ISSUE No. 46 | June 2024
WELCOME
If you’re new to CULTIVARE we welcome you! CULTIVARE is a monthly field guide for life and faith, brought to you by TEND. Each month we explore a specific “field” – a topic or theme through which we seek to cultivate contemplation, engagement, and deeper understanding. Our guiding questions are:
What are you cultivating in your life?
What fruit do you want your life to bear?
Each issue of CULTIVARE is structured into three parts:
Cultivate: Examines a specific “Field” or facet of life and offers questions to unearth and challenge our held perspective; along with concise kernels of truth which we call “Seeds.”
Irrigate: Explores the ways we nurture our understanding, which varies from individual to individual. We offer six means of irrigation: Art, Poetry, Profile, Film, Essay, and Books.
Germinate: Encourages practical ways to engage in becoming more fruitful and free in our lives.
Our name, CULTIVARE, in Spanish means “I will cultivate.” We hope each issue of our field guide will encourage you to do just that – cultivate new thoughts, actions, faith, hope, and fruitful living. We invite you to dig in and DIG DEEP!
FIELD
For we are partners working together for God, and you are God's field.
(I Corinthians 3:9)
Our theme this month is MEMORIALS. We invite our readers to take time this month to remember a loved one, an historical event, a sacrifice, an act of love that has shaped and formed you. This could be a parent or grandparent, a child or sibling, a friend or mentor, an ancestral connection, or an experience that has touched your life; and left a powerful impact on you.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines “memorial” as something by which the memory of a person, thing, or event is preserved, as a monument, a custom, or an observance. Some may initially think of Memorial Day which the US just celebrated and which Canada will celebrate on July 1. Others may think of War Memorials which often mark a country’s landscape. Still others may think of a holiday that reminds them of an important historical person.
Memorials come in various forms, from monuments and statues, stories and poems, songs and quotations, recipes and traditions, and simple acts of remembering. Memorials serve as a reminder, a prompt to recall a past event or person that one does not want to forget. They serve as a preservation of a known truth and a valuable tool for educating younger generations. Well-designed memorials can serve as a meaningful vehicle for reconciliation and healing.
In this issue we profile Bryan Stevenson, a lawyer and civil rights advocate, who courageously and persistently advocated for and advanced the need for a Memorial to the thousands of African Americans who lost their lives through the horrific practice known as lynching. Today we can each visit the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama because of Stevenson. We feature an essay from Architectural Digest which spotlights 14 memorials around the world. And our Artist of the Month is architect and artist Maya Lin, whose design of the Vietnam War Memorial broke the traditional mold of memorials and in so doing opened our hearts to experience the depth of our loss and the depth of the sacrifice of those no longer physically with us.
The Bible tells us that Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” The act of memorializing not only serves to remind us, and to instruct us, but also serves to nourish us to grow and change into the individuals and people God is calling us to be. Help us, Lord, to remember well. (DG)
***
Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I wasn’t even aware of it!” But he was also afraid and said, “What an awesome place this is! It is none other than the house of God, the very gateway to heaven!” The next morning Jacob got up very early. He took the stone he had rested his head against, and he set it upright as a memorial pillar. Then he poured olive oil over it. He named that place Bethel (which means “house of God”).
(Genesis 28:16-19 NLT)
When all the people had crossed the Jordan, the LORD said to Joshua, “Now choose twelve men, one from each tribe. Tell them, ‘Take twelve stones from the very place where the priests are standing in the middle of the Jordan. Carry them out and pile them up at the place where you will camp tonight.’” So Joshua called together the twelve men he had chosen—one from each of the tribes of Israel. He told them, “Go into the middle of the Jordan, in front of the Ark of the LORD your God. Each of you must pick up one stone and carry it out on your shoulder—twelve stones in all, one for each of the twelve tribes of Israel. We will use these stones to build a memorial. In the future your children will ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ Then you can tell them, ‘They remind us that the Jordan River stopped flowing when the Ark of the LORD ’s Covenant went across.’ These stones will stand as a memorial among the people of Israel forever.” So the men did as Joshua had commanded them. They took twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan River, one for each tribe, just as the LORD had told Joshua. They carried them to the place where they camped for the night and constructed the memorial there.
(Joshua 4:1-8 NLT)
But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name,
will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
(John 14:26 NIV)
SEEDS
A handful of quotes to contemplate and cultivate into your life
To remember the past is to see that we are here today by grace, that we have survived as a gift. (Frederick Buechner)
What we have once enjoyed deeply we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us. (Helen Keller)
To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child. For what is the worth of human life, unless it is woven into the life of our ancestors by the records of history? (Cicero)
The monuments of the nations are all protests against nothingness after death; so are statues and inscriptions; so is history. (Lew Wallace)
What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others. (Pericles)
We see then how far the monuments of wit and learning are more durable than the monuments of power, or of the hands. For have not the verses of Homer continued twenty-five hundred years or more, without the loss of a syllable or letter; during which time infinite palaces, temples, castles, cities have been decayed and demolished? (Francis Bacon)
All the Dachaus must remain standing. The Dachaus, the Belsens, the Buchenwalds, the Auschwitzes – all of them. They must remain standing because they are a monument to a moment in time when some men decided to turn the Earth into a graveyard. Into it they shoveled all of their reason, their logic, their knowledge, then we become the gravediggers. (Rod Serling)
We love the old saints, missionaries, martyrs, and reformers. Our Luthers, Bunyans, Wesleys, etc. . . . We will write their biographies, reverence their memories, frame their epitaphs, and build their monuments. We will do anything except imitate them. We cherish the last drop of blood, but watch carefully over the first drop of our own. (A.W. Tozer)
My story is a freedom song from within my soul. It is a guide to discovery, a vision of how even the worst pain and heartaches can be channeled into human monuments, impenetrable and everlasting. (Coretta Scott King)
There can be no reconciliation and healing without remembering the past.
(Member of Community Remembrance Project Coalition in Chattanooga, TN)
ART
Artist of the Month:
Maya Lin
The long history of memorials is often marked by tombstones, statues, and obelisks. Into this long history entered Maya Lin, a 21-year-old undergraduate student at Yale University. In the wake of the Vietnam War, Lin’s design for the Vietnam War Memorial was unanimously chosen by a panel of architects, sculptors, and Vietnam veterans out of a total of 1,421 applications. Her visionary design – a V-shaped wall of black stone, etched with the names of 58,000 dead soldiers – broke the mold on traditional memorial design and ushered in a new era of honoring and memorializing lives lost, sacrificed, and taken.
Lin’s unique approach to design carries with it her ability to elicit powerful emotions through her minimalist and meditative designs. Her work often addresses issues of memory, identity, and the environment, demonstrating a rich intellectual and creative depth. Lin’s ability to combine art with social and cultural relevance, as well as her dedication to pushing limits in her field, have established her as a trailblazer in the fields of art and architecture.
Born in 1959 to parents who fled communist China, both of her parents were professors at Ohio University. Her father was a ceramic artist who became Dean of Fine Arts while her mother wrote poetry and taught literature. As both artist and architect, Lin’s work has revealed a strong interest in the environment. She served as an advisor of sustainable energy use, and as a board member of the National Resources Defense Council. She also served as a member of the jury that selected the design of the World Trade Center Site Memorial. Lin’s life and work were featured in the 1995 Academy Award-winning documentary film Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision.
We encourage you to learn more about Lin’s life and work at the Academy of Achievement website: View Now
The Vietnam War Memorial Wall became a magnet for citizens of every generation, class, race, and relationship to the war perhaps because it is the only great public monument that allows the anesthetized holes in the heart to fill with a truly national grief. (Adrienne Rich)
Quotes by Maya Lin
I deliberately did not read anything about the Vietnam War because I felt the politics of the war eclipsed what happened to the veterans. The politics were irrelevant to what this memorial was.
I try and give people a different way of looking at their surroundings.
That’s art to me.
A lot of my works deal with a passage, which is about time.
I don’t see anything that I do as a static object in space.
It has to exist as a journey in time.
Even though I build buildings and I pursue my architecture, I pursue it as an artist.
I deliberately keep a tiny studio. I don’t want to be an architectural firm.
I want to remain an artist.
For the most part things never get built the way they were drawn.
To me, the American Dream is being able to follow your own personal calling. To be able to do what you want to do is incredible freedom.
POETRY
The Peace Cairn
By Andrew Blakemore
So high on the hillside not far from the village,
A peace cairn is growing there stone upon stone,
While people are praying the war to be ended,
They know God is with them and they’re not alone.
And as they look over their poor ravaged country,
That once held such beauty but now it’s all gone,
They look to the heavens with dreams of tomorrow,
And while there is sunlight their hope shall live on.
They carry a stone in their hand for a loved one,
Their name etched upon it held close to their heart,
The victims of war and their dearly beloved,
Of families now ruined and all torn apart.
Their eyes filled with tears as they come to the peace cairn,
To place down their stone as the dawn greets the day,
But memories they’ll keep and they won’t be forgotten,
And while war continues they’ll come here to pray.
For these stones are the future each urging the soldier,
To lay down his arms and to join hands in prayer,
A lasting foundation that grows ever stronger,
For high on that hillside a peace exists there.
PROFILE
Bryan Stevenson
Bryan Stevenson knows the power and purposefulness of memorials. Stevenson is an American lawyer, social justice activist, law professor, and the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative. Based in Montgomery, Alabama he has challenged bias against the poor and minorities in the criminal justice system, especially children. Stevenson initiated the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, which honors the names of each of more than 4,000 African Americans lynched in the twelve states of the South from 1877 to 1950. He argues that the history of slavery and lynchings has influenced the subsequent high rate of death sentences in the South, where it has been disproportionately applied to minorities. A related museum, The Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration, offers interpretations to show the connection between the post-Reconstruction period of lynchings to the high rate of incarceration and executions of people of color in the United States.
Stevenson was depicted in the 2019 legal drama film Just Mercy, based on his 2014 memoir Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption. His life work is a powerful example of thoughtfully and attentively honoring and memorializing individuals wronged by society. We encourage you to learn more about Bryan Stevenson and his important work at the following links:
Equal Justice Initiative Bio: View Now
Ted Talk: View Now
The National Memorial for Peace and Justice: View Now
Quotes by Bryan Stevenson
The greatest evil of American slavery was not involuntary servitude
but rather the narrative of racial differences we created to legitimate slavery.
Because we never dealt with that evil, I don’t think slavery ended in 1865,
it just evolved.
It’s that mind-heart connection that I believe compels us
to not just be attentive to all the bright and dazzling things
but also the dark and difficult things.
Lynching is an important aspect of racial history and racial inequality in America,
because it was visible, it was so public, it was so dramatic, and it was so violent.
In most places, when people hear about or see something that is a symbol or representation or evidence of slavery or the slave trade or lynching, the instinct is to cover it up, to get rid of it, to destroy it.
We all have a responsibility to create a just society.
The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, Montgomery, Alabama
FILM
Each month we recommend films focused on our theme
Coco (2017)
In Disney/Pixar’s vibrant tale of family, fun, and adventure, aspiring young musician named Miguel embarks on an extraordinary journey to the magical land of his ancestors. There, the charming trickster Hector becomes an unexpected friend who helps Miguel uncover the mysteries behind his family’s stories and traditions.
Documentary Film
Monument: The Untold Story of Stone Mountain
(32 Minutes)
The carving on the side of Stone Mountain is the largest Confederate monument in the world. Atlanta History Center staff have been engaged with the history of Stone Mountain for many years. Over the past year, the institution worked with experts and those closest to the issue to explore this history of the Stone Mountain carving from various perspectives for a documentary. The result of this work is Monument, a documentary film that delves into the controversial history of Stone Mountain, including the origin of the carving and the complicated relationships between historical events and key players who established the monument.
Film: View Now
Additional Info: View Now
Short Film
Official 9/11 Memorial Museum Tribute
in Time-Lapse 2004-2014
Since the devastation of 9/11, the US has been in a state of recovery. Shortly after the attacks, EarthCam CEO Brian Cury installed a webcam at New York's Ground Zero to document the progress at the site. Since then, he's installed several other cameras around the location that capture the recovery efforts from multiple angles and has released as progress has been made. With the 9/11 Memorial Museum having opened to the public, EarthCam released an official 9/11 Memorial Museum Tribute time-lapse video to show the world the recovery made in just a decade. The inspiring video covers the period from October 2004 to May 2014.
Ted Talk
A Forensic Anthropologist Who Brings Closure for the “Disappeared”
Fredy Peccerelli
In Guatemala's 36-year conflict, 200,000 civilians were killed — and more than 40,000 were never identified. At the Forensic Anthropology Foundation of Guatemala, Fredy Peccerelli and his team use DNA, archeology and storytelling to help families find the bodies of their loved ones. It's a sobering task, but it can bring peace of mind — and sometimes, justice. (Contains medical imagery.)
ESSAY
14 Famous Monuments and Memorial Buildings Around the World
By Josephine Minutillo
In this 2018 article from Architectural Digest, trained architect Josephine Minutillo (who also serves as Editor in Chief of Architectural Record) spotlights 14 monuments and memorial buildings that speak to the past while bringing perspective to the present. Minutillo writes: “To see the emotional power of architecture, one only needs to look to some of the world’s famous monuments and memorials. Designing these structures is often a challenging proposition. Architects must balance meaning and aesthetics, all while keeping the person or people being memorialized at the center of the design. So it’s no wonder that these designs are often met with controversy. From Maya Lin’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, these tributes have provoked strong reactions but have also become iconic pieces of art and architecture and important destinations for locals and travelers alike. Tour 14 of the world’s most moving memorials, from Hiroshima, Japan, to Oklahoma City.”
BOOKS
Each month we recommend a book (or two) focused on our theme
Non-Fiction
The Things They Carried
By Tim O’Brien
A classic work of American literature that has not stopped changing minds and lives since it burst onto the literary scene. The Things They Carried is a ground-breaking meditation on war, memory, imagination, and the redemptive power of storytelling. The Things They Carried depicts the men of Alpha Company: Jimmy Cross, Henry Dobbins, Rat Kiley, Mitchell Sanders, Norman Bowker, Kiowa, and the character Tim O’Brien, who has survived his tour in Vietnam to become a father and writer at the age of forty-three. Taught everywhere from high school classrooms to graduate seminars in creative writing, it has become required reading for any American and continues to challenge readers in their perceptions of fact and fiction, war and peace, courage and fear and longing.
Fiction
Killer Angels
By Michael Shaara
In the four most bloody and courageous days in US history, two armies fought for two conflicting dreams. One dreamed of freedom, the other of a way of life. Far more than rifles and bullets were carried into battle. There were memories. There were promises. There was love. And far more than men fell on those Pennsylvania fields. Bright futures, untested innocence, and pristine beauty were also the casualties of war. Michael Shaara’s Pulitzer Prize–winning masterpiece is unique, sweeping, unforgettable—the dramatic story of the battleground for America’s destiny.
Historian James M. McPherson states: My favorite historical novel . . . a superb re-creation of the Battle of Gettysburg, but its real importance is its insight into what the war was about, and what it meant.
Childrens Book
Memory Jars
By Vera Brosgo
Freda is devastated when she can’t eat all the delicious blueberries she’s picked. She has to wait a whole year before they’re back, and she doesn’t want to lose them! Then Gran reminds her that they can save blueberries in a jar, as jam. So Freda begins to save all her favorite things. But it turns out that saving everything also means she can’t enjoy anything, and Freda realizes that some things are best saved as memories.
Memory Jars playfully encourages children to savor life's ephemeral and enduring moments in funny and engaging ways. An ideal read aloud for those mourning a loved one, for teachers celebrating the end of the school year with students, or any time a child is “frustrated by a good thing being over too soon.” -Booklist
DIG DEEPER
Practical suggestions to help you go deeper into our theme
1. QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION
Devote some time and thought to these reflective questions on our theme:
a. Reflect on a deceased loved one that has impacted your life.
b. What are some ways that they impacted your life?
c. What are some ways you would like to honor their memory?
d. What are some of your favorite stories about your loved one?
e. If you knew they could drop by and visit tomorrow, what would your ideal day
spent together look like?
f. What is a remembered story of them that makes you laugh?
g. What is a particular time you recall that your loved one was especially joyful?
h. What would you want other people to know about your loved one?
2. THE SIX HYMNS THAT TIM KELLER PICKED FOR HIS MEMORIAL SERVICE
In this 2023 article from Christianity Today, Francis Collins, the founder and senior fellow at BioLogos and former director of the National Institutes of Health writes about his friend, pastor Tim Keller who taught us not only how to live but to die.
3. COMFORT WOMEN STATUES IN KOREA – NPR
The small bronze figure depicts a girl sitting in a chair, staring straight ahead with a look of determination. She has cropped hair and wears a hanbok — a traditional Korean dress. She's barefoot. Her fist is clenched. Next to her is an empty chair. The girl memorializes women like Ahn Jeom-sun who says she has visited the statue often. It symbolizes the youth she lost at age 13, when the Japanese Imperial Army abducted her from her village.
4. NEW YORK CITY PARKS MONUMENTS DEDICATED TO WOMEN
On your next trip to the Big Apple, consider exploring monuments in NYC's parks that honor notable and historical women--from former first lady and humanitarian Eleanor Roosevelt to trailblazer and abolitionist Harriet Tubman. Check out the remarkable list:
5. A PRAYER FOR REMEMBERING
We remember them
When we are weary and in need of strength
When we are lost and sick at heart,
We remember them.
When we have a joy we crave to share
When we have decisions that are difficult to make
When we have achievements that are based on theirs
We remember them.
At the blowing of the wind and in the chill of winter
At the opening of the buds and in the rebirth of spring
We remember them.
At the blueness of the skies and in the warmth of summer
At the rustling of the leaves and in the beauty of autumn
We remember them.
At the rising of the sun and at its setting
We remember them.
As long as we live, they too will live; for they are now part of us
As we remember them. (Prayers from the Jewish Prayer Book, adapted)
ROOTED
But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,
whose confidence is in him.
They will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit.
(Jeremiah 17:7-8 NIV)
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FIELD NOTES
Images used in order of appearance:
1. FIELD: Alan Karchmer, The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, Montgomery, Alabama
https://massdesigngroup.org/work/design/national-memorial-peace-and-justice
2. SEEDS: Artaxerxes, Roadside memorial for Anthony "Tony" Potter on east side of Route 250 on where Blue Ridge Parkway crosses, Virginia
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Roadside_Memorial.JPG
3. ART: Jesse Frohman, Maya Lin
https://www.mayalinstudio.com/about
Michael S. Williamson, The Washington Post, Duplications, misspellings, and miscounts found in new study of the Vietnam wall, May 22, 2019
Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Dominique A. Pineiro, Marines enrolled in the Marine Corps University’s Sergeants Course view the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., Nov. 3, 2017, during a motivational run with Army Command Sgt. Maj. John W. Troxell, the senior enlisted advisor to chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
https://www.defense.gov/Multimedia/Experience/Vietnam-Veterans-Memorial/
4. POETRY: Adam, Tjentište War Memorial, Five Million Star Hotel, The Abstract Beauty and Tragedy of Yugoslavian Spomeniks, Bosnia and Herzegovina, February 7, 2018
https://www.fivemillionstarhotel.co/blog-reel/yugoslavian-spomenik
5. PROFILE: Rog and Bee Walker for EJI, Bryan Stevenson at The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, Montgomery, Alabama
https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2020/01/10/just-mercy-bryan-stevenson
Alan Karchmer, The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, Montgomery, Alabama
https://massdesigngroup.org/work/design/national-memorial-peace-and-justice
6. FILM: Jin S. Lee, Tribute in Light, 9/11 Memorial & Museum, New York, New York
7. ESSAY: High Contrast – Self-photographed, Memorial to the Victims of Communism, Prague, Czech Republic
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_to_the_Victims_of_Communism
8. BOOKS: Carcharoth, Vimy Memorial, Vimy Ridge, France, September 2010)
9. DIG DEEPER: Charles LeClaire, Jackie Robinson Day 2021: MLB players wear 42 honor baseball trailblazer, Pittsburgh Pirates players before their game against the San Diego Padres, USA TODAY Sports, April 15, 2021
10. ROOTED: Vincent Kessler, Reuters, WWI Douaumont ossuary, World War I in Photos: A Century Later, The Atlantic, Verdun, France, March 4, 2014
https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2014/04/world-war-i-in-photos-a-century-later/507341/
TEAM CULTIVARE: Duane Grobman (Editor), Amy Drennan, Greg Ehlert, Bonnie Fearer, Ben Hunter, Eugene Kim, Andrew Massey, Rita McIntosh, Heather Shackelford, Jason Pearson (Design: Pearpod.com)
WE'RE LISTENING:
We welcome hearing your thoughts on this issue
and suggestions for future issues.
Email us at: info@tendwell.org
