Oregon Humanities

Excited to hear that Green Jobs will be included in this latest Think & Drink. Living wage careers with dignified work for those who need it most have to be a part of the solutions we seek to address both environmentalism and the poverty it is very much connected to.

Dawn Jones, NE Portland | on Think & Drink on fossil fuel dependency and green jobs

“Follow your bliss,” acclaimed mythologist and teacher Joseph Campbell said so often. Like so many viewers, I too became captivated by his acclaimed 1988 PBS series, The Power of Myth, convinced that we should not just settle for any work, but identify our “bliss” and pursue it relentlessly.  With all due respect to Campbell, I have come to quite a different understanding of work. I believe that all work is good work, if it is done with integrity and dedication. We can’t all “follow our bliss.” Often it is enough to be working at all, to bring home a paycheck that will keep the lights on and buy a new pair of tennis shoes for a growing child. Work itself, in any form, bestows upon us a sense of dignity and worth.
Too often we have perpetuated the notion that some jobs are inherently better than others, and not just because they are better compensated, although that is part of the equation. Healing jobs are better than jobs in sales; digital jobs better than “blue collar” jobs, and green jobs are better than, well, just about anything! I teach, and confess I do truly love what I do. I am fortunate. But the hardest working individual at my school is Joel, one of our custodians. Each day he pauses briefly from cleaning a window until it shines or sweeping a stairwell clean to greet me and chat briefly. No matter how many times I have told him my name, he begins, “Buenos dias, Maestra.” Maestra, teacher, a title that implies that my position requires a salutation of respect that his does not.  Our school is one of two jobs he holds so that he can support himself and send money back to his family. I cannot imagine he grew up identifying janitorial work as his “bliss,” but he tells me it is good work, though hard on the back sometimes. He is a man of quiet decency, whose efforts should be valued every bit as much as mine.
Certainly the last two years have taught us painful lessons about the power of work in our lives. In its absence our psyches as well as our bank accounts take a terrible beating. “Success is counted sweetest;/By those who ne’er succeed/To comprehend a nectar/ Requires sorest need,” wrote Emily Dickinson. Those “who ne’er succeed,” the chronically unemployed, miss not only the income, but the opportunity to feel individually valued for their contributions, their work.  Their “sorest need” doesn’t have to be their bliss, because all work is good work.

Sara Follen Salvi | on Oregon Humanities Posts "Work" Deadline

Hello, I applied for Happy Camp and was recommended by my principal. It was said that I was going to recieve an e-mail, and I have yet to get one. Please send one, because I was supposed to get it at the beginning of this month. Thank you.

Sabrina Werner, La Grande, Oregon | on Happy Camp 2010

To get everyone thinking about tomorrow evening’s Eugene Think & Drink about sports and American culture, I thought I’d share two websites that have some interesting information about the topic.

The first is the webpage for an upcoming conference called A Mirror of our Culture: Sport and Society in America:

http://www.snc.edu/sportandsociety/

And the second is a blog dedicated to the philosophy of sport:

http://philosophyandsports.blogspot.com/

Annie Dubinsky, Portland | on Think & Drink with Richard Lariviere, Mike Bellotti, Barbara Altmann, and Kitty Piercy

Those of you in Portland who can’t attend our Eugene Think & Drink might want to attend an upcoming talk by Tom Krattenmaker, author of “Onward Christian Athletes” on christianity in an age of religious diversity. Presented by PSU Department of Religious Studies. February 25, 12:00-2:00 PM, Smith Student Center, Rm. 338.

Jennifer Allen, Portland | on Think & Drink with Richard Lariviere, Mike Bellotti, Barbara Altmann, and Kitty Piercy

Please send an application for the OHIP class in Salem at Willamette. Thanks.

nicole taylor, salem, oregon | on Oregon Humanities 2010 grant application deadine

It is a shame that the Council does not support these terrific former Chautauquans.  How many libraries, museums, etc., can afford to pay for these folks?

diane allen | on Past Oregon Chautauqua Scholars Available for Independent Programs

Sorry about that, Reggie. It should show up now.

Kathleen | on Past Oregon Chautauqua Scholars Available for Independent Programs

where is the list?

reggie diamond | on Past Oregon Chautauqua Scholars Available for Independent Programs

On the Special Projects page under Podcasts for Commonplace Series events, I see text that says “Listen to” and “Download” but none of them seem to be links.  Clicking any of them does nothing, and the cursor is a text entry bar instead of an arrow.  I have not encountered this problem on any other web site.  Are you sure your new site is all working correctly?

Paulianne, Port Orford | on The Commonplace Series, 2006-2008