On Being is a NPR program I often wake up to on Sunday
mornings. Krista Tippett is an American journalist, author and entrepreneur,
who created and hosts this public radio program and podcast. In 2014, she was awarded the National
Humanities Medal by President Barack Obama. She has also won a George Foster
Peabody Award, and three Webby awards for excellence in electronic media. Her
book Einstein’s God, was a New York Times bestseller. After Tippett
graduated from Brown University where she studied history, she was awarded a
Fulbright scholarship to study at Bonn University in West Germany. She became a
freelance foreign correspondent, reporting and writing for The Times, Newsweek, the BBC, the International Herald Tribune and Die Zeit. Tippett received a Masters of Divinity from Yale
University in 1994. While conducting a global oral-history project for the
Collegeville Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research at St. John’s Abbey
of Collegeville, Minnesota, she developed the idea for her radio show, a show
she describes as “a social enterprise with a radio show at its heart.”
On the program
she interviews people with different beliefs. “The Tippett style” as described
by the New York Times, represents the
child of a small-town church, Yale Divinity School and the diplomat seeking to
resolve social divisions.
In a recent
interview with Jane Gross, a creator of the New
York Times “New Old Age” blog about the landscape of living longer and
dying more slowly, she gave advice and practical wisdom about caring for our
loved ones and ourselves on the far shore of aging.
Another
interview was with Margaret Wertheim on “The Grandeur and Limits of Science.”
She’s a passionate translator of the beauty and relevance of scientific
questions and is wise about the limits of science to tell the story of the
human self.
She has
interviewed Hannah Boyd, about “Online Reflections of Our Offline Lives,” Greg
Boyle, “The Calling of Delight: Gangs, Service and Kinship,” Mohammed Fairouz,
“The World in Counterpoint,” David Blankenhorn and Jonathan Rauch, “The Future
of Marriage.” This just names a few of the interesting programs she’s
presented. All can be accessed by Googling Krista Tippett and then going to the
archives where the programs will come up with video format.
However, this
past Sunday’s interview with Jean Vanier had me going online to look him up. He’s
an amazing man who at the age of 86 is still a tireless advocate for people
with disabilities. Vanier, the philosopher and Catholic social innovator, is
the teacher of the wisdom of tenderness. The L’Alche movement, which he founded, centers around people with mental disabilities, and is celebrating its 50th
anniversary this month. He strongly believes in humility, strength in weakness
and light in the darkness of human existence. He advocates tenderness and love
for others.
Some things I
took from his talk are that the deepest pleasure is doing well at what you do.
Our deepest desire is to be loved and appreciated that is in each of us. Years
ago he visited a home for the mentally handicapped in Paris and was touched by their
lack of anyone who really cared about them. He ended up taking two young men to
live with him. One could not talk and the other talked too much. Both were
mentally impaired. However, by showing he cared about them, they thrived.
That’s when he started the L’Arche movement.
He also said one
of the greatest pleasures we can have is doing good for others. I agree with
that since I’ve enjoyed delivering Mobile Meals more than seven years now. In
my county it is funded by local support instead of government funds. Trumbull
Mobile Meals started in 1970, and only a few in the office are paid employees,
the rest are all volunteers. It’s estimated that 80% of the volunteers continue
for years. The agency delivers more than 100,000 meals a year.
Subscribers are
charged a modest fee based upon their ability to pay.
I’ve gotten quite
attached to various people who I’ve delivered meals to over the years. They are
happy and pleased to see a smiling face, and I’m happy seeing their pleasure.
Nelly shared her
love of gardening with me giving me seeds from her Four O’Clocks that bloomed
by her driveway. She had a lovely backyard garden with vegetables and flowers.
I commiserated with her when her son took over her vegetable garden one year
and wouldn’t let her give advice even though he’d never planted a garden
before. She told me she didn’t know why she went on living. She was in her 90s,
too. A few months later she was no
longer on my route and a few months after that her house was put up for sale. I
don’t know where she went, but I haven’t seen her obituary so I assume she’s
living somewhere. I still miss her.
Robert is a
ninety-three year old veteran of World War II. He loves to tell me how he
bought the house he lives in, fixed it up and raised five kids there. He also
recounts how it took him three times trying to join the Navy. He kept getting
rejected because his front teeth were knocked out as a kid playing football and
they wouldn’t take someone with false teeth. On the third time he was rejected,
when out of view of the recruiters, he slipped into the acceptance line and
became a member of the U.S. Navy. He’s told me his story numerous times, but I
smile and listen as if it’s the first time I heard it. He has told me more than
once he is lonely. I hope someday when I repeat the same story over and over,
someone will be patient enough to listen to me.
I’ve bonded with so many more people on my
route, even a couple who didn’t want me to do more than leave their meals in a
basket by the door. I’d met each of them briefly, but the wife was suffering
from grief and anger over the suicide of her oldest son, a PTSD victim who shot
himself. She hated the doctors who treated him, everyone in the community,
etc., and she’d become a depressed alcoholic. Last winter, I got stuck in their
driveway in a deep snow drift. I called AAA, but was told it would be an hour
or more before they could get there so the husband asked me in. I sat with them
for several hours. The husband’s mother had died the night before. In the time
I was with them, I listened to them, commiserated with them and laughed with them
over their funny little dog and other things. Before I left I hugged the wife,
and she hugged me hard. I still leave their meals in the basket by the door
without seeing them, but that’s okay.
So much that we
listen to on the radio or TV is depressing. There’s a lot that is wrong in the
world. However, on NPR in addition to news that can be a downer, they have
programs like Prairie Home Companion, Car Talk, Story Core, Thistle and
Shamrock, and many others that are inspiring, make one laugh, informative, or uplifting in some way like “On Being” with Krista Tippett. It’s wonderful to
hear her guests who are making the world a better place in some way or another.
What do you do
for others that gives you pleasure?
What have others
done for you that made you feel good?
Whne my NPR stations carried Krista Tippett, I used to listen to her. Then I listened to downloaded podcasts, but somehow that got messed up and I've stopped getting them.
ReplyDeleteI do a fair piece of teaching between online and in-person bridge lessons. I receive a lot of pleasure when I see the light shine in someone’s eye (physically or electronically) when they understand a concept for the first time.
~ Jim
Beautiful Gloria. I love your comment about hoping that someday someone will listen to you tell the same story over and over again.
ReplyDeleteMy Dad lived with me when he was in his early 90s until his death. It was during this time that I realized that the elderly are invisible. Few take the time to listen, but they have so much to share. Over the years (and multiple renditions of many of the same stories) I realized that what he was really doing was validating his life. He kept telling these stories to prove (to himself?) that he had made a mark on the world. It made for a close relationship.
My passion is animals. I have served as a president of an Animal Welfare Organization and get great pleasure from donating time to the least among us.
ReplyDeleteJim, what you do is important because playing - and that is what every game is - is important to one's health both in the joy of what they're doing and in the case of a game like bridge, to one's mental health.
Kait, my father had so many stories to tell and was a remarkable man in so many ways. As he aged, he started forgetting things and it bothered him. I remember when we were at the hospital where my mom was having open heart surgery, he said "I know John (my oldest son) died, but I can't remember the funeral." This was two months later. He could remember things from long ago, but his short term memory suffered. Then he started telling the same jokes every time I saw him, and I always laughed and pretended I'd never heard it before even though Mom would say "John, you told that before." His youngest brother, who is six years older than I am, has the same problem now - not with jokes, but stories that he thinks are funny from the past. By the way, Kait, I'm an animal lover, too.
Sadly, there are many groups invisible to the public at large including people with mental illnesses and "throw away" children. I remember being in the hospital after a bone marrow transplant when I lacked the energy to do much of anything. A woman on the cleaning staff showed kindness and concern that really mattered to me. Caring was not part of her job description, but she did. At one of the lowest times in my life it made a tremendous difference.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to say I woke up to Krista Tippet but by the time she comes on I have already fed the sheep, and listened to two other NPR programs. By the time she is on I am driving to work. She accompanies me every Sunday morning on the drive. I can't say which of her guests I have enjoyed the most.
ReplyDeleteI did like the interview with the woman who talked about end of life decisions, especially what she had to say about society not valuing friendship enough.
I have a neighbor who has kids and grand kids in Buffalo. Now and then she takes the train out to visit. The train leaves at 4:30 AM and I will drive her to it if I can. I was at Malice the last time she needed a ride, so I missed that one. I get the most joy from teaching history to kids in such a way that they are interested and learn something.
In my youth, there were two individuals that were kind to me, when I needed kindness. In turn, I passed that kindness on to few people then. Both stories are long and complex so I won't elaborate. Today, I cook for my family when I'm sick of cooking, but I do it anyway.
ReplyDeleteThe only medium I really love is the written word. Although it cuts down on my knowledge of current events and popular culture, I just can't listen to the radio or watch movies/TV. People think I'm strange, but I just can't get into them.
ReplyDeleteWarren, when my son was in the Cleveland Clinic going through chemo, etc. He had a very caring doctor and also there was a young man who worked with teenagers who had cancer or other serious illnesses. He had a room set aside just for the teenagers to meet in, listen to their music, or play any instruments they could play. No parents or other family members were allowed in there so they could feel free to vent and talk about anything they wanted. When my son graduated - while still going through treatments - we had a graduation party for him and that young man drove all away from the other side of Cleveland with his wife to attend.
KB, you are a much earlier riser than I am. :-) Sometimes I'm up by 6:00 in the summer when the sun comes into my window. I remember the show you mention, but another one I liked was the preacher/priest? not sure which now, but has befriended the gang members in LA and what a difference he has made in so many of their lives.
E.B. I think cooking for others is a big kindness, especially since after years of cooking for my family, I'm tired of cooking. I listen to the radio in the morning when I'm eating
breakfast or reading TIME, in the car and in the evening when I'm fixing supper. I admit I
only half listen unless something really interesting comes on. TV? Right now it's on the
blink, but I don't care a lot because except for a few things on PBS, like the mysteries,
I'd much rather read, too. I think reading is important for writers, but even if I weren't a writer, I can't imagine life without a book to read.
I volunteer as a conversational partner for people learning English as a second language. I admire people who move to another country and work hard to learn a new language and culture. Also, I sometimes volunteer online at Tomnod to identify objects on satellite imagery. Their newest campaign is to locate villages across Swaziland as part of the Malaria Elimination Initiative.
ReplyDeleteThere have been so many people that have been good to me that I wouldn't be able to mention them all here!
ReplyDeleteKara, I think both of those things you do are so admirable. Like you, I have had so many people who have been good to me in so many ways, that I couldn't begin to mention them all.
I don't listen to radio, but this sounds like a nice program.
ReplyDeleteYou're a good person, Gloria.
Patg
Giving: So important. I work with people who live with mental illness, so I am one who "gets paid to care" which doesn't mean I care any less! So to volunteer, I do less emotionally intense things like volunteering in my cathedral's bookstore, and serving on the board of American Pilgrims on the Camino which supports pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago in Spain. On my vacations I volunteer/run hostels for pilgrims in Spain. So I say I clean toilets to give back. Beat that!
ReplyDeleteEB, You aren't the only one. I can't take much radio or tv either. I think I am too easily over stimulated on a noise level.
Nothing is more satisfying than seeing the people with whom you've worked succeed, especially if they succeed at something they didn't think they could do, but tried because you were instrumental in making them give the situation an honest try.
ReplyDeleteI think of the special education students who managed to get jobs (and work them successfully,) the kids who tried Job Corps and actually made it to graduation, even the ones who just tackled regular curriculum courses and managed to pass them.
Martha, I don't think "being paid" disqualifies anyone from "giving." People chose these jobs and professions because they care and want to make an impact. I shake my head at the people who feel teachers need to be "held accountable." I'll grant you there are some misfits, and some burn outs, but who would go into teaching unless they had a passion for helping students? It's not like people get rich teaching, or it's an easy job.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Pat, but sometimes I really feel I should be doing more than what I am doing.
Martha, it doesn't matter if you're getting paid or not, it's the caring that counts. My youngest daughter is a nurse and for quite a while she worked in a county hospital that took in the homeless as well ad drug addicts and the kind of people most people wouldn't deal with, but she took care of those and showed compassion for all of them even those who hadn't bathed in months. It sounds like you are that kind of person and to do all the other things you do makes you a really special person. And I can't beat that you're cleaning toilets. I don't even like doing my own. :-)
KM, I so agree with you. Teachers don't make a lot of money, we - you and I - chose those professions because we cared about our students. Yes, there are some who have burned out, but mostly they work hard and care about their students from the first class to the last class. I know I did, and knowing you, I know you did, too.
I really loved this blog. Your closing questions stayed on my mind. I like to do things for people but I wish I could do it totally in secret. I wish I could come to your farm and do the weeding and you could wake up and think the fairies had done it!
ReplyDelete