Letters
More on the Albert Einstein Collection
In recent months a great deal of excitement has been generated on and off campus by Vassar's acquisition of the Morris and Adele Bergreen Albert Einstein Collection ["Newsworthy Notes" Spring 2004]. I thought readers of Vassar would be interested in learning a little more about how the collection came to the college and what its connection to Vassar is.
Adele Gabel Bergreen '44 majored in political science. While at Vassar, she studied with Otto Nathan, who taught economics in the early '40s. After graduation, Bergreen and her husband Morris (who together had a law firm in New York) stayed in touch with Nathan and came to know him quite well. Nathan was a German emigre scholar who had left his country of origin when Hitler came to power. He was also a close friend of Albert Einstein. Their relationship was so close, in fact, that Einstein appointed Nathan to be his executor. Nathan collected the great physicist's papers and eventually deposited them at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Yet he retained much of the personal correspondence he had with Einstein (as well as some photographs, books, and other memorabilia). Toward the end of his life, Nathan left his collection with the Bergreens, and now it has come to Vassar.
The collection is thus connected to the college through both its faculty-creator (Nathan) and its alumna-donor (Bergreen). It has great teaching and research value not only for faculty and scholars, but also for Vassar students from a variety of academic disciplines.
Ronald D. Patkus, Head, Archives and Special Collections, Vassar College Libraries
Poughkeepsie, NY
VC Encounters
My husband and I were invited to a luncheon at Great Windsor Park, outside London, and an afternoon of polo. The British lady sitting next to me noticed my VC ring and was very curious as to how I had the Victoria Cross symbol on my ring. The Victoria Cross is one of the highest honors the Queen bestows.
Betty Coats Zimmerman '53
Sedona, Arizona
The recent VQ article "What's in a Mark?" [Spring 2004] reminded me of my own VC logo story. When I was living in Madrid in 2000, there was a restaurant called Casa de Vaca, and the logo looked identical to the Vassar logo. I always imagined walking in, flashing my ring, and pretending to be the owner's son. Even though I'm a vegetarian, I thought it would at least be good for a free salad.
David Rubin '96
New York, New York
I was in Chicago, Illinois, last year at the American Bar Association's HIV/AIDS conference. I sat down to lunch on the first day with the group from my office, and a nice young guy sat down at the table with us. I spied his ring, held up my own, pointed it at him in the classic cartoon superhero style, and announced, "Shazzam" - it was Michael Silverman '91, who works with NY Lawyers Public Interest. No one else at the table understood what just happened. We touched rings and explained. I saw him again this year, at the conference in New Orleans; knew who he was as soon as I saw the ring!
Leslie F. Kline Capelle '86
Venice, California
In the summer of 1966, I was an intern in Washington, DC, as a member of the Vassar/Wellesley summer internship program. One day the person sitting beside me on the bus asked to look more closely at my ring. He then asked me if I were a supporter of the Viet Cong. He was much relieved to discover I was merely a supporter of Vassar College!
Tirrell Barbieri Graham '67
Mill Valley, California
Catching Up
At last I'm getting around to writing you regarding articles in the Spring 2003 and Summer 2003 magazines. I very much enjoyed Franny Kilpatrick Field's '42 letter "Founder's Day Relived" [Summer 2003]. I was surprised and pleased to see the article and picture of the elephant in the spring Quarterly [Vassar Yesterday]. I enjoyed and lived that memorable day (we were juniors in charge of the entertainment that year, 1941) all over again.
I also enjoyed the article on the Wimpfheimer Nursery School [Summer 2003]. As a child study major, I spent two or more wonderful, fulfilling, and enjoyable years there. I even spent most of one summer typing notes for Joe Stone's research. Mary Fisher Langmuir, head of the department, and Joe Stone, then a fairly new faculty member, were both inspiring, kind friends to me. Many years later, my two sons attended the nursery school. It was a welcome sight to see Mrs. Fisher Langmuir still there when my oldest son attended in 1953.
P.S. The Spring 2004 Quarterly just arrived for me to "catch up on."
Elizabeth Puff Long '42
Poughkeepsie, NY
Inspirational Parenting
The article ["Wonder and the Art of Parenting"] in the Spring 2004 issue of the Vassar Quarterlywas a delight to read. Although I have no children of my own, I have done plenty of parenting.
The summer after my sophomore year in college I answered an ad in the International Herald Tribune and became the governess to a family of six children ages 2 to 12 in Ireland - an experience I adored. I also established a prep school, Heavenly Mountain Ideal Girls' School, featuring a Consciousness-Based approach to education.
What I found most interesting in the article was the inspiration and wisdom author Seamus Carey '87 derives from the great philosophers throughout the ages, who look within and sense a field of wholeness that transcends and brings completeness to everyday existence.
For more than 30 years I have been a teacher of the Maharishi Transcendental Meditation (TM) program, and can say from my own experience as a TM meditator and teacher that the refined approaches to parenting the author describes come very naturally to those who are regularly having the experience of their own inner Self through daily practice of the TM technique.
Meg Custer ' 72
Boone, North Carolina
Taking a Stand
First, I'd like to thank Vassar magazine for publishing the article on Eric MacLeish '75 in the last spring (2003) issue, regarding his tireless work to improve policy and procedures regarding long-standing abusive and scandalous Roman Catholic priests. So much has been said and written - and televised - on the issue that certainly, my small voice, as a Catholic religious (Franciscan nun), can not add more. Suffice it to say that I am deeply disappointed with how Rome, let alone my former Cardinal (in Boston), handled not only the errant, illegal behavior of Fr. Paul Shanley, but countless others, who have been found guilty. I have worked for nearly 25 years as an A.C.S.W. (clinical) social worker in the United States and overseas, with child and adult victims of sexual abuse. Emotional "scars" may be "invisible," in some respects - but these wounds whether perpetrated by family members or a trusted friend - or a teacher, therapist, or priest - remain long into adulthood, manifesting in not only dysfunctional "surface" behaviors and depression - but at the root of many addictive behaviors and personality disorders.
Former Cardinal Bernard Law's abhorrent denial of this evil behavior - itself an addiction - would have been treated in a radically different fashion if Paul Shanley or James Porter and other were found to be alcoholic. The moment the priest either asks for help or is found staggering up to the ambo for a Homily, he is nearly immediately encouraged or placed into a 28-day alcohol treatment program, as is a nun. Why not then, the same policy for treatment across the board. Nowadays, unlike years ago, nuns, as well as priests, are examined psychologically and thoroughly for seminary life. I write this from my convent's "motherhouse" (headquarters) in Krakow, Poland.
Yes, we all fall short and no one is a saint, but if religious (priests, sisters, monks, friars, as well as those in secular religious life), cannot be healthy role models for all those we serve and who earnestly look to us for prayer, hope, and guidance, then we have no business wearing a religious collar, cowl, or veil. Thank God for people like Eric MacLeish and so many others like him who are willing to stand up to long-standing authorities and "rattle the cages" of social policy, and blind political and religious imprisonment.
I encourage non-practicing Catholics and those who haven't darkened their church's door for ages to take a stand and to become re-involved with your own diocese's chancery. If you feel you can't make a difference, you can. Begin in small, simple ways. Begin with an intention of peace - for helping a victim you may know, create peace at last, in their own heart. I encourage the reader to the following book: Shaken by Scandal: Catholics Speak Out About Priests' Sexual Abuse (Servant Publications, Ed. Ann Arbor, 2002). I send every good wish to my friends and former faculty at Vassar.
Sr. Mary Augustine, Fransiscan Sister Servant of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus (formerly Priscilla A. VanBuskirk '77)
Krakow, Poland
Inspirational Approach to Parenting
Dear Seamus [Carey '87],
Your article in the Spring 04 issue of the Vassar Quarterly was a delight to read. Although I have no children of my own, I have done plenty of parenting. The summer after my sophomore year in college I answered an ad in the International Herald Tribune and became the governess to a family of six children ages 2 to 12 in Ireland-an experience I adored. I also established a prep school, Heavenly Mountain Ideal Girls' School, which features a Consciousness-Based approach to education.
What I found most interesting in your article was the inspiration and wisdom you derive from the great philosophers throughout the ages, who look within and sense a field of wholeness that transcends and brings completeness to everyday existence.
I was fortunate enough to be able to have direct experience of the transcendental field of life starting as a college student, when I learned the Transcendental Meditation technique, as taught by His Holiness Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. This wonderful direct experience led to further inquiry, and within a few months I attended my first course with Maharishi.
For more than 30 years I have been a teacher of the Transcendental Meditation program, and can say from my own experience as a TM meditator and teacher that the refined approaches to parenting you describe come very naturally to those who are regularly having the experience of their own inner Self through daily practice of the TM technique.
For example, my experience as surrogate parent to the six young children in Ireland came just a few months after I first learned the Transcendental Meditation program. I found the expansion of heart and mind I was experiencing at that time giving rise to much greater richness and refinement in all my relationships.
There are now many schools throughout the world that feature Maharishi's Consciousness-Based approach to education, especially Maharishi School of the Age of Enlightenment and the Ideal Girls' School in Fairfield, Iowa. In fact, a conference on Consciousness-Based Education in NYC earlier this week featured some students from the Maharishi School and was written up in the "Talk of the Town" column of the New Yorker: http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/?040322ta_talk_mead
With warm wishes,
Meg Custer, Vassar '72
President
Maharishi University of Enlightenment
3590 Heavenly Mountain Dr., Suite 31
Boone, NC 28607
Tel/fax 828-265-3185
email megclo8@aol.com