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For Ukraine’s Hour of Need
From English composer John Rutter:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJl3kVwl2-U
Blue Skies Over Golden Fields of Grain
The Ukrainian flag is literally about grain
| General Patton on prayer (December 8, 1944:
Chaplain, I am a strong believer in Prayer. There are three ways that men get what they want; by planning, by working, and by Praying. Any great military operation takes careful planning, or thinking. Then you must have well-trained troops to carry it out: that’s working. But between the plan and the operation there is always an unknown. That unknown spells defeat or victory, success or failure. It is the reaction of the actors to the ordeal when it actually comes. Some people call that getting the breaks; I call it God. God has His part, or margin in everything, That’s where prayer comes in. Up to now, in the Third Army, God has been very good to us. We have never retreated; we have suffered no defeats, no famine, no epidemics. This is because a lot of people back home are praying for us. We were lucky in Africa, in Sicily, and in Italy. Simply because people prayed. But we have to pray for ourselves, too. A good soldier is not made merely by making him think and work. There is something in every soldier that goes deeper than thinking or working–it’s his “guts.” It is something that he has built in there: it is a world of truth and power that is higher than himself. Great living is not all output of thought and work. A man has to have intake as well. I don’t know what you call it, but I call it Religion, Prayer, or God.
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Welcome to the Omniverse
Two years ago I knew nothing about the company NVIDIA or even how to pronounce the firm’s name. Then my granddaughter received an internship followed by a full time offer when she finishes college.
But if you want to see where computing-networked technology is taking us, this may be a place to start.
The company built its reputation as the creator of graphic chips used in computer games. But as reported in the Wall Street Journal: its chips are now being snapped up for everything from game consoles to data centers to self-driving cars. . . Nvidia told analysts Tuesday (March 22) that it now sees a total addressable market of $1 trillion for its growing line of chips and related software.”
The firm is in the middle of its GTC annual developer conference. The keynote address by the President Jensen Huang also aired Tuesday.
His full talk is about 90 minutes and covers the firm’s recent product releases and latest innovations. The theme of the presentation is the creation and production of artificial intelligence (AI) “factories.”
These fully automated intelligent processes will change the way most businesses operate from driverless cars to digital biomedicine to warehouse management.
I was unable to follow many of the technical capabilities which NVIDIA will empower. However he recaps his talk near the end so you may wish to start with this overview before diving into the entire speech.
His opening described NVIDIA’s four layers (integrated stacks) for the networked world designed to “accelerate computing” resulting in “the creation and production of intelligence.” One example of a critical technical component is NVIDIA’s H100, an 80 billion transistor chip.
The Omniverse: Creating Digital Twins for Real World Events
The platform that combines all of these new technical designs and interfaces is NVIDIA Omniverse defined as an “easily extensible platform for 3D design collaboration and scalable multi-GPU, real-time, true-to-reality simulation.“
You can hear the Omniverse presentation by starting the keynote stream here. The session begins with the Apollo 13 “almost disaster” to demonstrate the power of a “replica,” or what Haung describes as today’s virtual equivalent, a “digital twin.”
As I understand, this simulation engine (Omniverse) enables the creation of a digital model that exactly duplicates the physical world. The two realities work together, the real with the virtual version. Companies across industries now have the power of “enhanced predictive analysis and software and process automation that maximize productivity and help maintain faultless operation.”
Prior AI was based on pattern recognition technology, with robotic programmed platforms. The new digital world provides autonomous platforms for applications such as driving, monitoring climate change, and even cell and molecular research.
The digital twin duplicates the real world’s physical environment, events and task management. The virtual model can then create new simulations beyond real world experiences. AI becomes a self-learning technology that can then be used to manage actual events.
One example: NVIDIA’s Earth-2 project is building a super computer dedicated to predicting climate change through simulations. This should encourage changes in human activity now versus waiting till the events actually occur.
Huang referenced several big companies using Omniverse Enterprise to create digital twins of their own operations. These include Amazon, the German Railway system-DB Netze, Kroger, Lowe’s and PepsiCo. NVIDIA’s integrated platform “builds physically accurate digital twins or develops realistic immersive experiences for customers.”
The Impact on Financial Services
Data-information management is the core of financial services. Today the use of AI inspired technology focuses on automated voice or chat bot responses, some enhanced data analytics and 24 by 7 connectivity.
Currently, NVIDIA’s financial service efforts include the use of deep learning, machine learning, and natural language processing to “boost risk management, improve data-backed decisions and security, and enhance customer experiences.”
I have no idea how this Omniverse capability will affect financial institutions beyond the known task functions for which it is used today.
If you want a simple future example however, CEO Jensen carries on a live, unscripted Q & A with his digital double (avatar) named Toy Jensen. I’m not sure which speaker was more credible!
Ed Callahan… A Look Back
by Jim Blaine (Thursday, March 17, 2016)
Always suspected that the problem with Ed Callahan was that as a youth he was beaten too often by Nuns in parochial school or, perhaps, not beaten enough. Well, whatever, either way the Nuns left their mark – an indomitable spirit!
Ed Callahan was Irish – brash, pugnacious, loud, hard drinking, fun loving – alive! But why be redundant? I said he was Irish!
For over a quarter of a century, we all watched and observed as Ed Callahan created shock waves in the credit union world. No one was neutral about Ed Callahan. His friends were fiercely loyal, his enemies equally committed. Ed inspired many and angered quite a few. Ed had style; he had presence. With Ed, you weren’t allowed to make contact without becoming involved, excited, immersed, engaged.
At Marquette, Ed must have played football in the same way he played life – without a helmet. You had no doubt that Ed Callahan always played for keeps. He had no intentions of losing, that was not one of the options. Ed was very straight-forward; your choices were always clear. The mission was defined; and, there was only one direct path to the goal. That path was either with you, around you, over you, under you, or through you; you could step aside or get on board. It was your choice; but your choice never changed the mission, nor the path, nor the goal.
Some said that Ed was a visionary…
… they were wrong. Ed Callahan was a revolutionary. Visionaries talk about change, revolutionaries take you there. Ed led from the front – a leader of conviction, rather than convenience; principles above posture – courageous. Revolutionaries, by definition, create problems; overturn applecarts; rebuke the status quo. That happened at NCUA. Appointed by President Reagan, Ed arrived at NCUA in the midst of turmoil. Ed defined the mission; he reformed and remolded the Agency. He taught a regulatory agency how to stop working to prevent the last crisis. He explained that a coach never executes a play and that on Monday morning it’s never hard to see what went wrong – but it is rarely relevant. Teacher, coach, lessons in life; hopefully well learned, hopefully still remembered.
But let me celebrate the essence of the man – that indomitable spirit – one last time, for those who never had the opportunity; for those who still have doubts; for those who never fully understood. One of Ed’s harshest critics, noted with much wryness, that even in death Ed “couldn’t get it right”. Why, I asked? “Because Callahan died on March 18th instead of on the 17th, his beloved St. Patrick’s Day.” You know this type of critic – cynical, smug, self-assured without much basis, not really worth the effort, but…
Just for the record, I would simply like to point out one final time that – first and foremost – Ed Callahan was a fully-fledged, fully-flagrant Irishman – body and soul! And, no self-respecting Irishman would ever celebrate the end of St. Patrick’s Day until the last bell at the pub had rung. That would have meant that Ed Callahan’s “last call” would have come sometime after 4:00 am – on the morning of the 18th. Style, presence, courage – true to the last! A shamrock of joyful vigor and purpose!
And one last thought… in the final analysis you can say many things about a great man’s life… some men are admired, some are respected, some are envied, some are feared… and countless other adjectives and accolades. But, in the final analysis, the most important thing you can say about a great man is… he will be missed.
And, Ed Callahan will be missed…
An Irish Prayer
Live simply, love generously,
Care deeply, speak kindly,
Leave the rest to God.!
The Credit Union Movement In Five Phases
For some time I have followed the writings of Father Richard Rohr. He is a Franciscan friar, wisdom teacher, and founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
His spirituality concepts are universal, informed by all denominations and spiritual traditions. His focus is the search for unitary conscience. Recently he summarized five stages that religious and cultural developments have historically followed. He calls these the five M’s: human, movement, machine, monument and memory.
I have paraphrased his approach below to apply it to credit union evolution. I believe the framework is useful for understanding the different motivations credit unions draw upon with cooperative design. (Adapted from Richard Rohr, The Wisdom Pattern: Order, Disorder, Reorder )
The Five Stages
“It seems that many great things in history start with a single human being. If a person says something full of life that captures reality well, the message often moves to the second stage of becoming a movement.
That’s the period of greatest energy. Credit unions greatest vitality as a “cooperative movement,” resulted in thousands of new institutions formed annually. Each was an expression of a larger vision for community. The movement stage is always very exciting, creative, and also risky.
It’s risky because the movement in history is larger than any city, state, country or economic system. Society is unable to foresee its full scope or meaning. We feel out of control in this stage, and yet why would anybody want it to be anything less?
Yet we move rather quickly out and beyond the risky movement stage to the machine stage. This is predictable and understandable. Systems are developed to support individual often independent firms.
The Dominant Machine Stage
The institutional or machine stage of a movement will necessarily be a less passionate manifestation. This is not bad, although it is always surprising for those who see credit unions as the end itself, instead of merely a vehicle for the original vision.
There is no other way; but when we don’t realize a machine’s limited capacities, we try to make it into something more than it is. We make it a monument, a closed system operating inside of its own, often self-serving, logic. By then, it’s very hard to take risks for those most in need following core values that inspired the movement phase.
Eventually these monuments and their maintenance and self-preservation become ends in themselves. It is easy just to step on board and worship their success without ever knowing why they came to be.
At this point, we have jumped over the human and movement stages, becoming like the for-profit institutions we were meant to supplant. There is little hint of knowing who we are meant to serve. Members are often frozen out of any meaningful role other than consumers.
In this stage, credit unions are a platform for building ever larger financial firms while holding on to a memory of something that once must have been a great adventure. Credit unions are no longer serving a distinctive role. Rather they mimic the priorities of the existing capitalist, market driven competitors.
Overcoming the Monument-Memory Entrapment
Increasingly credit unions avoid addressing the most disadvantaged segments of society we were organized to serve.
To avoid becoming trapped in the monument stage with the initial vision merely memory, renewal is needed. Innovative efforts are necessary to keep in touch with the human and movement aspirations. This is not being naïve about the necessity for machine-like competencies and the inevitable human drive to embrace monuments.
We must also be honest: all of us love monuments when they are monuments to our human ambition, our movement, or our machine.” (End paraphrase)
Applying Rohr’s Insights to the Credit Union Movement
It is feasible to align the different phases of credit union history with this model. The more powerful application however may be to help leaders or institutions recognize that all five stages can be present and called upon at the same time.
Can the machine success be augmented with the human passion of the creation phase? I saw one credit union CEO attempt to connect these seemingly contrasting impulses. He organized a public member meeting each week at a different branch of the credit union. Fifty visits led by a senior staff person for every branch over the year.
Videos were made of the visits and shared with staff and board. The results were not, I believe, some dramatic new product or service concept. Rather it reinforced respect for the members and their opinions as well as supporting staff in scattered branches.
I believe the model’s usefulness is most helpful if not seen as linear, trending in a single direction. Rather it alerts us to the multiple motivations which contribute to success.
If we focus only on the competencies of the machine stage leading inevitably toward monuments, then we lose the important advantages of the initial creative era. For it is human needs and relationships that were the origins of every credit union and, still today, its most important foundational advantage.
Jack Kerouac, Credit Union Member, Coming Home after a Life On the Road
Last Saturday, March 12, was the 100th anniversary of American novelist Jack Kerouac’s birth in Lowell, MA. He was an alter boy and member of St Jean Baptiste Church.
He and his family were also members of the credit union whose first office was in the same church. Jeanne D’Arc Credit Union was organized years earlier by the local priest.
In February 2022 Jeanne D’Arc celebrated its 110 anniversary. The credit union’s safe is still in the church building.
Alison Hughes, Jeanne D’Arc Credit Union
The church is now closed, but the building remains. The credit union and a new community foundation are transforming the structure to become the Jack Kerouac museum and performance center.
It is an ironic embrace for Kerouac whose peripatetic lifestyle is characterized as offbeat. His artistic legacy now has a home. A venue both to honor the past and present his continuing popular appeal.
Jeanne D’Arc and Lowell are reaffirming the power of Kerouac’s roots.
The credit union and Kerouac started in the same sacred place. Both shared common purpose to support individuals in all their diversity.
In this latest contribution, Jeanne D’Arc is adding to its ever-expanding legacy in the community by honoring one of its members. A conversion of an historical space into a homecoming for someone most remembered for exploring life on the road.
Christopher Porter, President. Jack Kerouac Foundation
Alison Hughes. Jeanne D’Arc Credit Union
Sylvia Cuhna, Executive Director, Foundation
Jim Sampras, CEO. Foundation
Kerouac’s Lowell Roots
Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac[1] March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), known as Jack Kerouac, grew up in Lowell, played high school football well enough that major colleges recruited him. Church and family were deeply embedded values even though his later lifestyle might be considered bohemian.
His parents were French Canadian; Kerouac did not begin to learn English until he was six, and remained bilingual in his work.
A 1959 television interview with Steve Allen in which Kerouac briefly reads from On the Road is a helpful portrait of him at a peak of his fame as a member of the Beat generation.
Three Appraisals of Kerouac’s Work
His 100th anniversary has resulted in articles that take different views of his literary output and continuing relevance.
An article in the Guardian newspaper explores why his counter-cultural mage still resonates in contemporary society, calling him a symbol whose meaning is still not understood. “Nature-loving mystic or proto-dudebro? Untameable free spirit or reclusive mama’s boy? On the centenary of his birth, it is time to look past the icon at the ‘bleeding ball of contradictions’ behind it.”
The Wall Street Journal’s tribute celebrates his reverence for the natural world while his characters want to abandon traditional social constraints.
Jack Kerouac lives in pop culture memory as a writer on a perpetual road trip, a shooting star riding the highways and rails of postwar America alight with Catholic mysticism, booze, bebop and outlaw liberation. That’s the milieu of his breakout novel “On the Road,” a masterpiece of widescreen travel writing populated by eccentrics “who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time…who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles. . . ”
In our time of ecological destruction and climate change, Kerouac’s Buddhist observation in “The Dharma Bums” that “One man practicing kindness in the wilderness is worth all the temples in the world” is a fine starting point for understanding that there really is a divine order to the natural world.”
An article on the Poetry Foundation’s website summarizes his literary output while alive and published posthumously, along with critical and public reaction of his counter cultural themes.
Why Kerouac Still Resonates
Wikipedia’s describes his work as both stylistically and substantively inventive:
Kerouac is recognized for his style of spontaneous prose. Thematically, his work covers topics such as his Catholic spirituality, jazz, travel, promiscuity, life in New York City, Buddhism, drugs, and poverty. He became an underground celebrity and, with other Beats, a progenitor of the hippie movement, although he remained antagonistic toward some of its politically radical elements.
In 1969, at age 47, Kerouac died from an abdominal hemorrhage caused by a lifetime of heavy drinking. Since then, his literary prestige has grown, and previously unseen works have been published.
On the Road (from Wikipedia)
“Kerouac completed what is known as On the Road in April 1951, while living at 454 West 20th Street in Manhattan with his second wife, Joan Haverty.[39] The book was largely autobiographical and describes Kerouac’s road-trip adventures across the United States and Mexico with Neal Cassady in the late 40s and early 50s, as well as his relationships with other Beat writers and friends.
“Kerouac wrote the final draft in 20 days, with Joan, his wife, supplying him with benzedrine, cigarettes, bowls of pea soup, and mugs of coffee to keep him going.[
” Kerouac said that On the Road “was really a story about two Catholic buddies roaming the country in search of God. And we found him. I found him in the sky, in Market Street San Francisco (those 2 visions), and Dean (Neal) had God sweating out of his forehead all the way. THERE IS NO OTHER WAY OUT FOR THE HOLY MAN: HE MUST SWEAT FOR GOD. And once he has found Him, the Godhood of God is forever Established and really must not be spoken about.”
“According to his biographer, historian Douglas Brinkley, On the Road has been misinterpreted as a tale of companions out looking for kicks, but the most important thing to comprehend is that Kerouac was an American Catholic author – for example, virtually every page of his diary bore a sketch of a crucifix, a prayer, or an appeal to Christ to be forgiven.[44]
“Kerouac’s literary works had a major impact on the popular rock music of the 1960s. Artists including Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Patti Smith, Tom Waits, The Grateful Dead, and The Doors all credit Kerouac as a significant influence on their music and lifestyles.”
The early home to both Jeanne D’Arc and Kerouac will now be used to ensure that his literary light continues to inspire.
Ukraine: People Take Action
In the United States
A Harvard University freshman is taking a semester off to apply his technical skills to another urgent cause: finding housing for Ukrainian refugees. And after testing their cybersecurity and showing their platform to potential users, they launched Ukraine Take Shelter on March 2.
The 19-year-old created Ukraine Take Shelter, a website that matches Ukrainian refugees with hosts in neighboring countries and elsewhere.
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Polish Moms Leave Baby Strollers for Ukraine Mothers at the Local Train Station
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A Human Roadblock
Citizens create a roadblock on a road that leads to the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant, in Enerhodar, Ukraine, March 2, 2022.(Facebook/National Guard of Ukraine)
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Public Posters Calling for Boycott of Russian Products
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A Man In Front of WWII Monument: “Send weapons, not prayers” London
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Soldiers Care for the Helpless
A woman carried by Ukrainian soldiers crosses an improvised path while fleeing the town of Irpin, Ukraine, Sunday, March 6, 2022. In Irpin, near Kyiv, a sea of people on foot and even in wheelbarrows trudged over the remains of a destroyed bridge to cross a river and leave the city. (Oleksandr Ratushniak/AP)
Each of us can help make a difference. Even if it is just paying a little more for gas.
Ukraine: When Words Fail, Music Carries Us Through (view in browser)
The first performance of the Ukrainian National Anthem (September 1990):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnMPE_nZ-jc
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A performance by the Metropolitan Opera of the Ukraine’s Anthem (February 2022). The sole singer without music, hand on heart, is Ukrainian.
Lyrics:
Nay, thou art not dead, Ukraine, see, thy glory’s born again,
And the skies, O brethren, upon us smile once more!
As in Springtime melts the snow, so shall melt away the foe,
And we shall be masters in our own home.
Soul and body, yea, our all, offer we at freedom’s call
We, whose forebears, and ourselves, proud Cossacks are!
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Lenard Cohen’s Hallelujah lyrics for Ukraine:
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From the US Air Force Band and Singing Sergeants with a Prayer for Ukraine (March 2022)
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A prayer for Ukraine, February 2022, by the Staats und Domchor Berlin
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From a world wide, online choir, Donna Nobis Pacem on March 2, 2022
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This March 2022 video from high school teenagers in Europe.
Four Members Hold Press Conference Today at Noon
The four members profiled in my blog The Fix is In, will hold a press conference today, March 11, at noon.
Press Conference: Friday, March 11th at 12pm EST
Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89039053221?pwd=bDRwOERTYWFlQ29mckl4aVlqWS9qZz09
Ukraine Rekindles the American Spirit
During his inaugural address in 2019, President Zelensky told lawmakers: “I do not want my picture in your offices: the President is not an icon, an idol or a portrait. Hang your kids’ photos instead, and look at them each time you are making a decision.”
The National Cathedral at night in Washington D. C.
(photo by Holly Kylen)