Transcription of Sacred Space #13
Speaker 1: You are listening to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast, recorded at the studios of Maine Magazine in Portland, Maine and broadcast on 1310am Portland. Streaming live each week at 11am on wlobradio dot com and available via podcast on Dr. Lisa dot organization. Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 1: The Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast is made possible with the generous support of the following sponsors. Maine Magazine, Tom Shepard of Herzy, Gardner, Shepard, and Eaton. Mike LePage and Beth Franklin at RE/MAX Heritage. Robin Hodgskin at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. Dr. John Herzog of Orthopedic Specialists in Falmouth, Maine. The University of New England: UNE, and Akari.
Lisa Belisle: Hello, this is Dr. Lisa Belisle and welcome to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast number 13, which is airing today, Sunday, December 11, 2011.
Today on the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast, we are exploring the theme of sacred space. We have a variety of interesting guests to discuss this theme, including Angie Arndt of the Chaplaincy Institute of Maine, philanthropist Cyrus Hagge and Dave Holman of Safe Passage. These individuals will help us explore the idea of sacred space, both within ourselves and in the world around us. We believe this is a particularly appropriate theme for the holiday season and we think we’ll inspire you to be creating your own sacred space, wherever it is that you are listening from.
We have a very special show, which we’ve called Sacred Space. Genevieve Morgan is in her own sacred space elsewhere, but she’s with us in spirit so John McCain and I will be bringing in sacred space for our listeners. This week we will not be having deep dish because we certainly can’t do it without Genevieve Morgan, but we’re going to be dishing a lot on Safe Passage and what it means to be a part of this organization that I visited last week with my son, who’s a long-term volunteer down there.
Each week on the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast, we read from the book Our Daily Tread, which was written in honor of our late friend, Hanley Denning. All proceeds benefit her organization, Safe Passage. Safe Passage provides approximately 550 children with education, social services and the chance to move beyond the poverty their families have faced for generations of the Guatemala City Dump. Visit them online at safepassage.org and continue to listen to our experiences with Safe Passage throughout this show.
This week’s quote is from Raymond Carver. “And did you get what you wanted from this life even so? I did. And what did you want? To call myself beloved, to feel myself be loved on the earth.” For more information on Our Daily Tread and to order this book, which would make a great holiday gift, visit islandportpress.com or go to the Dr. Lisa website or Facebook page, doctorlisa.org or like us at Dr. Lisa on Facebook.
Each week on the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast, we feature a segment we call Wellness Innovations, which is sponsored by the University of New England. This week we went to familydoctor.org and learned a little bit about spirituality and health, which we thought was particularly important, given the spiritual nature of the season and the topic of sacred space. According to familydoctor.org, research shows that things such has positive beliefs, comfort and strength gained from religion, meditation and prayer can contribute to healing and the sense of well-being. Improving your spiritual health may not cure an illness, but it may help you feel better, prevent some health problems and help you cope with illness, stress or death. Learn more about spirituality and health on our website, doctorlisa.org. Learn more about wellness innovations of all sorts at the University of New England website, U-N-E dot edu.
Speaker 1: This segment has been brought to you by the University of New England: An Innovative Health Sciences University, grounded in the Liberal Arts. U-N-E is the number one educator of health professionals in Maine. Learn more about the University of New England at une.edu.
Lisa Belisle: The Reverend Angie Arndt MS, graduated from the Chaplaincy Institute of Maine in 2007 and has been serving as dean and faculty member ever since. She is a member of the First Universalist Church of Yarmouth and teaches connection parenting and houses of healing at the Main Correctional Center and is also a trainer for the Center for Grieving Children. She’s married and has two sons in college. The Chaplaincy Institute of Maine is an interfaith wisdom school that offers an intensive two year chaplaincy program for those seeking to deepen their spiritual growth or ordination as interfaith ministers.
This is a perfect topic for the holidays. I think you and I were …
Angie Arndt: Glad you think so.
Lisa Belisle: Yes. Right? The reason we decided to have the theme of sacred space in December is there’s a lot of pressure this time of year for people as far as doing things that we feel like we’re supposed to do to celebrate something bigger, but it seems to me that things get lost. Tell me what the Chaplaincy Institute of Maine does and how it is that you’re able to be a placeholder for the community as far as the sense of spirituality.
Angie Arndt: Well, our mission is to help individuals who are seeking to deepen their spirituality. That’s one track that you can participate in ChIME, but also who want then go the next step of being of service, around spiritual support of individuals and because we are interfaith, another word for that is we are preparing community ministers, people who are ready to show up in the world in all different capacities, all different settings. One of the ways I like to describe it is we’re ministry outside the box because we do not have a box that we have to fit in to. Our training is to embrace people where they are in their spiritual journey and that doesn’t have to look or sound like anything anybody else is doing. It’s very individual.
The curriculum is designed to help the students first, when they spend the first year, we call it the Way of Contemplation. We invite them to go inward in their own journey, looking at their own values, their own spiritual legacy. There’s a lot of time spent on … We have to look back to where we come from. Many of us tend to step away from our roots, our traditions, tend to throw out the baby with the bathwater in the process. The first year, Way of Contemplation is designed as I say, to look inward.
The second year is the Way of Action, the Way of Service. That is inviting our students to start to step into internships and community, whether that’s in a structural setting like a hospital or hospice or it can be … We had a student two years ago who started walking the streets of Portland with Grace Street Ministry, serving the homeless. As I say, we literally meet people where they are instead of expecting them to show up where we are so it’s very much community-based and I think in terms of sacred space, it’s learning to understand that wherever you are can be sacred space. It’s all in how you’re looking at it.
As people begin to understand and seek alternatives to the traditional paths that in some ways restrict openness because of the rules and the regulations and the doctrine, I often like to say that I consider what we’re doing as a ministry of peace because if more and more people could open to understand all the different ways to the divine, a lot of the … Well, it’ll take a long time to get to this point, but my idea of utopia is that there be no more need to fight about it because really what we’re all seeking is, there’s a lot in common.
Lisa Belisle: All paths are the…
Angie Arndt: We need to understand the differences. All paths are not the same, but they’re ultimately trying to get so we need to respect and honor that whatever path you’re on is, it’s cool, it’s yours. We don’t have to be threatened by it. That’s the hope so learning to meet people where they are and give them an experience of true acceptance as to where they are in their journey hopefully will allow the ripple effect of they could then turn and accept someone else’s way of being.
Lisa Belisle: With the economy being the way that it is and the recession that’s occurred over the last few years and the conflicts overseas, how do you think this has impacted people’s need for a spiritual home, a spiritual sacred space?
Angie Arndt: I think it’s growing, as I say exponentially. I think people are thirsty for meaning, to understand what is this all about and really our responsibility is as individuals. We have to start with ourselves. You can be out there protesting or fighting for bigger things, but unless you’re doing the work internally, it’s not the real work. I think these times call for, as all times have, they call for us to keep returning to ourselves, to our own truth, to our own understanding of what we’re here for and stepping into it. Many of our students come mid-life and later, saying “okay, I’ve done the traditional, I’ve done what was expected. I’m still thirsty. I’m thirstier than ever because it didn’t hold as much meaning.” There’s a lot of personal seeking meaning and then turning that into now that I tap into the meaning of myself, I understand part of that is to help others so it’s a two part.
Lisa Belisle: What have you seen as the dean, students biggest challenges are, that first year when they’re looking inside themselves?
Angie Arndt: The biggest challenge is … Well, the students love to say that we at ChIME churn them inside out and so the biggest challenge is that we will peel away the layers of resistance, of conformity, of understanding. A workshop on the history of Christianity, that alone can be enough for a student who’s roots are in Christianity to just shake their foundation. The biggest step is saying the work is inside first. A number of students come, wanting to be of service. They’re ready to jump right in, put me in a hospital and we’re like not yet. If you’re going to be able to be truly present for someone else, you’ve got to be truly present for yourself. What does that mean? Where are your patterns? Where’s your limited thinking? Where’s your stockness, if you will? They come, wanting to do it, but there’s still a whole lot of resistance once we really put it in front of them. Right beside the resistance is beautiful opening.
Lisa Belisle: What do you think leads to this resistance? What are the causes?
Angie Arndt: Well, we all want to break down our containers, but we want to protect them as well because it’s all we know. It’s that, are you sure I have to give up this understanding or this viewpoint or can’t I stay safe with my little security blanket and we’re like well, just lay it down for a little while. You might pick it up again. We’re not saying you have to, again, throw out the baby with the bathwater, but we do want you to really look closely and honestly. It’s an honest inventory that helps one move towards authenticity.
We just spent a weekend retreat, which is an annual, and this year’s theme was celebrating the divine feminine. It was an absolute … I was honored to witness as students opened to what does that mean. For many, it was the first time even exploring the divine feminine. For many, they have a deep understanding of it so it was wonderful watching them share with each other. In that process, one can’t help but be opened, whether it’s a lot or a little, the opening begins as to understand a bigger sense of the divine, expanding our definition of the divine. There is no one word, one language. It’s that which can’t be named and yet all we do is try and name it and label it and put restrictions and so this process is an opening to bigger understandings.
Lisa Belisle: Somehow it’s a comfort with ambiguity.
Angie Arndt: Well, you have to start to get that way, yeah.
Speaker 1: We’ll return to our interview after acknowledging the following generous sponsors. Akari Salon, an urban sanctuary of beauty, wellness and style, located on Middle Street in Portland, Maine’s Old Port. Follow them on Facebook or go to akaribeauty dot com to learn more about their new boutique and Medispa. And by Robin Hodgskin, senior vice president and financial advisor at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney in Portland, Maine. For all your investment needs, call Robin Hodgskin at 207-771-0888. Investments and services are offered through Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, LLC, member SIPC.
Lisa Belisle: What suggestions do you have for people who are listening as far as creating their own sacred space or finding a way to go within or deal with some of these aspects of spirituality that you’ve dealt with so clearly yourself?
Angie Arndt: Great question. There is a wonderful book that we have our first year students read called The Way We Pray. I can’t remember the author’s name, but in it she offers up a plethora of ways that we really can consider prayerful. It blows it out of the pew and on your knees model. It expands it to doing art, to having perhaps a home altar, where you create a corner of a room where you dedicate that space to, when you’re in it, whether you’re meditating or sitting quietly or going into a yoga pose, that’s the space where you intentionally say, when there I am going to be still and open to whatever that is that I’m opening to. I think that’s a resource that helps one discover. Probably much of what you’re doing already could be considered prayer, but it is that shift intention that shifts it from being just a simple thing you do every day to a prayerful activity.
For me, discovering that the walk I take every day with my dogs, and I would never give that up, but I didn’t know why and it was the help of understanding, it was with the understanding that when I begin that walk, if I begin it with the intention to pay attention, to be open to what is true during that time, it’s a prayer. I think to create sacred space is all about just what intention you bring to what you’re doing. Thich Nhat Hanh, the Buddhist monk who many people now are very familiar with here in the west, he loves to invite us to wash the dishes as an act of mindfulness. His language, that’s a prayer. When we come fully into what it is that we’re doing and fully engaging, we’re open to something bigger than our ego and our box. Breaking out of the box. I think it’s intention and we can begin every day.
The work I do in the prison, probably the thing I enjoy the most is helping the women see that even there, especially there, they have an opportunity to decide when they wake each day, how they want to start that day. It’s not to say that a prayerful practice is going to make your life bliss and everything’s going to go along, but it’s taking back the power, the control, the control not, but the ownership of one’s journey instead of always saying it’s out of my hands. I’m a busy mom or I’m a prisoner or I’m an overworked executive. Those are all the reasons I can’t. Well, we can spend our life doing that or we can start to say what’s important to me. I’m going to own that and put it in the foreground of my life. I remember Jacob saying to me in my interview as a student, ChIME is about inviting you to put the sacred in the foreground instead of the background. I didn’t really understand that for a long time. It’s been 6 years now. I’m starting to get it.
Lisa Belisle: This is sort of switching gears a little bit, but you mentioned Safe Passage earlier on as one of the things that you did prior to even beginning the ChIME work. How did that change your life?
Angie Arndt: Watching Hanley know that she had found her calling was an incredible experience for me. There was no doubt in her mind. Once she came across that situation, as the story goes, she sold everything and moved. That, right there, is an example of someone who is listening to what they’re being called for. Many of us may have witnessed that same dump and not been able to acknowledge it as the calling it was. That was huge, just to watch her. That was when I was involved. It was the very, very beginning when she was first coming to Yarmouth with her big pictures and saying, help.
Then, I think, when I interviewed her. One of our assignments at the Chaplaincy Institute is to choose what we call a Planetary Chaplain. Somebody whose life is dedicated to serving in a greater sense than themselves and I chose Hanley as a first year student. This was the year before she died. When I spoke with her about it, it was so clear that she was so interfaith because she would not allow any one denomination, even though some of them were offering her a lot of money, to become their mission. She resisted that. She said no, this has to stay … It’s spiritual. She knew that. She knew it in her core, but she didn’t want to trap it therefore, in the trappings of one organization.
I didn’t understand that until I was doing my Planetary Chaplain project and I interviewed Marina and then Hanley and Rachel. It was just so clear to me that she was on a spiritual, quest is a big word, but that what she was doing, giving these children a chance, was spiritual work of the very physical nature. She allowed them and honored them by leaving anyone’s doctrine out of it. She allowed them to stay in touch with theirs. That took a lot of strength. It would’ve been the easy way out for her to take the first offer of a whole lot of money to join one church’s mission, but she didn’t. That informed me, unbeknownst to me at the time, it informed me in hindsight. I was really pleased and proud to be part of that, her efforts at the beginning and to this day. I mean in my peripheral way, sponsoring a child.
Lisa Belisle: Angie, tell me what the future looks like for ChIME and maybe for yourself and your situation, your position within ChIME.
Angie Arndt: Well, we are growing. Each year, we have more and more students coming out of the woodwork, coming from all different angles. I think what I love best about it in terms of working with the students is they’re all so different and they come from totally different backgrounds with totally different agendas, if you will, as to where they want it to take them. I think we will continue to grow, carefully, slowly. One of the big pushes in this day and age is to embrace distance learning model, whereby people can learn through the internet and we are still resisting that because we really are quite strong in saying that what we’re teaching people is to be present to people. Not sure you can learn that through a screen, even with Skype and all those other tools. It really is about being present so we’re going to hold tight to that. We don’t really know. We just keep doing it. We do the best we can on the limited resources we have so I think we’ll just keep doing it. I don’t know that we’re going to do it differently. We tweak and fine tune.
Personally, I’m getting clearer and clearer that it is the teaching that I’m called to. I have the good fortune to get to teach a class on weddings. I teach a class on the spirit, children and meeting the spiritual needs of children. I hope to do more of teaching, but I don’t have huge plans to go. To me, much of what is challenging in this day and age is the push for growth, the push for more and we’re doing it just fine so I think we’ll stick to what we know. We’ll be ordaining another 16 this spring, which is hugely exciting so we’re in a good place. We just want to hold onto that.
Lisa Belisle: That sounds great. You’re doing great work. How can people find out more about your organization?
Angie Arndt: Well, we do have a website, of course, chimeofmaine.org. The website has everything. How to contact us, what the curriculum looks like. We also have public workshops. One weekend a month we offer full days to the students and many of those are open to the public so if someone wants to come and just spend a day with us and get a sense, they can sign up for one of those. Be in touch. Let’s start the conversation because for some, it takes many conversations. For others, they jump in the day before, but we’re there to help one discern where they are in their journey and whether it’s the right time. Give a call.
Lisa Belisle: Great. Thank you so much for coming in. It’s been a pleasure to talk to you and I know that the conversation we’ve had will actually instigate a few people to think about their own sacred spaces.
Angie Arndt: You never know.
Lisa Belisle: You never know. That’s true.
Angie Arndt: That’s the mystery. Thank you very much.
Lisa Belisle: Yes, thank you.
Lisa Belisle: Each week, on the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast, we have the great pleasure of interviewing people in our Maine Magazine minutes segment. This week, our co-host, Genevieve Morgan is out and about in the world and we miss her, but I am going to stand in for her and do her Maine Magazine minutes segment. I’m so fortunate because I’m talking today with Cyrus Hagge. Thank you for coming in today.
Cyrus Hagge: Thank you.
Lisa Belisle: I’m going to read a little bit about you. Cyrus attended Hebron Academy and received a construction technology certificate from Central Maine Technical College and completed a B.S. and MBA at the USM School of Business in 1985. His interests include owning Project Management, Inc., a construction and property management company started in 1986 in commercial real estate. Over the years he’s worked as a carpenter, general contractor and commercial real estate developer. In 1994 he started acquiring and renovating old warehouse buildings on the Portland waterfront. He currently has over 100,000 square feet of office, residential and retail space under management.
I had to pause there because I was so impressed there with all of that space, but I’m even more impressed with the fact that you are volunteering as the chair of Rippleffect, which is a youth leadership organization. Past president of the Portland Downtown Improvement District, treasurer of Space Gallery, which is a not for profit arts organization. Past president of the Cumberland County YMCA, member of the University of Southern Maine Foundation and vice president of Portland Rotary.
I’m pausing again because I’m so impressed by. You just …
Cyrus Hagge: I just can’t say no to anybody.
Lisa Belisle: You are everywhere. In addition to that, you are married and you have …
Cyrus Hagge: Three children.
Lisa Belisle: Three children and you live on Munjoy Hill.
Cyrus Hagge: Correct.
Lisa Belisle: Which is a beautiful and scenic place as you’ve noted in the information you’ve sent along to us.
Cyrus Hagge: It’s a lot of fun.
Lisa Belisle: Yeah, but you’re not from Maine. This is Maine Magazine minutes and you’re a very interesting person who is in Maine and you have told me that you love Maine and it’s a great place to be. Clearly, you’re very much invested in the area, but you’re not from Maine.
Cyrus Hagge: Well, I grew up in Wausau, Wisconsin, but I came to Maine in 9th grade. I don’t remember. I probably was 14, maybe, 15. I stayed. I never went back. I never went back to Wisconsin, felt like that was ever home again. Maine became home very quickly and after I dropped out of high school, I moved to Lewiston. Started doing construction work, went to the VTI, picked up all the building construction technology that I needed to eventually move to Portland and then go into business for myself.
Lisa Belisle: This is the interesting thing to me is that you’re very much a self-starter. You and I were talking before we came on air about the fact that you have had to … Our theme today is sacred space and we were talking to Angie Arndt before. She’s the dean of the Chaplaincy Institute of Maine. She talked about how people have to go within themselves to deconstruct and reconstruct these spaces to enable them to be spiritual. You had to deconstruct and reconstruct. Tell me about some of your challenges. You told me you had some ADHD issues.
Cyrus Hagge: When we were little kids. Now, you got to remember, I just had my 40th high school reunion. They didn’t diagnose ADD back then. Nobody really knew what it was. Although, then you were a troublesome kid. I was in a tailspin of failure. I basically flunked out of high school, didn’t go back my senior year. Moved, hit the streets, hung out, partied a lot and discovered that if I work with my hands, I can function better, but I can’t function in an academic setting so I got into carpentry work and slowly was able to reconstruct my life in a successful way through an endless string of small, but successful decisions that led me in a good direction.
Each time I did a good decision, it led to another one to another one and I look back at it now and I remember in high school, I went to an alternative high school after I dropped out of boarding school. I had a philosophy teacher who, we had a class called “This Is It” class, he was an existentialist. The theme of it was is that you can build a life for yourself that can be successful and happy by making good decisions, but they don’t have to be big. You don’t have to do decisions that change the world. They can be as little as okay, I will get up and go to work on time today. As you start to accumulate those, you build momentum. Eventually, you are in a place that you feel very comfortable about.
Lisa Belisle: Tell me how this has impacted your life. This is existentialism, and you were studying this in high school, from what I understand. You’re remembering this from this far back. What kind of forward impact has this had?
Cyrus Hagge: Well, the thing about existentialism and I’m not a proponent of it. I’m just using this as a foundation. I don’t actively talk about it. I haven’t actually talked about it for probably 30 years.
Lisa Belisle: Sure. There’s no pressure here.
Cyrus Hagge: The point is, is that this is it. There’s no, as far as I’m concerned, do a good deed today, you’ll benefit tomorrow. If you miss what happens at this moment, then you’ve missed it. It becomes a memory so you have to be on focus. If you’ve got a very short attention span, you can stay on focus on a lot of things and over time you get very good at juggling a lot of things, which is why I went from being a carpenter to a general contractor to developer because I could be in control of and see every piece of the puzzle that got a project done.
My joke is happiness is 100 year old dirt. I just love tearing apart old buildings, going in and renovating them and filling the dumpster, to moving a tenant in, writing the lease, all of that. All of that is part of that process of being there at the moment and if you aren’t there at the moment, you miss it.
Speaker 1: We’ll return to our interview after acknowledging the following generous sponsor. Dr. John Herzog of Orthopedic Specialists in Falmouth, Maine. Maker of Dr. John’s Brainola cereal. Find them on the web at orthopedicspecialstsme.com.
Lisa Belisle: Some of these organizations that you have been a part of deal with kids. Essentially, kids and teenagers. did you do that on purpose? Was that intentional?
Cyrus Hagge: I got involved with the Y, a funny family history. I can remember as a kid, my mom having, she had a couch under her window in her bedroom and she did all her volunteer work from that location and she had plans for a new YMCA that was built in Wausau, Wisconsin. Somehow, someone said why don’t you go on the Portland or the Cumberland County YMCA board so I went on the board and then next thing I knew, someone said we could really fix the Portland Y, which is in a total decline by tearing down some buildings and building an addition to it and all we have to do is raise 5 or 6 million dollars and I said okay.
Lisa Belisle: 5 or 6 million dollars?
Cyrus Hagge: Yeah.
Lisa Belisle: You just said okay?
Cyrus Hagge: Yeah, so off we went.
Lisa Belisle: How did you approach that? What were your initial steps?
Cyrus Hagge: Just go do it. It was funny because believe it or not, we went and asked the lady for a million dollars. It was easier to create and convince her to donate a million dollars than it was to get a thousand dollars or a hundred dollars from other people. It’s the same amount of work. You have to craft a message that appealed. This particular family donated over 1.5 million dollars to the capital campaign and we rebuilt the Portland Y. We went from 1,500 members at the low point to over 4,000 today. By, again, that incremental process of what do we have to do, how do we organize it and then go execute all of the steps. You can get places.
Lisa Belisle: Is this a message that you try to put forward for your own children?
Cyrus Hagge: As my wife says, you never put the word should when you talk to your children. Maybe someday they’ll figure it out, but I can’t. They’re on their own. I can’t make them do what I did and a lot of them don’t have the issues that I had. Some of them can actually sit down and write a paper, but you can never tell your kids what to do. You can suggest that an outcome they might like, but you never, I always put the word should in and then it all falls apart so I try to stay away from that.
Lisa Belisle: It sounds like you do maybe just a little bit of role modeling perhaps?
Cyrus Hagge: Oh, yeah. They’re out there. They’re doing good things. They figured it out, but your kids have to learn by making mistakes. If it wasn’t for mistakes, I wouldn’t know anything and I have made some humdingers. If you make a mistake and you don’t pay attention to it and learn from it, you’ll make it again and again.
I’ve always teased my more Buddhist and yoga friends about reincarnation because I think reincarnation happens instantaneously. You’re trying to quit smoking or stop drinking coffee. The next thing you know, you’ve got a cookie in your hand or a cigarette and you just keep making that mistake over and over. That’s basically reincarnate. Do it again and again until you see your way out of it.
I hope that if anything, I’ve passed onto my kids is that go out there and screw it up. Make a big mistake. Learn from it. I’ve got projects I’ve done that went bankrupt. I’ve had to go to the lawyers and do work outs and I learned from those projects. How to do ones that are going to be successful because I made those mistakes.
Lisa Belisle: So you talked about the YMCA. What about Rippleffect?
Cyrus Hagge: Well, Rippleffect is, it’s boys and boats, is what Rippleffect is. It’s a youth leadership program out on Cow Island, which is just out beyond Great Diamond Island. We take kids from all over, kids that have money, kids that have no money, immigrant kids. We put them out on an island, put them on the water and boats, teach them to climb a climbing wall, do ropes courses, do zip lines and then take them out of their normal life for just a couple days and then put them back. We change them just a little bit. The success that we’re seeing, Casco Bay High School is one of the schools that we do a lot of work with, is just phenomenal. We’re going into middle schools now, taking 45 to 50 at-risk kids and giving them an experience that gets them out of the way they’ve been living to experience something new in hopes that we can kindle that one good experience that they can then build upon.
Rippleffect is fun because of that, but it’s also fun because you get to go out in a boat and go to an island and play pirate and do all sorts of fun stuff, too. Very, very interesting organization.
Lisa Belisle: The same is true of the Telling Room, where it’s a fun … If that boys and boats is Rippleffect, what would you consider the Telling Room?
Cyrus Hagge: Well, that’s kids with words. People with learning disabilities don’t do well with words, but I think the kids that go there who want to learn to write get taught how to write. That’s just amazing to see what happens to those kids after they’re done at the end of a year, they’d come up and they do a public presentation. There’s a book published and these kids, you should just see them. They’re just beaming and some of them can barely speak English, yet they’ve learned to tell a story in English that all of us can relate to. It’s a really remarkable organization. Probably, in my opinion, one of the most powerful groups, most powerful non-profit in the city of Portland.
Lisa Belisle: Why?
Cyrus Hagge: Because it is helping kids who are really struggling to be able to communicate by writing. It’s a lost art now. We text, we email, but very people actually tell their story. When you tell your story, it comes from the heart so you know what it is.
Matter of fact, I’ve been telling all my board members who need to go out and do fundraising, look, we’re not fundraising. You’re going to go out and just tell the story about what we do and the Telling Room is one of those great stories. Very, very well-kept secret in Portland. I wish more people knew about it.
Lisa Belisle: What is your untold story?
Cyrus Hagge: Well, my untold story is that I’m very, very fortunate to be able to leave general contracting, retire from that and move into philanthropy. The people are figuring it out now, but basically Patty, my wife, and I can go into a small non-profit and coach them to grow and coach them to be bigger, to be better.
For example, Space Gallery, which I’m treasurer of. We just did a capital campaign. We doubled the size of the organization, we’re growing the budget. We’re having more and more people come in, participate in what’s happening there. We can come in and help raise the funds to let an organization grow and then teach them how to grow. How to balance the budget, how they’re going to fundraise, all of those pieces. Really give an organization a chance to explode.
Telling Room is another classic example. They were in a tiny little 500 square foot office, now they’re in 2,000 square feet. They’re about to outgrow that. Their budget’s growing. They’re serving thousands of kids now, up from a few hundred. I guess my hidden secret is that I can come in and work with an organization and help them get better at what they do. I’ve made all those mistakes so I can tell them what not to do now.
Lisa Belisle: What message would you like to leave with people who have heard this interview? What words of wisdom can you give them, more thoughts for them?
Cyrus Hagge: That’s a good question. It’s really not my style. I guess if I would say anything is that if you’re in a situation that you’re not comfortable with, study it and figure out how to change it. Don’t live with it. Don’t be trapped in something that’s dragging you down emotionally. Try to rethink what is it that you can change. What little thing can you do differently that’s going to make you feel good, that’s going to allow you to do some good for other people. I think that when you get to a point where you can contribute a little bit to help other folks, that’s the first step to changing your life if you wanted to, but there’s nothing more rewarding than going to the graduation of a bunch of kids that have just had a 6-week outdoor learning experience and meeting the families and realizing that just that little change we did made a significant change in their lives and in their family’s lives.
Lisa Belisle: Well, I appreciate all the work that you’re doing. It’s been a pleasure to talk to you. I feel like we could keep talking for days if we wanted to.
Cyrus Hagge: We could.
Lisa Belisle: Yes, there’s a lot of things that you’ve been working on and I know that as part of this Maine Magazine Minutes segment, you truly are an embodiment of somebody who is doing amazing things for the state so thank you from all of us.
Cyrus Hagge: Thank you. My pleasure.
Speaker 5: Please visit us online at themainemag.com. Our November/December 2011 issue features new articles on other inspiring artists and entrepreneurs living in our state. Subscribe at mainemag.com or pick up an issue at your local newsstand.
Speaker 1: This segment of the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast is made possibly by the support of the following generous sponsors. Thomas Shepard of Herzy Gardner Shepard and Eaton, an Ameriprise platinum financial services practice in Yarmouth, Maine. Dreams can come true when you take the time to invest in yourself. Learn more at ameripriseadvisors.com and by Mike LePage and Beth Franklin of RE/MAX Heritage in Yarmouth, Maine. Honesty and integrity can take you home. With RE/MAX Heritage, its your move. Learn more at rheritage.com.
Lisa Belisle: Each week on the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast, we have a segment we call Giveback. In recognition of the fact that health goes beyond the individual and out into the family, the community and the world at large, this week is a very special giveback quite dear to my heart because we have with us Dave Holman from Safe Passage. I recently returned from Safe Passage myself where I was visiting my son Campbell, who is a long-term volunteer down there.
Let me talk to you a little bit about Dave Holman, then we’ll talk about Safe Passage. Again, this is such an important segment for me. Dave Holman is lived, worked and traveled in Latin America for many years and works for the non-profit organization Safe Passage as the outreach and communications coordinator. He first visited the Guatemala City Garbage Dump in 2003, where he met young children picking through trash. The experience of seeing young children, not only out of school, but engaging in dangerous work involving hazardous materials in the Guatemala City garbage dump left a lasting impression on him that has influenced his work on issues of poverty and social justice. Working with Safe Passage has been a particularly gratifying experience, enabling him to be a part of the educational facilities, rising like oases out of the edges of the Garbage Dump slums.
I think that says it all, but let’s talk about this. Welcome. Thank you for coming in.
Dave Holman: Yeah, thank you.
Lisa Belisle: Having just gotten back from Guatemala City, and I don’t want to make this all about me, I was struck with how dangerous it is, how dirty it is, how poor it is. Such a contrast from being here in the United States. Did you have similar feelings when you first went down?
Dave Holman: Yeah. Guatemala City is a very poor metropolis overall, but it has pockets of communities that are gated and wealthy and you would think you’re somewhere in a wealthier community even than our own so it has extreme inequality. Where in the U.S., we tend to segregate those different communities, in Guatemala, you often have them right next to each other, which increases the contrast between the haves and the have nots. It, unfortunately, dumps all of its trash into a ravine, a canyon that you probably saw when you were there, that used to be far outside the center of the city on the outskirts and because they don’t really have any effective zoning to speak of, that has become a suburb of the city and the city is built up all around it so now the garbage dump is truly in the center of the city in many ways.
It’s a very shocking experience to see people really living without the basic necessities they need to survive in a healthy and happy way. It’s sad, but it’s a daily reality for people that gets ignored, even by many of the mainstream Guatemalan people who are living okay. They can ignore poverty in their own areas just as we do here. I think it is shocking for someone from the U.S. where most basic needs are met, where school is free for most children. To go down and see places where it’s really not, it’s a major wake-up call for someone like me going down there.
Lisa Belisle: Now, I’m familiar with the story. Hanley, of course, was my Bowdoin College classmate. We read every week from Our Daily Tread. I think, though, that people don’t realize what it must’ve been like to be someone her age going down there, just trying to look into getting some Spanish language education and seeing all of this existing and deciding that she was going to try and make a difference. Did you have a sense for the enormity of the task when you first went down?
Dave Holman: Yes, and I think one of the amazing things about Hanley is she looked at something that everyone else thought was impossible and unchangeable and just ignored the common wisdom. Some people would think that’s just stupid or naive and many people that were close to her, thought it was naïve to think that, but despite that, she started a project that has succeeded in many ways in accomplishing things that were thought impossible in that we have many of the children that were working in the garbage dump are now not only out of it, but getting an education and going to school. Her vision of being able to see that before it existed and having the courage to enter many situations that others would say are very dangerous, I think, made her special, but in a way that everyone can achieve.
It doesn’t take a martyr, a savior or someone who’s totally abnormal to do what she did. It’s something that takes a lot of heart. You know Hanley very well and everyone that speaks of her knows that she was someone with a big heart that when she looked on a problem like this couldn’t turn away quite as easily as I might’ve been able to okay, I visited a horrible situation, a horrible place and now I’m going back to my warm, comfortable modern life and I can maybe donate 5 dollars or give something and that’s what most people can do, but she was someone who really was willing to roll up her sleeves, get down and dirty and treat the people as human beings. Meet them and learn from them on their own terms and try to walk with them and figure out how she could help.
Lisa Belisle: Can you briefly tell me what some of the current challenges are for Safe Passage?
Dave Holman: Absolutely. Guatemala is a very hard place to operate, especially in an area with such high poverty, you get a lot of chaos. There’s a lot of gang activity in these neighborhoods and that’s something that our programs are really trying to combat, to get kids into a constructive academic or extracurricular environment and off the streets because when you’re on the streets, many of these children have cousins and relatives who are involved in very dangerous activities. I think gang activity and crime are a big issue to confront for all of Guatemala and for Safe Passage as well. Making sure that we’re able to keep all of our children safe, all of our volunteers safe and become a center where development of leadership in that community can happen, in a safe place. That’s one of the major challenges.
Of course, fundraising and making sure that we’re getting contributions coming in the door to support this kind of transformation, is always a challenge, but we’re also very blessed with donors who have been there and have seen it and know what’s going on. I think that’s why a lot of people are very consistent and generous with Safe Passage.
Even the political situation in Guatemala is always quite chaotic. Things will close down for roadblocks. They’ll close down for landslides. There’s challenges that the project faces just to keep the doors open and keep the water flowing, that here would just be fairly unthinkable. There’s the day-to-day challenges as well.
I bet you probably saw that people juggle them in a pretty remarkable way and it all keeps functioning in an environment that almost any business or organization here would be puling its hair out. It’s a remarkable situation.
Lisa Belisle: Yes, I can attest to the fact there are numerous multiple challenges. One day I was there and I was trying to wash my hands, just because it’s dirty, it’s near a dump and all that. The woman at the adult education said oh, well, we think one of the neighbors is siphoning off our water so that’s why there’s nothing coming out of the tap, which seemed really basic to me, but there are yes, definitely some challenges.
It sounds like money would be a good thing and I think it goes a long way down in Guatemala. How can people help Safe Passage? What can people do to be helpful to your organization?
Dave Holman: We offer a child sponsorship program where people partner with a child, essentially, and pay either part or all of the cost of their education and that allows them also to develop, essentially, a penpal and mentor relationship with that student, where often for the first time, they’ll get a letter once every couple months from someone who’s rooting for them and who wants them to succeed and has positive reinforcement and helpful words for them. Many of the sponsors of children come down and visit their sponsor child and take them out to lunch and meet the family. That is a very positive program that provides a sustainable form of interaction and support for the children at Safe Passage so that would be a good example.
Lisa Belisle: Information is available on your website about becoming sponsors?
Dave Holman: Absolutely, it’s on our website. It’s just www.safepassage.org. You can Google search that or type it right in and we have sponsorship information and information on giving there. Any support is much appreciated. It goes a very long way because what you buy with a dollar here, you can literally buy for 10 or 15 cents in Guatemala. Many times, we do ship down gifts and school materials and that sort of thing, but the reality is often that the shipping costs more than just buying it from the Guatemalan economy and in many places, that goes a long way.
Right now, we have a project with the mothers to create a sewing group so the mothers of the children are starting to sew these school uniforms that are required of the children. That is a very promising project where instead of Safe Passage paying some outside group to mass produce these uniforms in a factory, we’re now able to generate employment right in the dump area from people that otherwise would be going down to a very dangerous and chaotic environment to earn a living.
Lisa Belisle: There are women down there who are also creating jewelry as part of the Creamos project. Is that correct?
Dave Holman: Yeah. Creamos has been a big success. It was started three years ago. It was actually begun by Guatemalan university students who were volunteering at Safe Passage and had this idea, had seen jewelry made from recycled materials so now the moms gather recycled newspaper, cardboard, magazines. Make incredibly beautiful beads out of it, glazed beads and then string them together in jewelry and earrings and bracelets. They’ve been very successful. They’re having trouble keeping up with the orders at this point.
Lisa Belisle: But that doesn’t mean people shouldn’t order.
Dave Holman: It does not mean people shouldn’t order.
Lisa Belisle: People should still put their orders in.
Dave Holman: You can find out about Creamos through our website as well. It’s a great holiday gift and it’s inspiring to see, again, that transformation of the before and after. These are mothers who previously were spending all day sorting through trash next to bulldozers and vultures and people who are high, sniffing glue and are now spending their time at home, rolling up beads and making creative artwork that they’re able to sell so it’s an inspiring situation, to see that transformation happening right before your eyes.
Lisa Belisle: Well, thank you so much for coming in and we will make sure that we refer people back to you, the Safe Passage website and I’m sure that many, many people will be hearing this and want to do some good work in honor of Hanley and help out with Safe Passage.
Dave Holman: Great. Thank you so much for having me. Gracias, I really appreciate it.
Lisa Belisle: Gracias.
Each week on the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast, we read from my Bountiful Blog at bountiful-blog.org. This week’s post is about Safe Passage and my Thanksgiving week visit to that organization in Guatemala City. It’s entitled Safe Passage, Spirit and Reality.
Signs of Hanley are everywhere. A painted wooden sunshine on the Guarderia or nursery school, declares this as Hanley’s garden. Hanley’s portrait hangs near an artificial Christmas tree at the entrance to the school. These and other reminders bely the fact that it has been almost 5 years since her death, but it is in the children that her spirit seems most represented.
I knew Hanley first as a sweet and slightly goofy high school kid. She smiled readily and found humor in many things. She was eternally kind. She was the type of person I thought at the time who might like children. Her spirit was itself childlike, joyful, gentle.
When I attended her wake in the winter of 2007, I was shocked to see her body lying before me, bereft of that spirit. Scheduled to get my passport photo that day for an upcoming trip, I followed through with the task. My photo retains a hint of the underlying uncertainty I had been feeling. A hint of the grief-tainted wonderment that my friend’s spirit was no longer present on the earth, but of course that spirit has remained.
Every child who spends time at Safe Passage channels a bit of the spirit. Every staff person, every volunteer. There is an underlying sense of hope and purpose. The Safe Passage program currently serves 550 children and adults through work in three main buildings.
The week I was at Safe Passage, I saw every age represented. From toddlers engaging in water play to mothers studying for their 6 grade diploma. I witnessed first graders learning about healthy foods, from the very hungry caterpillar, written in Spanish. I joined 80 year olds in a dusty rooftop yoga class.
All around us, outside the walls of the program, poverty reigned. Homes are primarily shacks built with makeshift items found in dump forays. Shells of human beings roamed the streets, their minds evaporated by the glue they sniffed constantly. Glue is known to reduce hunger pains. It also enables one to escape reality. In many parts of Guatemala City, it is easy to see why reality escape might be an attractive option, but within the walls of Camino Seguro or Safe Passage, a different sort of reality escape is taking place.
It is purposeful and long-term. It is made possible through educational and vocational programs. Every participant is taught self-sufficiency, from the children who clean up their classrooms after lessons to the adults in the Creamos program who are creating jewelry for resale. Every individual who wishes to make it so is being given the opportunity to move past their current circumstances, escape their present reality.
It is in this sense of opportunity that the spirit of Hanley Denning remains most evident. Hanley, though no longer physically present on the earth, remains with us still.
Read this blog post and others like it at bountiful-blog.com.
This week on the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast, we explored the theme of sacred space. We began with a quote from Our Daily Tread by Raymond Carver, which asked, “what do you want?” The response is “to call myself beloved, to feel myself beloved on the earth.” It is in finding the sacred space within ourselves that we are able to call ourselves beloved and to feel ourselves be beloved on the earth.
We explored this possibility with Angie Arndt of the Chaplaincy Institute of Maine, philanthropist Cyrus Hagge and Dave Holman of Safe Passage. We hope that each of you, as listeners, will be furthered enabled to find your own sacred space and subsequently, perhaps, go out into the world and create sacred spaces around yourself and others, which is especially important this holiday season.
Thank you very much for joining us and for being a part of our world. May you have a bountiful life.
Speaker 1: The Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast is made possible with the generous support of the following sponsors. Maine Magazine, Tom Shepard of Herzy Gardner Shepard and Eaton. Mike LePage and Beth Franklin at RE/MAX Heritage. Robin Hodgskin at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. Dr. John Herzog of Orthopedic Specialists in Falmouth, Maine. The University of New England, UNE and Akari.
The Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast is recorded in downtown Portland at the offices of Maine Magazine on 75 Market Street. It is produced by Kevin Thomas and Dr. Lisa Belisle. Editorial content produced by Chris Kast and Genevieve Morgan. Audio production and original music by John McCain. For more information on our hosts, production team, Maine Magazine or any of the guests featured here today, visit us online at doctorlisa.org.
Tune in every Sunday at 11am for the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour on WLOB Portland, Maine 1310 AM or streaming wlobradio. com. Podcasts are available at doctorlisa.org.