The Wonder of a Winter's Day

It is February in New York. Some are mumbling about the cold. Others warn of stronger winds coming- winds that drive the cold though your winter coat; winds that will sting their ears despite their best efforts to adjust knit hats and tighten scarves. Crowds walk by me on Broadway silently, bearing the assault. They see spring clothes (New Skinny Jeans in pastels colors)  in the windows of the Gap and dream of warmer days. One man’s misery can be another’s opportunity. I am not panicked. I am calm and hopeful! I read a poem by Robert Frost, Winter Eden, about the wonder of a winter’s day:

A winter Eden is an alder swamp

Where conies now come out to sun and romp

As near a paradise as it can be

And not melt snow or start a dormant tree

I am not willing to wait until spring for snow to melt and cold to fade. I decide to walk from my Upper West Side apartment to work on the East Side. I will cross the park. It is 27 but the sun is shining. It warms my face but it leaves the park a white winter wonderland. The sun makes the snow look like it is sprinkled with diamonds. There is no slush- scourge of New York winters.

Judaism celebrates the miracle of waking in our morning prayers.We thank God for our soul and  for returning us from our sleep (Elohai neshama) . We read prayers that remind us about thewonder of our bodies where so many things have to work to keep us going (Birchot Hashahar). We remember that we are temporary and that God is eternal. Lesson: We need to be grateful for every day (modeh ani) . We are not just to rise. We are to open our eyes to wonder.

So I am out and about. I take the train to 72th and then head through Central Park. I walk by the mosaic that honors John Lennon called Imagine. I walk down the hill, my eyes look up and down ,being careful not to slip on the odd sheet of ice. I raise my head and see the park open up below. I walk to a grand boulevard lined with park benches and statues of writers like Sir Walter Scott, Roberts Burns and near the exit to 59th Street, William Shakespeare.

I have been watching a PBS series called Uncovering Shakespeare. It explores 6 plays through the eyes of an actor that played a lead (Ethan Hawke played Macbeth) or a director who shaped a production. These narrators open my eyes and uncover an old love affair I have had with the writer. One thing has led to another. My winter romp with Shakespeare has snowballed, I have been reading Steven Greenbelt’s Will in the World about Shakespeare’s life. I went to see Much Ado about Nothing at the Duke Theatre. I have been finding myself reaching for old books of plays on my bookshelf. The pages aredog-eared, the columns have notes and there is the odd page marks. The page marks are faded but they bring back some sharp memoires of student life. I spent 1970 at Epsom College in Surrey England studying Shakespeare for A level exams. I was the only American in my class (nickname- The Big Yank). This flurry of Shakespeare activity has helped be uncover the wonder that I discovered when I first immersed myself in this strange language. Standing in front of the statue of my hero it all comes together. Shakespeare is not easy. You need to learn some things about his world. You need to train your ear to hear the poetry. You need to acquire a taste. Not easy, but worth the price.

The gifts of a winter walk are not always easy. You have to start earlier. You need to dress with care. You need to keep an eye open for moments of wonder while watching for a patch of ice.Sometimes you are stopped in your tracks by a statue like Shakespeare. At others times the gifts of a winter’s day are more subtle. The way the blue sky frames the building on the East side, a dog on a jail break, running across the lawn pulling their leash or some birds resting peacefully beak to beak like young lovers on a park bench. The poet, Robert Frost has trained himself  to see the wonder:

A feathers hammer gives a double knock

The Eden day is gone by two o’clock.

An hour of winter’s day may seem too short

To make it worth life’s while to wake and sport.

How do you make the winter seem shorter. Savor the joys of winter. Seize those sunny winter hours. Get up early. Say a prayer to get yourself moving. Prepare yourself for wonder. It’s worth it.

Seeing Like Barnes

On a recent trip to Philadelphia I had the chance to visit the new Barnes Foundation Museum.  As a visitor to the Barnes I would be invited to see art in a new way.

Between 1912 and 1951, Albert C. Barnes assembled one of the world’s most important holdings of post-impressionist and early modern art, acquiring works by avant-garde European and American artists. Barnes continually experimented with the display of his collection, arranging and rearranging the works in ensembles, symmetrical wall compositions organized according to the formal principles of light, line, color, and space, rather than by chronology, nationality, style, or genre. The ensembles changed as Barnes made acquisitions, trades and new visual connections between the holdings, which diversified with the addition of African sculpture, antiquities, Asian art, Native American ceramics, jewelry, and textiles, manuscripts, old master paintings, and European and American decorative and industrial arts. Integrating art and craft, and objects from across cultures and time periods. (barnesfoundation.org)

When you go to the Barnes Museum, you notice many things that are different. There are no titles for the paintings. There are no curator’s notes. The only verbal description is the name of the artist. Barnes wanted the student to see the art for themselves. He wanted them to experience the excitement he had experienced. He wanted to encourage students to develop an artistic eye-to gain the capacity to work with the key elements of a painting.

Looking for Themes

At the Barnes, a gallery wall may have two pictures with great perspective and depth juxtaposed with two paintings that are very flat. Barnes also moves beyond the boundaries of the canvas and uses a world of antique metal hardware to accent designs that exist in the ensemble.  Foreshadowing the “found art” movement of last 50 years, he collects all manner of metal knobs, hoods, and latches and places them above the painting like exclamation points. He collects antique chests and places plates, cups and candelabras on them. He book ends these walls with antique chairs of all shapes. He may highlight a narrow elongated figure by Modigliani with a pair of tall clippers. In contrast, he highlights the soft ample full-bodied bottoms of Renoir nudes with an oversized chair and a double U shaped piece of hardware.

Barnes challenges students to look for emerging themes. Why was the antique chest chosen for this wall? On further inspection, one may see that the green of the chest is present in all the paintings. The three emblems also suggest the way the figures are organized in the painting. The sketch below illustrates Barnes’s design to create a museum wall using his “ensemble technique”.  Barnes was relatively neutral about which painting a student might like best. He was deeply invested, however, in the students learning to gain capacity in the managing the tools of art (line, color, light, space etc.) that would lead to art appreciation.

Barnes came from humble beginnings in New York. He became a scientist, moved to Germany and invented the leading antibiotic of his time. He made a fortune and became a great art collector. To some of the established art community, he seemed an unwelcome intruder. In 1923, a public showing of Barnes' collection proved that it was too avant-garde for most people's taste at the time. The critics ridiculed the show, prompting Barnes' long-lasting and well-publicized antagonism toward those he considered part of the art establishment. Barnes was stung by the criticism. When you innovate, you take the risk that people will not respond. Many do not want to stir the pot, reimagine the elements or look for new themes.

The Art of Synagogue Strategy

When synagogue leaders begin to think strategically they can feel as welcome as a post-impressionist show at the Philadelphia Art Institute in 1923. Luther Snow (The Power of Asset Mapping: How Your Congregation Can Act on Its Gifts, Alban 2004) argues that congregational leaders can find innovative solutions by listing synagogue strengths and assets on cards and placing them on a wall. Leaders then move these elements around until they cluster into a theme.

They might take the social connections of their men’s group and connect it to the synagogue’s social justice agenda by creating a bike race to raise money for their cause. They might connect their commitment to more bar mitzvah tutoring support with potential several potential tutors from the men’s club. They might take note the baseball diamonds near the synagogue and organize and parents/kids softball game and picnic. Asset mapping helps leaders see all of the potential building blocks of synagogue success and to rearrange them into new programmatic clusters.

USCJ's new Sulam for Strategic Planners program is designed to help leaders think strategically. Just as Barnes helped art students to become literate in the use of color, light and shape, so too, we hope synagogue planners will become literate about the use of need assessments, vision, emerging themes, strategies and goals. In the end, we are not trying to create a specific strategic outcome.  Like Barnes, we are not providing curator’s notes that describe a specific holiday program or fundraiser. Like Barnes, we are very intentional about the exercises we want planners to go through to build their strategic capacity.

Parker Palmer once said of the master teacher, that they helped their students learn to make the connection by showing them how they as teachers made their connections.

“Good teachers possess the capacity for connectedness. They are able to weave a complex web of connections among themselves, their subjects, and their students so that the students can learn to weave a world for themselves.” (Parker Palmer, The Courage to Teach, p. 11)

With Sulam for Strategic Planners, we hope to juxtapose articles, case studies, planning tips and exercises in such a way that it encourages planners to think holistically- to make their  connections. Just as Barnes provides ensembles for artists, we will provide frameworks for planners. Our mission is to help them learn to put a frame around their synagogue situation and to imagine their next chapter as an emerging  work of art.