Women Changing our World

 HS #93 2013.4.13

 

Women Changing our World

 

My late Hope College mathematics colleague, Mary DeYoung, had a quote from anthropologist Margaret Mead on her office door, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” 

 

Indeed, Mary was one such person herself. Dying suddenly of cancer in the summer of 2011, Mary and her husband, Steve, provided my first home when I moved to Holland in 1988 – in the appendage to their house on Pine Ave and 18^th Street which was originally constructed as a doctor’s office. Through her 25-year career of teaching and inspiring K-8 math education students at Hope College, Mary has impacted hundreds of thousands of lives. 

 

Mead’s quote came to mind recently as I listened with fascination to a BBC account of a new biography, “The Empress of the Nile” by New York Times best-selling author Lynne Olson. The book cover describes its subject, Christiane Desroches-Noblecourt, as “The Daredevil Archaeologist Who Saved Egypt’s Ancient Temples from Destruction.” 

 

Born in Paris in 1913, Desroches-Noblecourt attended a progressive all-girls school in which she became hooked on Egyptology. Her life was one adventure after another. As a curator for the Louvre during WWII, she braved interrogation by the Gestapo and twice moved, hid, and secured its contents, including the “Mona Lisa” from the advancing Nazis.  

 

But her most stunning success was the following decade when Egypt’s President Nasser decided to build a dam across the Nile River. Looking to its future rather than its history, Egypt was willing to sacrifice twelve sacred temples, including the statues of Ramses II dating back 3000 years for the economic benefits that a dam would provide. 

 

Challenging Charles de Galle and the Kennedy administration for funding, planning the details with Egypt’s President Nasser, Desroches-Noblecourt won the day by gathering contributions from 50 countries.  She was a real-life Indiana Jones in her love for antiquity and her willingness to fight any battle to save it. She saved all of the sacred monuments even though the largest had to be cut into small pieces and reassembled much as once happened to the Dutch Windmill on Windmill Island.

 

Indeed, local parallels to Christiane’s life go deeper than that. Reading her story, I was reminded of a West Michigan woman who also had a unique vision for saving history and who clung to her mission like a bulldog. 

 

I’m speaking of Saugatuck’s Felt Mansion. Built in the 1920s by the inventor of the first mechanical calculator, the Felts died within a couple years of its completion. The Catholic Church owed it for a while – it was a convent for nuns secluded from the outside world. There was a turn-style in the front entrance so messages could be transported without human contact.  The grand rooms were gutted to make space for many small living quarters. 

 

In the 1970’s a state legislator had the idea of securing this beautiful land for a state park. There was no money designated for parks, but ample available for prisons. So the state bought it, built and used the prison long enough to satisfy legalities, then tore the prison down and kept the land as a state park.  (Bravo for creative imagination!)

 

The land was retained for the Saugatuck State Park, but there was no use for the mansion. So Laketown Township bought it from the state for $1 in 1996 with the plan to let it fall to ruin so that eventually the only choice would be to tear it down. 

 

But then in 2001 Patty Meyer and her husband took a walk through the park. Seeing the potential, she badgered the township for permission to restore it. After multiple refusals, the township board decided the easiest way to discourage this determined woman was to let her have it for six months so she would realize what a useless effort it was. 

 

Remarkably and gladly, their plan backfired.  Patty and her husband filled six haul-away garbage trailers with dead bats, birds, rats, foxes, raccoons, opossums and other trash. They eventually found the grand mantle for its fireplace in the barn of a local farmer, and after years of work the mansion is now restored to its former glory and available for rent and general viewing. 

 

But Patty is not satisfied with restoring historic buildings. Taking this essay full circle, her new mission is raising childhood literacy throughout the state. Mary would approve. Kudos to these women changing our world. 

Inflection Points

  

HS #92 2023.3.9

 

Inflection Points

 

You are about to experience an inflection point. In eleven days, to be exact. You won’t feel it, this inflection point is too subtle, but it will influence your life, as most inflection points do. 

 

If you drive through downtown Grand Rapids, you will encounter one there. You often create one when coming to stop lights. Two years ago during the thick of COVID the press told us of inflection points even though most of them likely didn’t know exactly what they were talking about. 

 

It’s time to learn. 

 

Imagine walking up a smooth hillside or dune from the bottom of a valley to the top.  As you begin the trek from the bottom, the slope becomes increasingly steep. Your legs get sore because each step is a bit steeper than the last. But as you approach the top, even though you’re still climbing, the RATE of climbing decreases. You can feel the gratitude in your muscles. You have passed the inflection point. 

 

The mathematical definition of an inflection point is where the concavity changes. Think of an “S” lying on its side. The bottom of the “S” which bends up is said to be concave up. The top of the “S” which bends down is “concave down” The middle of the “S” is the inflection point. Driving north along the S-curve in Grand Rapids, the inflection point is the place where you transition from turning left to turning right. 

 

You can feel an inflection point if you’re slowing down as you approach a stop light, but then the light turns green, so you start accelerating. The transition from slowing down to speeding up is the inflection point. 

 

What’s the inflection point we will all experience shortly? Since this past December 21, the amount of daylight has been increasing. But not only increasing, it’s been increasing at an increasing rate. In early January we got an extra minute daily. As we approach the first day of spring (March 20), we are gaining 3 minutes daily. Once we enter spring, the length of days will continue increasing, but increasing at a decreasing rate. 

 

Not to worry, both equinoxes are inflection points. In September, the days will continue getting shorter until Dec 21, but they will be getting shorter more slowly. 

 

Why are inflection points important? Suppose a graph (a curve) represents the overall welfare of a person’s life. One would think that a higher graph (better welfare) would lead to more happiness. But not the case! Studies have shown, for example, that a lottery winner and an amputee are equally happy several months after their life-changing events. Surprising? 

 

Instead, happiness seems more tied to the CHANGE in a person’s welfare. A sick person on the road to recovery is generally in good spirits. For those who watch stocks, if the market goes up on a particular day (even if down for the year), it makes one happy. Similarly, a person enjoying a luxury vacation can get bummed by burnt toast. 

 

How do inflection points and concavity affect us? I submit that they are related to our hopefulness. Again, consider your stocks. If after bad economic news, the stock market goes down daily 300, then 200, then 100, you may feel badly for the decrease, but the trend makes you hopeful that it’s reaching the bottom of the “S” and in coming days it will start increasing again. 

 

Understanding that hopefulness is related to inflection points, you can perhaps appreciate why during COVID epidemiologists were concerned about them. They accepted that lots of folks had COVID, they even accepted that the number was increasing weekly. But they were carefully watching the rate of increase. Even though the number of COVID cases was increasing, the rate of increase was decreasing. So there was hope that eventually the total number would reach the top of the “S” and start declining. Which it did!

 

Our present inflation provides another example. Prices were increasing at an increasing rate. Now prices are still increasing but at a decreasing rate.  Prices had an inflection point. We’re breathing a bit easier as a result. We’re more hopeful that the future will bring economic normality. 

 

This is all good news of sorts. No matter a person’s lot in life, some days are still better than others. And a person’s happiness is tied to those changes. Moreover, even if things are getting worse, if you can see an inflection point coming, there is reason for hope.