If you are TEDx wise, thanks to the TEDx events at the Princeton Public Library, you may want to know about the TEDx that NJIT plans for Friday, March 23.

If you have always wanted to present as well as the really good TEDx speakers, I can refer you to Eileen Sinett’s seminars. The next Leadership Trump Card seminar, a half-day at Raritan Valley Community College, is Tuesday, March 6. The author of Speaking That Connects, Sinett can help the most shy person feel confident.

The troubling issue of trafficking in children’s innocence will be the topic for Dr. Francesca Nuzzolese on Sunday, February 19, at 4 p.m. at Princeton United Methodist Church, located at Nassau and Vandeventer in Princeton. Don Brash, PUMC’s resident theologian will moderate the discussion of “Children at Risk: trafficking and enslavement of children today.” 

A professor at Palmer Seminary, the seminary of Eastern University, Dr. Nuzzolese has been a missionary and pastoral counselor in the United States, Europe, and Australia, and she has just returned from studying child enslavement in south Asia.

“It is so easy to just look away from such a distressing subject, but in this new monthly series, we will try to learn more about and to come to grips with some of these troubling issues,” says Brash. Other topics in the Troubling Issues series are “Holocausts in Our Time” on March 18, and on May 6, a documentary about gay teenagers growing up in the church.

“It’s hard to say what the biggest crisis was: the fire, being held at gunpoint, or the chocolate chip cookies. Hint: It wasn’t the cookies but you’ll find out later why it got shortlisted. In her nearly three decades in the hotel business, 24 of them at the Nassau Inn, Lori Rabon, general manager, has dealt with crises every day, but it is such an integral part of her job, it takes her quite a long time to think of the biggest.”

http://princetoninfo.com/index.php?option=com_us1more&Itemid;=6&key;=02-08-2012RabonCover

As a mom, grandma, and Methodist Sunday School teacher, I know the value of  “expected suspense.”  Lift the flap books are a sure thing for toddlers, even for the 20^th time, as are picture books where you already know what will be on the next page.

The triptych (one panel of wood, flanked by two more panels that can close inward) offered another kind of suspense. As one of the chapters in Zchomeldise’s book explains, the ritual opening of these panels could be a moment of high drama. A lift-the-flap moment to the Nth power.


Now I’m getting to the good part, the part that makes a difference to you. You can see some triptychs on display at the Princeton University Art Museum, part of the medieval alabaster exhibit from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Entitled Objects of Devotion, the exhibit is on view through February 12. It’s free. Get there if you possibly can. 


If your children go to Sunday School, bring them along. Don’t drag them through the whole exhibit, as that will be boring, and some of it (like the disemboweling of St. Edmund) is gory. But these beautiful, small alabaster altar pieces, crafted in England for the homes of the wealthy, are SS lessons in themselves. My top five for children who know something about the life of Christ:

#3  The visit of the Magi (pictured above left). Theologically, the visit of the wise men from the East shows that Christ came to the gentiles as well as the Jews. Visually enjoyable for children, it shows the ox and the ass eating out of the trough in the foreground (aren’t they cute?). Meanwhile Joseph is dozing off, presumably dreaming that he’d better flee to Egypt. The curator’s notes explain all this and it will surely make a vivid impression on children — as it did on the medieval worshipers. 


# 20  The Annunciation, which shows the four angels named in Psalm 85: 10 and 11. In the King James version (conveniently available as part of the exhibit) this psalm declares that “Mercy and truth are met together, righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven.” All that happens in this altar piece.


I would also direct them to #19, St.John the Baptist, from Matthew 3:1-4, which we just finished studying at PUMC.  John is surrounded by four-legged animals and birds, quite lovely in the soft marble. It looks sort of like candle wax and the exhibit has a “please touch” panel, where you can compare the soft alabaster with the harder marble and granite.


The children would also recognize #52  Christ’s entry into Jerusalem and


#31 the Ascension  with everyone looking up in awe, and all you see are Christ’s feet suspended in air. So literal.

Plus of course the triptychs, as the early 15th century one on the right. The painted, gilded, wooden triptychs cannot be manipulated by viewers of the exhibit, of course, but you can imagine the dramatic opening when, during the service, the secrets of the Trinity would be revealed. 


 In the 21st century we are so far removed, so superior, so much more artistically and theologically sophisticated than they were in the Middle Ages — yet their art can speak to us, and especially to our children. 


Picture credits:

“Nonprofit board positions provide extraordinary opportunities for women to develop as leaders and to
advance themselves personally and professionally while contributing in meaningful ways to making the
world a better place,” says consultant Alice Korngold.

Korngold is the author of  Leveraging Good Will: Strengthening Nonprofits by Engaging Businesses, and she blogs for Fast Company and the Huffington Post. She will moderate a panel for ACG New Jersey’s Women of Leadership on Thursday, February 9, at 6 p.m. at the Hamilton Park Hotel, Florham Park. Admission ranges from free (for first-timers) to $115. To register visit http://www.acg.org/nj.

Why can it be valuable to serve on a nonprofit board?

“During the last decade, the nonprofit and corporate universes are coming together and collaborating.

Companies are about profits but have added an emphasis on purpose, value or meaning. Corporations
are also beginning to recognize the leadership development opportunities of encouraging and
supporting their executives who seek to serve on nonprofit boards. Nonprofits are about mission
and have added an emphasis on business strategies. As a result, people who bring business skills and
experiences are welcome additions to nonprofit boards. Commit to a board that strikes your passion and
curiosity… where you care about an organization’s mission. Go in with your eyes wide open about the
challenges facing the particular organization. Boards are accepting greater responsibility for their roles
and responsibilities than in the past.”

“Furthermore being on a nonprofit board increases your visibility for corporate boards of directors.
Many women and men start their board careers on a nonprofit board as a building block for other board
assignments.”

“Bring your business acumen to the nonprofit world, cultivate your leadership development skills and
apply those skills and experiences back into your current assignment. Chances are when your skills and
experience sharpen, your career advances. “

“To do this you will want to know what skills and competencies are transferable and marketable both to
businesses and board of directors.”

But, says Korngold, keep in mind that, for those who serve on a nonprofit board, “having fun is important too.”

by Mary Clare Garber, Princeton Legal Search Group, LLC

Needless to say: any of these events offer networking bonanzas. 

After 20 years at the New York Times, investigative business reporter Diana Henriques took an offered buyout from the paper, late in December.
Henriques, who wrote the much lauded best seller about the Madoff scandal, The Wizard of Lies, will speak at the Princeton Regional Chamber lunch on Thursday, January 5.

The Henriques buyout was first reported on Talking Biz News on December 16. The same source noted that, early in her career, Henriques had reported for the Times of Trenton. She h”as chosen to remain on staff as contributing writer.

Henriques responded to Talking Biz News with this explanation:“I have accepted the buyout, but was immediately offered and accepted a contract to work as a contributing writer in the business news section, beginning next week. I will keep a desk in the NYT building and will retain my current email address, phone number and mailing address. I’m actually filing a story the week after Christmas and another in January. So from a practical standpoint, this really is no big deal, even within the business journalism world — to the outside world, it is less than a non-event.”

She has written three other books Fidelity’s World: The Secret Life and Public Power of the Mutual Fund Giant (1995) and The White Sharks of Wall Street: Thomas Mellon Evans and The Original Corporate Raiders (2000) and has various other contracts dealing with the Madoff book.

Maybe this won’t be her last trip to our college town  — Henriques has been quoted as saying she is considering some “teaching opportunities.”

The worst crime of slavery, even worse than physical abuse, is the erosion of dignity. So said Princeton University professor Kwame Apiah in his remarks after the Princeton Public Library showing of the film “Prince Among Slaves” last month. Not in Our Town Princeton will offer an opportunity to discuss the film, and Apiah’s remarks, as part of the Continuing Conversations series on Monday, January 2, at 7:30 p.m. at the Princeton Public Library.

Wilma Solomon and Marietta Taylor will lead the discussion. Those who did not see the film are welcome to attend and might also want to check out the website of the film.
“What you are essentially doing is you are removing the identity of an individual and you are giving him a very different identity-one that you as a slave owner choose and this communicates very effectively that the person is now a slave…the person is now chattel..the person is now someone who is owned.”

A question to think about: If “dignity” is defined as the state of quality of being worthy of honor or respect, to what degree do you think that African Americans and  people of color today are treated in such a way as to diminish their identity and dignity?
All are welcome to NIOT’s Continuing Conversation on Monday, January 2.

Since my husband and I were juniors in high school we have always been together on New Year’s Eve. It’s not exactly a superstition (some believe that whatever you do on December 31st, you’ll keep doing throughout the next year), but it is certainly a tradition. The year I had a babysitting job, he found out where, and he showed up at midnight, to keep the tradition going.
So since December 1955, when we danced in the Engroff basement to Teresa Brewer’s  hit “Till I Waltz Again With You,”  New Year’s has always been important to us.
Though we like parties, we also like to just sit together, review the year, and watch the Times Square ball drop. Better yet, when we were Moravians, some 40 years ago, the  it Watch Night,and everyone picked a verse from the offering plate to be their Watch Word for the New Year.

We’re Methodists now, at the church on the corner of Nassau and Vandeventer (Princeton United Methodist) and I just learned to my delight that our church is going to have its own Watch Night service, as part of its Saturday Evening Gathering, As below:
“On New Year’s Eve we will have a special Watch Night Service followed by a New Year’s Eve Celebration.  In the tradition of John Wesley’s Watch Night services, we will review the year that was, take stock in where we are now and commit ourselves to the year ahead,’ says one of the pastors, Trey Gillette. Immediately following the service, there will be a celebration of food, fellowship and fun. Those attending are encouraged to bring a dish or treat to share.  There will also be music, games and even karaoke for the brave and bold. The Service begins at 5 p.m. and festivities will conclude by 8 p.m.

 “If you’ve never had the chance to come to the Saturday gathering, this will be a great opportunity to see what it is all about,” says Gillette. All are welcome!

Teresa Brewer is long forgotten on the hit parade. Deservedly so in my opinion. Any one who has the gall to sing about waltzing to a tune in 4/4 time deserves to be forgotten. But I still remember her on New Year’s Eve and am thankful to still be here.