MEETING OF FEBRUARY 13, 2003
By Matt Cabot
Editor: Dick BlandingBe mine. Kiss me. You’ve got charm. Love You. Lovely eyes. Nice Lips. Awe Some. Too Cool. Go Girl. My Hero. These were some of the pithy sentiments proffered today on the Valentine Charms given out by IRENE PRESTON of (naturally) Preston’s Candy.
Pretty good thoughts to carry around in this time of fear, anxiety, and worry. I wonder what would happen if we dropped Valentine Charms instead of bombs. Would they be as effective? What if we could only speak to our “enemies” using Valentine homilies?
President Carter made a speech a number of years ago where he said “Sometimes war is a necessary evil. But it still is an evil.” Now of course I can not use this forum to espouse my own opinion, and besides I am not sure where I really stand on this issue anyway.
I would like to believe that our government is more informed about the dangers facing American than I am. But Carter has a good point: War is evil. All of the smart bombs in the world are not smart enough to avoid killing innocent people, euphemistically called collateral damage.
It seems that our international organization has a long history of working for peace. President Mary, using the current issue of our Rotary International magazine, read a number of highlights concerning Rotary’s effort to accomplish peace. (Unfortunately I threw out my magazine a couple of days ago, after reading it judiciously from cover to cover, and the trash has been collected) - well, that failed part of the 4 way test. If you read the latest Rotary Magazine you will see that we in fact belong to a club that has a history of working towards peace.
What is it that President Mary says each week? “Imagine a world at peace.” (or to that effect).
By the time you read this, Valentine’s Day has come and gone. But I hope some of the sentiment that permeates that day carries on in the days and weeks to come to find a peaceful resolution to the conflict in the Mid East.
HARRIET HEEBINK continues that theme with her Thought For The Day which, when distilled, comes out “Respecting the rights of others leads to peace.” It is pretty easy to say “Well, he’s not respecting our rights!”, “He did it first!” sounds like voices heard in First Grade, doesn’t it?
Today we had 7 guests, 3 visiting Rotarians, including a past member Bob Berka, who is now a member of Menlo Park Rotary, and 4 guests.
PICK IT UP AND TAKE IT HOME - President Mary reminds us to come to the meeting, and pick up your club Handbook and take it home. Warning: it is a clear sign of who hasn’t attended for a while. (Sort of like a box of pledge envelopes sitting in the Narthex.)
DISTRICT CONFERENCE - President Mary also reminded us (particularly the Red Badgers,) that the District Conference will be held April 25th, thru 27th at the Santa Clara Marriott. While traveling there won’t improve your Mileage Plus standing, neither will it cost you much.
RED TO BLUE
Director of Membership STEVE YARBROUGH had the privilege of standing in for several sponsors of new members today. He stood in for KRIS CASTO who sponsored VALERIE CARPENTER and he stood in for BOB ADAMS who sponsored JOHN BOGART. Valerie is owner of Market Savvy Consulting in Los Altos, and John is currently owner of Bogart, Harvey, a manufacture’s Representative company in Los Altos representing construction building equipment. I say, “currently”, because he said he is “working on becoming retired.”
GA’ DAY MATE - Our “Down-Under” Representative, Blue Badger, BRUCE CANN gave a five minute reintroduction to the group. Bruce joined Los Altos Rotary in 1983, so only 30 of the current 150 members were around to hear his Red Badge speech, and most of us can’t remember back that far anyway, so it was good to hear it again.
Born in 1928 in Melbourne, Bruce played Cricket, Tennis and was the high school’s go-to pianist. He got is his (what we would call) CPA and went to work for Haskins and Sells which is now Deloitte, Haskins and Sells, where he worked quite literally all over the world, eventually settling in the US. He also worked for Ampex, and Levy Straus, where he was CFO for one of their operating units.
About the most interesting thing about this seemingly mild mannered man was that he recently took up Skydiving. Loves to travel. He has been involved with LAREF for the past 15 years. Also in case you guys missed it, he has a 15 year record of PERFECT ATTENDANCE. Any of us had one?
MOVIN’ ON UP - BEN MCGANN mentioned that the Rotacare clinic is moving to the basement of the YMCA on April 5th and 6th. He is looking for helping hands to make that transition. Expect a sign-up sheet in the next few weeks for the opportunity to contribute to this worthwhile project.
VALENTINE QUESTION OF THE DAY - How does a kiss from your husband cost you $100? Answer: Be silly enough to do it in front of CLYDE NOEL and have it end up on the front page of the Los Altos Town Crier. Right ELLEN YAMANE FLANAGAN?
NEW DIRECTORS - Speaking of Ellen, congratulations goes out to all nominees for Director, BAIDRA MURPHY, SHIV SHASTRI and MARION TAVENNER and especially to ELLEN, TRACIE MURRAY, and JERRY TOMANEK for being elected as Directors.
SPEAKER OF THE DAY - SETH MANNING introduced our speaker today, Dr. Robert Frager, from the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology . For more information about Dr. Frager’s institute, look at: http://www.itp.edu/
He said that there was a revolution going on in the world of psychology, called “Positive Psychology.” He said that Maslow felt that Freud focused on the ‘sick’ side, meaning looking as what makes people sick. This revolution is taking us in the direction of looking not at what makes us sick, but what makes us healthy. Maslow, you remember from Psy-101 is the guy who developed his Order of Hierarchal needs. I don’t remember what they are, but I do remember that the revealed a lot about how I was acting as Freshman in college.
Maslow (or Maslov, not sure) also was into Self Actualization. He felt that if we had capacities that we did not use, it would make us sick. Like a bird. Bird’s wings are for flying, except of course for the ostrich. If we have ‘wings’ metaphorically speaking, and do not use them, we will get sick. Dr. Frager pointed out the US Army’s slogan, “Be All You Can.”
Actually, the web is full of psychology references. Here’s Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: http://sbsi.csumb.edu/sbsc300b/maslov-needs.html, and there is even one on surfing the web for psychology references. http://sbsi.csumb.edu/sbsc300b/psychrefs.html
But I digress. Dr. Frager mentioned Carl Roger’s work on how to deal with clients, and not patients http://psy1.clarion.edu/jms/Rogers.html. He felt that the client should direct the course of healing, not the doctor. He also was one of the fathers of group therapy.
He (Rogers) said that we should practice unconditional love. Good for our theme, right? Dr. Frager said that too often as parents we practice conditional love, like, I love you because you got an ‘A’ on the test, scored the soccer goal, etc. He said that therapy is about unconditional love.
Connecting his talk with the current War/No War climate, Dr. Frager asked the questions: “What do I know to stop this war?” “How can we develop a psychology for the peace table?”
Dr. Frager also spoke about Leonard James and his 1906 essay, “Moral Equivalent of War”. Basically he said that war was so dramatic, that we have to come up with an alternative that makes peace as alluring. Peace is more than the absence of war.
In researching James’ essay, I came upon this url that I found very interesting, in that it appears to address the problems of the Jews and the Arabs, and their never-ending conflict: http://www.socialaction.com/05-2002/loyo-bmidbar_2002.phtml.
I apologize for putting a lot of computer links (web links, or url’s) in this newsletter, but I think it’s worth a few moments of your time to follow some of these threads.
Programs and Events
February
February 20: Walter Hays "Polio Plus Project"
February 27: Silvia Hines "About the YWCA" and David Dye "About the Boy Scouts"March
March 6: Rafiq Dossani, Stanford Asia-Pacific Research Center, “The Emerging High-Tech Partnership Between India and the U.S.”
March 7: Cioppino Feed
March 13: David Yarnold, Executive Editor, San Jose Mercury News, “The Future of the Mercury News in a Changing Region and World”
March 20: Post-Taliban Afghanistan
March 27: Toni Casey, Director of Intergovernmental Affairs, U.S. Small Business Administration, "The President's Economic Stimulus Package - Impact on Small Businesses"May
May 9: Golf Tournament, 10:00 AM at Shoreline Golf Links, Mountain View
May 17 and 18: Rotary Fine Art Show
OTHER ROTARY CLUB MEETING PLACES
MONDAY
Palo Alto: Rickey's Hyatt House, 12:15 p.m.
TUESDAY
Los Altos Sunset: The Echo Restaurant, Los Altos, 7:15 p.m.
Sunnyvale: Ramada Inn, 12:15 p.m.
Mountain View: Adobe House, Moffett & Central, Mountain View, 12:15 p.m.
WEDNESDAY
Menlo Park: Menlo Park Recreation Center, Menlo Park, noon.
Woodside/Portola: Woodside Village Church, Woodside, 7:30 a.m.
Sunnyvale Sunrise: Wild Woodys Grill, Sunken Gardens Golf Course, 7 a.m.
Cupertino: Quinlan Community Center, 12:15 p.m.
THURSDAY
Palo Alto Sunrise: Scott's, Town & Country, Palo Alto, 7:15 a.m.
Yosemite: The Ahwahnee Hotel, Noon
FRIDAY
Palo Alto University: Sheraton, El Camino, Palo Alto, 7:30 a.m.
Lake Tahoe: Harvey's Hotel, 12:15 p.m.
"Information in this newsletter is intended for the exclusive use of the members of the Rotary Club of Los Altos to facilitate the work of the club and to promote club fellowship. It is not to be used for any commercial or outside, unrelated, non-profit purposes. No publication of material in this newsletter should occur without the express permission of the club President or the Editor of the Rotator."Copyright 2003 The Los Altos Rotary Club
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