation of verbs.
Verb conjugations, if you remember .... |
