Posts
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Letter to the Editor Published
Stephan's letter to the editor was published Sunday, April 18. Click here to read it!
Friday, April 9, 2010
Letter to the Editor
*This letter was submitted to The Commercial Appeal on Friday, April 9. We'll update the blog if it is published.
As a great-grandson of E.H. Crump and a Memphian, I want to thank Pam and Rob Cooper and all the people who helped them create their new documentary, Citizens Not Subjects. On one hand it acknowledges the often celebrated achievement of Mr. Crump and his supporters as they brought about the incredible transformation of Memphis from a stunted, corrupt and often violent river town into a true modern city whose sense of community still survives and serves us today.
This powerful piece of historical film work goes on to tell what until now has been the untold story of the dark side of the Crump Machine and its 50 year domination of Memphis politics. The main theme of this labor of love for our city then reveals the fascinating, uncelebrated story of Edward Meeman, Lucius Burch and Edmund Orgill and the role their courage, intelligence, energy and integrity had in creating the progressive movement that stubbornly resisted and eventually unseated what had become a dysfunctional Crump machine more intent on preserving its own power and influence than serving the best interests of the City.
As the intention and Greek legend behind the name of Rob and Pam’s company, Verissima Productions, implies, we as people, families and communities cannot be whole, healed and healthy without the entire “truth, vitality and essence of the story” especially when it is our own. I personally encourage all the folks who loved these fine people and our city to watch this essential piece of our Memphis story when it airs Thursday, April 22, at 9pm on WKNO.
Stephan McLaughlin
As a great-grandson of E.H. Crump and a Memphian, I want to thank Pam and Rob Cooper and all the people who helped them create their new documentary, Citizens Not Subjects. On one hand it acknowledges the often celebrated achievement of Mr. Crump and his supporters as they brought about the incredible transformation of Memphis from a stunted, corrupt and often violent river town into a true modern city whose sense of community still survives and serves us today.
This powerful piece of historical film work goes on to tell what until now has been the untold story of the dark side of the Crump Machine and its 50 year domination of Memphis politics. The main theme of this labor of love for our city then reveals the fascinating, uncelebrated story of Edward Meeman, Lucius Burch and Edmund Orgill and the role their courage, intelligence, energy and integrity had in creating the progressive movement that stubbornly resisted and eventually unseated what had become a dysfunctional Crump machine more intent on preserving its own power and influence than serving the best interests of the City.
As the intention and Greek legend behind the name of Rob and Pam’s company, Verissima Productions, implies, we as people, families and communities cannot be whole, healed and healthy without the entire “truth, vitality and essence of the story” especially when it is our own. I personally encourage all the folks who loved these fine people and our city to watch this essential piece of our Memphis story when it airs Thursday, April 22, at 9pm on WKNO.
Stephan McLaughlin
April Reflections
Being More Fully Engaged, Part 1 of 3
For me, healthy relationship looks like being more fully engaged in my own life and my experience of it. This is relative to being less engaged in what is going on in my life. I am not trying to set myself up as a standard, only to speak from my own experience, which has ranged widely between more or less engaged over 56 years of my lifetime.
According to this way of looking at relationship, my days of more addictive and obsessive behaviors would reflect my being less engaged and less healthy, while my more sober life of the last 20 years are what I would call my more engaged years. Hopefully, this latter part of my life is the one in which I am connecting to myself and others in more healthy ways. In 12 Step terms, this life practice is about ‘progress not perfection.’ I trust that any progress in my life toward more healthy has come from more spiritual based sober living and Recovery.
From these perspectives I see that not being fully engaged in my life is not healthy or sober. The specific way I was not connected for years, perhaps my entire adolescence and young adulthood, is that I became disconnected from my feelings. Feelings are an essential part of what I call my natural life experience in which I feel my feelings which then help me to understand and connect with my deeper needs, and with that information I can seek more healthy, constructive ways of taking care of myself and my own needs.
Healthy relationship with myself depends on my ability to be aware and present enough to feel my feelings, identify my needs and take care of myself! Taking better care of myself, in turn, promotes my own wellbeing, independence, and wholeness, which is a great place for me to attempt to connect with others in more healthy ways.
To be continued...
For me, healthy relationship looks like being more fully engaged in my own life and my experience of it. This is relative to being less engaged in what is going on in my life. I am not trying to set myself up as a standard, only to speak from my own experience, which has ranged widely between more or less engaged over 56 years of my lifetime.
According to this way of looking at relationship, my days of more addictive and obsessive behaviors would reflect my being less engaged and less healthy, while my more sober life of the last 20 years are what I would call my more engaged years. Hopefully, this latter part of my life is the one in which I am connecting to myself and others in more healthy ways. In 12 Step terms, this life practice is about ‘progress not perfection.’ I trust that any progress in my life toward more healthy has come from more spiritual based sober living and Recovery.
From these perspectives I see that not being fully engaged in my life is not healthy or sober. The specific way I was not connected for years, perhaps my entire adolescence and young adulthood, is that I became disconnected from my feelings. Feelings are an essential part of what I call my natural life experience in which I feel my feelings which then help me to understand and connect with my deeper needs, and with that information I can seek more healthy, constructive ways of taking care of myself and my own needs.
Healthy relationship with myself depends on my ability to be aware and present enough to feel my feelings, identify my needs and take care of myself! Taking better care of myself, in turn, promotes my own wellbeing, independence, and wholeness, which is a great place for me to attempt to connect with others in more healthy ways.
To be continued...
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