Oregon Humanities

In Roald Dahl’s short story “The Hitch-Hiker,” the title character is coy about his line of work, initially telling the narrator only that he is in a skilled trade. “The secret of life,” the Londoner says, “is to become very, very good at something that is very, very ‘ard to do.”

To reveal the hitchhiker’s occupation would spoil the story, but his motto can be applied to just about any activity, profession, or calling. Tomorrow, from 10 a.m, to 2 p.m.,... More

23 May 2011 | Posted in Inside O. Hm. | Permalink | Comments? (0 so far)

People often ask how we come up with themes for Oregon Humanities magazine. We find inspiration everywhere, including in our own programs and those of other organizations. For instance, with the Fall/Winter 2011 issue on the theme “Here,” we were inspired by a special program we’re doing this summer in partnership with Metro Regional Government. “Know Your Place” is a series of events at three of Metro’s natural areas, in which participants will explore the human... More

16 May 2011 | Posted in Inside O. Hm. | Permalink | Comments? (0 so far)

On Thursday, the Oregon Nikkei Endowment will host a reading by Priscilla Wegars, author of Imprisoned in Paradise: Japanese Internee Road Workers at the World War II Kooskia Internment Camp. The camp, located in north central Idaho, held 265 men of Japanese descent designated “enemy aliens” by the government. The talk accompanies the organization’s exhibit on the Japanese American internment experience, FBI: Taken, which received an Oregon Humanities Responsive Program... More

11 May 2011 | Posted in Inside O. Hm. | Permalink | Comments? (0 so far)

As an end of year gift to all of you, here are a few O. Hm. moments from a few of the people who brought you the “O. Hm. Moment.”

When I was working at the Oregon Humanities booth at Wordstock in October, a man stopped to spin the Wheel of Cogitation. He landed on, “Someone unlike you whom you’re curious about.” He stood silent for a long time, clearly stumped, until he said, “I’m not curious about people who aren’t like me.” It was as if he realized the... More

08 December 2010 | Posted in Inside O. Hm. | Permalink | Comments? (0 so far)

I’m a word nerd—always have been. I’ve been known to forward ‘word of the day’ emails with a touch too much glee. Come to think of it, I could be happy stuck on a deserted island as long as I had my Oxford English Dictionary. And maybe Spanish and French dictionaries if it was going to be a long stay. I love the musicality of words, the way they feel rolling off the tongue: listless, lascivious, lounge. I love onomatopoeic words: murmur, hiccup, zap. Or words that... More

21 September 2010 | Posted in Inside O. Hm. | Permalink | Comments? (0 so far)

I was sitting in my office last week reading a final report that one of our recent Responsive Program Grant recipients submitted when I realized how much I don’t know about war, especially how the notion of “home” changes so drastically. The Southern Oregon Goodwill Industries, in partnership with a number of other local organizations, recently hosted a conference focused on returning veterans. The conference responded to the social, emotional, and economic challenges... More

26 August 2010 | Posted in Inside O. Hm. New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (0 so far)

Last night, my husband, Amos, and I were cruising around on Netflix when we settled on an instant-play movie called Boys Don’t Cry. When it came out in 1999, I meant to go see it in the theater but missed it. Even though I didn’t catch it on the big screen, it garnered enough media attention that I remembered generally what it was about. I knew it was a fairly popular indie film that had been nominated for several Academy Awards, I knew who it starred (Peter Sarsgaard,... More

13 August 2010 | Posted in Inside O. Hm. New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (2 so far)

Hmm. The moments that most changed the way I think about the world, o dear sweet jesus yes I can tell you those moments, with glee and gaping, still. There were three of them, actually. One was at about three in the afternoon, and the others, I remember vividly, were 1:14 and 1:15 p.m. Those were the moments when people I had never seen before came swimming, literally, their arms milling and their tiny trout mouths gasping for breath, out of the woman who had married me some... More

05 August 2010 | Posted in Inside O. Hm. New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (1 so far)

If developments in science could extend your life by five or more healthy, vital years, would you opt in? Probably, right?

Ten weeks ago, my company took on a project for a New York publisher. A Pulitzer Prize winner had written a book about “the strange science of immortality.” The publisher knew that his resume would attract critical attention. They suspected, however—rightly, I thought—that the book would appeal to a much wider audience, not just readers of Bookforum... More

02 July 2010 | Posted in Inside O. Hm. New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (0 so far)

After bicycling to Oregon Humanities to lead a weekly staff yoga session, our fearless yoga leader Maggie admitted that she was wearing borrowed pants. Not from her sister or her best friend, but loaners that were given to her by a woman in the class she was leading after a tragically wet bike ride. We laughed about what the world offers up to us when we are down. In this case, Maggie is pretty used to getting caught riding her bike in the rain; she gets around Portland by... More

23 June 2010 | Posted in Inside O. Hm. New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (1 so far)

There’s an old joke: Did you know that in China they call Chinese food “food?” We could revise this joke to consider our current love affair with “local food.” It would go like this: Did you know that they used to call local food, “food?” Our contemporary vocabulary reveals a revolution in our relationship to what we eat. We have developed a new lexicon to combat the rise of industrial food production—“community-supported agriculture,” “locavore,”... More

09 June 2010 | Posted in Inside O. Hm. | Permalink | Comments? (3 so far)

Last month, Sweden-based wikileaks.org published a classified US Army helicopter gun-camera video on youtube, and my inbox immediately filled with friends and acquaintances and people I didn’t even know asking me what I thought about it. The video showed an American helicopter attack in the “Sadr City” neighborhood of Baghdad. I was sought for comment because I had covered Iraq as a photojournalist in the early years of the war.

Like tens of millions of other... More

01 June 2010 | Posted in Inside O. Hm. | Permalink | Comments? (1 so far)

When my family moved back to Haiti, I was fourteen, the reluctant daughter of a missionary. When I was six, Haiti had felt like paradise: mangoes fell ripe from trees, kamion drivers blared past our house with carnival-music horns, houses were the color of bubble-gum ice cream. But after living in the states and acquiring the knowing condescension of a teenager, I did not want to be dragged back to Haiti. This time, to make matters worse, we wouldn’t live on the missionary... More

24 May 2010 | Posted in Inside O. Hm. | Permalink | Comments? (0 so far)

There are some days that roll out like a promise. Other days you turn the corner to unexpected joys. And still others where the people you meet along the way surprise you into believing in humanity again.

Last summer, the time I spent in Eastern Oregon re-awakened my belief that preserving where we came from, charting where we’re going, and creating innovative ways to see the journey along the way are the essence of our humanity.

I witnessed volunteers who wear more hats... More

26 April 2010 | Posted in Inside O. Hm. New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (1 so far)

I’m reading Bill Bishop’s The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America is Tearing Us Apart. I’d been meaning to pick this book up for about a year now and, as soon as I did, it felt immediately “familiar.”

Bishop starts by recounting his experience of choosing Austin, Texas, as his home. He explains that this was not an overtly political decision. He and his wife just wanted to live where they “fit in.” They wanted a “high-quality” life. These... More

15 April 2010 | Posted in Inside O. Hm. New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (0 so far)

I recently completed the Humanity in Perspective (HIP) course and am proud of the accomplishment. It isn’t merely that I completed the course, received the certificate or the credit. It was an achievement that changed my perspective, and a change in one’s point of view can be profound. Often in life our point of view is altered due to conditions outside our control. It seems sometimes that we are but the affected spectator. When we seek and welcome change and it... More

08 April 2010 | Posted in Inside O. Hm. New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (2 so far)

I was halfway through my shift on a quiet night at the bar. To be fair, they were all quiet nights at that bar. I might as well have been tending in a dry county. You’d think a free hotel bar would be full 365, but this bar was silent. Perhaps it was the Merlot?
When I realized my tips were going to be under $10 I started putting the lemons back in the fridge. Then an Inuit man walked in.

I’d love to tell you there were cinematic strings played upon his entry... More

01 April 2010 | Posted in Inside O. Hm. New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (1 so far)

I’m sure most of you have heard of Annie Leonard—creator and host of the insanely popular short animated film The Story of Stuff (now at more than 10 million views worldwide). Leonard has written a book of the same name and is currently on national tour. This last Monday she presented at Powell’s, and I went to go hear what she had to say.

It was standing room only, and even though I got there early, I was one of the people crammed against the bookshelves in the... More

25 March 2010 | Posted in Inside O. Hm. New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (0 so far)

We live in a noisy and intrusive society. Cell phones and electronic devices summon us non-stop. They are addictive. They must be obeyed. But no electronic device I know of can teach us how to think nor can it help us find peace in the only venue that really counts: our own heads.

Be honest here. When was the last time you sat on a hillside, a park bench, or even in your own back yard and just listened—let your mind roll on—waited for whatever popped into your head for... More

18 March 2010 | Posted in Inside O. Hm. New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (2 so far)

My freshman year in college, I stumbled into a class on the Holocaust, and four months later, I stepped off a bus in Auschwitz with a dozen classmates, my professor, and a living, breathing survivor of the Nazi camp. This might seem like an incredible journey, but really until I was standing in Auschwitz, the journey had been fairly easy. I read books, I watched films, I cried, and I had found myself hurt and angry at a history that wasn’t mine. But angry and hurt weren’t... More

11 March 2010 | Posted in Inside O. Hm. New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (0 so far)

Any regular moviegoer or fan of cult TV favorite Freaks and Geeks knows the name James Franco. He delivered a subtly stellar performance in Milk, stumbled his way as a hysterical stoner in Pineapple Express, and will soon play Allen Ginsburg in Howl. But there’s a less-well-known side to this actor moonlighting as a grad student (he’s in not one but two MFA programs, film-making at NYU and creative writing at Columbia) and that side is James Franco: Performance Artist.

Last... More

18 February 2010 | Posted in Inside O. Hm. New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (0 so far)

In 1992, the film The Crying Game opened in Colorado Springs, my hometown. The film played in a cozy, fifty-seat theater tucked behind a café called Poor Richard’s. Next to the café was a restaurant and a bookstore, all bearing the same name. As a child, I had eaten in the restaurant with my family. In junior high, a friend and I entered a talent competition held there and won third for our impression of dancing like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers to New Order’s Bizarre... More

09 February 2010 | Posted in Inside O. Hm. New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (1 so far)

I’ve been thinking about design—its merits and its effect. I know nothing can escape it since, in its natural expression, design is everywhere—the rock, the potato, the wisps of cloud formation. But what changes a thing from being whole unto itself into what we might rather it become? More specifically, I wonder when it is honest and when it serves to betray?

Let me step back to the source of my inquiry. I was driving in a car with a friend who spoke about the need to... More

28 January 2010 | Posted in Inside O. Hm. New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (1 so far)

Perhaps I had never truly contemplated the struggle of drug addiction until I read Beautiful Boy by David Sheff. You may have heard of this book—the author garnered praise, but also a fair amount of criticism for publishing what some called an exploitive account of his son’s struggle with addiction to methamphetamines and other drugs. It’s a heart-wrenching read, following a roller coaster of emotions as Sheff discovers his son’s drug abuse, makes grave missteps in his... More

11 January 2010 | Posted in Inside O. Hm. New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (0 so far)

If you read my last post, you know that I’m interested in gender. And, by the way, for those of you who did read that last post, I remain unsettled by Betty Draper’s character development in Mad Men last season. I’m proud of her. I’m mad at her. I’m impressed by her. And I’m disappointed in her.

That said, I have what I think are two more unnerving stories about gender:

1. Last month, at an informal dinner with some female colleagues, one woman referred to... More

01 December 2009 | Posted in Inside O. Hm. New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (0 so far)

The word philanthropy first surfaced 2,500 years ago in the Greek play Prometheus Bound, the Greek word being a combination of caring for humans and promoting human potential. It has come to mean a private initiative for the common good. As such, it is rooted in community.

Philanthropy is also closely tied to democracy so that Alexander Hamilton, in the first paragraph of the first Federalist Paper, promoted the new Constitution as a document benefiting all mankind. He said... More

18 November 2009 | Posted in Advocacy Inside O. Hm. New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (0 so far)

Has a job ever changed your life completely by accident? I started tending bar on the day shift at a locally owned Italian restaurant in Fort Collins, Colorado, famous for its $4.95 all-you-can-eat homemade spaghetti and bread. Our lunch rush typically petered out by one o’clock. By one-thirty, on a good day, the bar was empty. My writer friend Erik, a recovering alcoholic, would drive down, and we’d watch the Cubs on WGN. On a really good day—no, there were no really good... More

13 November 2009 | Posted in Inside O. Hm. New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (0 so far)

I saw them leaving the gallery with oranges. She was holding hers, smiling and picking at the produce sticker. He was tossing his in the air, laughing out loud. They seemed to be absolutely enthralled by their produce. “Huh,” I thought to myself and continued to make my way across the small grassy park to the entrance of the gallery.

The Whitechapel Gallery in east London is a very modern space with white walls, wood floors, and lots of right angles: more or less your... More

10 November 2009 | Posted in Inside O. Hm. New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (1 so far)

In late summer of 1979 Dale Eldred created a series of interconnected sculptures of refractive light panels sited at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, across expansive lawns and along the median of Volker Boulevard. The refractive tape created prisms that changed with every movement of the viewer, the sun, the moon, and the earth’s rotation. I was a new freshman at the Kansas City Art Institute, and the playfulness and gentle thoughtfulness of the sculpture quickened my... More

02 November 2009 | Posted in Community Inside O. Hm. New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (2 so far)

I spent a weekend earlier in October at a place called Smoke Farm north of Seattle. It’s a beautiful spot—360 acres along the Stillaguamish River that is home to an old dairy barn, a tractor shed turned print studio, and a milking parlor turned communal kitchen. Smoke Farm describes itself as a place for artists and free thinkers, people inclined to experiment, collaborate, and experience new aspects of art and culture.

My reason for coming was the Smoke Farm Forum,... More

26 October 2009 | Posted in Inside O. Hm. New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (0 so far)

I am bad at something. It is called the violin. If you know me, or if you’ve read my bio on this website, then you probably know this. I talk about it a lot (and I put that self-deprecating line in my bio) for a reason: the accountability pushes me to keep practicing.

Before I took up the violin, I imagined what practicing might look like: an elegant cup of tea steaming on the table, the muted afternoon light streaming in through the windows of the study, the cat curled... More

14 October 2009 | Posted in Inside O. Hm. New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (7 so far)

I am no musician. I don’t play an instrument beyond a one-fingered version of “Yankee Doodle Dandy” on the piano and the first few bars of “When the Saints Come Marching In” on my harmonica. I sing enthusiastically but rarely on key.

But I do listen.

I remember quite vividly hearing Wynton Marsalis compare democracy and jazz. I have never listened to music or thought about politics quite the same.

Marsalis says that democracy, like jazz, “works best when... More

24 September 2009 | Posted in Inside O. Hm. New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (2 so far)

Welcome to Oregon Humanities’ new website! Oregon Humanities has gone through a lot of changes this last year—our programs are more interactive, accessible, and provide deeper context—and we have new name, materials, and website to reflect these changes. But I hope this website does more than this. Adam McIsaac, one of our fabulous web designers from the equally fabulous Pinch, tells me that the website should be more than a virtual pamphlet. He says it’s meant to be... More

17 September 2009 | Posted in Inside O. Hm. New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (7 so far)