Celebrating Sixteen Years

Flickr Ben Verrall

     In February 2004, I sent out my first e-letter. I had been writing a page, about 500 words, every day since June 25, 2002. I had pages upon pages of ramblings which were supposed to have been a book that chronicled my fiftieth year. It was a great idea but the writing was to introspective with whiney undertones. I was wondering, however, what to do with all my writing. I ran across a few examples of letters written by a Philadelphia born Armenian lawyer, Aram Kevorkian. He lived in Paris and started sending out monthly letters to friends and family on legal matters. Aram had passed away in December of 2003. Almost immediately, the idea of writing a monthly letter. My friend who I commuted into the city with, Marilyn Davidow, named the letter, This Side of Fifty: A Monthly Letter of Musings and Meanderings.
     I sent out a monthly e-letter to family and friends faithfully. It was a lot of fun and a great project. I emailed it to a list that grew to around 450 people via yahoogroups. People suggested I make it a blog but for several years but resisted mainly because I did not have any more time to dedicate to writing or a writing related project like starting blog. With the Great Recession, however, I had plenty of free time and created the blog you are reading now. I continued to send a monthly e-letter which I also posted on the blog. By 2015, I had basically stopped sending monthly letters by email and was exclusively using this blog. My monthly letters averaged about 2,000 words. I blogged more often with posts being between a quarter to a half of that e-letter word count.
     When I began this project, I used to handwrite everything first. That began to change when I bought an iPad in 2010. I found myself writing more and more on my iPad that had a Bluetooth keyboard. When it came time to by another iPad, I opted for the smaller screen MacbookAir on which I am typing this piece. I do miss the handwriting but the convenience of having everything digital and stored in the cloud is just too convenient. These days I also clip articles and jot down ideas for future bloggy bits on Evernote.
     This has been a great avocation and hobby for me. I always wanted to write and be a writer. Mostly, I envisioned being a famous novelist, poet, or commentator. Basically, I thought I would make my living writing. That was not to be. Actually, even at this age, I think it a possibility. OK, I am not a professional writer, but I am a writer. I write because I want to, I enjoy it, and feel like I have something say.
     In my last post of 2018, I basically made a commitment to self-publish The Best of This Side of Fifty. If you have any favorites, let me know. Happy Sweet Sixteen from This Side of Fifty.

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The most read posts are on this blog are:

• The Detroit Lions
• Rabbit's Feet
• For Love of the Music: Hachig and Richard
• Never Give Up!
• Coexist Bumper Stickers
• The Dog Ate My Homework
• Dixie Cream Donut Flour
• Cooley High School
• Sweet Voice
• Overwhelming Perspective

MEME: Talking with Elham and Hannah

Elham

     As readers of this blog know, I am a proud member of the Middle Eastern Music Ensemble(MEME) of the University of Chicago. Under the engaging leadership of Maestro Wanees Zarour, we perform three concerts a year. The Turkish concert in the fall, the Persian Concert in winter, and the Arab Concert in the Spring. The orchestra is 30 – 40 members strong, depending on the concert, and I am not exaggerating when I say that each performance is better than the last. It is a real honor to play in this ensemble and everyone feels the same way.
     This is third time I am writing about my fellow musicians in this blog. This time, I have the honor of interviewing our superb cellist, Hannah Vis, and our amazing tar player, Elham Beheshti. 

What does this music mean to you?

Hannah: The first experience I had with Middle Eastern music was in 2011 when I joined MEME. What draws me most to the actual music is the beautifully rich culture and the way the music sounds. The more I learn though, the more I realize there is to learn (especially since I didn't grow up learning or listening to Middle Eastern music). Being in MEME, a musical group consisting of a mix of masters of the tradition, newcomers, and everyone in between, I have found there are a lot of people to learn from. 

Elham: As an immigrant, it is always really important to be connected with my background and homeland. I really want to be identified as an Iranian living in the US. The Persian Concert is so important for this. But beyond that, the music stirs my soul and moves my heart

What has being part of MEME meant to you?

Hannah

Hannah: MEME has meant community to me. MEME has never been a place to just rehearse, pack up, and leave. The members of the group are inviting, warm, and friendly. You really want to stick around and socialize. The director and the ensemble members cultivate this special environment. It is an honor to play with such a wonderful group of people. 

Elham: I have to agree totally with Hannah. I have made some wonderful, life-long friends, in this Ensemble. It is amazing that we have such a large ensemble of Middle Eastern and Western instruments that come together and create something so amazingly more than the small groups usually associated with Middle Eastern Music. MEME was a great blessing for me to play the tar seriously again.

What is your musical background? How you got into playing this music?

Elham: I started with music when I was ten. i went to a school of music for children in Tehran. We learned the basics of music playing recorders and other simple instruments. At the end of the year they were exposed to western and Iranian instruments. Long story short, I played violin six months but I was not feeling it. So, we went back to the music store and I bought a tar, the same one I am playing to this day.

I had three teachers in Tehran. The second teacher taught only listening by ear which is a very traditional approach. In high school, the famous tar player, Keivan Saket, became her teacher. He taught me notation and a more progressive style. I appreciate having learning both techniques and styles. I kept playing tar in high school and college. I also played tanbur and we had an ensemble, Saharvaran, and performed concerts from 2004 to 2006. 

Hannah: I grew up learning Western classical music on piano, voice, and cello. Music was always my favorite thing growing up and took precedence over sports or any other extracurricular activity. I learned about MEME in 2011 through an intro Middle Eastern music class that was once offered at the Old Town School of Folk Music. Wanees Zarour invited me to come join the ensemble. The rest is history! 

You have both played in the Turkish, Persian, and Arab concerts MEME. How do you differentiate between and relate to these three musical traditions?

Elham: I used to appreciate Arabic music before, but it has intensified having played three Arab Concerts with MEME. I really appreciate the musical selections in the Arab concert very much. I love to learn new things, so I was very excited to expand to both the Arabic and Turkish genres and I have really learned a lot. MEME gave me a wonderful opportunity to meet people from other cultures. It is a nice ensemble of people who really love Middle Eastern Music. We have students and people from all different walks of life and that is really beautiful. 

Hannah: I'm still learning about all three traditions and have enjoyed various characteristics of each. I have enjoyed learning about similar and different scales and the various intonations (e.g., quarter tones). The language, vocal technique, and ornamentations make each tradition sound unique. One thing I have really enjoyed about all three traditions is playing in different time signatures and rhythms than I grew up learning: 10/8, 9/8, and 7/8 to name a few.

What is your day job? Hobbies?

Hannah: When I'm not at MEME, I work in elementary schools as a Bilingual Speech-Language Pathologist. Other than MEME and the cello, I enjoy singing, learning about language(s), and cooking. 

Elham: I love to learn new things. My main hobby besides music is pottery. My PhD is in Computer Science. My research and passion is designing educational technology. In fact, I am leaving Chicago and MEME at the end of March to become a researcher in the New York Hall Science in Queens. I am excited about the opportunity but sad to leave MEME.

     The 2019 Persian Concert is Saturday, March 2nd at 7 pm and Sunday, March 3rd at 4pm in the Concert Hall of the Reva and David Logan Center for the Performing Arts. Come and see these talented ladies perform and wish Elham all the best as she moves to New York.

America will Never Be a Socialist County...

geneiustimes.com

     I tend to agree with this quote from President Trump that was part of his State of the Union address from one month ago.
     Yes. “America will never be a socialist country,” unless we start electing more representatives, senators, and, perhaps, even a President that are socialists. Could that happen? I am not certain I can say never. It could happen.
     I never ever thought that Donald Trump could have become President of the United States. Yet, here we are. His tough no nonsense message and his "Make America Great Again" branding resonated with enough people who voted for him. They voted for him despite weekly gaffs, errors, and crude and insensitive remarks that would have deep sixed any other Presidential campaign in recent memory. Enough voted for him, with or without Russia’s help, despite truthful vs. fake news, to get him elected.
     Immediately, about half of the country was besides themselves and started feeling disenfranchised themselves. They seem to be disenfranchised as much, albeit on the opposite political extreme, as the disenfranchised Americans that voted Trump into office. The Trump supporting disenfranchised felt so isolated that the wanted something different. They wanted someone to come in and shake Washington up. The wanted someone who would bring jobs back, stop illegal immigration, and fix the trade deficit. They wanted this because they bought into a promise, a campaign promise mind you, that by doing this our lives would be better than they were.
     The newly disenfranchised created by the Trump election, have a different point of view. They are shocked and dismayed that social programs that were in place and they valued were being dismantled by the President brought in to “shake things up.” The social programs they were hoping would someday be enacted, seemed farther away than ever. These folks had a voice in the last presidential election. It was Bernie Sanders and he made an impressive run only to have to yield the nomination to Hilary Clinton whose unlikability with too many moderate minded voters cost the democrats the election.
     In the vacuum created by the Trump election, we are now seeing a posse of Democrats running for President that include Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Kamala Harris. They all seem to be on Socialist side of the spectrum even though I am not sure if Warren and Harris appreciate be labelled as such. They are all left of center and espouse platforms that can easily be viewed as socialist.
    New York representative Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez has taken a lot of the limelight from the others and she is not even running for President at this time. She comes right out and calls herself a Democratic Socialist and is advocating for Medicare for all, free college education for all, federal jobs guarantee, and criminal justice reform. I hope somewhere in there she wants to fix up our crumbling infrastructure. How will she pay for it? More taxes and especially more taxes to the super rich. Even then, can we afford everything she wants? It doesn’t matter, if it is what people that are disenfranchised want to hear. If it resonates and gives people a good feeling about their future, they will gladly vote for her or Bernie or whoever.
     Health care and higher education costs have risen six times the rate of inflation. Half of the politicos will tell you that this is because there has been too much government involvement and the other half attribute it too not enough government involvement. They are both partially right and partially wrong. Polarized debates that have taken use from Bush to Obama to Trump and perhaps a socialist to follow seems like a system out of control and flipping between extremes. It is quite dizzying and dismaying to a centrist like me.

Text before You Call

someecards.com

     There was a simple social practice I recall from my youth. We would simply drop-by the homes of our relatives and close friends for a visit. I was quite a natural thing to do. Mostly it was on the weekends but even, occasionally, on a week night. We never called ahead. We just did it. If they were home, we would be invited in and we would visit for a bit.
     Others dropped by our house as well.  It was a reciprocal thing and it was never an intrusion. After all, they were family and friends. In fact, all of this dropping-by seemed to an acceptable practice in our Detroit Armenian community. Even when no one was expecting company, the coffee was immediately put on and, amazingly, a spread was soon on the table. In our teenage years one of my bandmates once summed it up perfectly, “no matter whose house we end up at, I am amazed at how quickly each of our moms can have the table set and full of food… and they never knew we were coming over.”
     This practice of dropping-by lasted up through when I got married and then it began to change. These days, I always call first to see if it would be ok to drop by. Doing so without a call simply seems intrusive. Calling ahead seems like the proper and polite thing to do.
     Recently, I have noticed a expansion of this practice to even making a phone call. Now, rather than call, I tend to text folks to see if it would be OK to drop-by. In fact, I am texting people, with increasing frequency, to see if it OK to give them a call them? My thinking these days is that a phone call is also intrusive, though not as intrusive as the drop-by has becomes
     I am not alone in this behavior. More and more, folks are texting me to see if it is OK to call and, actually, I appreciate it.
     Why have our behaviors changed? Certainly, we can attribute much of it to our ever-busier schedules. We are on the go, all the time. Our work days are busy, and those workdays have gotten longer do to phones, laptops, e-mails, conference calls, and even globalization. For the same reasons our work weeks have spilled into our weekends which have gotten more congested with errands, children or grandchildren activities, tending to aging parents, and still trying to have a social life. Our time is more valuable than ever and, so, we guard and manage the time more diligently. Thus, we appreciate a call to see it is OK to drop by versus a surprise drop by. And we appreciate a text to see if it is convenient to call. These are the new norms.
     The world has changed in other ways. We have amazing home entertainment systems are these days combined with Netflix and other streaming services. Every movie and series every made is theoretically available to us on-demand. Why go to the movies? Furthermore, with services Uber Eats and GrubHub people are ordering-in their favorite foods. Why go out to eat? It is easier, especially after or amidst a hectic work/school week, to simply hole up in the warmth and comfortable confines of our homes, our cocoons. More and more we value this solitude and thus appreciate less and less the unexpected drop-by or phone call we weren’t expecting.
    As far as I can see, this is not a new trend. In May 2006, I penned a monthly letter: Porches. In which I commented on how, in my lifetime, the very communal and social front porch has given way to the patio and backyard where we see and talk to our neighbors less frequently. We have moved to having man-caves, studies, and TVs in every room or entertainment on our cell phones. This provides the possibility to isolate ourselves even more in our own homes.
     

It is quite a dichotomy that in the world of growing social connectivity due to technology, many are craving more and more control of when we actually see and talk to others. On second, thought it might not be such a dichotomy…

The Challenge for Churches

factsandtrends.net

     I know better than to write about politics and religion. But, I have chosen to do so because of an online discussion on the topic in an MBA course on Strategic Management that I am teaching. 
     In the April 2017 issue of The Atlantic, an article, Breaking Faith, reported the following: 

Over the past decade, pollsters charted something remarkable: Americans—long known for their piety—were fleeing organized religion in increasing numbers. The vast majority still believed in God. But the share that rejected any religious affiliation was growing fast, rising from 6 percent in 1992 to 22 percent in 2014. Among Millennials, the figure was 35 percent. 

     According to Pew Research back in 2012: 

The number of Americans who do not identify with any religion continues to grow at a rapid pace. One-fifth of the U.S. public – and a third of adults under 30 – are religiously unaffiliated today, the highest percentages ever in Pew Research Center polling.
In the last five years alone, the unaffiliated have increased from just over 15% to just under 20% of all U.S. adults. Their ranks now include more than 13 million self-described atheists and agnostics (nearly 6% of the U.S. public), as well as nearly 33 million people who say they have no particular religious affiliation (14%).

     How are churches doing in terms of attendance to services and membership? There seems to a general decline even though some megachurches are clearly thriving. So, a question came to mind: How do churches stay relevant? The core beliefs have to stay true but there are a lot of changes happening around the edges. 
     It seems that technology and science move faster than religion can adapt. Just consider premarital sex, abortions, and gay unions/marriages that were always there to some degree but hidden from view due very strict church views regarding them. Now, some churches are struggling to deal with these changes while others have embraced them. How churches deal with them or how slow they are to adapt make churches less relevant to many folks. 
      Consider the advances of medicine. In past centuries, prayer and faith were perhaps the only thing people could turn to when a loved one took ill. Nowadays, prayer and faith are in addition to or hand and hand with medical science. 
     Consider when we had to grow or hunt for our own food and it was all done locally, we had to more thankful, seriously truly thankful, for our meals than we have to in today's world of abundance. We probably take that abundance too much for granted. 
     To me, religion has always thrived on answering one central question: what happens when we die? No one know for sure. We only truly have faith. In days of yore, the faith answer to these questions were more story based. Those dogmatic stories or answers have less impact in this uber (not the car service) connected world today. 
     I also see a dichotomy in free will vs God's will? The boundary is fuzzier than ever. People and, more so, churches use it however makes sense. If you sin, it was all free will. If someone dies suddenly in a car accident, we may attribute that to God's will. To me, everything is God's creation including the probabilistic nature of this world and our lives. When I am in church listening to sermons, I am often baffled how God’s will is evoked. 
     The Bible used to be the world's best self-help book. In a market flooded with self-help books on every need we have, how is scripture which was written and rewritten in the early days of the church 2000 years ago faring in that market place. 
     Oh my, is it indeed a market place? Churches are up against youth sports, school activities, 24/7 television, social media, books galore, streaming music and video services, dual working families, time management, etc. How do churches gain their share of mind and participation? 
     Consider two successful Chicago area churches. They are the Willow Creek and Harvest mega-churches. The founders or current head pastors of that church are currently entwined in sex and graft scandals that have to be devastating to the parishioners of those churches. How many will leave? Churches have to avoid scandal and criminal charges against their leaders 
     How do churches manage these kinds of changes and help people navigate these changes? How can churches help people understand and cope? Why are so many people turning away from churches for these answers?
     I believe churches have to offer what people want and need.  The have to do this while parts of this target seem to be moving faster than ever. Even though I am seriously thinking about this, I do not have the answers to these questions and concerns. I do believe that church leadership, clergy and laity, has to address them.
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We were Boy Scouts of America

Old Logo and Name

     On Friday, February 1, 2019, the Boy Scouts of America officially started to include girls in their ranks. They also dropped the word “boy” from their name and will be called Scouts BSA moving forward.
     This change has been in the works since October of 2017 when they announced their intent. In the interim, they have brought girls into the junior ranks: the cub scouts. As of yesterday, Scouts BSA is an organization for young people ages 11 – 17.
     I grew up in scouting. I was a cub scout in Pack 223 in Detroit. I truly enjoyed it. We had great Den Mothers who had great weekly crafts and organized some amazing field trips. When I turned eleven, and having achieved my Webelos badge, I became a Boy Scout in Troop 223. I was excited. The older boys in the troop were in high school. How cool was that? I kept at it, attending weekly meetings. I stuck with my troop based at Burns School even though they started a troop at our church where all my cousins were members. I did not want to switch and leave my friends that all started cub scouts together.
     We had four camp-outs a year and worked on advancing in rank. On meeting days, we wore our uniforms to school. Our troop was led by World War II and Korean War veterans. So, there was a definite military feel to our troop. We marched and had inspections. Overall it was a great experience and wonderful memory e.g. Winter Survival.
     Not everyone stuck with it, however. As we got older and went to junior high school, the priorities for many boys changed. They lost interest in scouting and dropped out. I stuck it through and proudly attained the Eagle rank when I was 15. It was a good thing too. I believe I would have lost interest in high school.
     Proudly, my son became a Cub Scout and Boy Scout when we lived in Connecticut. I was very proud when he, too, became an Eagle. I wonder if his sons, my grandsons, will become scouts. I would like to say, without a doubt

My Den in Pack 223 of the
Cub Scouts

they will. But times change. The pressures for young folks to specialize in sports, music, and other extracurriculars at younger and younger ages are quite high. Parents want to steer their children in extracurriculars that, if they excel at them, will differentiate them in a positive way when they apply to colleges.
     I am not sure Boy Scouts and the venerable rank of Eagle has that cache anymore if, indeed, it ever was. When I was getting my Eagle, I was told I was becoming part of a special group and that the becoming an Eagle would open doors for both college and career. I really bought into that notion but over the years I have come to believe that that is not the case. I am certain that being an Eagle helps boys know they can achieve longer term plans. It builds self-confidence, leadership, and the merit badge system allowed me to explore fields and interests I would have otherwise never pursued. I still recall what I learned from merit badges such as First Aid, Marksmanship, Public Speaking, Nuclear Energy, and even Art. I am forever thankful that I did and can say I am an Eagle Scout. For a time, in Connecticut I served as a merit badge counselor and enjoyed it.
     Back in the day, we had Boy Scouts. The girls in school joined the Brownies/Girl Scouts or the Campfire Girls. Basically, it was Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. I noticed that the Girl Scout ranks thinned faster than the Boy Scout ranks did as the boys and girls entered high school. I attributed that to the Girl Scouts not having a well-known crowning level of rank such as Eagle and the fact that the girls changed a lot more than the boys at that age.
     When I heard the Boy Scouts were going co-ed, my first thought was that the numbers must be dwindling and they saw this, seemingly unthinkable move back in my day, as a way to keep the numbers up and survive in today’s world. Surprisingly, I was not upset or offended in anyway but wondered why they didn’t just merge or team-up with the Girl Scouts to shore-up both groups and take advantage of administrative and leadership synergies. I was not alone in that thought.
     My viewpoint was bolstered the next day when I read an Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal by Davia Temin, a management consultant board member of the Girl Scouts for nine years. She didn’t hold back in her piece, “Don’t Let you Girls Become Boy Scouts:”

Earlier this month—to the shock of the Girl Scouts of the USA—the Boy Scouts of America announced it would soon allow girls to join the Cub Scouts. And the organization plans to debut an Eagle Scout program for girls by 2019. This move is a struggling organization’s attempt to stem its membership losses and improve its financial position by going after the 2.6 million girls and adults currently in Girl Scouts. 

The BSA has no dedication to girls or girls’ leadership. It has no deep commitment to creating “girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place”—the Girl Scouts of the USA’s mission. What the BSA has is financial problems after losing hundreds of thousands of members in recent years. The BSA’s plans are effectively a hostile takeover bid, calculated to pounce on what its leadership perceives as easy pickings—a weaker organization, led by women.

     On the official name change/girls can become Boy Scouts day, NPR had a thoughtful segment on it. I was listening to it on the way to the university on Morning Edition. At one point in the segment I just started laughing out loud:

Laurel Highlands [Pennsylvania] Council Scouting Executive and CEO Sharon Moulds said the most common question is whether these older scouts troops will be co-ed. 

"There are girl troops and there are boy troops," Moulds said. "Generally what people are concerned about is they think they're going to merge together ... that's never going to happen."

     Oh Sharon… If you asked anyone in back in my scouting days if they were ever going to let girls become boy scouts, the answer would have been, “It is the Boy Scouts… that’s never going to happen.” Now, I would ask her to be mindful of the Scout Motto and “Be Prepared.”

New Name and Logo