Happenstance l ife happ en s • A pri l 2, 2 0 10
Easter memories, p 3 Las Vegas Arts Council, p 4 Happenstance Kitchen, p 8
W ho is this w oman an d what is she doin g? Check out the Nat Gold Players article on p 6-7
Happenstance life happens
Contributions welcome Poetry Photos Unique Stories Short Fiction Essays Suggestions Opinions Advertising (For rates call 505 425-6457)
E-mail submissions to: happenstance@vandermeer books.com Happenstance is a digital magazine available free from the publisher. Please forward this on to anyone who you think might be interested in receiving it. If you would like to subscribe please e-mail your request to happenstance@vandermeer books.com If you have received this and do not wish to receive it in the future, please send your request to unsubscribe to fsharon@msn.com All comments will be appreciated and considered. Happenstance is intended to appeal to a wide range of readers. Material will be selected based on general appeal to a wide readership, with a focus on Las Vegas, NM, and the area. Thank you for reading Happenstance. Happenstance is a publication of Vander Meer Books PO Box 187 • Las Vegas, NM 87701 www.vandermeerbooks.com Copyright 2010 Material may only be used by permission with appropriate attribution.
Happenstance
D
From the editor…
eepest apologies. In the CASA Fourth article in last week’s Happenstance, I left the name of Mack Crow off the list of board members. Mr. Crow has been involved in the community in various ways over the years. His valuable service to CASA contributes to its success. In this issue of Happenstance, Randy Campbell’s wonderful memory of a ‘50s Easter with its finely drawn moments reminds us of how ‘out of the ordinary’ Easter is; page 3. The Las Vegas Arts Council has been around for many years with a mission of providing resources and services to artists. The bigger picture is that it is an economic engine fueled by the energy of creativity and involvement. See LV Arts Council celebrates the arts and helps them shine; pages 4-5. There is nothing like live theater. It is a surprise every performance, not because the performance is different, but because as an audience member you are seeing just that performance in that moment, unfettered by any experience but the one you are having as the players unfold the story on the stage. You won’t get that sense of participation at a movie theater, not even a 3-D movie, because once it’s on film, that’s it, finito, end of story. In live theater anything can happen and it’s up to the actors, in character, to make it work. I am delighted we have an active theater group in Las Vegas. The Nat Gold Players has been around in one form or another for years. I played Abbey in Arsenic and Old Lace, in the ‘80s, my brother, Marc Conkle, was Teddy, Abby and Martha’s slightly daft nephew, who thought he was Teddy Roosevelt. We had a blast, even though it involved six weeks of intense rehearsals for a ‘run’ of four performances. In recent years the players have evolved into a loosely organized group that has a specific goal of fostering performance as a thought-provoking and entertaining art form. Theater is too often a stepchild to other art disciplines, partly because of time requirements needed to mount a production, and partly because of funding. The Nat Gold Players forge ahead. Read more
of their story beginning on page 6. Regular features include the Happenstance Kitchen with Easter Pea Salad and Mom’s Potato Salad recipes, and The Best of the Web featuring Heifer International. Enjoy Happenstance, life happens.
—Sharon Vander Meer Chief cook and bottle washer
life happens
This space can be yours for $12.50 per issue Contact fsharon@msn.com for information
Happenstance life happens
Vol 1, No. 5, April 2, 2010
Happenstance is a digital publication of vandermeerbooks.com Copyright, Sharon Vander Meer, Vander Meer Books Select content may be used with appropriate attribution: Sharon Vander Meer, happenstance@vandermeer books.com Cover image by: Marc Stewart (Maggie Romigh of the Nat Gold Players) Photos not identified by: Sharon Vander Meer Some images from: clipart.com
Happenstance • April 2, 2010 • Page 2
R EV I S I T I N G Y E STE R DAY
Easter morning sometime in the late 'Fifties: Childhood memories; something out of the ordinary
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remember: being awakened long before dawn, resistance to getting out of bed overcome by anticipation of pending adventure, so out of the ordinary; the chemical smell of a shiny new, electric blue acetate Easter necktie; Dad staying in bed, refusing to leave his warm cocoon; Mom driving through cold moonlight, neighborhood friends in the car, everyone slightly nervous because her hands aren't steady on the steering wheel, swaying us along the lonesome, narrow road, her wedding ring clicking on the steering wheel as she changes grip on the wheel a little too often in the now drowsy quiet; watching fields and trees pass by mysterious in moon-light, and distant houses, back long lanes, across valleys, glowing house windows marking early risers, glowing barn windows marking keepers of animals, milkers of cows, whose long days always begin at 4 a.m. “Look!” Mom says, pointing through the windshield as a pin-point of light streaks across the horizon. “A falling star! It means someone died.” “Watch the road, Beulah, or we'll all die!” my friend yells out and we all laugh, even Mom, relieving stress. It’s right and good to be here, with them, on this journey, on this morning, so out of the ordinary. We find seats in the high-school auditorium, surrounded by people who’ve made similar pre-dawn trips in new Easter clothes, other ties. The play begins: amateur actors, not well-rehearsed; male and female disciples dressed in bathrobes and sandals, forgetting King James lines, clumsily running from cardboard room to cardboard tomb, acting surprised and confused because a flat cardboard stone has been rolled
away; angels in white sheets making the ancient proclamation yet one more Easter morning— “He is not here, He is risen!” Not has. Is? Rejoicing! Rejoicing all around and the indiscriminate Community Choir, with good and not so good voices begins singing, led and directed by Dad’s cousin, a short, barrelchested dairy farmer, his leg crippled by polio as a child, singing with all his might, his voice audible above all the others: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, lift up your voice and sing, Hosanna in the Highest! Hosanna to the King,”and “King of Kings. Lord of Lords!” repeated again and again, every round going higher, higher. “And He shall reign forever and ever!” We’re all on our feet, reverberating with supernatural singing. The message bulls-eyes my being. I accept the idea that even my own falling-star death is nothing to fear and laughter is OK. Undying love has reached me through this adventure with Mom and friends, through these very human forms who do their best to act it out and sing it out, through these people who are more conscious of God's gracious Presence than their imperfections. A spiritual burden I didn't even know I was carrying disappears. We go out into bright dawn light, find the car for the joyous trip back home in a world of fresh colors. It’s right and good to be there, with them, that Easter morning so out of the ordinary, smelling the aroma of my shiny new electric blue necktie all my life long. —by Randy Campbell Minister, Presbyterian Church
Happenstance • April 2, 2010 • Page 3
LV Arts Council celebrates the arts and helps them shine “It has made a big difference to be in the heart of what is happening on the Mainstreet corridor. We provide a valuable service by promoting the city in everything we do.”
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—Patrick Rucker LVAC President
hat does it take for an art organization to survive in these economic times? Patrick Rucker, president of the Las Vegas Arts Council (LVAC) knows it’s more than money. “It’s collaboration and commitment. It’s people willing to set aside the time to do what needs to be done,” he said. Fund raising is part of that and so is outreach, which is why LVAC is connected. Its attractive and enticing website at www.lasvegasartscouncil.org has eye popping photographic galleries and access to online ticket sales for upcoming events. Most notable of those events is the April 10, Paganini & Pasta dinner and concert at the Plaza Hotel Ballroom, featuring world-renowned violinist Jack Glatzer. Tickets are $30 per person and may be purchased online or at the LVAC OK Cafe office on Bridge Street, WarDancer, Tome on the Range, or from Em Krall. “This is a fund raiser. To maximize the benefit to the Arts Council we want to sell at least 200 tickets,” Rucker said. “Mostly we want a packed house for the performance. Jack Glatzer is internationally known and we’re lucky to have him here.” Arts activities and events thrive in Las Vegas, but it is an ongoing challenge to bring money in the door to assure continued viability of organizations like the Arts Council. Finding funding is part and parcel of Rucker’s role as the LVAC president. Currently he is also the volunteer project director. With no paid staff, keeping the doors open is dependent on volunteers. For other needs LVAC contracts for services, like development of the website, using the skills of talented Birdie Jaworski. “I’m here Tuesday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.,” Q u i ck F a c t s Rucker said. “And then we have What: Las Vegas other volunteers who come in Arts Council Monday and Friday. We rely on Location: OK Cafe, our volunteers to help out at other Bridge Street Phone: 425-1085 times, like on 2nd Saturdays, the
COURTESY PHOTO LVAC
World-renowned violinist Jack Glatzer will perform at the Paganini & Pasta dinner and concert at the Plaza Hotel Ballroom on Saturday, April 10. The evening begins at 6 p.m.
event sponsored by the Arts and Culture District committee.” Rucker credits Jaworski with creating a more visible presence for the Arts Council. “She has also identified and catalogued the 350 known artists in the area. Nobody had done that and this is a real benefit to us as an arts group, whether they are professional artists or do it as a hobby, knowing who is out there makes it possible for us to better serve them.” Serving artists and keeping the arts at the forefront of community awareness as a resource keeps the LVAC board busy, so busy in fact that Rucker has begun to rethink busyness. “We used to do twenty to thirty events a year. It was killing us. It taxes volunteers and burns them out. Our goal, my goal, is to outsource some of the projects and concentrate on the major ones, like the Las Vegas Celebrates the Arts Studio Tour and the People’s Faire. These are signature events and we want them to continue. Doing those things well and collaborating with others to take on some of the other projects
Happenstance • April 2, 2010 • Page 4
Art adds to the quality of life in a community
Rucker sees the 21st Century makes sense to me. program as a natural progression. “We’re growing our volunteer “We can’t do everything. We conpool, not only to work in the office centrate on what we can do, and do but to help with things like the Jack it well,” he said. Glatzer concert and dinner, and Remenyik credits Nat Gold, an other scheduled events,” he said. early project director for the Arts Rucker wants to concentrate on Council, and John Gavahan (both the Arts Council’s core services to now deceased) with getting the the entities for which it is fiscally or group formalized as an organizaadministratively responsible, such tion. “It was through their efforts as the new co-op gallery, el Zocalo that the Arts Council received its 501 Los Artesanos de Las Vegas, the Nat (c) 3 status.” Gold Players theater group, the LitFunding continues to be a chaleracy Council, Children’s Dance Thelenge for arts groups across the ater, Youth Theater, and Pendaries Art country and Las Vegas is no differLeague. These are a fraction of the Las Vegas Arts Council President Patrick Rucker groups that come under the um- takes care of business as a volunteer at the organiza- ent. “There are a lot of sources of brella of the Arts Council’s 501 (c) 3. tion’s office located in the OK Cafe building on Bridge funding out there, but there are also Street. a lot of entities going after those The Arts Council formed in 1977, which was also the first year of the People’s Faire, an funds. About one-third of our budget comes from memberevent embraced by the community from the outset. It has be- ships. That has dropped off some, I expect because of the come so well publicized and respected that it attracts up to economy, but we still need funding to be effective. “Art adds to the quality of life in a community,” Rucker 5,000 visitors each year. Held in August the show features artists from a variety of disciplines as well as community or- said “We need the diversity it brings and the collaboration among all the groups who are in their way promoting Las ganizations, storytellers and musicians. Rucker said the best thing that has happened to the Arts Vegas. We’re now where people can find us. We have exhibit Council is its move from the building at Rodriguez Park on space and we have a board of directors who want to see Grant Street to the bustling and vibrant Plaza/Bridge Street things happen. “We have Kayt Peck looking for grants and we look forbusiness district. “At the OK Cafe building we’re accessible. The Arts and ward to being one of the receiving entities for the Plaza Hotel Culture District designation was the impetus for us moving, Annual New Year’s Eve charity bash, but what we need as but it is the generosity of the City of Las Vegas that allowed much as anything are people who want to contribute to the it to happen,” Rucker said. “To carry out our objectives to continuing success of the Las Vegas Arts Council.” Patrick Rucker is a retired educator with a BFA from the sponsor visual, performing and participatory arts in the community, we need to be accessible. It has made a big difference University of Texas, an MFA from the University of Oklato be in the heart of what is happening on the Mainstreet cor- homa, and a Ph.D from Texas Tech. He spent thirty-eight ridor. We provide a valuable service by promoting the city in years in education, the last twenty-five at Eastern New Mexico University in Portales, where he was chair of the theater everything we do.” Janet Remenyik, a former LVAC president for thirteen and drama department for nineteen years and interim dean years, said the Arts Council is important to Las Vegas for all of fine arts for five years. “I have always been involved in community. It was a natit has been able to do over the years. For twenty-five years, ural to become involved in the Las Vegas Arts Council when LVAC had a summer arts program for children and youth. “That’s gone away because the 21st Century program I moved here.” Rucker has been president for two years. His through the schools has been able to expand to a year around dream is to develop a pool of volunteers, outsource some of program, all day in the summer, and after school during the the projects, and keep the Arts Council at the forefront as a school year, “ she said. “Before that, if it hadn’t been for the community resource. For more information about the Arts Arts Council, there wouldn’t have been a summer arts pro- Council go to their website, www.lasvegasartscouncil.org, or call 505 425-1085. gram.” Happenstance • April 2, 2010 • Page 5
The Nat Gold Players Live! in Las Vegas
“We want people. We want people who will perform, direct, write plays, work backstage, work onstage, do makeup, costumes; we want people!”
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–Karyl Lyne, Secretary Nat Gold Players
watching people come tohere are some gether to create something people who flat and in the creation become out personify integral to it. I can’t explain what it means to promote how it happens, it just does. the arts. Nat Gold was one They come in as individuals of those people. You saw and then become this group him everywhere, doing that depends on each other. whatever he could to stimIt is teamwork, but more.” ulate theatrical and other Karyl is among several art forms in Las Vegas. He who feel that energy to crewas especially fond of live ate through performance art. theater and directed countThere is no ‘membership’ in less plays. The Las Vegas the Nat Gold Players as such; Players were for the most members are whoever parpart a fluid group that came PHOTO: MARC STEWART ticipates. together when there were The Nat Gold Players enjoy a backstage moment at the Theatre New “It takes everyone to enough people to put on a Mexico Spring Conference in Artesia at the new Ocotillo Performing Arts Center. From left are Karyl Lyne, Cyn Riley, Juan Diego Chavez, Patrick make it work. Right now the performance. The group Rucker, Nique Clarke, Kayt Peck, Cody Romero and Maggie Romigh. director is pretty much reexisted before Nat’s insponsible for everything: volvement but it achieved a getting the costumes, desort of continuity once he became the unofficial artistic disigning the sets, making sure the props are there. Our ideal rector. would be to have enough people so we could call on indiNat passed away some years ago put his spirit remains in the creative hearts and minds of those who carry forward viduals to take on responsibilities. Not everyone wants to be his dream to have a more formal live theater group perform- an actor, but there is much more to putting on a performance ing regularly in Las Vegas. That group, now called the Nat than actors.” Currently the players include a wide range of individuGold Players, is headed up by Cyn Riley, Anne Bradford, Jane als from a ten-year-old boy to an eighty-five-year-old Hyatt and Karyl Lyne. Like many all-volunteer theater woman. Then there are those who come in based on open augroups they struggle to put the pieces together, but manage ditions and are part of the troupe for the duration of a particto annually stage at least three, and sometimes four, performular play. ances. The Nat Gold Players don’t have a regular performance Just about everything connected to the players is ‘unofschedule, although Karyl looks forward to a time when the ficial’ so it was a natural to sit down this week with the ‘unofficial’ spokesperson for the Nat Gold Players, Karyl Lyne, group can have a predictable ‘season’. Despite not having a one of the two (see quote marks in the air here), directors. In season they have certainly made their mark in Las Vegas. “We made a conscious choice to take on subjects that reality there are any number of performance directors bemight be considered controversial, like the gay/lesbian issue cause that is the essence of what the players represent. “We want people,” Karyl said. “We want people who and women’s roles in a Catholic community,” she said. “But will perform, direct, write plays, work backstage, work on- we also do Over the Edge, our yearly spoof of Las Vegas loosely based on KFUN’s Over the Back Fence. It’s topical and stage, do makeup, costumes; we want people!” Karyl is passionate about live performance. In describing current, all in fun, but a little biting as well. Joseph (Baca of her involvement she became emotional to the point of tears. KFUN) is a good sport about it, in fact he has allowed us to “It’s the process,” she said. “I like theater; I love to direct. It’s use his old fashioned microphones as props.” Happenstance • April 2, 2010 • Page 6
Box Seats is an important Nat Gold Players project
Karyl said the group does not limit itself to performance in the traditional sense. “We created a series called, Box Seats, ten minute plays with no more than four characters and a set comprised of four boxes, two twenty-four inches square and the other two twelve inches square. We have an open call for scripts to encourage new and accomplished playwrights.” The group just returned from a competition at the Theatre New Mexico Spring Conference in Artesia where two of the Box Seats plays were performed. The plays presented were Waiting to Go (a take off on Beckett’s Waiting for Godot), by Meredith Britt, and Give a Shit Repair Shop, by Kayt Peck. “Box Seats is one of our most important programs,” Karyle said. “Through Box Seats local playwrights are encouraged to write down those ideas they’ve had in their heads for a while and submit their scripts for production. Through Box Seats people who have always wanted to be in a play but daunted by memorizing a full length play can audition for a ten-minute part. Through Box Seats people who have never directed because there is so much involved with sets, costumes, acting, lighting, and all the other facets of a play, will give it a try with a short uncomplicated piece. “Encouragement for beginners in theatre and increasing the numbers of people involved are goals of the Nat Gold Players,” she said. The two plays will be part of a full evening of entertainment in April when all four productions will be staged locally. Where has yet to be determined. That is one among several challenges the players face. “We don’t have a permanent performance space, storage space, or a place to build sets,” Karyl said. “Some of our set pieces are in a barn seventeen miles from town, some are upstairs in a second story space, and the rest are in another barn in the other direction from town. It takes a lot on energy just to get everything together, which is why we need a place to call home.” The problem with that, however, is that the group can’t support a building. Because of the nature of the organization its primary income is from ticket sales and from A Little Light Music, a December event. Funds raised from this performance are dedicated to the purchase of lighting, an important aspect of production for any play. Right now the group rents lighting from Steve Leger of Love Music and gets loans from the Highlands University Theater PHOTO: MARC STEWART Department of addiMaggie Romigh in The Give a tional lighting if needed. Shit Repair Shop.
PHOTO: MARC STEWART
Performing at the competition in Artesia were, from left, Cody Romero, Maggie Romigh, Nique Clarke and Juan Diego Chavez.
The Nat Gold Players exists on the edge when it comes to funding. They are under the umbrella of the Las Vegas Arts Council, which gives them the advantage of liability coverage for performances and access to other resources, but as an entity it is solely responsible for paying its own way. “My dream,” Karyl said, “is to have a more organized approach to getting support through levels, like ‘front row patrons’ who pay a certain amount, or ‘footlight patrons’, things like that, but we’re a long way from that.” She pointed out that small theaters still thrive in small communities. “There is nothing like live theater and that draws audiences.” The arts are also important to the development of young people. Karyl referred to a study that followed ten thousand students over a twenty-five year period. The study demonstrated that students trained in the arts (drama, music, dance or painting) scored as much as sixty points higher in each section of the SAT test when compared to students not trained in the arts. Another study showed the arts to be a powerful magnet in keeping youths in school. “We try to involve young people whenever we can. Cyn (Riley, the group’s president) is especially committed to making sure young people are given the opportunity to participate.” Karyl and the rest of the troupe are worker bees, but they need more active members for everything from gathering up props or costumes, to selling tickets, to doing promotion and everything in between. “The problem is that everyone is so busy already, they don’t think they can add one more commitment, or they think they don’t ‘fit’ in a theater group because they aren’t —See more Nat Gold Players, page 11—
Happenstance • April 2, 2010 • Page 7
T H E H A P P E N STA N C E K I TC H E N
Super salads for Easter and every day
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Don’t know what to do with all those Easter eggs? Toss them in a salad!
f the only food I ever ate was salad, I’d be happy. Salad can be so easily dressed up or dressed down. It can be a side dish or a main meal. Hmmm, I think I’ve said that before. Oh, well, you’ll probably hear it again. These are two of my favorite salads. Just this week my husband and I had the Pea Salad with baked chicken and it was delicious. Mom’s Potato Salad is probably the same recipe you have, but I include it here because when I go to salad bars the offering they have is usually bland and too ‘saucy’ for my taste. This recipe allows the ingredients to blend so you get a little taste of everything in every bite. At Mom’s the Easter meal almost always included ham, the best fruit salad on the planet (I’ve never been able to get that blend just right), potato salad, and what mom called a relish tray. This included canned cranberry sauce surrounded by black olives and a variety of cut veggies with a creamy salad dressing dip. Dessert was invariably warm homemade apple pie with a crushed graham cracker crust and topped with a mix of cinnamon, butter, brown sugar and crushed graham crackers. Right before she served it Mom added grated cheddar cheese. I have never seen this done by anyone else, and I’ve never tried to prepare it myself. It was delicious! I think that pie will be a Mom thing I will never try to duplicate. Mom was a wonderful cook, but she wasn’t the recipe and measuring kind. She was a let’s-see-what’s-in-thecupboard kind who made the most of what was available. I sort of do that myself, but have learned the hard way that you can really make a mess of things if you don’t follow a recipe. Happy Easter! If you have a recipe and story you would like to share, please send it to fsharon@msn.com.
Mom’s Potato Salad
5 - 6 large potatoes boiled in the skins 5 - 6 chopped boiled eggs 1 cup chopped dill pickle ½ cup finely chopped onion ½ cup chopped celery 1 cup mayonnaise 2 - 3 tablespoons yellow mustard ¼ cup pickle juice Salt and Pepper to taste
Peel skins from cooled potatoes and cut potatoes into cubes. Set aside. Place pickles, onion and celery in a mixing bowl and stir to blend flavors. Add mayonnaise and mustard; mix thoroughly. Add eggs to dressing and toss, seasoning to taste. (Mom used salt and pepper. I like to use Mrs. Dash Table Blend to prevent over salting.) Add potatoes and pickle juice and stir. You may add more mayonnaise and mustard if the salad is too dry. Serves 6 to 8 people. We never had Easter without this potato salad on the table. It was delicious and the leftovers kept well making it a great next-day side dish for ham sandwiches!
Pea Salad
1 pgk frozen peas, defrosted at room temperature ½ cup finely chopped dill pickle 1 hardboiled egg, chopped ½ cup diced cheese (Colby/Jack or similar) ¼ cup chopped green onion (optional) ½ cup mayonnaise 1 teaspoon honey dijon mustard (more if you want it to have sharper taste) Mrs. Dash Table Blend (season to taste) Because of the pickles and other salty ingredients I don’t recommend adding salt to this recipe.
Place dill pickle, egg, and diced cheese in a mixing bowl and mix to blend flavors. Add mayonnaise, mustard and Mrs. Dash and stir. You can add more mayonnaise after the peas have been included if the mix is too dry. Stir in the peas until well coated. Serves four. This recipe can be made low fat by using reduced fat cheese and mayonnaise.
Happenstance • April 2, 2010 • Page 8
T H E B E ST O F T H E W E B
Heifer International: A gift of hope
families have been given gifts of self-reliance and hope. It began when a midwestern farmer named Dan West was ladling out rations of milk to hungry children during the Spanish Civil War. “These children don’t need a cup, they need a cow,” he thought. West, who was serving as a Church of the Brethren relief This photo is from a Pass on the Gift celebration in Haiti. worker, was forced to decide Celebrations are emotional events where original Heifer projwho would receive the limect partner recipients feel great pride and accomplishment as rations and who they Pass on the Gift of their animal’s first-born female off- ited spring to help another family in need, just as they were wouldn’t, literally deciding helped. Passing on the Gift is one of the keys to ensuring selfwho would live and who sustainability. would die. This kind of aid, he knew, would never be enough. West returned home to form Heifers for Relief, dedicated to ending hunger permaHeifer's mission to end hunger nently by providing families with livestock and training so Heifer envisions… A world of communities living together in peace and eq- that they “could be spared the indignity of depending on others to feed their children.” uitably sharing the resources of a healthy planet. West's idea has now changed the lives of more than 8.5 Heifer’s mission is… To work with communities to end hunger and poverty million people In 1944, the first shipment of 17 heifers left York, Pennsyland to care for the Earth. vania, for Puerto Rico, going to families whose malnourished Heifer's strategy is… To Pass on the Gift. As people share their animals’ off- children had never even tasted milk. Why heifers? These are young cows that haven’t yet spring with others–along with their knowledge, resources and skills–an expanding network of hope, dignity and self- given birth – making them perfect not only for supplying a continued source of milk, but also for supplying a continued reliance is created that reaches around the globe. source of support. That’s because each family receiving a heifer agrees to “pass on the gift” and donate the female offHeifer’s history This simple idea of giving families a source of food rather spring to another family, so that the gift of food is never-endthan short-term relief–a cow not a cup–caught on and has ing. —Source: Heifer International Website continued for more than sixty-five years. Today, millions of Heifer is different. Heifer works. Those are two of the first phrases you see on the Heifer International website. There is a reason for that. When Dan West, founder of the organization, set out to change the way food was provided to the hungry, he set in motion the development of a global nonprofit with a proven solution to ending hunger and poverty in a sustainable way. Heifer helps empower millions of families to lift them out of poverty and hunger to self-reliance through gifts of livestock, seeds and trees and extensive training, which provide a multiplying source of food and income.
W H AT YO U W I L L F I N D AT W W W. H E I F E R . O R G
Heifer International Work • Successes • Approach • Field video
Get Involved • Team Heifer • Fund Raising • Volunteer
Give • Gift Catalogue • Greatest Need • Online Giving
Learn • Pass it on • Education Resources • Study Tours Every gift to Heifer International contributes to the sustainability of a family and a village. Happenstance • April 2, 2010 • Page 9
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H A P P E N STA N C E R EV I EW
The Book: Jesus, A New Understanding of God’s Son The Author: Joseph F. Girzone Doubleday Price: $23, hardcover
confess I haven’t finished this book, but I am thoroughly taken with it. It is written in plain language and it is clear the author has a deep faith and personal relationship with God the Father and Jesus the Son. One might think it’s because he is retired from active priesthood in the Catholic Church, but I think it’s because his love for Christ is central to who he is. In 1995 he established the Joshua Foundation, an organization dedicated to making Jesus better known throughout the world. His bestselling books include Joshua, A Portrait of Jesus, and Never Alone. In Jesus, A New Understanding of God’s Son, Girzone begins with Herod, a mad man whose paranoia lead him to take the lives of his own sons because he thought they were plotting to usurp his position and assume his throne. Girzone takes us on the journey with Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem, examining how Joseph must have felt and giving historical details of what life was like at the time of
Jesus’ birth. He speaks of Jesus’ meeting with John the Baptizer, and his later baptism at John’s hand. It’s like reading a historical novel written by a writer with an eye for detail and an understanding of nuance in advancing the story. Girzone is a skilled writer and he knows his subject well. Of course we all know where this story ends, and if you are a Christian, begins, but before we get there Girzone carefully details the everyday experiences of Christ as a human among humans. It speaks of his mother, the friends he gathered around him, reminding the reader that these were not vagabonds. Many of them where successful businessmen participating in the family business, and yet they walked away at his request and followed him. We gain insight into how he acts and reacts to a world unprepared for his message and fearful of it. It tells of his parables and describes his interactions with Pharisees, priests set against him because they either didn’t understand who he was or because they were so bound up in their religiosity they didn’t want to know. Girzone is an engaging, well versed author, writing about a subject he knows and loves. Jesus, A New Understanding of God’s Son is available locally at Tome on the Range. For more about the author and other books he has written go to www.randomhouse.com/features/girzone.
W O R D F RO M T H E W I S E : S P R I N G
Spring is nature's way of saying, "Let's party!" —Robin Williams
Spring shows what God can do with a drab and dirty world. —Virgil A. Kraft In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt. —Margaret Atwood
The first day of spring is one thing, and the first spring day is another. The difference between them is sometimes as great as a month. —Henry Van Dyke
The day the Lord created hope was probably the same day he created Spring. —Bern Williams
The first day of spring was once the time for taking the young virgins into the fields, there in dalliance to set an example in fertility for nature to follow. Now we just set the clocks an hour ahead and change the oil in the crankcase. —E.B. White An optimist is the human personification of spring. —Susan Bissonnette
Spring is when you feel like whistling even with a shoe full of slush. —Doug Larson
In the Spring, I have counted 136 different kinds of weather inside of 24 hours. —Mark Twain A hush is over everything, Silent as women wait for love; The world is waiting for the spring. —Sara Teasdale
Happenstance • April 2, 2010 • Page 10
Nat Gold Players
Continued from page 7
actors. It’s not just about performance,” she said. “It’s about getting a lot of people involved to do a lot of different things. We need a critical mass of about twenty people we can call on, not for every performance, but as a backup in case their particular skill is needed.” Despite the challenges Karyl is not discouraged, in fact she, and the rest of the troupe are getting ready for their next production and anticipating what they will do for the remainder of the year and into next year. She said there are many people to be thanked but the players are most grateful to those who have provided storage, rehearsal and storage space: CCHP, Matthew and Linzy Behr of Lion Park Gift Shop, New Mexico Highlands University, Roy Montiban, Tome on the Range Bookstore, Pastime, the Plaza Hotel, the Las Vegas Arts Council, Kathy Gould and Alexandra Walters, Werner and Helen Muller, and Adele Simpson. If you would like to help with financial support, send donations to: Nat Gold Players c/o the Las Vegas Arts Council, PO Box 2603, Las Vegas, NM 87701. To lend your skills, whatever they may be, to the players, send PHOTO: MARC STEWART an e-mail to Karyl at Cody Romero in the ten-minute play, Waiting to Go. lyne@desertgate.com.
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Books by F.S. Vander Meer
These books are available in Las Vegas at Tome on the Range Bookstore. Online purchases may be made at Amazon, Xlibris, and Barnes and Noble.
Not Just Another Day is a series of daily reflections that celebrate the gift of life. Based on the author’s Christian faith tradition the book uses Bible passages, prayers and readings to capture the common experience of living a life of faith in an ever-changing world.
In Future Imperfect conflicting forces control two individuals seeking stability and sanity amid escalating political and environmental chaos. Their lives are fraught with lies, treachery, and an altered environment. In The Ballad of Bawdy McClure short hauler Jake Casey is confronted with the age old question: Who can you trust? From the opening scene in which he finds the body of his murdered friend to the end he is constantly questioning the motives of those closest to him.
A proud supporter of Happenstance Happenstance • April 2, 2010 • Page 11
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He lives John 11:25-26
hen I was a kid every year at Easter the wind huffed and puffed its way through the day. My sisters and I wore pretty Easter dresses that belled out like inverted tulips. Our straw hats with little silk flowers bore evidence of having been held down by brute force. My brothers in their crisp white shirts and clipon ties looked as innocent as angels even with the wind making their hair stand out in spiky disarray. Mother always made sure that on Easter we were decked out in our Sunday best. We went to church on Sunday but even before that we participated in every Easter egg hunt advertised whether it was at school or the public park. I loved Easter but I hated those doggone hunts. I was the kid who invariably ended up with an empty basket. The worst — I mean the very worst — was when the other kids were forced to take pity and share their eggs with me. I didn’t even like it when my older brother shared his. I wanted to get my own.
The parts of Easter that I loved most were the old songs: “Up From the Grave He Arose,” and “On Easter Morn.” Coloring eggs was a pretty big deal as well. We had such fun because we all gathered around the kitchen table and did it together. Mother was a great one for being able to make us laugh.
I love the lesson of Easter: that Jesus lived and lives still. The pain of the cross was washed away in the triumph of the resurrection. Jesus lives and I am glad to know he lives in me.
Lord, may we carry the triumph of the resurrection with us every day and show you live in us by the way we live in the world.
From Not Just Another Day, by F.S. Vander Meer • For ordering information go to www.vandermeerbooks.com