.

Note: For additional information about the collection view: http://kaglecollection.com

Also I take with me a cleared mind and a sense of peace (with a little tingle of excitement on entering doors and chambers where I have never been but wish to explore), a love of the unknown and a reasoned quest for observation before action.

I will share with you two recent journeys: Georgia and Mongolia. (If you wish to read more, go to Writing by Joe Kagle in www.wacoart.com, American Supra for Georgia and some essays on Mongolia).

When I knew that I was going to Georgia, I read histories and I found one hero (this antique photograph of a Cossack from the Steppes that secretly I imagined as myself). Here is that photograph of my “must-be-hero."

The best way to show you my stay in Georgia is reviewing a selection of items: 1) selections from my notebook of sketches:

and 2) the Fulbright Annual Report, 2002:

“To Joe Kagle’s trained eye, Tbilisi, Georgia in 2001 was a study in contrasts. The locals had little knowledge of contemporary art after the 1930s, when the communists ended creativity by diktat, but were second to none in their appetite for whatever concerts or exhibits came their way. People who earned $10 a month would shell out $2.50 for a Sunday matinee at the Opera, bringing 3-year olds to soak it all in from Mama’s lap. By the time a Tbilisi youth reached college, he was familiar with Raphael, Leonardo, Nijinsky and Kakabadze. But the teetering economy sustained few artists-forcing gifted architects and classical guitarists to support themselves as translators or drivers.

Georgia’s fragile, 11-year old democracy was also threatened by ongoing war in nearby Chechnya, and by the bombing of Afganistan within months of Kagle’s arrival. But the 70-year old artist saw his Fulbright grant as an opportunity to jump-start the rebuilding of a once-vibrant artistic community, and he was a force to be reckoned with.

The well-connected painter and ex-museum director solicited contributions of books and tapes from leading U.S. artist, architects and museums for months prior to his arrival, shipping more than 200 boxes to Tbilisi, where he set up a Resource Room for American Art and Architecture that now bears his name.

He also helped to frame fund-raising campaigns for the local conservatory and Art Villa by using benefactors in the U.S. and Europe, taught American art, architecture and museum studies at six universities while in Georgia, lectured to all kinds of groups on America and American education, and served on international study selection panels. It was a seminal experience for Kagle and his wife of 45 years, Anne, who accompanied him.

It was also a personal catharsis for the artist, who had had multiple heart-bypass surgery in 1998- providing a kind of bridge from the daily stress of directing an arts center museum in Waco, Texas to his retirement. “Like a priest,” he says, “you do not just walk away from a career that has supported you for 40 years. I thought I needed a physical break.”

He credited an earlier Fulbright grant for study in China with transforming his art and life in the 1960s so, with his cardiologist’s approval, sought a second with which to transform the artistic life of Tbilisi. He also drew inspiration from his hosts- comparing their “circular” thought processes, which he likens to “a cat circling a room” before coming to rest in the center, with the Western linear way; and painting in very bright colors in the dark days after September 11, 2001.

Kagle could serve as the poster boy for scholars of a certain age, but retirement has not slowed him down. He is still teaching, painting and working to bring Georgian to the U.S. to study; has helped 30 Georgians write grants for their projects; and is writing a book “about what really is important to me as an American. Number one is freedom.”

He will miss Georgia’s hot breads, fresh from the oven each morning; Georgia’s eager young minds, and his Tbilisi colleagues, he says. “But people in this country, ah,” he says of America, “they don’t know what they have.”

(For additional sites to explore about Kagle’s journey to Georgia, view: www.cies.org )

Rule Twelve: Luck comes to those who are prepared. Before going to Georgia and Mongolia on Fulbright grants, 2001-2004, I read all the history that I could find about events plus heroes; then wrote short summaries.

Mongolia: a land without fences

The word “Mongol” was first recorded by the Chinese during the Tang Dynasty (AD 619-907). Although the Mongolians recorded their history in oral epics, sung by their bards, the first writing was 800 years ago. Because of their contact with neighboring countries, references to the Mongols have been recorded in their histories. The Chinese saw the Mongols as “wolves”, penetrating and attacking China and then retreating with their plunder. There are, though, archeological records of human remains that go back over 500,000 years.

The major dates in Mongolian history can be recorded by following great leaders and negotiated treaties. In 1205, Chinggis Khaan (Genghis Klan in the West) proclaims himself ruler of the Mongol Empire. 1211 the Great Khaan attacks China and by 1227 he had expanded into Europe as far north as modern Poland, make conquests in Russia, ruled China, and had made military sorties as far west as Istanbul, Turkey, and east into Korea. His empire lasted four generations. Ogedai Khaan, Chinggis’ third son, started campaigns into Russian and Europe in 1237, expanding the Empire until his death in 1241. In 1275 Marco Polo arrives in China (not the first European to come to this part of the world but the most publicized). In 1279, Kublai Khaan, Chinggis Khaan’s grandson, completes the conquest of China. Kublai Khaan dies in 1294 and in 1368 the Mongols are driven out of China. From 1400 to 1454, Mongolia is locked into a Civil War.

In 1641 Zanabazar is proclaimed Buddhist leader in Mongolia (and today the country is 96% Buddhist).

In 1911 Mongolia is declared independent from China but it is not until 1915 that Russia, China and Mongolia sign an agreement to give independence to Mongolia. In 1939 Mongolian and Russian troops fight Japan in eastern Mongolia.

In 1990, pro-democracy protests are held and the communist party wins the first election. By 1992, a new constitution is declared and the communists wins the election again. In 1996, a democratic coalition unexpectedly defeats the communists in the election but in 2000, the table are turned, and the communists unexpectedly defeats the democratic coalition. The new parliament is known as “the Great Khaurai” (Ikh Khaurai) and the smaller standing legislature is “the Little Khaurai” (Boga Khaurai), both established in 1992. The president serves a four-year term, must be at least 45 years of age at the time of the election and can be re-elected only once. Local governments are not elected but appointed by the winning party.

The market in Ulaanbaatar is the place to find almost anything. In the summer, over 60,000 attend the market each day.

Why should anyone go to Mongolia (with “the coldest capital in the world”)?

Mongolia has four major resources: 1) eco-tourism (in the warmest months, Mongolia is what the American west was at one time, open with bright blue, clear skies, which are magnificent). Mongolia has the mountains and Gobi Desert. Mongolia has the deepest lake in the world with more water than all the Great Lakes put together; 2) minerals (gold, copper, coal and others), which are just now being tapped for a world market; 3) a history unlike any other nation; and 4) a nomadic life style and mindset that “just might be needed in the materialistic 21^st century."

The population of Mongolia is now 65% under the age of 35. It has a history of moving out and making “conquests without ownership” (a unique mindset in today’s world). Mongolia’s ownership is centered upon inner qualities, not outward objects. At each marvelous site, there is a mound of stones topped with some blue and yellow clothe on a stick. It is homage to the sky and the earth. As vodka is toasted outdoors, one finger dips into the vodka and flips it to the sky and the earth, honoring the elements around the individual. The nomadic life style is still with the people even when they come to the city for a livelihood. Nomadic life in Mongolia has not been restricted to reservations (unless one thinks of all of Mongolia as a reservation in a world of materialistic nations that surround it). As an ally of democracy, it is the “right government in the right place in Asia amongst many of the wrong governments and nations.” This was a statement from long-time Asian friends and government officials.

I normally keep a daily journal on a trip.

Mongolian Journal: Day One and Two

September 24-October 17, 2004: Day One and Two: Early in the morning, we were driven to Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, after a drive down the night before from Waco (193 miles) and staying with our daughter, Samantha, and her family. We flew United to San Francisco (4 hours and 6 minutes); to Seoul (12 hours and 10 minutes); had a delightful and needed overnight at the Seoul Inchon International Best Western Hotel ($127.50 US per night); flew out on Mongolian Airways, MIAT (3 hours and 30 minutes) the next morning and arrived in Ulaanbaatar at 2:35 pm. When we left Texas, the temperature was in the mid-90s; Seoul in the mid-70s; and Ulaanbaatar in the high 30s. He had left the heat and humidity of Houston to walk off the airplane to see snow falling in Ulaanbaatar (“the coldest capital in the world,” reaching 60 below zero in the dead of winter).

An Embassy greeter and his driver met us, as well as the Dean of the Mongolian University of Culture and the Arts (Associate Professor Basasandorjiin BAYARAA, the first name is the father’s name and the one in caps is the given name that the individual is known by) and the English professor (Munhktuul) who would act as our interpreter. We drove to our third floor, two-room apartment in the center of the city, about three blocks from the university. It had two telephones (which we had difficulty working in that first week), a television (with at least five English speaking stations, such as CNN and BBCWorld), a very, very small place to prepare food, a refrigerator in the living room, a shower that is functional when it functions, and two padlocked steel doors. From our balcony, we can see the Khuree Building, a hotel when the English-language speaking Rotary meets each Friday at 1:00 pm. Later, we discover that we have no running water and could not work the telephone to call anyone to get help. The bed was a little more than a hard, shifting slab that divided in the middle (eventually we bought a cover for it and two pillows (the only ones of their size) with “cute little dogs” on them). It was better than expected.

As you learn more, talk to more individuals, explore the city and the desert (Mongolia has only four people per acre and that figure is not correct when you leave the cities for the Gobi Desert (Ulaanbaatar has 1.7 million crowded together in one place), you start to share visions for the future with those that you came to work beside and help (your fellow companions on this journey). Here is a Vision Statement that I wrote in collaboration with the University of Culture and the Arts:

Vision Statement for the Mongolian University of Culture and the Arts

It was not a revolution. It was not sudden or abrupt. It was the year 2020. It was an educational, evolutionary slow sequence of events and decisions that started in 2004 with a simple question, “What will the Mongolian University of Culture and the Arts (MUCA) be in the year 2020?” Now, standing in the newly dedicated sculpture garden of the university, returning students admire the pentagon structure and the magnificent, seated statue of the Buddhist goddess of the arts, Yanjinlkham. For years, she has been a painting or a print in each of the offices, reminding members of the administration, faculty, students and visitors the purpose, mission and meaning for the university: to educate the brightest and best young minds to support, sustain and splendidly display the arts that they love so passionately. On four sides of the courtyard, stood the new architectural garments for the College of Fine Arts, College of Culture, College of Choreography and Music, and the Research Institute of Culture and the Arts. On the fifth side of the garden, it was open to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia and the world because this is what happens in a democracy. Mongolia’s democracy is the newest form of Jeffersonian educational freedom. Managers for the artists, arts organizations, museums and libraries (the caretakers for ideas and images) have been going out and making the world of art a better place for everyone. MUCA is now a universal word for excellence with their deserved reputation for creating leaders in arts management for the world market. What Genghis Klan had begun with his world conquest is this current, non-violent, evolutionary reality. The open end of the quadrangle is now a symbol for the legions of arts managers who carry the freedom of the arts out into the world along a new Silk Road of achievement. What had been true in the 13^th century is a new reality in 2020. By the time that each of these individuals graduate, taking their knowledge and experience out into a changing environment, they have already worked with national arts organizations, leading artists and the most up-to-date ideas in arts management.

As the former student sat in the pleasant, green, sculpture-filled, peaceful courtyard, he felt like one of his nomad ancestors who had traveled afar to conquer the world. Now, he did his work in a foreign country but hoped to return soon to Mongolia to direct an arts organization in his thriving, new democracy (a model for freedom in the Asian region). He could always sell his skills in the flat world of technology. Soon his son and daughter would come to the University of Culture and the Arts and start their own momadic journey. As his thoughts drifted back to his professors, his professionals that the university has brought in to light the flame of passion in his breast for all the arts and the countless artists who had inspired and moved him to action in the arts management fields, he pondered upon how this level of excellence had come into being. What he knew was that it all had started with a vision and some heroes who made the first journey into the unknown of quality. 

What you must bring with you on a trip is an assessment of what you have to work with on any journey:

Self

Knowledge (basis of any beginning)

Public Relations (a process of communication with the outside world)

Networking (working with others)

Culture (understanding and respect for others)

Leadership (a final destination)

                  Profession                                                           Resources

Knowledge (internal skills to do the job)  Others (staff, Board, volunteers, public)

Methods (structure and management)      Money (finances, grants, fund raising)

Ethics (how to act correctly)                       Ideas (self generated and from outside)

Tools (media, Directors, contacts)              Language (other, English, computer)

And then we come home, changed and yet unchanged, with images of the known (the places where you have been) and the unknown (the spaces and ideas that you have not determined yet). Stories help to sort out these two states of understanding:

Leaving the Ranks of Twiddledumb and Twiddledumber

When our time was over, after ten months away in the Republic of Georgia on my Fulbright Scholar’s grant, we decided to fly around the world on the trip home so we stayed five days in Beijing, China. We ate great food and experienced magnificent service. But the difference between China and America was not truly clear until we flew into Chicago and I sat watching people walk by in the three hours wait before our flight home, Texas and Waco. I am a counter of things that pass my way so I counted the different shapes of people. The national average of 60 percent women and 55 percent of men in America having expanded waistlines (the Surgeon General calls it obesity) is a phenomenon that is easily seen. My count was over 75 percent of those I saw in the terminal were overweight.

And I was one of them. I had gained pounds over the last five years so that I knew that I was Twiddledumb. Oh, I gave lip-service to watching my weight and work out three to four times a week but I ate fast to put more pounds on. I sat there in the Chicago airport, thinking of Chins and its 1.3 billion thin people (true, not all but a majority), imagining the Middle East and thin terrorists, and came to the decision that I would not become Twiddledumber by not changing. I got a book on how to eat properly, counting colories and in six months lost 60 pounds. I still have about 25 to go but the routine of exercise and counting colories is now part of my daily life. I am not dieting. I am finding a way to live longer and I still eat what I want (but not as much or as fast as before).

As a gift to my son, on our first day back in Waco, I went to Cici’s Pizza with him, his friend and my wife (who has been around 140 pounds all her life, no matter what she eats). Cici’s advertises and gives all you can eat for $3.99 and being a counter, I counted heads. Of the 147 adults there, 107 were at least 30 pounds overweight. I did not count the 30 children because that was too heart-wrenching. In the January issue of Men’s Fitness, naming the “10 Fattest Cities in America,” Texas has four. Houston is No. 1 on the Twiddledumber list, Dallas is fourth, San Antonio, seventh, and Fort Worth, eighth. Texas has no nominees for the Ten Fittest Cities. This is out of 50 large cities in the survey. As Editor in Chief Jerry Kindela says, “The obesity numbers have jumped 61 percent over the past decade. It doesn’t help that 27 percent of us don’t engage in any physical activity at all, and another 28.2 percent aren’t regularly active.”

Cities can change it was found. The number one fattest city in 1999 was Philadelphia and they used that dubious distinction as a catalyst to create an innovative, cost-effective fitness initiative involving community members, government and business. In 2000, Philadelphia dropped to #3 and in 2001 the city ranks #4. Maybe Houston will learn a lesson from our Northern neighbor. Still with over half our population overweight, we are in jeopardy of losing the world war on health (everything today seem to be a war instead of a challenge). In Waco, Cici’s Pizza or other establishments are not to blame for overweight people. That is like blaming guns for murder. Cici’s Pizza has a wonderful salad bar also, all you can eat. My reflections in Chicago on the mass of humanity that waddled by as I sat waiting to fly to Texas are mirrored in the Surgeon General’s 2001 Call to Action to Prevent and Decrease Overweight and Obesity. Fat costs a ton. An estimated 300,000 Americans die of obesity-related causes each year, and the cost of obesity and inactivity account for nearly ten percent of all health care expenses. Direct medical costs of obesity alone top $100 billion annually, and from all indications we are not getting any thinner as a nation. Take your own count next time you are eating out. I came to the realization that I was Twiddledumb late in life but now obesity starts very young. Children spend more time sitting in front of the television set (eating junk food) than in school or outside at play.

The image of 1.6 billion Chinese who just don’t give a damn if America is fat still haunts my reflections. From what I saw in Beijing, China is beginning to open its doors. A department store downtown had books from all over the world on any subject. The Chinese government has learned that Communism can be paid for by free enterprise. Business and facilities and people are lean and hungry and prepared for the 2008 Olympics already. I saw it while I was there. Their new national hero is a lean seven foot five inch Houston center who will probably start in the NBA’s All Star game. The business of basketball knows that China is a new rich market (but opening new markets cut both ways).

In a changing world, America of 2006, especially Texas, cannot afford to be Twiddledumb and Twiddledumber. I fell through the rabbit hole and the looking glass between Beijing and Chicago. Maybe it is time to count our preparation for this new world, thinking thin, after September 11, 2001.

Finally in late 2004, I lost the last of the 80 pounds that I set out to accomplish. Sometimes I gain back a little and I work to take that off before the weight game gets too far ahead of me but I keep my daily journal of calories and exercise so I am still on this journey of good health. It is hard to be obese and sick while you search for peace.

Each time I return from a journey (whether it is around where I live or from a distant land), I watch television for information and rest, trying to see through the new eyes of the traveler returned, trying to determine what to see out there where the mists are gathering.

The Real Battle for Minds and Hearts

On the same day that David Tidmarsh, 14, of South Bend, Indiana, won Scripp’s National Spelling Bee over a 13 year old name Akshay Boddiga, there was another national champion, Gregory Cautheir of Illinois, crowned in the MathCounts 2004 competition. It is fascinating for me to watch these young people, ages 10 to 15 (who have already scored 1500 on their SAT tests). It was like a beauty contest of minds.

The two boys who won those competitions has to win over boys who were first generation Americans, one of Indian and one of Chinese parents (who smiled knowingly in the audience with a glint of subdued pride). When David won by spelling the two impossible words in a row (impossible for me, not him), tears filled his eyes and his voice was a struggling hush. What ran through my mind on watching these competitions, spelling and math, was how all these young people were winners. It was the same earlier in the week when I watched the geography competition with wonder in my throat and mind.

True to form, most of the geography, math and spelling competitors were of Oriental or Middle Eastern origins. Akshay was the younger brother of the 2002 national spelling bee champion. A large percentage of America’s next top science and math geniuses were descendents of new immigrants. That got me to thinking, what has India and China been doing in these recent times?

A news report the other day gave me a glimpse into an answer. In 2003, in one week, there were 900 job openings in India in their computer companies. They had one million qualified applicants. Out of their population, approximately 200,000 million have science and math training. No wonder that Silicon Valley in California is now filled with Indian computer engineers (who at some time in the future will return home to train the next generation of skilled workers). I am sure that one look at China right now sends shivers of excitement down Bill Gates back (with a smile to his face as he contemplates outsourcing there or hiring their best). With a projected population of 1.3 billion people by the end of 2004 (and we know that at least 10% of any population is the brightest and the best), therefore China has 130,000 million young people like the ones that I watched on the national geography and spelling bees or excelling as mathletes. As America flights terrorism with its young men and women, its economy, and its ideas, China and India are using most of its resources to take over the world’s economy. The competition that we should recognize (before we wake up and find that it is already too late to compete) is the one for ideas and skills. Right now, America has an economic growth rate of a little over 4%. China has 9.5% and growing. We are still ahead of China and India in our standard of living but with a two to one growth rate, both those emerging countries with level the economic playing field some day. Another discouraging note in that direction is one in six American young people have no job and are not in school.

In the 19^th and early 20^th century, the world believed that the big army (the survival of the fittest) was the way to win the outcome of any competition (bigger and more was better). Now, in the 21^st century, we know that ideas with the right people to augment them change the world. Now is a time to battle for the minds of people. And America may be behind in that competition! America’s leaders have given all our resources to trying to defeat the bad guys while the real competition for the future is probably with the good guys.

Barbara Jordan was right, I believe, when she spoke about what was needed for the future: “It is not Black Power or Green Power; it is Brain Power.”

One question that many people, many cultures, ask is: “What is peace?” What I ask after my journey on the lake into the mountains is: “How does an Oriental hand scroll reveal the process for exploring the unknown? How is peace (a state of being) understood through history (a chronicle of events, dates, people and actions)?”

Story: When I was attending the University of Colorado, I loved to go to the library to study. Above the main door were these words: “Enter here the timeless spirit of mankind in search of knowledge.” These words were etched into the stones above that grand and majestic entrance. For one whole summer when I came to that entrance, I read again this message and, below taped to the door, a hand-written sign stating, “Under repairs. Please use side door”

Rule Thirteen: When they close up one door, open another. You will get to the same place or not. Either way, you will learn something.

In 2005, I had a retrospective exhibition of works of art from the last five years at my 50^th Reunion at Dartmouth College. I exhibit so that I can see my work with the eyes of those other visitors who come to the gallery to discover my work and ideas.

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So where do we go next on this project, a Journey of Peace? Where can it possibly lead? The answer is not MINE, but YOURS!

 

Send in your essays, your stories of a peace journey, your accounts of those who have found peace, and YOUR IDEAS. Any journey into the unknown accepts that all things cannot be known without sharing a new journey. The internet is but one tool for extending our voice, our shared images, and our quest for peace. It is “the undiscovered country” so let us unwind this scroll (a peace journey) and see where it takes us. If the internet has allowed Rotarians and others to expand Service Above Self to Service Without Borders then the next “undiscovered country” is in a centering of PEACE in SELF and OTHERS.  

 

Twenty-first century technology has flatten the earth so that we can talk to one another, sharing information and emotions and ideas, but the question remains (in bodies that have not changed much since prehistoric times and minds that love to hold onto the past): “How can we grow and evolve together? How do we find that illusive state called PEACE?”

 

Send your essays, ideas, comments, stories, proposals and or just say, “Hi, here I am. I exist. I live. I love. I wish to travel. I want to grow. Peace be with you.”

 

"O brain, be flowers that nightingales may come to sing!"
Nikos Kazantzakis

 

Part Eight...