Ecumen Leader Kathryn Roberts Featured in Radical CEO Series
Kathryn Roberts, Ecumen CEO, was featured in today's Radical CEO blog series at Star Tribune.com. You can read the post and about other radical CEOs in the Twin Cities here.
Jim Klobuchar - The Treasure Masked by an Ugly Slag Pile
A new post by Ecumen Changing Aging contributor Jim Klobuchar:
It was not the prescribed atmosphere for a harmless reverie: drizzly Sunday morning at daybreak on a lonely highway, snags of cloud hanging low. Apart from my car, nothing else moved though the shapeless mist that lifted every few minutes. It revealed man-made buttes hundreds of feet high, dull red, formed by the abandoned tailings of the now-silent iron ore pits that are part of the landmarks of the northern Minnesota mining country.
When we were children they dominated the environment of our growing up, engineered by giant power shovels carving those vast canyons that produced 90 per cent of America’s steel.
Over the years the government and tourism agencies have invested sizable cash into removing or cleaning up the unlovely detritus. They have succeeded remarkably in some places by creating permanent blue lakes, camouflaging the old open pits, or by growing virtual arboretums in some of them.
But what I was thinking on this damp Sunday morning had nothing much to do with sprucing up old ore dumps, beautifying them--if you don’t mind-- as a sensible salute to a heritage. I was thinking about the America I had lived; about gifts that had come into my life because there was iron ore, and there were miners. I remembered the muted thunder-claps thousands of feet beneath the surface that I could hear in my bed as a child, dynamite being a detonated by a night shift, possibly by my dad’s crew.
In my town the steel-building iron ore lay nearly a half mile beneath the earth’s surface and could not be reached with the huge steam shovels that created those vast open canyons. Where we lived the ore was extracted underground with dynamite and winches through a network of tunnels and then lifted nearly 2,000 feet in big elevator cages.
My father had labored in the underground since he was 15, leaving school to work after the eighth grade after both of his parents had died and he was the oldest boy in a family of eight. There were few safety nets then and even fewer when the Great Depression struck the country. The children wanted to stay together. So the oldest boy became their support.
It was his choice and the mining company pretended not to notice his age. And yet he lived a fruitful life, working, hunting and fishing, helping to raise two children. It’s what was done in those years. He and my mother were the children of immigrants, most of whom came to America in who like the others came in part because of their hunger to educate their children. This they did, with the security of work in the mines.
So that became the progression. The immigrants mined and built their homes and told their kids to study. Their children could go into adult life with a high school education and the chances that came with it to expand their lives; and their grandchildren could attend college if they studied and if it meant enough to them.
And so this happened in our household: my brother and I could attend the junior colleges that flourished in northern Minnesota, and advance those credits directly to the big university. And my dad’s grandchildren, the third generation, both have significant government positions today, one in Washington, the other in Iowa.
So driving through the north country the other day I felt no esthetic pain seeing those slag piles penetrating the fog, even the uglier ones that had eluded the beautification patrols. Like my brother, I had worked underground between college terms to help pay the tuition, which wasn’t all that onerous to begin with.
What was painful in that morning mist was the glimpses it revealed of a time when America was beginning to surge; when a quality education was coming available to almost all who wanted it. It was a time when America was beginning to discover the genuine power of democracy, building a society in which almost everybody had a chance to compete at some level. It was a time of an America that recognized the sins of its discriminations against people of color, against women and tried to meet the responsibilities of a truly open society.
America’s people hold so much potential, but we’re not fully mining it. Yes times change, but something that should never diminish is the conscience and promise of the country in opening the door to everyone for a chance at a quality education. It’s education that carries a person through life and empowers one to the very end.
Those silent slabs of ore might be reminding us of a better way. One in which we’re interconnected. And that’s a treasure worth preserving.
About Jim Klobuchar:
In 45 years of daily journalism, Jim Klobuchar’s coverage ranged from presidential campaigns to a trash collector’s ball. He has written from the floor of a tent in the middle of Alaska, from helicopters, from the Alps and from the edge of a sand trap. He was invited to lunch by royalty and to a fist fight by the late Minnesota Viking football coach, Norm Van Brocklin. He wrote a popular column for the Minneapolis Star Tribune for 30 years and has authored 23 books. Retiring as a columnist in 1996, he contributes to Ecumen’s “Changing Aging” blog, MinnPost.com and the Christian Science Monitor. He also leads trips around the world and an annual bike trip across Northern Minnesota. He’s climbed the Matterhorn in the Alps 8 times and has ridden his bike around Lake Superior. He’s also the proud father of two daughters, including Minnesota's senior U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar.
Age Wave = Change Wave Video
The future announces itself from the horizon. And look at the unprecedented statistics before us in this short video. The age wave is the change wave, an unprecedented opportunity for innovation.
Harmon Killebrew's Insights on Living and Dying
Six years ago, we did an interview with Minnesota favorite and Baseball Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew on aging. He had great insights on living and dying. I've included excerpts from that interview at our blog at Star Tribune.com, which you can read here.
Empowering Gift Idea: Ecumen Offers Presto Computerless Email to People Who Don't Have Computers
Do you have a loved one who doesn't have a computer, yet you'd love to email them photos of the kids, big events or a variety of documents? Now you can!
Ecumen has joined with Silicon Valley-based Presto Services, the leading provider of computerless email, to offer through our Ecumen at Home services Presto Mail for $14.99 per month plus a one-time charge of $99.99 for the Printing Mailbox made for Presto by HP. The Ecumen-Presto offer is here on the Ecumen at Home technology page.
Presto Highlights
- Allows you to send email to people who don't use a computer
- Uses an HP Printing Mailbox and Presto Mail service
- Transforms emailed messages into beautiful, easy-to-read e-letters with photos and attachments automatically printed
- Nothing new for your loved one to learn — messages and photos are automatically printed
Presto is a combination of the Presto Printing Mailbox and Presto Mail service. It allows you to use the convenience of email to communicate with loved ones who don't use a computer or the Internet.
How it works
1. Send email, photos and other documents to a Presto-provided email address
2. The Presto Mail service transforms emailed messages and photos into printable, full color e-letters
3. The Presto Printing Mailbox automatically retrieves messages via the phone line and prints them out
Before and after
Easy to use
This is the one electronics product your loved one will actually use, because they don't actually need to "use" it. They simply pick up the printed messages from the tray, read and enjoy! No checking a computer for messages or struggling with email attachments. It's all done for them, automatically. There is nothing they need to do or learn.
Ecumen CEO Kathryn Roberts Drives Tech Innovation for Aging
Neat story today at TECH{dot}MN on Ecumen CEO Kathryn Roberts' leadership in bringing technology to aging.
Ecumen's Awakenings Initiative Featured at Mill City Commons Forum
Awakenings, Ecumen's initiative to reduce or eliminate the use of unnecessary anti-psychotic medications among our nursing home residents, is getting a lot of attention. This week, Ecumen convened a panel of our experts and partners in this innovative program at a Mill City Commons community gathering. Mill City Commons residents had plenty of questions for our Awakenings experts, perhaps because they are active, independent, and engaged -- and want to remain that way.
Unnecessary use of anti-psychotic medications may be one of the most overlooked practices in nursing homes. Ecumen is working to change that at our 16 care centers across Minnesota. It's a Vision Thing. Without the Vision to make life better for our residents, we couldn't achieve the culture change that Awakenings is generating. Residents are literally Waking Up. You can listen to our story on Minnesota Public Radio, and read more about Awakenings at our Duluth care center, Ecumen Bayshore. We are working hard through innovations like Awakenings to honor and empower the people we serve.
Ecumen Now Also Blogging at Star Tribune.com
The Ecumen Changing Aging blog now has a cousin at StarTribune.com. Eric Schubert, head of communications at Ecumen, has begun authoring a blog at Star Tribune.com that looks at aging and change resulting from it in innovation, how we live, wellness, public policy and beyond. The newest post is: Are You Ready to Live to 100+?
Jim Klobuchar: Holding a Heart Held in His Hand
Another great read from Changing Aging contributor Jim Klobuchar:
He was leaving the congregation after serving it for more than a year as an interim pastor. This is a pinch-hitting role seldom coveted by career preachers who become part of the long-term fabric of the spiritual lives of their flock, dedicated equally to the flock’s salvation and the on-time payment the church’s bills.
He was largely unknown when he arrived, an appointee of the church’s regional service office. But he meshed easily and comfortably with the church members, which was basically an older group. He showed up at all of their socials and missions. And remarkably he delivered totally ad lib sermons that paid attention to the here-and-now, yet sparked enough smiles and rapport to make his message clear and credible.
He was, in short, popular, learned and approachable. After a year the congregation made its call to a new fulltime pastor. She was accepted by acclamation and seems destined to be a likeable choice. Approaching the Lenten season in his final service, the interim pastor dutifully followed the church lectionary and chose an appropriate sermon. But there was something else he wanted to say, drawn from his family history. He said it expressed not only his appreciation for having been welcomed into this church on his way toward retirement, but how tenderly that acceptance renewed for him a fundamental truth about our humanity: The need we have for each other.
He told a story. His son had developed a critical heart condition. It was at a time when the by-pass surgery that millions of us have successfully undergone was then years away from the high technology and skills that have made it the almost routine saver of lives that it is today.
His son had critical arterial blockage. It had to be relieved or it was going to be fatal. The operation went for 12 hours. At several stages, the surgeon came out of the operating room to explain to the parents what was being done and what progress was being made. The operation stretched through the day. What is relatively straightforward today was then one crisis after another. At length the surgeon returned to the couple, tired but smiling.
“He’s going to be fine,” he said, and then paused “At one point in the operation,” he said, “for several minutes, I held your son’s heart in the palm of my hand.”
The surgeon seemed awed and humbled by the wonderment of what he had experienced. Their son’s heart, in his hand.
The image seemed equally to move those in the congregation. Something in that story seemed to reawaken a gratitude for humanity when it is at its best, nurturing, caring and supporting. It may also have stirred a twinge of regret for the time of mounting social and political discord in which we lead our lives today.
Maybe the retiring pastor’s message went beyond that. The community we need in our lives goes beyond what we do together in a church or school or the book club or at the ball park. What we’re missing may be what we felt when we were together as a people and a nation, meeting needs, embracing the future, expanding our vision, sharing both our successes and trials, and sharing our bounty.
We don’t seem to be doing much of that.
The outgoing preacher struck me as a man of books and history. He might have come across a quote from Gandhi: “Whenever you are in doubt…apply the first test. Recall the face of the poorest and weakest one whom you have seen, and ask yourself if the step you contemplate is going to be any use to that person.”
The overwhelming humility the surgeon experienced, holding another’s heart in his hand, goes deeper than surgery.
About Jim Klobuchar:
In 45 years of daily journalism, Jim Klobuchar’s coverage ranged from presidential campaigns to a trash collector’s ball. He has written from the floor of a tent in the middle of Alaska, from helicopters, from the Alps and from the edge of a sand trap. He was invited to lunch by royalty and to a fist fight by the late Minnesota Viking football coach, Norm Van Brocklin. He wrote a popular column for the Minneapolis Star Tribune for 30 years and has authored 23 books. Retiring as a columnist in 1996, he contributes to Ecumen’s “Changing Aging” blog, MinnPost.com and the Christian Science Monitor. He also leads trips around the world and an annual bike trip across Northern Minnesota. He’s climbed the Matterhorn in the Alps 8 times and has ridden his bike around Lake Superior. He’s also the proud father of two daughters, including Minnesota's senior U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar.