05.26.10
Posted in Uncategorized at 3:23 pm by admin
I hear more and more that the United States is becoming more polarized… that our leaders in Washington are much more worried about attacking each other than they are about finding solutions to our economic, environmental and social woes. Popular wisdom has it that mudslinging has reached an all-time high… that Tea Partiers and Coffee Partiers are fighting battles hotter than their beverage of choice and can find no common ground(s). CNN and Fox News seem to be objecting to being objective and disagreeing on not only what is right and wrong, but what is real and unreal.
On this Memorial Day Weekend, as thoughts turn to those who serve, have served, fought and died in the US Armed Forces, we sometimes wonder if even they know what they’re fighting for… After all, we as a country can’t even agree on what is real and not real, let alone what is right and wrong… and we’re not being shot at or dodging IEDs thousands of miles away from our homes and loved ones. Soldiers fighting in our current war in Afghanistan have a relatively clear-cut mission compared to those who fought in the US Civil War, where brothers fought brothers. It must have been very hard for them to know what they were fighting for when their families couldn’t even agree.
The truth is they do know — there is no argument about what they fight for. It is not for the government, the president or any political party. They don’t fight for the country itself nor is it for the flag, mom or apple pie. When US soldiers go to war, whether it be in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, National Guard or Coast Guard, they go to fight for one thing. And that thing is less than a piece of paper and greater than the greatest army on earth. It is for the ideas that make up the United States Constitution.
The United States armed services are unique in that when they enlist, their oath is to a set of ideals. They don’t swear to defend god or country or king or state or flag. To them, all of that is second to a document that puts the rights of individual citizens as paramount.
In fact, US soldiers swear to defend the constitution against any enemy foreign or domestic. Every officer from the president to a lieutenant is sworn to disobey any order that violates the constitution of the United States. What a way to set up an army. Here’s a gun — now you have to obey me unless I get out of line.
At the end of the day, all of us — coffee party, tea party, beer bash (I’m starting that one) — agree that our right to discuss, to disagree, to speak our minds and to not worry about who might be listening is worth fighting for… and dying for.
And we owe an eternal debt of gratitude to those who took this oath, an oath that at they were willing to sacrifice everything for.
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; That I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.
Photo credit: Arlington National Cemetery by Bruce Dale, published in National Geographic, June 2007
Permalink
01.01.10
Posted in Uncategorized at 2:56 pm by admin
For three years now, a friend of mine has been after me to write a New Year’s resolution. But he doesn’t want just a resolution, he wants a goal from me, a statement of intent, a to-do list for self realization.
He writes a goal for himself every year, tracks it and reports on the results when the year is done. He has annual goals and life goals. And every year he goes a month or so at the beginning of the year expressing his disappointment at my inability to draw my own life into such sharp relief. At the end of each year he laments that I have let another unplanned, unfocused year pass by.
I don’t disagree that having a life goal and mission would allow me to accomplish greater things and perhaps even draw greater satisfaction from life. But my problem is, and has always been, that the decision of what is important enough to commit my life to seems to demand the prerequisite of knowing what is important in life. And I just haven’t figured that out yet. What if I would commit my life to the wrong thing? Wouldn’t that be terrible?
So instead of taking a chance on committing to the wrong goal, I commit to none — and go about being living proof of the John Lennon quotation, “Life is what happens when you are busy doing something else.”
But like John Lennon, my life is not without accomplishment. Though I haven’t changed the face of world culture as he did (yet anyway), I have created a life for myself that would have been beyond my dreams graduating from college. I write for a living — I’m deeply involved in my passion of music. My job also takes me outdoors a great deal — and I get to run a kids’ camp during the summer. I have three boys, an unbelievable wife, and live in a great community where I have met a lot of fantastic people. All of this is without benefit of life goals.
The funny thing is if I would have set life goals for myself — these things would have been key. I look at Ed Boyce, the guy who founded Innsbrook, and wonder if our 8,000-acre community was part of a grand plan he had. Some how I doubt it. And yet he has accomplished so much and has affected so many lives in a profound way.
I have a theory. Perhaps achievement goals really aren’t what are important. I have tossed around on the tide like flotsam and jetsam without a tiller and still have been gently deposited on the island of my dreams. The only thing I can figure might have guided my course is that I have always done the things I love and have done them as well as I could. I think there is probably something to the idea that when you focus on what you love and are interested in, those things are drawn to you.
So perhaps by not being always focused on distant goals, I was better able to see what was there in front of me, not missing opportunities. Often the heart is a better guide for living in the present than the mind.
So here I sit, lack of resolve wholly intact. And I am facing the prospect of breaking the news to my friend that once again, I am without a New Year goal.
But perhaps this year I can find a little red meat to throw him (or baked quinoa in my case). I think the resolutions that make real sense are those that help us live better in the present — exercising, eating well, sleeping more, spending time with those I love, being outside, laughing, writing, discussing and reading.
I have come to the conclusion that my boat seems to work well without my hand on the tiller so I’m content to leave my destination unknown. But living well could provide a fresh set of sails to make the trip that much better.
Permalink
07.08.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 5:51 pm by admin
Every once in a while I get a ration of trouble from someone about working for an elitist, gated community.
My comeback is always, “everyone is welcome in, we just have to know who’s here in order to keep unattended second homes safe”.
Usually that gets and eye roll and that’s the end of the conversation. But I always want to shamke the person and say, “no…you really don’t know how wonderful the people in this community are”.
Innsbrook people will do anything for you and always want take part in what’s going on. They are an adventuresome, social and easy-going bunch. And more than anything, they seem to love to see and do. They also are not easily discouraged as we saw this Independence Day.
Every year Innsbrook celebrates Independence Day with one of the largest fireworks shows in the Midwest and the entire cost of the show is donated by Innsbrook Property Owners and vendors. And there are always about 10,000 people out to watch the display over Lake Aspen.
This year, as the moment was arriving for the first shells to be fired in conjunction with the Star Spangled Banner, the clouds absolutely opened up.
This was not just a sprinkle, it was a gully washer. The rain kept up for about 20 minutes and torrents of water flowed down the hillside, over Lionshead beach and into the lake.
Most folks were prepared for the weather and didn’t leave their lawn chairs. Others ran for cover beneath hospitality tents or with neighbors. Others retreated to their cars to wait out the storm.
During the storm I watched the American Flag across the lake in the fireworks field. It was clearly visible in the flashes of lightning and between waves of rain. I found myself wondering if maybe that’s how Francis Scott Key felt as he sat on the ship in Baltimore Harbor, looking at Fort McHenry, with the “bombs bursting in air, giving proof through the night that our flag was still there”. I could imagine him hoping to see the flag, but I also could imagine that he was resolved to see the flag, almost willing it. We Americans are good at that — willing our way to success. Even in days when people believe Americans have lost their resolve, it still seems to show up when needed.
When the rain was finished, the announcement went out that the show would go on and there was a huge cheer from the crowd.
The opening bars of the Star Spangled Banner rang out across the lake and the soaked crowd stood as one, to salute a symbol that stands for the “home of the free and the brave” today due to the resolution of so many.
The following pyrotechnic display was the best I ever saw. We didn’t need a rainbow to follow that thunderstorm — we created our own rainbow with it’s own thunder. And it didn’t hurt that the retreating storm echoed the aerial blasts with flashes of lightning in the distance.
Following the display, the crowd gave the loudest applause I have ever heard at an Innsbrook Fireworks show.
As the crowd started back to their cars, I heard one soaking wet little boy say with a huge smile on his face, “this was the most awesome night ever”.
I heard later, a lot of the surrounding cities cancelled their shows or moved them to Sunday. But as I thought about Francis Scott Key, and the little boy who stuck it out and had ”the most awesome night ever”, I came to the conclusion that a little resolve definitely has its rewards.
Permalink
06.24.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 5:28 pm by admin
Here at Innsbrook once a year we hold a classical music festival where some of the most wonderful artists working today gather for 10 days of phenomenal music.
We mostly focus on string and piano chamber music with some woodwinds and brass thrown in for good measure.
But there is something strange in hearing the first notes of cello or violin as the festival starts. Certainly there’s a great feeling of anticipation and happiness that this beautiful music has returned to our community. But the strange part is that deep down I always experience an uncanny sense of familiarity.
Like a lot of those deep-down emotions, I really don’t know where that feeling comes from — it’s not like I have a violinists following me along Innsbrook’s nature trails, or a pianist on board as I paddle around Lake Innsbrook and I swear there is no cellist in sight as I sit on my deck and watch the trees sway.
And yet, as I listened to Chris Shmitt perform a Chopin barcarolle for the first time I feel a familiarity, listening to David Requiro preform Cassado’s Danse du diable vert, I’m overwhelmed with a sense that something that I always new deep down to be true was being demonstrated before me for the world to see. It was an odd mix of vindication and jubilation Click here to hear.
But why — why the familiarity? Why the feeling of confirmation? Why do I want to yell “See! See! I told you so!” in a hushed concert hall while a world-class musician performs?
Usually when my mind plays little tricks on me like that I tend to take the “ignore it and it will go away” strategy. But this feeling was not so obliging. In fact when I heard our Innsbrook Orchestra play Barbar’s Adagio for Strings, ignoring the wash of familiarity would be like ignoring an ocean wave as it rolls you “gently” through the surf.
Barber’s Adagio is familiar — not because it evokes sense of American soldiers being fired upon in the movie Platoon — it is familiar because in spite of that unfortunate connection, Barber’s masterpiece traces the landscape of our lives.
It follows the pattern of our striving, our celebration…yes even glory and then it gently sets us down again. The first part of the part of the adagio introduces a hero and then follows that hero as he ascends toward a discovery of his ultimate potential. About three quarters through the music absolutely soars, like the sound of a chorus of stars — it’s a perfect crystallization of light and music. I know that’s corny, but I have never been able to think of a better analogy.
Authur Sullivan wrote a poem called “The Lost Chord” as his brother lay dying. he likened a chord that he stumbled upon to “a harmonious echo from our discordant life”. Sullivan went on to say that the music “layed on his fevered spirit with a touch of infinite calm”.
After the revelation of the chords, the adagio gently drifts back to earth, almost reminiscent of a leaf drifting gently down. That’s probably why Barber’s adagio is so often used in memorial services. It was even performed as a tribute to the 9-11 victims in 2001 with Leonard Slatkin conducting.
But to be used as only as a memorial is somewhat of an injustice to the adagio. It is much more about living than about dying. It is a “harmonious echo to our discordant lives” as Sullivan so aptly said — as is the other music that we enjoy at Innsbrook every June.
Living day to day can be like sitting in a orchestra playing our parts. As we are surrounded by the musicians in our section and then the rest of the orchestra, it can get pretty discordant at times. In fact, there are times that we’re not sure that what we do makes sense at all. But when we hear it come back as an echo mixed with the rest of the orchestra — that is the world around us, it all makes sense. There is harmony in the music we hear!
And when those echos show up in the music we are blessed with every June at Innsbrook, the sounds that left us in caucophany come back blended with the rest of the universe in perfect harmony, we want to stand up and yell, “See! See! I knew it made sense! I told you so!”
Permalink
06.04.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 2:07 pm by admin
To listen to the news of the day (I wouldn’t recommend it), it is beginning to feel like everything is gloom and despair, that the world’s economies are sinking into an intractable mire. And what’s more, it seems economics has become the ultimate measure of worth.
But there’s a reason that economics is known as the “dismal science”. The measure of wealth really has very little to do with the measure of meaning. That is why taking time to create music in the midst of such economically challenging times seems to be such an act of optimism.
It is a statement that although the world’s economy is in recession and we are all feeling it at some level, we continue to create beautiful music together at Innsbrook. We are all cutting back to the bare necessities. and what is so wonderful is that music turns out to be one of them.
I can’t imagine a more optimistic message than that.
Permalink
05.27.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 4:17 pm by admin
Hiking in the mountains is a special kind of misery.
A day of treking might include elevation gains of thousands of feet. Hikers will find themselves scrambling over boulders, hopping from rock to rock or climbing for hours on an ankle-twisting trail. The weather can go from a roasting sun to a bone-chilling hail storm in a matter of minutes and then end with icey winds as you sit perched on atop a snowfield after crossing an exhausting pass. And this is all going up — down is harder yet.
In fact if you divide a week-long mountain trek into days or even hours, you find yourself saying “that hour was awful” almost every hour. And at day’s end as your 70-pound pack is trying to fling you into an abyss at every opportunity — you may start questioning your rationale for the journey. “Let’s see, I was climbing the first two hours — that was hard, the third hour I got rained on (with hail) and then the last two hours the sun came out and baked me as I climbed another thousand feet”. If you look at it hour by hour — the day was awful, but if you look at it as a whole — it was a spectacular experience, a day that will always be remembered.
There seems to be a paradox here. A day broken into it’s constituents is awful, but when you stand back and look at the whole trip – -it’s fantastic. It’s sort of like crossing into a dimension where time doesn’t mean anything. All of those miserable hours add up to a wonderful whole.
In physics, there’s something called the observer principle which posits that an observer inevitable effects the outcome of an experiement — especially when it is measured. For instance, if you are measuring electrons with light (photons) you change the behavior of the electron. If you are measuring heat with a thermometer, the mercury in the thermometor absorbs some of the heat energy being measured lowering the temperature.
Nowhere is this more true then how we measure our life and experiences. Looking at it in hours and days is almost always a let down. Thomas Edison spend years testing 3000 different theories of how a light bulb might work and eventually he tested 6,000 different candidates for filament material. Measuring his life by the hours he spent on that endeavor would be truly depressing — sort of like measuring your mountain trip based on how many steps you took.
But there are other answers!
At Innsbrook’s Memorial Day Party this year, a couple who has spent many years at Innsbrook asked me to take their picture. I obliged and afterward the gentleman told me that the photograph was to celebrate their first Memorial Day together since his wife’s life-saving surgery.
All the steps that lead to that moment were uncounted for them, the days and weeks of worry were left unmeasured. But another Memorial Day together at Innsbrook was to be counted and celebrated.
Later that weekend I bought a canoe at Innsbrook’s boat auction that I intend to measure this summer with. I know of a family at Innsbrook who had a tradition of after dinner cruises in which they would read “My Side of the Mountain” together on the lake as the sun set.
Their kids are grown now, and those cruises are part of the way they remember their experiences at Innsbrook. And As I watch my three boys sprout up, I certainly don’t want my time with them measured in years and months. I would prefer our yard stick to be the number of evenings we spent together on a still lake sharing a great book.
When we talk about “keeping time,” too often we mean how we keep track of it. Perhaps a better way to think is how we keep it in our hearts.
Permalink
05.20.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 5:48 pm by admin
…and at Innsbrook we’re celebrating with a weekend of fun and festivities.
To start with, we have a nice evening at Hanneken’s planned for Friday night. We have live music planned, and Ken, the restaurant manager, does a phenomenal job of making everyone feel welcome. The Germans have a word for it I believe — gemutlichkeit.
Then Saturday we have a crazy stream of events including a community run/walk, a model airplane flight demonstration with gliders for the kids, then it’s off to our Memorial Day party complete with live music by Serapis.
If you haven’t heard them before, they’re a wonderful combination of a lot of things — but maybe Grateful Dead meets Steely Dan would be a good start – -with a little Eric Clapton thrown in for good measure. Innsbrook property owner Gene Carrol is the base player and Innsbrook favorite “Big music” Bob Gleason is the drummer (long white beard — you know the guy).
The kids will have an opportunity to tie–dye bandannas they can use all season and there will be tones of inflatable fun stuff, cotton candy and snow cones. There will be a lot more to see and do.
Then following that — meet us at 8:45 p.m. for the movie Mama Mia. Yes it’s a musical completely woven around Abba Songs — but it’s a great family flick and I dare you not to be humming all the way home. Also it’s great to see how well Meryl Streep can sing and how definitely Pierce Brosnan CAN NOT.
Mass and church services at Harmony open up Sunday morning. I’m not Catholic and I will tell you that mass at the Farmhouse is one of the most wonderful religious experience I have enjoyed — it’s a true “Innsbrook Moment”. I would recommend it to everyone (if you’re worried about not knowing the Mass rituals, just stand when the person next to you does).
The Concert Sunday night is “Seven Bridges” an Eagles Tribute Band. Any group that names themselves after one of the most harmonius moments in Rock music must be OK — you know “There are stars in the southern sky…”. The Eagles are such a quintessentially American sound. As a group — they pretty much cover it all Country, Rock, Blues…It should be a nice evening in the farmhouse pasture — “I have a peaceful easy feeling”. You can’t get any more Innsbrook than that.
Monday morning opens with a Tennis Tournament and the great boat auction. Auctions are funny things — you’ll find yourself getting drawn in to the frenzy — no matter if you need a boat or not. It’s fun to watch the bidding and all the excitement.
So that’s it – three great days at Innsbrook. But what is more important than how we are going to celebrate is what we will celebrate – the reason for the season. While you’re enjoying great music, great food and the freedom of the great outdoors, the ability to worship as you choose – remember the men and women who fought so we can enjoy this incredible weekend together at Innsbrook. Try to take a moment to give thanks and remember. It will make all the fun that much sweeter!
Permalink
05.14.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 9:29 am by admin
We had more than 220 Innsbrook Property Owners fill out the movie survey. It’s great to have such fantastic participation in choosing our summer outdoor movies at Innsbrook. So without further ado, here are the results:
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – First place (46% of respondents)
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (35% of respondents)
Mama Mia (35% of Respondents)
Wall-E (25% of Respondents)
Following those were Madagascar 2 (24%), Hotel for Dogs (22%), Paul Blart, Mall Cop (20%), Bolt (18%).
The low end of the poll was Fly me to the moon 1%, Fanboys 1%, The Long Shots 1% and Igor 0% (I saw Igor with our kids — it wasn’t THAT bad).
We also got a lot of great suggestions about what OTHER movies to program (not on the new releases list).
There were quite a few votes for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. One person remembered the night we watched Harry Potter in the Farmhouse field under a full moon as a heavy fog rolled in. That was a magical night at the Innsbrook movies.
Other suggestions included a comedy night, Princess Bride, The Rookie and about 30 others.
So what will we program? That’s the hard part. Imagine a group of people coming to your house for a movie party that includes ages 4 – 84 and have a wide variety of tastes. Some people want to be assured that the movie will be G or PG. Others tell you they are tired of all kid movies.
The most vocal say they are tired of “Pixar-style” animation, but when you poll them, animated features are their fourth, fifth and with highest picks.
So in the end you try to choose several different types of movies so everyone gets to see something they are excited about — (as we do at Summer Breeze) and that way we present a good variety of things.
So, we’ll start the party with Mama Mia on Memorial Day Weekend and Indiana Jones on Labor Day weekend. The reason we skipped Benjamin Button is that it just isn’t that kid friendly — but we will add an adult night at the movies this summer where we will present it.
We will also try to do some spontaneous presentations if time and budget permits.
Permalink