Category: Works in Progress

Did You Know Our Denny Klass is a Paradigm Shifter?

Many at Collington have had a major impact on thinking in their fields.  I had not till now realized the impact that “our” Denny Kass has had on the field of bereavement studies.  As the extract from the forward, written by professor Neil Thompson, at Wrexham Glyndwr University, for a new book Denny has co-authored states:

In the 20 years after Dennis Klass, Phyllis Silverman, and Steven Nickman introduced the concept into bereavement studies in Continuing Bonds: New Understandings of Grief, continuing bonds went from being dismissed and pathologized to being a fully recognized and accepted phenomenon in bereavement scholarship and practice. Indeed, continuing bonds can now be seen not just as a phenomenon in grief but as a way of characterizing and expanding on grief itself.

The concept of continuing bonds allows us to enrich therapeutic techniques that help the bereaved, to expand our ability to understand bereavement in other cultures, to focus the philosophic questions in bereavement studies, to transfer what we learn about bereavement to how we study other significant losses, as well as to begin to include a wider range of academic disciplines in the study of grief.

Contributors in Continuing Bonds in Bereavement: New Directions for Research and Practice provide a comprehensive overview of developments in the two decades after its inception. Clinically-based contributors show psychological counseling can be more effective when continuing bonds are included. Other chapters report on grief in different cultural settings, open the discussion about the truth and reality of our interactions with the dead, and show how new cultural developments like social media change the ways we relate to those who have died. .  .  .

In sum, in Continuing Bonds in Bereavement, Klass and Steffen offer a sweeping and substantial successor to the pioneering volume that initiated a paradigm shift in the study of grief and its therapeutic implications, consolidating a perspective that is likely to remain ascendant as the field of bereavement matures

While Denny developed these approaches before coming to Collington, the resonace with repect to the values and approach of our cmmunity is obvious.  Here we create bonds in a network, and nurture them when the network suffers a gash.  Smething to think about as we move forward with the relevant elements in our Strategic Plan.

The book is titled Continuing Bonds in Bereavement: New Directions for Research and Practice, Edited by Dennis Klass and Edith Maria Steffen.  Here is the Amazon link.

CAPITAL REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER GROUNDBREAKING EVENT AT LARGO TOWN CENTER: NOVEMBER 30, 2017

Contributed by Peter Fielding

Last Thursday was both memorable and important for our Collington community.

After a long period of discussion, lasting some ten years, the University of Maryland and our Maryland state agencies have partnered to create a new state of the art Medical Center less than two miles from our Collington campus.

Under the very entertaining and skilled Master of Ceremonies, Charlene Dukes (President, Prince Georges Community College), a dozen speakers had variations on the same themes: partnerships; recognition of local healthcare needs; the politics of money; and the duration of what was called a “spirited negotiation” which was needed to reach ultimate agreement.

Both well-established representatives and those seeking higher office were on the program and most of them spoke: Seamon, Moore, Reece, Chrencik, Hogan, Cardin, Van Hollen, Hoyer, Brown, Davis, Busch, Miller, and Baker.

However, it was the last speaker, The Honorable Rushern L. Baker III, PG County Executive, who had been the major driving force keeping the vision moving forward who spoke for the majority. He was quiet, humble, sincere, and clearly personally moved by the fact that the people of our region will now be better served when the first phase of the Medical Center, and some of the related retail and office developments, come on line within 3 – 4 years. Baker was given a standing ovation by the 450 guests (which included a small contingent from Collington). All the guests were clearly very engaged; lots of animated chatter; lots of handshakes; and quite a lot of hugs.

It was a good day for a future which promises to meet some of Collington’s core health needs.   So very refreshing.

Hospital details when all phases complete:

  • Main Tower: 11 levels; 2 rooftop helipads, 595,744 sq. ft.
  • Acute care licensed beds (private): 205
  • Adult Observation/Short Stay beds: 20
  • ER treatment bays: 45
  • Operating rooms: 8

Core Programs & Specialty Centers:

  • Level II Trauma Center
  • Level III Neonatal Intensive Care
  • Cardiac STEMI/Cardiac Surgery Center
  • Designated Stroke Center
  • Cancer Program
  • Critical Care Medicine
  • Emergency Services
  • Neurosciences
  • Orthopedics
  • Women’s Services

Richard Zorza’s Legal Blog Gets ABA Award

The American Bar Association Journal now does a Web 100 list honoring “the best of lawyers and the law on the web.”  For whatever it is worth, they have included my (Richard’s) Access to Justice blog this year on their list. Here is the link to the blog itself.

Quoting the blog, they describe it as follows:

“We define access to justice broadly to include innovations in courts, the bar, legal aid and community that make it easier for people to obtain access to justice institutions, and to just results within those institutions.” Posts cover a broad range of subjects, including access to counsel, foreclosures, self-service, law schools and technology.

Remember, all my blogs are listed here.

To whet your appetites, here is the begining of the list of topics covered.

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I know I am not alone in wanting to hear more about other resident’s milestones.

Collington Corridor Artists

Fabric Art by Jacob Kijne

Every few months the corridors of Collington’s main building are the site for a new exhibit of art work done by residents. These shows will be featured on the website as they occur.   This summer, one corridor is the site of a show of fabric art by resident Jacob Kijne.  

Jacob, an irrigation engineer and soil scientist, started creating fabric art when he was living and working in Lahore, Pakistan.   He bought a sewing machine, and had his secretary translate the manual from Urdo.  Inspired by the ready availability of local fabrics, he made his first piece, Sunflowers, shown in the exhibit and center below.

When he moved to Sri Lanka to become Research Director of the International Water Management Institute in Colombo, there were more great fabrics available, and also some great scenery that inspired a number of wall hangings.

 

 

In retirement Jacob married for the second time, and spent over a decade consulting on water issues to several developing countries, based first in a small home north of London, and then condos in Washington DC.   Some of the hangings he made during these years are also in the show.

 

Above left is a view of the houses in the Dupont Circle area;  Jacob had a view similar to this from the window of his office/work room in the one-bedroom condo he lived in when first coming to Washington.  Above right is a hanging commissioned by his wife Marian Fuchs (also now a Collington resident);  she wanted something in the colors of the great room of their home in England.  

After some time, the couple moved to a larger condo in the heart of downtown DC.  This home had lots of windows, and not very much wall space.  So Jacob made a series of long, thin wall hangings to display between the tall, thin windows.  Here are some on display in the Collington corridor this summer, show here sideways.

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This wall hanging was made after attending an exhibit at the Textile Museum a few years ago. The show was called Kuba Textiles and the Woven Art of Central Africa.  The mats, blankets and baskets were all done in shades of beige and black or dark brown, and were a feast for the eyes of intricate abstract patterns.. 

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This piece is called ‘Red Squares’.  The fabrics are left-overs from making pillow covers for the new condo ‘great room’.  Most of the textiles came from stores in England and the US, but a few were collected during visits to India.  

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‘Umbrellas’ was inspired by the long escalator at the north entrance to the Dupont Circle metro.  On rainy days riders keep their umbrellas up until they are half way down the escalator and in the metro proper. The bright colors are always a charm on a grey day. 

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Above is part of the wedding quilt shown in full at the start of this article.  When Jacob and Marian married in England in 2004, guests were asked to give as gifts a scrap of fabric to be included in the quilt.  The big center piece was the fabric Jacob used to make his bride a dress for the occasion.

Here are two more hangings from the exhibit.  The first was made in nostalgia for winter, while Jacob was living in the tropics.  

 

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Ten Birds was inspired by a painting by Fred Tomaselli in an exhibition in 2000 in the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Jacob made the hanging 17 years later, so any resemblance is unlikely. A generous donation of fabrics from a fellow resident, stimulated Jacob to finally make the piece.   

 

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