Elizabeth Catherine Nagel 1940-2021

Nagel, Elizabeth Catherine (Betsy Jean Larson) passed away at age 80 on June 3, 2021, in Roseville, Minnesota after several years of declining health. She was born on October 11, 1940, in Edgerton, Minnesota to Marjorie Estella Conrad and Clarence Theodore "Ted" Larson. She grew up in Breckenridge, Minnesota where she met the love of her life, Clemens John Nagel Jr., and they married in 1962. 

Elizabeth earned BS in biochemistry from North Dakota State University. In 1975, she completed her PhD in psychology from the University of Minnesota. She worked as a psychologist in private practice and was adjunct faculty at United Theological Seminary in the Twin Cities. She earned a MA in Theology from the University of St. Catherine in 2003. In her later decades, Elizabeth followed her heart to work as a fine arts photographer, writer, and poet, often collaborating with Clem.

Elizabeth and Clem traveled the globe together seeking adventure, hiking, and birdwatching. They were the ultimate DIY couple, tackling building and remodeling projects with gusto and humor. They created beautiful gardens together and she sewed exquisite quilts. Elizabeth loved classical music, public television, dark chocolate, and her cats. 

Elizabeth is dearly missed by her family and friends. Clem was always by her side, bringing her comfort and sharing the joy of a life well-lived. She was preceded in death by her parents and a brother, Curt. She is survived by her daughters Lizabeth Gockel (Andy Gockel) and Susan Nagel (Dave Schaller), her sister Lorraine Larson, and her five grandchildren: Ben Gockel, Sam Gockel, Grace Gockel, Henry Schaller, and George Schaller.

Memorials may be made to Banfill-Locke Center for the Arts or YMCA Camp Menogyn. 

Elizabeth said, “The process of writing for me is essential as my breath.” Her work can be found in her books and on her online blogs:

• Waiting for the Heat to Pass
• There is No Future in the Past: A Travel Memoir 
• Prairie Sky Prairie Ground 
• Listen For the Silence: a Walk through the Natural World 
• Conversations Images and Poetry
  

and online at  http://nagelandnagel.blogspot.com and http://essaysbyecnagel.blogspot.com

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A favorite quote by John Burroughs: 

Too Short
I still find each day too short for
all the thoughts I want to think,
all the walks I want to take, all
the books I want to read, and all
the friends I want to see. The
longer I live, the more my mind
dwells upon the beauty and the
wonder of the world.

Roaring With Outrage

Maybe this school- shooting will be different.

Just maybe the grip of the NRA will be successfully challenged.

Maybe the myth that if there just are enough guns, the violence will stop.

I doubt the writers of the Second Amendment never meant that the right to bear arms would come to this place.

Americans do not have a monopoly on violence. Watch the evening news regarding Syria. Where its ruler uses poison gas on his own people. But we have a rare moment  in history to set an alternate to killing others.

Today's students get it. They have found voice and are learning valuable leadership skills.  They are such fast learners that tha alt-right accuses them of being trained actors fostering some conspiracy.

I watch them in the news and roar with them. Go for the gold!

These young people are changed forever. Not just because of the fear and despair they have experienced. But for learning how to apply political pressure to create needed change. Just as those individuals, who marched for civil rights in this country divided unequally by race, were changed.

The lesson from those years past is that changing our culture is not remedied by one legal act. Just as racial equality has been a long hard road - responsible gun use and changing the current ready availability of assault weapons will take a long time. But there are some crucial steps that  need to be taken now.

And those have found their voice are critical.

I salute their courage and conviction.

When No Words Come . . .

How can I write about the unspeakable when no words come?

     How can I offer my grief to those in Florida, whose loss is so immense?

          How can I add my voice to those who seek solutions?

******

Another shooting of innocent people numbs our minds and our hearts. So many people in this country  believe any control of guns with regulations curbs their right to bear arms.

The underlying causes of gun violence are complex and require complex solutions. None of these solutions gives the right to shoot other people.

*******

Meanwhile, my loss of words haunts my soul. Me, who is used to finding words and writing to work through my thoughts and feelings - and hopefully contribute in some way to needed conversation in my beloved country.

Closed: The Statue of Liberty

When I was a child, the Statue of Liberty held my attention. I memorized its words:

                                                      Give me your tired, your poor,
                                         Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
                                            The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.  
                                        Send these, the homeless, tempest-tosted, to me,
                                                I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

I never in my wildest imagination thought that I would ever set my eyes on her. Then I lived in New Jersey for a year as a young adult. And there she was!

She was important to me because my Danish grandfather came to this country via Ellis Island. He would have seen her there, welcoming him. In his passage into this country, he shortened his Danish last name. No need for papers to validate who he was. He prospered here, once owning a large tract of land in the northern midwest. 

There he met the woman who became his wife. She too was a Danish immigrant, coming here when she was 14 with her parents. She was so proud to become an American that she changed her name from Bodil to Betsy, after the early creator of the American flag. Their children were not allowed to learn Danish because "we are Americans now."

Other ancestors of mine immigrated from Northern Ireland and Germany.

My husband's grandparents were German immigrants. They came here to escape religious persecution as members of a Lutheran sect.

For me, Lady Liberty is the symbol of my country's welcome. Without that welcome I would not have been the child of immigrants and an American.

During the recent government shut-down, The Statute of Liberty was literally closed. Closed because of Congressional and presidential differences over the Dreamers. Technically, these young adults are illegal immigrants, brought here as children in a time when immigration is far more complicated than it was in my grandparents' time.  But what child comes here by choice and follows complicated rules regarding citizenship? These Dreamers were educated here, many going on to college. Many married American women and men - and had children who automatically were American citizens.

But the current debate about immigration is far broader than these families. Overt and covert views about race and religion lean toward whiteness and Christian ancestry. Lady Liberty never made these criteria for immigration to this country. 

I feel fortunate to now live in a diverse metropolitan city. I have Muslim neighbors. Across the street lives an Ethiopian family. I encounter people of African descent - both the children of slaves brought here years ago and new immigrants from Africa, who have come out of the lack of safety in their country of origin. We have a large population of Hmong, who are contributing to the literary community here and who hold public office. The list could go on and on.

So now we would deny immigration from many countries. To even encourage Norwegians to immigrate here! How ludicrous to think Norwegians would be attracted to this county to hold jobs Latinos held as their entry to job advancement requiring technical skills and college educations!  

Millions of men, women, and children have fled their countries because of war. Ethnic cleansing continues. The days of my childhood are over when you sold what little you owned for ship passage and could land here with nothing in your pocket - and make a better life for yourself. But the desire for a better life still lives in the hearts of many people. It is this country - and others - who need to revise immigration laws put in place decades ago that are now discriminatory. There are no words on the Statue of Liberty that say: My ancestors came here and let's now slam the door in other's faces.

Give me your tired, your poor . . .

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

So Much To Be Done

Earlier this week we honored Martin Luther King. Though not a perfect man, he was a great man. Not only did he teach us so much, he acted on his convictions. How much more would he have done if his life had not been cut short by an assassin's bullet!

The same could be said about the other two assassinations that marked the twentieth century in this country. I stood on the curb of Wisconsin Avenue in Washington DC, watching the cortège carrying the body of JFK as it sped toward the Naval Hospital. How could this event be happening? What would our country be like today if JFK had not died?  Then months later after MLK's death, JFK's brother Bobby suffered the same fate.

These three deaths had a common denominator - fear and hatred. Before their time and after their deaths ,countless other men and women have died for the same root cause. What is it that causes some people to fear and hate others who are different from them?

In the current climate in our country (and elsewhere), the double fears of race and religion run rampant. Anti-semetic hatred has emerged from the ashes of Holocaust death camps. Added to such hatred, is anti-Muslim hatred. And the color of one's skin matters greatly for some people.

I grew up in a white northern European, Midwestern small town. Not even Italian or Greek immigrants lived there. There were the Catholics - and an assortment of Protestants from Lutheran to Pentecostal. But no one burned homes or taunted others. The Ku Klux Klan was some vague bunch of hooded white guys in the South. Then I moved to Washington DC. An awakening for me in this diverse international city.

Where does fear and hatred live in the hearts and minds of some people? One can generate theories from history. But racial and religious hatred is not a twentieth century phenomena. Go back to the earliest records of humanity. Does that give us an excuse to shrug our shoulders and say it is just part of being human?

On August 29, 1963, Martin Luther King delivered a powerful address at the March on Washington. It was not the speech he intended to give. But Mahalia Jackson urged him to tell people about his dream. I have a dream he began. His words still echo. A dream when humanity moves beyond fear and hatred.

There is still much work to be done.

Back to Normal?

The holidays are over. As are the first two weeks of the New Year. Children are back in school. Eight to five workers are back on the job. After a somewhat hectic ending to the old year filled with parties and times with families, our lives have returned to their normal routines.

Wait a minute!  Northeastern United States is still paralyzed with record snowfall and extreme cold. Residents are still digging out from the onslaught. Some schools closed because of dangerous cold. Employers have given employees the option to telecommute because getting to work is grueling or simply too difficult. Air travelers have been stranded in clogged airports because of cancelled flights. The sea even froze along part of Cape Hatteras.

               Normal it is not!

What is the meaning of all this weather drama? Noting weather and climate change are not the same, it is likely that climate change is part of the root cause. Our weather patterns are no longer predictors of what we might experience in the year(s) ahead.

As a gardener, I used to keep track in the spring of when various trees and plants would emerge from dormancy. Then I quit doing it, because so much was predictable to the day. We even had a duck with a limp that returned on the same date. And I remember being in seas above Norway, where the Atlantic Puffins returned to rocky island cliffs to build nests - at the same date and same hour every year.

Trying to wish it away or pretending this extreme weather is just an aberrant year. Nor will flying away to warm places. Spending vacation time sleeping in airport terminals is not the same as enjoying time in the sun in Aruba.

People used to believe that if they were careful about their use of products, we could turn this climate phenomenon around. Living responsibly was a code word to guide our choices. Bicycles were ridden to work. Thermostats were turned down during the winter and up in the summer (to minimize use of air conditioning). People grew their own vegetables and avoided eating strawberries in January that were flown in from Chile. Reusable cloth bags replaced paper sacks at the grocery store.

In the Genesis stories, women are cursed to endure painful childbirth. Men are given dominion over all the Earth. But this also was a curse, not a blessing. Humans are part of the fabric of the Earth, not given it to destroy. There are hopeful signs that care of ourselves means care of the Earth. At the same time, political economics is about exploitation. Unfortunately, short-term profits take precedence over global issues. 

Greed and power override our grandchildren's future.

Drilling in the Arctic Wildlife Reserve or along both coasts? What insanity! What more will it take than this current weather to resound in the minds of everyone!  How many more billions of dollars does it have to cost due to lost business when the weather turns vicious?

Now Where Is That Line Anyway?

Have you been hearing the question: Are we at some kind of tipping point? It is like a dam breaking under excessive pressure built up from behind. Woman after woman have been telling stories of sexual harassment.

However, there is some risk here. Not to the women who have come forward. The risk is over-smplifying a complex topic. 

I went for lunch yesterday at a family restaurant. While I waited for food, I listened to the words of the music blaring in the background. And I was glad I did not have to explain the meanings of sexual innuendoes in most of the pieces to a child.

When I was growing up, Elvis Presley had burst upon the scene - at the same time our small Midwestern town first "got TV."  My parents would not let me watch him on TV because of his hip movements. They would turn off the TV or hustle me out of eyesight. What did I know of hip movements?!

Now when I watch TV, I am glad my daughters are grown and I don't have to explain male-female behavior to  a ten year old. Or set limits on what clothing is acceptable or unacceptable to wear.

No, I am not a prude or uptight about sexual imagery. I am aware of changes in acceptability over the decades - and how sexuality is interwoven in our music, our TV shows, our attire, and our humor. Further, we all have our unique cultural history and set of values.

We are priveleged to live in multi-diverse communities. Even in my small town so long ago, what was acceptable sexual behavior varied considerably. The seventy-something married doctor who treated my mother in her last years was running around with a forty year old nurse. And it was common knowledge that he was doing so all around town. Not okay by my standards, but my mother choose to overlook his behavior rather than be disloyal and see another doctor.

So the question we all face is where is that line - since my line and your line likely differ. A hug or embrace from a friend - regardless of gender? A kiss? A hand on the knee? Or more overt sexual behavior in public or outside of marriage? 

When we move beyond our community of friends and others who generally share our values, it get more complicated.  Although not sexual behavior, I remember being instructed that when I was in Thailand, sitting as to show the bottom of one's shoes was terribly insulting. While today, Minnesotans grieve the death of one of its elder statesmen - who had a habit of sitting with his feet up on his desk when his shoes often had holes in the soles. 

I would wager that we don't even have agreed-upon definitions regarding inexcusable sexual behavior, except at the extreme ends. Yes, most of us would say that rape is not acceptable - whether the recipient is female or male. Ask a varied group of people to define sexual harassment and you will get a varied set of definitions (It is not gender-based work discrimination - though in today's discussions it has sometimes times accompanied  with sexual harassment. Or saying that a person will know it is sexual harassment when it happens, goes back to where is the line? Or when does feeling disrespect cross over into sexual harassment?

Sometimes the issue is misuse of power over another person. It may occur when the person with power does not realize when the line has been crossed into harassment. Sometimes is is coupled with physical power - men generally being stronger or bigger than women. I once taught a class regarding group process in which a very handsome, tall man's goal was to learn how to not be the assumed leader the minute he walked into the room. Whereas a petite woman in the class wanted to learn how to be heard. At other times, power over another can be deliberately and intentionally misused. 

Yes, there are predatory individuals. The kind of person many women avoid being alone with. However, none of us can quickly and always identify such a person - because these persons are usually very skilled at courting someone into unacceptable behavior. 

Yes, there often are no consequences for unacceptable behavior. And women often have not been heard or taken seriously. But the reverse is equally no solution - when women are believed 100% without any evidence that unjustifiable behavior has occurred.  Nor is self-labeling sexual harassment     as victimization a healing solution. Seeing oneself as a lifelong victim is not the path to genuine self-respect.

I have heard the phrase, are we at some kind of tipping point, a number of times in our recent discussions about sexual harassment. If that means we are at a new place in the cultural treatment of women, I am whole heartedly cheering - as are many of my male friends. If it means tipping the balance to favor women over men, I have two thumbs downward. I remember too well when my graduate school advisor said: I don't know why you are here anyway. You will never get a job when you  are finished, when I was in the process of shifting into another department that was a better fit for my interests.  Certainly gender discrimination, but not sexual harassment!

I have watched woman flirt with men. And I ask myself where is the line? And I watch men who are disrespectful of women. I certainly don't want to live in a culture where everyone erases any acknowledgment of our rich and essential sexuality. What we do need is honest discussion of our personal and work relationships that move us toward a new and healthier place.