When the Roll is Called Up Yonder….
By Helen Wheales | June 10, 2011
Learning to play the banjo has been on my “things to do before I die” list since the halcyon days of the Nixon Administration. It’s been on my Christmas List for at least 12 years–even Santa thought I was joking.
The desire to play stretches back to elementary school days when I first saw George Segal use his banjo in a comedy routine on The Tonight Show. Joking has always been my way of dealing with crisis, so I can only believe that I was drawn to Segal’s unique way of generating laughter.
My shift in interest from the minstrel-ragtime sound to the mountain music or Old-time banjo manifest over a couple of decades as I found myself drawn to learning about the Appalachian music tradition. I find a beautiful honesty in that music’s tales.
Life has a way of passing …and those of us who make it through another day seem to appreciate the blessing more and more as we rack up the years , I’ve found myself awfully sentimental, nostalgic,and most of all, aware that younger I am not a gettin’. This life–this present–has no permanence. If we are lucky, it will transform over time, but we all tuck away the secret fear that it could possibly change in an instant. Over the last year, I have been making a point to appreciate each and every day and to quote the Grass Roots, Lalalalalala live for today.
So that brings me to why I bought my banjo , and what I am struggling with as I wrestle with time and obligations to learn to play it.
First came the opportunity in the form of a side-job at work that gave me the extra cash to afford a step up from a beginner model. Then, came the elimination of my summer work from the university budget, allowing me time…or at least the false promise of some extra time.
I told my colleagues that the banjo was coming. I told my husband and kids. I don’t think any of them truly believed it would happen.
But after my spring courses came to a close and I had cash in hand, the banjo was delivered, and the fun began.
I started with Clawhammer Banjo from Scratch–lesson one, learning all the terminology, how to hold the instrument, and fretting the notes. I worked around baseball games, tournaments, other people’s sleep schedules, our pre-schooler’s schedule, housecleaning, errands…let’s just say life is getting in the way of living for today.
I practiced the right arm “clawhammer drop thumb” for an hour each day on the banjo for a week, and replicated the movement while shuttling kids here and there in the car, hoping to make the move second-nature. I started learning some basic chords and how to make a smooth transformation between them. Then, I moved on to Lesson 2, which required that I put my banjo in Double-C tuning. Plink, boing, Plunk–three strings were snapped and coiled in ten minutes time. I broke my toy!
So the waiting set in. No nearby music store had banjo strings in stock, so I turned to Amazon and ordered three sets. I turned to YouTube and felt fairly confident that I could –and should learn to –complete this routine maintenance.
A week later, I had strings and time to string and tune. The stringing was the easy part; the tuning took an hour with an electronic tuner. BUT, I never could get it in Double-C. So,I gave up and tried to get it back into the original G tuning. Just when I thought I would never “get it” and hear those strings sing as sweetly as they did the day I took the banjo out of the box, I tweaked a peg just right and heard by ear–not by the tuner readout–that I had nailed it.
At first I saw this as one huge setback, but now I feel satisfied at accomplishing this important step in the learning process. I’m not an expert at stringing and tuning, but someday….
Tonight I should have time to get back to learning a few chords and focus on finally learning to play a song. Maybe I should try ‘When the Roll Is Called Up Yonder.” I hope I can play by the time that my name is called, oh that’s provided my name is called! At this rate, I might be able to cross this off my “ things to do before I die” list before my hands are too arthritic to hold a pen.
Topics: Uncategorized | Speak Up Here! »
Health Care: Right or Responsibility?
By Helen Wheales | February 11, 2010
Neither.
It’s an expense.
Health care is an economic commodity, just like food, clothing, shelter, cell-phones, cable television, and X-box 360s. And the health care system is simply an industry, or rather, an amalgamation of industries that provide preventative, emergency, maintenance, and palliative care; pharmaceuticals and supplies, and insurance coverage.
It might seem a bit of a stretch to compare a “need” such as health care to a video game system, which is clearly a “want.” But consider that most of us put those wants ahead of needs like health care, and instead of putting aside money from each paycheck to cover for unanticipated medical calamities, choose to invest in the latest Blackberry, which like an automobile loses a requisite amount of its value the minute you step out of the Verizon store. Putting money aside for health maintenance and emergencies is the furthest thing from our minds, which is why culturally we have come to rely so heavily on health insurance.
When the rainy day comes, as it is bound to do by the laws of nature, we are quick to curse the weatherman for his faulty forecast when we could have seen the clouds rolling in and carried the umbrella.
We don’t consider food, clothing and shelter “rights” that we are all entitled to. They are, in fact, expenses…needs that we have access to through the labor exchange. If a citizen is unable to exchange work for money, and cannot afford housing, clothing, and food, there are means—some government, read: taxpayer supported—to provide. There is no need nationalize the food-manufacture and delivery system (although we do subscribe to an interesting system of government implemented agricultural price controls, but that is a topic for another blog). No one in Congress is calling for the nationalization of clothing manufacture, sales, and distribution so that the poor can afford what the middle-class and wealthy can.
OK, I admit that I am stretching the analogy and comparing apples to oranges. The fact is Americans need access to affordable quality health care. They can live with the Wrangler jeans donated by a charity or purchased for $5 at the Goodwill, if need be. They cannot live well without preventative care and without a physician’s care for maladies. That doesn’t mean that we are entitled to that care. It doesn’t make it a right.
That doesn’t mean that we can have the Xbox and insist that someone else pay for our child’s immunizations. It means that we have to live within our means and we have to view medical bills as costs of living.
After talking with my students last night after they read two articles on the subject, I’ve worked out a therapy plan for the crippled system.
Helen Wheales’ Health Care Plan
–Reform the current entitlement programs: All sides in this argument agree that the health-care system in the globe’s most free and wealthy society is not working as it could and should. I know that some on the Conservative side of the aisle and my Libertarian pals will cringe at the suggestion, but the government should start reforming Medicare and Medicaid by expanding them to cover those 45 million people that they claim are currently underserved. This, of course, is in opposition to HR 3299, the Health Reform Act that aims to cure the nation’s malaise by mandating coverage to all citizens, currently covered or not, and creating a utopian, public-sector program.
Ideally, I’d like to see the big-Ms privatized, which would iron out a lot of wrinkles, specifically where doctor access is concerned. Physicians are increasingly refusing Medicare/Medicaid patients not only because payments are slow in coming, but because they are low. This can’t get any better under the Obamacare consolidated insurance system—a single-payer system—in which salaried physicians are forced to accept a government-agency-determined pre-payment for delivery of care.
–Let market forces work their magic
It’s Econ 101- supply and demand. Demand is a want or need backed by the almighty dollar. Supply is the ability to keep up with demand. The market equalizes when supply and demand intersect. In the case of health care, this creates a consumer-driven market. Prices should fall for things like a standard physicians visit when physicians are allowed to compete for patients by lowering rates, packaging services, and offering monthly fees and packages.
Insurance prices would be considerably more competitive with carriers competing for consumer dollars in a way not unlike Allstate, State Farm, Geiko, Safe Auto, and Progressive insurance companies compete to cover our autos.
This situation currently does not exist BECAUSE of government intervention in commerce, which prevents interstate competition in the health-care insurance industry. Eliminating this roadblock would be akin to tearing down the Berlin Wall, freeing us to shop around, to use the Internet, to create a la carte plans not unlike what the aforementioned car insurance companies offer. Consumer choice would drive the market.
–Shift away from discussions of Rights and toward discussion of Responsibilities
All of us need to take charge of, take responsibility for, our own health care. That might mean we invest in health care savings plans, and it might mean changing our diets, getting the suggested exercise.reventative care and healthy lifestyles as a matter of choice could (and should) affect insurance premiums, just as our driving record affects our auto insurance rates.
–Tort Reform
Nothing would lighten the costs of most doctors more than an overhaul of the tenuous relationship between the legal and medical professions. Tort reform lifts the heavy load of the excessive malpractice-insurance and liability premiums, which are passed on to the health-care consumer. Instituting reasonable protections, such as an early settlement system for claims against doctors, a “safe harbor” system which protects them from non-evidence based lawsuits, and special “health courts” where judges specializing in medicine would afford speedier trials, lowering overhead and creating a more open medical malpractice system that could even weed out those physicians who shouldn’t be practicing in a manner not unlike that which strips members of the legal community of their licenses when they are deemed unfit to serve.
It is clear–major widespread changes are needed, but the current proposal making the rounds on Capitol Hill will not solve the problem and create affordable care that maintains, if not exceeds, the current quality of care we expect in the world’s most developed nation. Modest improvements won’t do the job, but neither will nationalizing the system.
Topics: Health Care Reform, National Politics, Uncategorized | 2,820 Comments »
On Pandora, ‘The Giver of Gifts”
By Helen Wheales | January 30, 2010
Nothing shifts my mood like music–my favorite music. This morning I settled in to my seat to finish off some grading in a less-than enthusiastic state. Sigh… another day, another round of student writers to coach.
I sign on to Pandora, an automated Internet music site, then toggle back to the student-essay file. Named after the Greek goddess who “sends up gifts,” it lifts my mood by launching into Led Zeppelin’s Traveling Riverside Blues, followed by the live version of Whole Lotta Love.
With this soundtrack lifting my spirit, not only do I breeze through the day’s workload, but I also start some writing that I hadn’t quite been able to push myself to do.
I discovered Pandora Radio about a year ago, while shackled in the silence of grading student essays. Unlike those students, my entire music catalogue is not housed in mp3 files, but on CDs and vinyl shelved in alphabetical order in my home office/family room.
Just as I need music to step up the pace and keep me moving toward my goals when working out, I need rhythm to move me from paper to paper, some harmony to inspire my feedback. But pushing that desk chair away from the screen, and poring over the possibilities in my music canon, can and does distract me enough to throw me off from the grading task. So, Pandora is a great alternative—she pulls the tracks that keep me moving.
The goddess Pandora has a bad rep in our mythology–she is, after all, credited with opening a box from which escapes all the evils and misery that plague us. In fact, there is much controversy over the interpretation of the Pandora myth that is wrapped up in semantics. Some say releasing evil was a bad thing, yet others claim the story has been misunderstood and that she really released blessings onto the world, rather than ills.
I take the more optimistic reading of the myth and see her as Hesiod does in Works and Days, as an innocent and curious woman who holds one last thing in her box—hope for humanity. I guess it all depends on how you look at it. Is your Pandora’s box half full, or half empty?
I feel blessed today. I’ve got another round of student writers to coach while listening to my favorite music.
Topics: Books and Authors, Media and Technology, Paper Pills, Teaching Writing | Speak Up Here! »
Lament for the Lost Library
By Helen Wheales | January 9, 2010
Teens make good use of the library. (From the TLCPL webpage)
Growing up, I spent a lot of time in my neighborhood branch of the Toledo Lucas-County Public Library. Sometimes I’d wander there alone and read for a few hours. Other times I’d go with friends, or meet them to do homework at one of the community tables.
The librarians–the Silence Police–would make their rounds, shushing anyone who talked above the allowed decibel limit, admonishing giggling kids, and bouncing those who made the library their playground. I recall once seeing someone ousted for throwing a paper airplane.
The library has changed quite a bit over the years, no thanks to technology and the desire for more funding. I’ve long lamented the draw of the computers at my local branch. Whenever I go in, the seats in front of the screens are filled with zombie children and adults feeding on their Facebook pages, online games, and instant messaging. While computers were added to libraries everywhere as a means of providing unlimited access to unlimited information, I don’t see much research and learning at those terminals…for a lot of the users, computers are for play.
When the Main branch added the televisions, I, too, mourned for the days when the library was a repository of learning material, not a repository of media, which isn’t always enriching nor educational. The counter arguments posit that libraries are community gathering places, and that the definition of text is so flexible that as technologies advance, so must our recognition and acceptance of alternative texts.
Yesterday, I learned that the TLCPL has added video gaming to its offerings. As part of their new hip teen areas, The Main Library and Reynolds Corner branch have installed the Wii, X-Box360, and Playstation 3 in areas where, according to its press release, 13-18 year-old-teens can, “…test their skills, learn and play games solo or in groups of 3 individuals.”
The press release also includes this notation, in bold, ”According to the American Library Association, some 75 percent of public libraries support gaming, by offering computer or board gaming, circulating games, or offering gaming events, areas and programs.”
WHY? Because it brings patrons in? Because those patrons have to use their card to circulate the items, thus signifying the “need” for even more public funding? And why the use of bold text as a rhetorical tool? Was spokesperson Rhonda Sewell expecting to be questione about the necessity of video-gaming?
Libraries in the state of Ohio suffered significant blows in the governor’s last two budget adjustments. Our local library system was quick to respond with an advocacy plot, petitioning library users to call or write the state reps and the governor to demand more money for the library. Along with this came the dire news that the libraries would not be able to offer the programming they always have. Hours would be limited. They would not be able to purchase the volume of books, CDS, DVDS, that we had grown accustomed to…
But they have funding for video games and the systems that run them? It’s all good for the kids, they’ll tell you–fostering community, engaging them in problem-solving, improving their hand-eye corrodination,
I argue that had the library stuck to its traditional mission–a public source of information–rather than an entertainment venue and/or computer lab, it would not be so strapped today. I admit that I have benefitted from borrowing vdeos/DVDs and CDs without charge for years and years, but is that really the library’s mission? To provide community access to feature-length films? Don’t get me wrong: Funds used for expanding the film section could have beeen relegated to media, educational media that is more difficult for the average citizen to access, like independent documentaries, for example. These would be more in keeping with a library’s mission than circulating The Star Wars Trilogy.
I was shushed plenty of times by those Draconian librarians at the Point Place branch. It directed me back to my task and reinforced the idea that we need quiet to read and to absorb ideas. The library doesn’t seem to be the place for that anymore. But if not there, where?
Topics: Books and Authors, In The News, Media and Technology, Toledo Alive! | 6 Comments »
The Power of the Pen
By Helen Wheales | December 27, 2009
I stopped in Borders today with no intention of grabbing anything in particular. When my son wandered over to the Young Adult table, I decided to look for a couple of texts that were on my Christmas list, but didn’t show up under my tree…and none were available in store.
So, I ended up picking up a copy of The Federalist, which is available online. This Modern Library edition is edited by Robert Scigliano, a Boston College political-science professor. His substantial introduction to the papers provides background that I wouldn’t get from the online versions, and an interesting perspective on some of the controversies surrounding authorship of the 85 commentaries.
From this intro, I gleaned something of significance to my teaching this semester that I hadn’t before considered. My students rarely understand the power writing can have. Most consider it something that they do in exchange for a grade. It is quite a struggle to convince them that to write is to create knowledge, to express, and to participate in civic discourse.
I plan to use The Federalist Papers to demonstrate the significance of argumentative writing to their lives. I won’t assign them as reading, but I plan to provide them as an example–Alexander Hamilton had a problem. He had to convince the state delegates to ratify the Constitution forming a national government. If they did not, each state would be completely self-governed.
Hamilton and other Federalists had had no luck convincing the hold-out states, so he brainstormed and came up with a plan to write a series of newspaper pieces that would, “…present a full discussion of the merits of the proposaed constitution in all its relations.”
He enlisted John Jay and James Madison to co-author in their areas of expertise…and the plan worked. By the power of the pen, the citizens and state delegates were persuaded by the written word. Without persuasive writing, the United States of America would not exist.
Will my students be awed? Doubtful. But perhaps it will give them something to think about as they pen their own arguments.
Topics: Books and Authors, National Politics, Teaching Writing | 290 Comments »
