Feet and Fit

I think it was on my first visit to the Wisconsin State Capitol, as a child, that I noticed the marble floors, particularly the entry steps had been worn and had become somewhat concave.  I was rather impressed by how such a hard surface can be worn by feet.  It is not that old of a building, as it opened 100 years ago this year.  Over the years, I have noticed it at other places, monuments in Washington, D.C., at churches and historical sites in Rome, and the Holy Land.  I have even noticed it to a lesser extent on rocks of some hiking trails, although not on the hard quartzite rocks present at Devil's Lake State Park.  Feet are a major part of our movement.  There now exists devices to track the steps you walk a day.  My wife had been using a hand-me-up device for a couple years or more, but more recently received a brand new Fitbit from one of our children for Mother's Day. Of course, being the good Mother martyr that she is, she first had to succinctly state that this was too much of a gift.  He assuaged her martyrdom by telling her it was for both Mother's Day and her birthday.  From that day forward the world of our household has changed.

Fitbit, 

This new device links to her smartphone, and low and behold, she can get a message on her Fitbit that a message has arrived.  But, it gets better, it tracks a whole bunch of things.  It tracks heart rate, the number of steps, miles walked, date and time, calories burned, cardio-minutes (what this is, I am not sure, but it may be continuous activity), set alarms, let you know you have a call coming in and who it is from, as well as part of message received and  who that is from.  A look at the phone will show daily history.  You can look to see what your pulse was at varied times of the day.  It is conveniently worn on the wrist, so it is easy to look at, and does much more than my simple watch, which still has numerals, but does gave day and date, although I have to manually adjust the date for months that have less than 31 days.  That may be as advanced as I wish to be when it comes to a watch.  The whole idea of the Fitbit is to get you moving, and I think it works.  Let me provide a few examples of this remarkable device.

If one were to have looked in our house this past weekend, and a few weeknights they would have witnessed an odd site--three to four times an hour we would pace back and forth in the family room, kitchen/dinette and dining room. At times we would loop around tables, or other times head to the front hall.  We would have the game of chicken to see who could get through the dining room entrance first.  We may need a stop light, or perhaps put in a round-about, and yield to the left.  My smart wife decided to put TV commercial time to good use by getting up and pacing the house.  She has programmed her Fitbit to target 250 steps during most wake hours of the day.  What one quickly learns is how long, and often commercials are in a program, and that walking the house is a good use of time.  Although it eats into my reading of varied websites on my I-pad.  It gets even better, however.  With her overall and hourly targets set when she beat her goal, she said fireworks went off. She was excited to see fireworks on her little device.  But, it gets even better.

Woman wearing a Fitbit

Last Saturday it was a rainy cold afternoon and we decided to go to church at 4:00 pm to be able to get home, eat and watch the Preakness.  It was about a twenty minute drive to church, and with the large crowd, mass went over an hour.  Well, during, or just after mass, her Fitbit goes off, saying to her:  "feed me."  The Fitbit wanted her to get in steps, after all it was more than an hour and she did not reach her target.  Obtaining 250 steps an hour may not seem very high, but when you spend over an hour in church, with the only steps pretty much going to communion, you get the idea.  It of course, does not track the ups, downs, and kneeling of the Catholic aerobics of attending mass. One may not get a great number of steps in, but you can work other parts of your body.

Since it also tracks sleep patterns, she wears it to bed at night.  When it occasionally lights and her hand and wrist is under the sheet it emits an ET finger glow.  The first time I saw this it was a little disconcerting until I recalled that she wears this to bed. The second time the light went on I thought it was time for her to get up for her three day a week outdoor walk, but after asking her, she said no, she had just moved.  I think it was about 4:30 am.  I do not think she liked being disturbed.

Smartphone and a Fitbit

It is claimed that the number of steps a person is supposed to get in every day is 10,000.  This, however, is a legend based not on science, but on the translation into English of the name of the first step tracking device, which was made in Japan.  Fitness geeks, being fitness geeks, say that one needs more than 10,000, but don't really have a constant recommendation, although 13,000 seems to have some congruence among those who say they know.  Other persons are more pragmatic and say that whatever amount can get you moving is better than not moving at all.

What I do know is that Fitbits, or other similar devices are currently big business.  Some people at work have these massive watches with a round face larger than their wrist that are similar to a Fitbit, it may be a Google product.  If we keep up walking in the house during commercials, we may just see our wood or tile floors be worn not unlike the marble in the Wisconsin State Capitol building.  In any event, my wife seems to relish the challenge, prodding, and rewards provided by her Fitbit.

Map

Technology today quite literally puts maps at your fingertips. Smart phones can access on-line mapping systems, and most have GPS to help you find a destination. Not that long ago, prior to the introduction of GPS technology and its coming into common use and well before smart phones, people would rely on maps. Many of those being the large fold out maps of a state or city. You may well have plotted out your route before leaving, writing down directions in more complicated cases, so you knew how to get there and did not fumble with the maps while driving. The use of maps spans both culture and time. Maps give location, and help provide direction. But, they also are useful on a larger scale. For example, a map of the world helped lead to the theory of plate tectonics. Maps can also be groundbreaking, providing information, whether geographic or providing nomenclature in a way never before seen or comprehended. This is the case with a map that was purchased by the Library of Congress in May 2003 for the nice large sum of $10 million dollars. This post will be about that map.

1507 Waldseemuller Map

That map, is the 1507 Waldseemuller (envision an umlaut above the u) map, created by Martin Waldseemuller, a 16th century scholar, cleric, and cartographer. Born in Germany in the 1470’s, he spent much of his life in northeast France at St-Die. It was in this remote part of France, 510 years ago, that a map known as “Universalis cosmographia seconunda Ptholemei tradtitionem et America Vespucci alirum que lustrationes” or in English, “A drawing of the whole earth following the tradition of Ptolemy and the travels of Amerigo Vespucci and others.” With such a long title it is no wonder it is simply referred to as the 1507 Waldseemuller map. As we all learned back in grade school, the name America comes from Amerigo Vespucci. Vespucci was an Italian explorer. While Christopher Columbus (1492) was looking for and thought he landed on the east coast of Asia, Amerigo Vespucci was the first to show that this was a new continent. Of course, who really “discovered” what we know as the American continents is a matter of debate. Some say it was the Norse in or about the 10th century, others say St. Brendan and monks from Ireland who traveled to the east coast of what is now Canada in the 6th century. Then there is the theory that the Minoans (in the Mediterranean near Greece) traveled to Isle Royale to mine copper perhaps as early as the 4,000 years ago.  It really may have been ancestors of Clovis man who made their way across the Bearing Strait as the first settlers, and discoverers of what we know as the American continents. Europe being Europe believes that the age of discovery seemed to begin with the wide travels spurred by the voyage of Columbus in the late 15th century and would go into the 16 century. Magellan and crew would make the complete navigation of the globe from 1519 to 1522. It was a time of a full employment act for cartographers as sailors and others would desire maps, no matter how crude they may have been.

Prince Waldburg-Wolfegg speaking at reception
of map at Library of Congress, 2003

What made the Waldseemuller map unique was that it is the first known map to contain the full Western Hemisphere and show the Pacific ocean as a separate body of water. Yet, the map also had one unique feature that made it desired by the Library of Congress so much so that it spent almost century to obtain the map--it is the first known document to name the continent “America”.     Some have said that this map is America’s birth certificate. But, what is interesting, is that while Waldseemuller used the term America to describe the map in 1507, it is the only time he did so. In 1513 his team published an update to Ptolemy’s “Geographiae” and would use term the land area as “Terra Incognita.” In 1516, on their map “Carta Marina” South America is termed as “New World”, and showing a major change to the 1507 map, this 1516 map named North America as “Cuba”, but most significantly showed it as part of Asia (with continental drift due to plate tectonics, the continents move, but not so much as to have North America be part of Asia). Therefore, the only new continent on the 1516 map would be the New World which we know today as South America. Did Waldseemuller think he had jumped the gun on his 1507 map, and hence had a desire to change not only the nomenclature, but also the shape and continents of the world? The 1507 map has often been criticized for dismissing Columbus’ voyages to the new world. However, John Hebert, of the Library of Congress, writing about the map in 2003, did not think this to be the case as they had the work of Columbus at their disposal. What influenced them most at the time was the recent French translation of Vespucci’s “Mundus Novus.” The “Mundus Novus” detailed four voyages to the new world between 1497 and 1504. Vespucci would note in that work that the land reached by Columbus and others over the previous two decades was indeed a new continent. Given this new revelation, Waldseemuller likely thought to honor him by using his name on the map to describe the new continent. The name America was not popularized by Waldseemuller (since used it only once on his 1507 map), but probablyl most cartographers Johannes Schoner in 1515 (umlaut above the o), and Peter Apian in 1520 who would more consistently provide maps and globes using the name America.

Waldburg-Wolfegg Castle, Germany

The 1507 map now in the Library of Congress was originally owned by Johannes Schoner who likely used it for reference in his globe making business. At some point Schoner’s cartographic collection was acquired by Prince Waldburg-Wolfegg, and was housed in the family castle. This collection also included Waldseemuller’s 1516 Carta Marina map and works by Schoner. In 1901 Fr. Joseph Fischer, SJ, a historian and cartographer, was doing research at Waldburg-Wolfegg castle and he came across this hidden treasure of a map. John Hebert writes that the recovery of this map “is thought by many to have been one of the most extraordinary episodes in the history of cartographic scholarship.” A few years later the Library of Congress began its investigation and would make overtures to buy the map, but wars and other occurrences delayed sale, although in 1903 the Library of Congress did acquire facsimiles of the 1507 and 1516 maps. A few decades ago, things seemed to have been coming together for a sale, but former West German Chancellor Helmut Schultz, himself a historian, did not wish to approve the sale of an item under the laws of Germany regarding rare or historical documents and artifacts. However, in 1999 an export license to allow the map to be moved to the United States was granted, given the intended sale to the Library of Congress.  In allowing the map to leave Germany the German government recognizrd the importance of the map to the United States of America, as a sign of transatlantic affinity and as an indication of the numerous German roots of settlers of the United States (such as part of my heritage). Of the $10 million dollar price tag, one-half was appropriated by Congress, and the other half acquired through private donations. A large sum for a large map.

German Chancellor Angela Merkl Speaking at
Dedication of Map, 2007

Maps were not easy to produce at the time, particularly large maps. The Waldseemuller map measures 4 feet by 8 feet when assembled. The map is made in 12 parts, each measuring 18 inches by 24 inches. It contains a full map of the world and two small inset maps, one at each lower corner. Each of the panels was printed from a wood cut, a level of work requiring attention to detail. It is thought that this map is the only one to survive of the estimated 1,000 copies made, a large number for the time. It was a groundbreaking map, by showing a divergence from the second century map produced by Ptolemy which was the main basis for all world maps until that time. After all, even with the voyages of Columbus and others there was still thinking that there was not a new continent between Europe and Asia. Heck, even Waldseemuller was unsure as his later map updating Ptolemy suggested by combining North America with Asia (named Cuba). The nation could be known as the United States of Cuba, when you think about it.

1507 Waldseemuller map on Exhibition at Library of Congress

While this 1507 map, with the long name, is said to be the first map naming America, a college collection owns another map that may have been produced earlier, but there is discrepancy of actual date of production.  In any event, it is a 510 year old map, and to me is unique not because it used America, because Waldseemuller decided to never use the name America on any other piece of cartographic work his shop produced. This is rather telling in that nomenclature for the new continent (and recall the 1516 map showed North America as part of Asia,, and he referred to it as Cuba) was unsettled and fluid. While it may be the birth certificate of the American, it provides a name to the space we know as the United States of America. However, space, as Geographer Yi-Fu Tuan once wrote, becomes place as we endow it with value. Our collective national values is what defines the space so that it becomes the place that we know as the United States of America. It is our national values that make the nation and give meaning to the name America.  The nation is a space on the 1507 map, just as it is on Google Maps brought up on an I-phone. How we access maps changes, but our need for maps is ever present.

GPS on a Smart phone

Simple

When the word simple is used with a person, it is more often than not derogatory.  Think of the old verse titled "Simple Simon."  But being simply is not always bad.  Two men, who were said to have a simple faith, but they went on to achieve greatness, and will soon be one step from sainthood.  Last week, on May 4, while much of the geek world was celebrating Star Wars Day, the Vatican announced a little recognized decision by Pope Francis.  The decision involved a miracle being attributed to a Franciscan monk named Solanus Casey, and that this monk upon his beatification, anticipated in Detroit later this year, will notch up his title from  Venerable to Blessed.  Also little known, but a decision that received somewhat larger coverage in the press, was a decision by the Pope last December 1 to declare Fr. Stanley Rother as a martyr, who died "in odium fidei" (in hatred of the faith); he will be beatified in Oklahoma in September.   These two individuals share similarities which place each an attributed intercession of a miracle away from being declared a saint.  This post will explore a little bit of the history of each of these men, and what took them from being farm boys from the midsection of the nation to a rank few people in 2000 years of population achieve.

Fr. Solanus Casey

 Both men, have been termed to have had a simple faith. This term can be interpreted in a manner of ways, but neither were considered to have even been near the sharpest knife in the drawer.   Both were poor students while doing seminary studies.  For a time neither thought they would be ordained a priest. In fact, Fr. Solanus was ordained as a simplex (talk about a pejorative term) priest, meaning he could not hear confessions or preach on doctrine.   Their respective paths to the priesthood showed not only an individual resolve, but is also a reflection of  deep faith. What is extraordinary about Venerable Solanus and Venerable Stanley is actually how ordinary each was.  When God works through a live person, it is sometimes the weak and the ordinary.  For example, on May 13 this year the 100th anniversary of the first apparition at Fatima, Portugal will be celebrated.  The Blessed Virgin chose not to appear to adults, or a powerful politician, or even a priest or nun much less an archbishop, but to three shepherd children. In Mexico in 1531 she chose to visit a poor peasant.

Fr. Stanley Rother

Wisconsin should take some ownership in Solanus Casey as he was born Bernard Francis Casey in the town of Oak Grove on a farm along the shores of the Mississippi near Prescott, WI.  He was baptized at St. Joseph's Church in Prescott.  He was the sixth of sixteen children born to Irish immigrant parents Bernard James Casey, and Ellen Elizabeth Murphy.  When leaving home for the United States from the old sod, the last words of his mother to her son Bernard James was "keep the faith."  The faith was passed down to the children as well.  Bernard Francis was nicknamed Barney, was one of three to become priests in the family.  Barney lacked a great deal of formal schooling, as the family seemed to often move around the northwest part of the state.  He had dated and proposed to a young women, but the mother of the girl sent her off to boarding school, putting an end to the romance.  Barney, who left the farm in 1887, worked several different jobs in Minnesota and Wisconsin--lumberjack, prison guard, hospital orderly, and was a street car operator in Superior, Wisconsin.  While in Superior he witnessed an event that would change his life--a drunken sailor stabbing a women to death.

1880 WI Census showing Casey Family
Heritage.com

This drove him to consider the direction of his life.  He entered the St Francis Seminary in Milwaukee, but with little formal schooling and classes in either Latin or German (after all it was Milwaukee, the beer capital of the nation), he was asked to leave due to poor grades.  It was suggested he consider a monastery where he could possibly be ordained as a a simplex priest. After consideration he chose this option and joined the Capuchin order in Detroit.  Even here he struggled in his studies, and it took a plea from his formation director to his brother, Sebastian Messmer the Archbishop of Milwaukee, for his ordination to occur.  Fr Messmer simply said: "ordain this guy, he is not the smartest man in the world, but has a great heart." Taking the name Solanus, Barney was ordained at St. Francis of Assisi church in Milwaukee.  His first mass was in Appleton.

Fr. Casey at Soup Kitchen he started in Detroit, MI

As Fr. Bertram, now pastor of St Francis of Assisi church has said, the order "assigned the priest limited duties, making him the latter-day equivalent of a Walmart greeter."  Most positions he served was as a porter, or keeper of the door.  He would tell persons who entered to "trust in God." He also started a soup kitchen in Detroit in 1929, which is still feeding the homeless today. Over the years, his counsel was sought, and claims of his intercessions for healing became well known.  He was so well-known that when he traveled west to Seattle to visit family for the ordination of a nephew, parishes wished him to come and say mass.  Solanus suffered from a skin disease which would end up claiming his life.  The miracle attributed through his intercession was the cure of a woman who also had a skin disease and she was cured while visiting Detroit and praying at his tomb  She was actually praying for others when she heard a voice to pray for herself.  Fr. Solanus Casey lived a humble, and simple life, with main duties as a greeter.  He realized his limitations, and recognized that he would never be a great preacher.  His greatness was achieved in how he greeted and treated others.

Fr. Solanus Casey with his  then living siblings and parents

Fr. Stanley Rother would also be in service to others.  Rother was born on a farm near the small community of Okarche, Oklahoma in 1935.  He is said to have struggled with Latin, which was a polite way of saying he flunked the required course work in the subject.  It was reported that he was "not a natural student."  His biographer noted that after having been kicked out of the seminary for poor grades, his fifth grade teacher noted similarities between him and St John Vianney.  The biographer would say "both of them (Rother and Vianney) were simple men." His bishop, realizing something beyond studies, sent him to a seminary in Maryland, where he completed his formation.  He was ordained in 1963.  Recognizing the call of Pope John XXIII to assist in Central America, Fr. Stanley volunteered to fulfill this mission, and in 1968 was sent to Guatemala.  In attending to a small remote parish in the southwestern highlands, he came to champion the indigenous population, and, according to a New York Times article (12/2/2016),  he supported groups that battled the government para-military squads during the 36 year civil war that started in 1960.

Fr. Stanley Rother photo compilation

Fr. Stanley, a man who struggled with Latin, learned not only Spanish, but the indigenous language of  Tz'utujil, which was spoken by the Mayan descendants of the region.  He would be the first to translate the New Testament into that obscure tongue.  Called Francisco by his parishioners, in deference to his baptismal name, it is said he was known for his kindness, selflessness, joy and his attention to his parishioners.  He helped them farm, opened a hospital and started a radio station.  In a 1980 he wrote a letter in which he "described his despair at seeing the abduction of a parishioner, a 30-year old father of two small boys."  As quoted in the NY Times, he wrote in the letter: "I had witnessed a kidnapping of someone that we had gotten to know and love and were unable to do anything about it.  They had covered his mouth, but I can still hear his muffled screams for help."  The man was tortured for two days and then brutally murdered.

Fr. Stanley Rother at Guatemalan Festival  

Fr. Rother would return to the United States for a few months in early 1981 when it was discovered that he was number eight on the paramilitary group hit list.  He would insist on returning to his parish for Holy Week  in 1981. He would remain in Guatemala, and that is where he met his death.  On July 28, 1981 Fr. Rother met the same fate as the man he described in the letter.  Three masked entered the rectory and shot him dead.  He was 46 years young.  Fr. Stanley Rother would not abandon his parish, or the people he served.  He died a martyr in service of his faith.  

Stained Glass Window of Fr Solanus Casey in
St. Joseph Church, Prescott, WI

This is the story of two ordinary men often described as "simple".  But, in the end they were remarkable men. They each had difficulties in their paths to the priesthood, yet neither would let difficulty in formal learning stifle their calling.  Each had his own catch phrase, Solanus Casey was "Trust God, have faith in God."  While Stanley Rother's was "A shepherd cannot run at the first sign of danger."  Fr. Solanus had a following because of his common and ordinary experiences.  Fr. Stanley was loved by his parishioners in a Guatemalan outpost due to his service.  The comment by Fr. Stanley's biographer sums up the situation of both men:  that their very ordinariness is what makes them special.  She would say about Fr. Stanley, "Indeed, the fact that everything about Father Stanley was 'ordinary' makes him a special gift to the universal Church--to all of us trying to live out the call to become holy men and women within our very ordinary lives."  The same could be said for the simplex monk, born to Irish immigrants in northwest Wisconsin.  Each man being born into a farm family near a small town adds to the narrative of the simplicity of their lives in the hustle of the 21st century.  That shows us their ordinary nature, but also the grace of God at work.  Each of these men had what is termed a simple faith, and yet did amazing service to others. Today we tend to frown on a simple life, or degrade a simple person. yet, what these two men of simple faith did with their lives was extraordinary so that in the not to distant future they will both be called "blessed."  And, at some point, God willing, they will be saints.  Perhaps one will become the first American born male to be declared a saint.   To those they touched God was made visible, and in the end that is what is important.  The grace and mercy of God at work.

May the Fourth

Human society increasingly revolves around words. Words can be written or spoken, but words are one aspect that make us human. People also like to do a play on words, for which there are many words depending upon the play. Currently, one of the most popular is a portmanteau we see or hear as Brexit, meaning British exit from the European Union. Word play is also common in certain cultural occurrences. The day of May Fourth has become known as Star Wars day. The original Star Wars movie was released on May 25, 1977, but May fourth has been usurped as Star Wars day due to a phrase in the first released movie. This is a type of malapropism that has now gone beyond the geeks, and has made it in to general culture. This post will look at May the fourth be with you.

In 1977, one phrase stuck out in the Star Wars movie (aka A new Hope), and it has been claimed by the American Film Institute as the eighth most popular phrase to come out of movies. It does not, however, beat the famous phrase in "Gone with the Wind."  The phrase, “May the force be with you” was spoken by Obi Wan Kenobi.  Playing off May the Force be with you, it is now May the fourth be with you. Hence, Star Wars' Day.  A British newspaper, the Guardian, is said to be the first to coin the day as Star Wars Day, doing so on May 4th, 2006. According to some reports the phrase had become a mainstream cultural phenomenon by 2009. I have never been one to follow cultural trends, as my wife and children will tell you, and I think I first heard about May 4th as Star Wars day just within the past few years.  It may have been cultural mainstream eight years ago, but I am proof it was not ubiquitous.

In creating this now familiar malapropism (if you know of another term to describe it, please let me know), and if I know about it, it must be familiar, the Guardian may have borrowed from a term first used in 1979 by a British publication to recognize the election of Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister. The conservative publication used the phrase: “May the fourth be with you, Margaret. Congratulations.” As a practicing Catholic, when I hear the phrase, as spoken by Obi Wan, it made me think of the common phrase used in the Catholic, and other denomination, liturgy—“The Lord be with you” sometimes used with the word “May' added to the beginning. (To which one wants to respond "and also with you," or the now required in the Catholic liturgy the more clumsy "and with your spirit.")  Star Wars with its story lines of good versus evil, and redemption (think Darth Vadar), surely means that it could also be borrowed from Christian theology.   Star Wars preceded the Margaret Thatcher era, but it did not precede the Catholic mass.

Mass media has now taken a hold of May Fourth, as Star Wars day.  Disney having bought the rights to Star Wars does marketing and other events to promote this part of its global cultural holdings. Showing that fans of Star Wars are never quite content, May fifth, has its own malapropism—Revenge of the fifth, which is a play on another Star Wars movie: “Revenge of the Sith.”  This movie, “Revenge of the Sith,” was the last of the Star Wars prequel trilogy, and was first released in May 2005. I think I have yet to see any of the sequel trilogy of Star Wars, but saw the first three and the three prequel episodes. None of the prequels, in my opinion, compare to the original three. As quaint, or backwards, or kitschy as the special effects in the first three may seem today, the special effects were nonetheless groundbreaking, and mesmerizing when watched on the big movie screens forty years ago .

May fourth will always be May 4, and whether or not Star Wars day becomes as recognized as St Patrick’s Day, or Valentine’s Day, remains to be seen. If it does, it will be another cultural construct to add to the human collection, although one purely fictional. Our reliance on fiction to produce such a cultural phenomenon may say more about our culture than it does about the fictional account.  Meanwhile, enjoy May fourth..and May the fourth be with you.