Wednesday, March 21, 2012

My Life as a Poor Little Rich Girl



Image: Huguette Clark
Huguette Clark as a teenager.

I have devoted way too much time over the past couple days reading about the mysterious Madame Huguette M. Clark.  Huguette Clark May 24 2011 Obituary in the New York Times

I am not sure, yet, why I am so fascinated. MSNBC has an extensive archive of stories about her - from her father's climb to become one of the richest men in the nation, her life as an eccentric heiress and recluse, her paintings, her convicted sex offender accountant, and the jewelry collection now up for auction.

According to a 2012 New York Times article on her three(!) apartments on Fifth Avenue, “It was like going back in time 100 years,” one potential buyer said. “There was oak paneling and original wood floors, and in the kitchen there were appliances from 1915. It was a throwback.” There are no published photos of her past the 1930s.  She is frozen in time.

I can daydream about "my" life as a poor little rich girl in the early 1900s, but this is a daydream for my ancestors had a very different life in Oklahoma as pictured here in 1908.


My father's father, Wallace, is standing behind his father

January 1, 2013 -  an update on the Huguette Clark story

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Meditation on the Light in Spring


I walked the nearly two miles to Quaker meeting this morning, and returned that way. The sun had come out after raining steadily for a few days. It sure picks up the spirits to revel in the blue sky, the sunshine, the loud glad bird songs, and the bursts of blooms in every direction. I saw metaphors for the Light in nature where I’d not seen it before.

Besides the lengthening of the days, two articles in Western Friend have been inspiring my meditation on the Light. In January/February 2012 issue, the Pacific Yearly Meeting’s delegates to the World Conference of Friends describe why they are going and their hopes for their trips.

How often have we’ve heard the admonishment not to hide our light under a bushel? The article quotes the Gospel according to Matthew, “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house….” Matthew 5:14-16. I don’t think it makes a difference how perfect you are at being a Quaker – your measure of the Light is a continuously evolving thing and it grows with shining.

In the March 2012 issue, Strawberry Creek Friends Meeting (Berkeley, California) shares their conversation on the meaning and significance of that Quaker expression and custom, “to hold in the Light.” The article quotes the explanation in Pacific Yearly Meeting Faith & Practice (2001): “to desire that divine guidance and healing will be present to an individual who is in distress or faces a difficult situation; also, to give prayerful consideration to an idea.”

A member of Strawberry Creek Friends Meeting starts her answer to the question ”What does the expression “holding in the Light” mean to you?” with “to establish a sense of connection between God within and God without.”

After being raised as a Quaker by parents fully involved in their Meetings and then the erratic observance during my 20s, I became a convinced Friend around my 30th year. It was a revelation to me to understand that not sharing a leading in Meeting for Worship could be a selfish act. The homey image of a lamp placed in a room so that everyone there benefits from its light, the reminder that we look for the expression of the Divine in ourselves as we do in others, suggests to me that as Jesus taught us about God’s call to man, we teach as well. We teach in many ways, big and grand as well as small and mundane. Nor, can we know what who will be touched or will be our teacher.

One of the members of the delegation to the World Conference describes the Quaker tradition she was raised in and how her experiences as an adult have exposed her to other Quaker traditions. So, one of her desires for her time in Kenya with Friends from all over the world is learn more, “It is fascinating to me that we all have the same roots and yet have ended up in different place.”

By holding ourselves in the Light we are led to greater openness. We find that acceptance of others easier. The Light can only illuminate, shine a bright lamp on, our oneness with each other. If there is that of God in everyone, then it follows that God or the Light shines in me. I speak to that of God in me. If being opened to the truth is good, can’t it be even better when we find ways, conscious or unconscious, prepared or spontaneous, to share this measure of our Light.