Category: Observations

July 4^th marks the midway point of summer. Half the calendar’s pages are gone. The days shorten by several minutes each till the winter solstice. Summer crops are gaining growth, if weather and nature’s vagaries are gentle.

The musical Oklahoma captured this feeling of good will in its opening number: Oh What a Beautiful Morning. The first stanza proclaims the prospect of a farmer’s potential bounty:

There’s a bright golden haze on the meadow,
There’s a bright golden haze on the meadow,
The corn is as high as an elephant’s eye,
An’ it looks like it’s climbin’ clear up to the sky.

This was Rogers and Hammerstein’s first musical together. Opening during WWII, it created a new era in theater magic, integrating song and dance into the storyline. It ran for 2,212 performances, won the Pulitzer prize, and has been a popular production for high school and regional theaters since.

But what did a New York based composer and lyricist know about farming? “Corn as high as an elephant’s eye” must be one of the most tenuous metaphors ever in musical lyrics.

Growing up in the Midwest, the phrase farmers used was “corn knee high by the 4^th of July,” then the harvest prospects were promising.

Climbin’ Clear Up to the Sky

This spring my daughter gave me a Christmas present that did not fit in her garden plans. She had grown blue corn seedlings from a sample packet. No more than inches high, she asked if I wanted to plant them. I couldn’t resist the opportunity to try my hand at farming—or maybe just showing off for neighbors.

I replanted the sprouts, surrounded by cages to protect from rabbits. The results for July 4^th: somewhere between knee high and a small elephant’s eye. Blue corn thriving in the summer heat and sun of suburban Bethesda.

Nature’s Red, White and Blue Celebration

A lot more than corn flourishes this time of year. The yard is full of celebratory colors especially zinnias and begonias.

Nature’s exuberance also marks Independence Day: red verbena, red, white and blue petunias, and multiple geraniums.

RED geraniums

White Cosmos

and Blue Salvia

Celebrate with gratitude this Independence Day for all the joys of family, nature, and community. Or as expressed in the final verse of the opening number of Oklahoma:

Oh what a beautiful morning,
Oh what a beautiful day,
I’ve got a wonderful feeling,
Everything’s going my way.

The essence of genius is presenting profound insight simply.  Frost’s words at first glance seem easy to understand.  A summer field, mowed by a person who is now gone.  The scene and story of a butterfly weed left for nature’s creatures.  An action that resonates in Frost’s own kindred spirit.

The last couplet presents his belief in common human purpose whether working together or apart:

‘Men work together,’ I told him from the heart,

‘Whether they work together or apart.’

The Tuft of Flowers

by ROBERT FROST

I went to turn the grass once after one

Who mowed it in the dew before the sun.

The dew was gone that made his blade so keen

Before I came to view the levelled scene.

I looked for him behind an isle of trees;

I listened for his whetstone on the breeze.

But he had gone his way, the grass all mown,

And I must be, as he had been,—alone,

‘As all must be,’ I said within my heart,

‘Whether they work together or apart.’

But as I said it, swift there passed me by

On noiseless wing a ‘wildered butterfly,

Seeking with memories grown dim o’er night

Some resting flower of yesterday’s delight.

And once I marked his flight go round and round,

As where some flower lay withering on the ground.

And then he flew as far as eye could see,

And then on tremulous wing came back to me.

I thought of questions that have no reply,

And would have turned to toss the grass to dry;

But he turned first, and led my eye to look

At a tall tuft of flowers beside a brook,

A leaping tongue of bloom the scythe had spared

Beside a reedy brook the scythe had bared.

I left my place to know them by their name,

Finding them butterfly weed when I came.

The mower in the dew had loved them thus,

By leaving them to flourish, not for us,

Nor yet to draw one thought of ours to him.

But from sheer morning gladness at the brim.

The butterfly and I had lit upon,

Nevertheless, a message from the dawn,

That made me hear the wakening birds around,

And hear his long scythe whispering to the ground,

And feel a spirit kindred to my own;

So that henceforth I worked no more alone;

But glad with him, I worked as with his aid,

And weary, sought at noon with him the shade;

And dreaming, as it were, held brotherly speech

With one whose thought I had not hoped to reach.

‘Men work together,’ I told him from the heart,

‘Whether they work together or apart.’

 

 

 

One of the most positive expressions of human interaction is gratitude.

G.K. Chesterson wrote, “gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.”

The word came to mind as I read the opening of one writer’s reflections on her experiences working with credit unions. Living gracefully and sharing are some of the benefits she highlights:

Coming up on my fifteenth year working for a cooperative CUSO, it seems right for me to reflect on my experience in the credit union industry. During my lengthy time here, I have found not only a home, but a lot to say about the things the credit union community does right.

Unlike other places I have worked, I’ve noticed the credit union industry has some unique attributes, many of which are the reason I’ve stayed for fifteen years. First and foremost, there is a genuine care about the consumer in our industry, where being a member still means something in today’s competitive world. Furthermore, credit union employees like to learn from each other and this knowledge is then freely shared with other people. There is also a fellowship among people in the credit union industry that I have not seen in other places I have worked. And finally, what is most impactful is that this care extends to an interest in all credit unions being successful.

Thank you Alycia for helping all of us be more aware of how special our credit union experiences can be.

Source: CUSO Magazine, What Makes Our Industry Unique, by Alycia Meyers

By Jim Blaine

1. “You have the freedom to argue about America…

…because they thought you should. Don’t ever forget that.”

2. “The American Experiment…

…we’re all living on borrowed time.”

3. “Some monuments…

…will always stand the test of time.”

4.”They didn’t think it was perfect either…

…but that wasn’t the point.”

Yesterday I described the return of Cicada Coop , a life-long credit union fan after 17 years of living “off the grid” underground, so to speak.

Before entering hibernation, Cicada Coop had marveled at the industry-regulatory mutual efforts. In the 2003 NCUA Annual Report he kept, examples included lowering costs of regulation, joint collaboration in planning, transparency in all aspects of expenses including the Overhead Transfer Rate, OTR as a just a few of many examples.

Two Videos Showing NCUA’s New Stance Towards Credit Unions

The cicada and I went inside. I shared two videos of the NCUA chair testifying before Congress in July 2015 to dramatize the change from the cicada’s last appearance. The first excerpt is the agency’s view of its obligation for transparency with credit unions. The Chair explains that an external OTR study by Price Waterhouse recommending more transparency and industry input was redacted by the General Counsel as a “trade secret.” The chair also says putting the agency’s budget on the web “would not be effective” in improving communications with credit unions.

This is the full, live five-minute exchange:
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiPgW1mgDw8)

The second five-minute video includes several surprising assertions about credit unions and the agency’s relationship to them. Two comments by the chair are “credit unions are not interested in NCUA’s budget” and “credit unions do not represent their members.”

Perhaps the greatest contrast to the environment in 2004 was the statement by the chair that “it is not good government to have the people who are regulated trying to participate in the budget making process of the regulator.”

The Congressman described her position on NCUA’s budget process as, “Self serving, crazy talk.”

This is the exchange: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-__EgfM2vA)

Coop Cicada’s Questions

My friend’s question is what happened during these 17 years we cicadas are underground? Why the change in NCUA’s view of its responsibility to credit unions?

My quick answer was leadership, especially by the NCUA board. Once a leader decides to limit transparency and accountability and assert independence from the industry, the culture becomes part of the bureaucracy. Individuals become comfortable away from public scrutiny and resist change.

Cicada pondered whether this breakdown in mutual efforts could be overcome. My reply was good leadership willing to disrupt accepted ways could start the process. Also knowing the past, just as he read from the Report, helps everyone understand what is lacking in present circumstances.

Ultimately however change must be collaborative. Because discerning what is best is always hard. The effort must be done together. Like the strategic planning process he described in 2004.

“So do you think credit unions will be here 17 years from now, when my family and friends return?” Cicada asked.

That depends. Coops will be here because they embody some of the best instincts of the human spirit. As for NCUA, that is an open question.

With that, Coop Cicada went up the tree to create the next generation of his species. A process loud and exuberant. Maybe there is a lesson from nature for those without a 17-year horizon.

“Our Act lingers from the time of the paper ledger and wire tugging switchboard operator. We need to modernize the Act . . . and at the same time re-emphasize and recodify just what the first Act meant in 1934: that Americans are savvy enough and community-spirited enough to have and to run self-help cooperative not-for-profit financial service organizations-of no matter what size-that benefit those who join and serve. And on account of that purpose and structure of these organizations, no tax need be levied.”

Ed Callahan, Callahan Report 1990

This is the season for graduation addresses.  A congratulatory pep talk by a distinguished speaker to students ending their time of institutional learning for real world lessons.  The following are excerpts from a 2016 commencement message by Eva Braun a faculty member at St John’s college in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

To clarify the credit union relevance, I might title this portion:  Local in Worldly Coordinates, Grand in Human Scope

“All over the country, speakers who accepted the invitation to talk to you on this last and first day soon began to agonize about a fit subject for this great moment So we call for aid on whatever power will come. As for me, I remembered a recent conversation, with one of our graduate students. I’ll transcribe it from my memory, abbreviated.

Student: “How will my St. John’s education help me to do what I want?”

Me: “And what’s that?”

Student: “I want to change the world.”

Me: “For the better?”

Student looks totally abashed; I’m a bit abashed as well, for being a smart-aleck. But he took it well, and the ensuing conversation was illuminating to both of us.

At this point, I want to assure you that at a thousand schools this May speakers will be alluding to this conversation. They will bid the graduates “Go forth and change the world,” or, “Go forth and make a difference.”

A language Tutorial

I say, let us have a little last-moment language tutorial. Let us, Johnnie-fashion, analyze the sentence “I want to change the world.”  I, in all candor, will try to show that “I want to make a difference, I want to change the world” aren’t very sensible sentences. So here goes.

This announcement has three parts: first, I want; second, to change; third, the world.

So, first, “I want.” “I want” is about me, and if what I want is to be a “difference-maker,” it’s about my self-satisfaction. Recall yourselves as Juniors, when you struggled with Kant on morality. No one expected you to get it all. As regards Kant, this much may have stuck: He thinks that doing right is not doing what you want, but what you ought; and that, in fact, the only proof of your doing as you ought is that it hurts some, (so) that your mere wanting is thwarted. So when it’s the world I’m planning to change, maybe “I want” should yield a little to “I should.”

Second, “change.” Why exactly “change”? There are many other modes of action beside this current mantra. There’s protecting and maintaining, activating and fulfilling, restoring and reviewing. Talk of mere change is just terminally vague babble—vague promise and vague threat. Its antidote is specific thinking expressed in adequate language. That very requirement, thoughtfulness and its articulation, was an explicit aim of the Program, to which you devoted the last four years.

Third comes “the world.” It’s a big space in which to thrash about. In choosing it as the venue of my action, I’ve pretty much committed myself to the silliest of all maxims of action—another current mantra. It goes: Only if x happens, can y occur. Filling in the most common variables for this formula: “Only if the world changes radically, can little kids learn to love reading,” in other words, never guaranteed. The implied lesson is: Forget about “the world”—stay local and avoid stymieing preconditions.

What is Good?

And now the usually missing fourth part to the saying “I want to change the world,” namely, “for the better.” Your four years with us were, I think, above all intended to give you a head start in answering for yourself the most crucial of human questions: What is good? For making anything better without a view of good seems to me just groping in the murk of possibility.

. . .you’ll recognize two of the ways that the Program and the College were meant to help you with making the here better now. One was that we hope you would find in your reading the elements of your own firm view of what is good universally and therefore what is better in particular. This crystallization is surely still in process for many of you. Much more will go into it than what you learned here, but that learning will be the informing reference of your experience. That ability to specify the universal is the second of the two ways our Program readied you for great deeds.

Now, in the spirit of that specificity, I owe you an example of what I think of as actual action, local in worldly coordinates but grand in human scope.

Local Action-Grand in Human Scope

Most of you will, I’d guess, work in an office at some point. Proper offices have water coolers, Xerox-rooms, galleys with hot-plates. People spend as much time there as they dare. So post a note: “Would you be interested in reading some poetry together during lunch hour? I propose Wallace Stevens’ ‘Sunday Morning.’ Copies are on the counter. Let’s meet next Wednesday in Room 666. Bring your lunch, I’ll bring cookies. Expertise inessential. Signed…” If no one turns up, which is unlikely, keep trying. Something will come to pass.

Before I finish, I need to say that what I’ve done here isn’t quite right: I’ve told you what’s what and you’ve sat silent, except perhaps for an occasional guffaw. All my points were left unquestioned—deep metaphysical maxims such as cookies being essential to meetings and expertise inessential to poetry, and large practical claims, such as local happenings having more actuality than global commotions. Don’t let it happen to you very often, though these occasional one-way ritual performances are also necessary to human life.

So then: I wish you a life of genuine action and of actual happening, a life of as much happiness as you know what to do with—and a bit more. Go forth, find a place you can love, and help to make it “what it was always meant to be.” Go forth and change the world—for the better.”