Summer Newsletter/The Mark Baumer Sustainability Fund (August, 2017)

Posted on August 6, 2017 by Jim

Summer Without Mark

I think most of us who live in a four-season setting treasure the summer months. Perhaps summer’s special place hearkens back to our formative years when the season meant no school. It’s certainly a time for outdoor activities and enjoying the natural world, all things that make us think about (and miss) Mark. Knowing we won’t be celebrating summer this year (and every year, hereafter) without him makes the summer of 2017 an especially difficult one as parents of Mark.

In a perfect world framed by the best intentions, updating donors and friends would be a priority. A newsletter, or a pithy email full of exciting projects supported by those generous and kind people who have contributed to the fund we began in honor of Mark and the things he cared about is something I intended to have done by now.

Of course, we haven’t been living in anything close to a perfect world since January 21 when he was killed.

As we enter August and what are known as “the dog days of August” in our northern reaches of New England, I’ve been stressing out about finally getting something newsworthy out to everyone. The writing or reporting out isn’t the issue, and there are certainly some really cool things that we’ve been able to jump into fairly quickly, while engaging with organizations and projects that are doing work that mattered to Mark. No, the issue is finding a format that doesn’t require a background in layout and design, a skill I often leveraged through Mark—he was very talented when it came to coming up with ideas, a logo, or even helping me develop and put together a book I was working on. Just another aspect of Mark’s talent and skill set that I’m learning to live without, along with all the other Mark things that are no longer available to us.

I won’t belabor the point other than to say that I’m a writer and I got stuck trying to find a newsletter format and a design template that allowed me to use my writing skills rather than fumbling, trying to find the perfect design and style. I think TinyLetter is what I was looking for. We’ll try it out for a bit and see how it feels.

For those of you who mainly want to know what we’ve been up to in terms of Mark’s fund, let’s jump right in. For others that know us and continue to be interested in how we’re coping with life without Mark, I’ve been writing regularly on my blog about the process of grief and things about Mark that I think might interest others. Like our trip to California this spring, journeying westward in Mark’s memory, finding some needed space and trying to bring some closure to a few things, including commemorating his first cross-country walk. Continue reading →

Marathon Monday

Posted on April 21, 2015 by Jim

My wife has a running friend who is volunteer team captain of the Maine contingent for the Boston Marathon. In early January, her friend sent out a Facebook message soliciting volunteers. Mary thought it would be fun to give something back at one of the elite marathons in the world, and asked if I was interested. I said “yes,” and consequently forgot about it.

About six weeks ago, emails began arriving, indicating that we were both in (Boston requires 9,000 volunteers supporting 30,000 runners, and they turn away many who want to be part of the volunteer brigade). We would spend Patriots’ Day in Boston, handing out water or Gatorade to runners streaming by Hydration Station 14 (at mile marker 14, in Wellesley).

Water from Maine fuels Boston’s runners.

Patriots’ Day is a big deal in New England, especially in Massachusetts. Boston.com and Roberto Scalese have a pretty darn good summation of the significance of the day if you live in the region:

Here in Massachusetts, Patriots’ Day is a big deal. More than 30,000 people gather in tiny Hopkinton and run towards Boston, some 26 miles away. The Red Sox play their only morning game every year. If the Celtics or Bruins have their act together, they’re just starting their playoff runs. Kids have the day off because Patriots’ Day is the start of April vacation week.

It’s a day of civic pride at the start of the spring. It’s a day to come together and congratulate each other for surviving another winter. It’s a day to drink. It’s a day to flirt.

Patriots’ Day is Boston Marathon Day.

Continue reading →

One Hand Clapping

Posted on March 31, 2015 by Jim

Are we still “a nation of joiners” as Arthur Schlesinger posited in an article for The American Historical Review in 1944? Maybe if joining Facebook counts.

The National Grange.

Once, we were a nation of associations and fraternal organizations. These included labor unions, like the old Knights of Labor and then later, the American Federation of Labor. Workers banded together against attempts to pay them less than they thought they were worth, and other exploitive tactics of Big Business. The farmers did the same thing, countering Big Business attempts to divide and conquer. These agrarian organizations were the “Patrons of Husbandry or the Grangers.”

If we’re slowly but surely becoming a nation of free agents, ala, Daniel Pink, does that mean that Whitey TM now has the upper hand? Where do we gather our strength and solidarity from these days? Continue reading →

Blaming the Poor

Posted on July 25, 2014 by Jim

For nearly 50 years, America has been at war against poverty. Actually, the battle has been raging for much longer than that, I was merely thinking back to Lyndon Johnson’s bold Great Society initiative, which was launched in 1964, mainly to address issues of racism and systemic inequality.

Actually, much of the social safety net was assembled 30 years prior, during the administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and the enactment of New Deal programs like the Social Security Act, the Works Progress Administration (WPA), and a host of others that were a direct response to the crushing economic collapse caused by the Great Depression. Historians refer to Roosevelt’s focus being on the “3 Rs”: Relief for the unemployed and poor, Recovery of the economy to normal levels, and Reform of the financial and banking system in order to prevent a repeat of the depression. Continue reading →

We’re All In This Together

Posted on December 13, 2013 by Jim

None of us are islands. Rugged individualism and prioritizing personal liberty might fuel libertarian wet dreams, but healthy communities require the resources that only come from the commons.

For decades, we’ve stepped back from knowing our neighbors. Gone are the days of party phone lines, nightly walks around the neighborhood, and social connectivity has too often been replaced by surrogates; the glow of television and personal electronic devices, which further alienate and balkanize us. People are social beings and face time with other humans is essential. Continue reading →

Overcoming cynicism with action

Posted on December 5, 2012 by Jim

Over and over again I hear people poisoned by cynicism, believing and uttering negative messages like, “it doesn’t matter,” or, “there’s nothing I can do about it,” and the worst and most cynical of the lot; “one person can’t make a difference.”

One of my favorite Christmas programs is “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” If you know the show, you know that part where Linus counters Charlie Brown’s bemoaning of Christmas and its commercialization with his Whitey the Man blast. Continue reading →

The Jim Baumer Experience

"…learn, unlearn, relearn."-Toffler

Category Archives: Civic engagement

Summer Newsletter/The Mark Baumer Sustainability Fund (August, 2017)

Marathon Monday

Blaming the Poor

Overcoming cynicism with action