Do no harm...do better than that. Do good.

I saw a great movie tonight. Something the Lord Made is about Vivien Thomas who was part of the "blue babies" open heart surgery team at Johns Hopkins University. To be more accurate, he was the heart of the team.

Of course there was much consternation amongst the doctors about the ethical-ness of exploring a new surgical realm, and there was the racial tension embedded in the recognition (or lack thereof) of Vivien's talents.

In the end, everything turns out okay. Some moral compromises are made, some things are left unsaid, and Vivien Thomas' presence does not radically change the racial landscape - although it does ruffle some feathers and sideline some of the standard hospital protocol. It's a story about a man doing something he loves, making sacrifices and deliberate choices about which battles to fight. He's a different kind of hero than the usual racial plight hero. I felt like he acquiesced too much, that he accepted the foregone conclusion of a racially-divided work environment. He was made to enter through the back door, to have a more basic work classification and subsequently lower pay, and to face constant condescension. He never let people personally take advantage of him, but he didn't challenge the system either. It was a delicate balance and a fine line he walked. But it all turned out okay, if a little lackluster and low-key for a protagonist.

These types of everything-turns-out-alright-in-the-end movies inevitably make me think of Memphis. Vivien may have been accepting the outright workplace racism, but his point was that at the end of the day, what mattered was the work. Service to a greater good, to doing work that he excelled at and loved, to furthering the cause of science weighed more than fighting a racial fight that his personality - at least how it was portrayed in the movie - was not equipped to do. Loose references were made to his brother having some connection with Thurgood Marshall and educational court challenges, but Vivien's role was to be a scientist and teacher, not a social revolutionary.

So how does this make me think of Memphis?

There are lots of fights to fight in Memphis. There are so many frontiers where work needs to be done, so many places where grievances need redress, so many reparations and apologies that need to be made for wrongs that need to be made right.

But I like how Vivien succeeded. Progress was made because work got done. He knew where he could win - in the laboratory - and that's where he fought. I look at various efforts across the city to make things better, many of which have to do with talking and analyzing (this blog included), and I think that there is more opportunity for progress in work. Self-actualization may be at the top of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, but I think that this may not be the best representation of the necessities. It's probably more of a Venn diagram than a pyramid. Meaningful work - working together to accomplish a tangible task whether it's repairing congenital heart abnormalities or digging ditches - is what moves society forward.

The WPA was the largest agency of the New Deal. It was work which got the country on its feet after the Great Depression. When you're working hard, especially on a project that you love and that utilizes your talents, you can work alongside just about anybody and find a way to get along.

So this reminds me of Memphis because there is a lot of tangible work to be done in the months ahead. We have lots of political change coming which will require a lot of work. We have many community projects that need more hands. We've got a ton of stimulus money coming that will hopefully put people to work. We need people to make the social commentary and challenge the systemic evils, but we also need people to do the tangible work. Battles are fought on all levels.

I'll keep thinking on this one and get back to you.

So sad about the baby elephant

It is with a heavy heart that I write this post. I hope that the zoo keepers, patrons and fellow elephants (felephants?) can comfort each other in mourning the lil' bambino.

Drawrings (Courtesy of Simon)

Remember this?

Can't we all just get along? (Apparently so!)

I should have seen Born Free instead of Disney Earth which was relatively depressing. Christian the Lion just warms my heart.

Take your mind off of Billy Mays, Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, Ed McMahon, the economy, war, pollution, heat-related deaths - anything vexing or troubling - and feel the love.

Things I pretend to hate (but secretly love)

• Mayonnaise
• Country music (not all of it, just the clever stuff)
• Delilah

So as I was on my mini-road trip today, I listened to Delilah and her dedications and it reminded me of the song I shared with my high school sweetheart. Our song was the National Anthem. That way, at the start of every football and basketball game, we can stand up and gaze cynically at each other and say, "They're playing our song."

sk8 or die

When: Friday June 19th, 7-9pm
Where: Faith Baptist Parking lot, 3755 North Germantown Road (N. of Wolfchase Mall)

Great family event:
Moonbounce, Music, Food and more!

Contest:
18 and under
Registration at 6:30 pm
$500 dollars in winnings for top 3 places
quarterpipes, rails, boxes & wedges

For more info see:

http://www.faithskate.org/contest.html

Sights about town

This'll make a lot of toothpicks...

Least Appropriate Wedding Songs

Man was I happy to hear NPR reporting about this.

All Things Considered recently asked its listeners and commenters to send in stories about the worst choices for wedding songs they've ever encountered.

I once had "My Funny Valentine" dedicated to me which got the offending gentleman upbraided for his selection. (Your looks are laughable? Unphotographable?) This same chap also made me quite a nice mix tape, back when those things were still en vogue and still conveyed a deep and yearning sentiment of young love...

Some of the NPR reader responses were quite funny:

• You picked a fine time to leave me Lucille
• What's love got to do with it?
• Send in the clowns

I have a few funny ones of my own.

1. I attended a wedding in San Diego about a decade ago where the bride walked down the aisle to "Another One Bites the Dust." The marriage barely survived the reception...

2. A couple years later, I was asked to sing at another friend's wedding. Roberta Flack's "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" and some song by Alabama which I forgot the words to (in the middle of the performance). I don't think the groom's family noticed. They had collectively an entire set of teeth between them all. I only sang the first two verses of Ms. Flack's song, though, because singing "The first time ever I lay with you" (while true) was not appropriate for church.

3. And my favorite. Just a couple years ago, some friends got married in a very lovely Episcopalian wedding. Everything went well until the very end of the church ceremony, at which point we heard a mind-numbing, ear-splitting honking sound from an undisclosed location in the church.

BBBBBWWWWWWWWWWWOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Everyone looked up, thinking geese had gotten loose in the church. The noise just kept coming. Eventually we looked to the front of the church, where the groom's grandfather was playing (badly) the bagpipes. It took nearly until the end of the song for me to recognize he was playing "Amazing Grace." I'm not a good one to get laughing in the wrong place at the wrong time because I just can't control myself. I had to keep focused on the hymnal and Bible in the pew shelf front of me, repeating the words King James Bible, King James Bible, King James Bible over and over again just to stay focused on something other than laughing out loud and making a complete ass out of myself.

Memphis Theater Examiner

Just wanted to alert you to a new column by local author and actor, David Prete. He's writing an Examiner column on Memphis theater happenings.

And if you haven't read his book yet, hop to it. Great summer pool reading. And you might even hit him up for an autograph.

Good news for Two Buck Chuck in Tennessee

Residents of Tennessee can now have wine shipped to their homes.

From the article: The law allows wineries that acquire a $300 license to ship up to three cases to Tennessee consumers per year. Tennessee was previously among 15 states that banned direct shipment of wine.

And to read the full law: SB0166 at http://www.capitol.tn.gov