A Family Tradition

It has been recommended , ever since the Berkeley East Bay Hills firestorm of 1991 came close to our home there, that we go from room to room photographing everything in the house, including opening the drawers and taking pictures of the contents.  We knew a lot of people who lost their homes in that fire and as if it weren't bad enough to lose everything in a fire, they had to itemize everything in the house that had gone up in flames for their insurance claims. I started doing that in my kitchen with pencil and paper and  it was a nightmare. I had pages and pages of items for the kitchen alone....

We have now evacuated from this house three or four times and the insurance companies (at least ours) have become a little more reasonable about reimbursement, so I still haven't taken those pictures and I probably won't, but there are a few things that I really prize and decided to take pictures of them, not for insurance purposes, but just to have a record of them if the worst happens....

My grandmother graduated from the University of California in 1899, as did three of her sisters. The fourth sister went to Stanford. A friendly rivalry always existed between the Cal and Stanford branches of the family. I’ve posted by grandmother’s diploma which I think I may have published before, but I value it not only as a record of what I think was a remarkable accomplishment back then, but also as a remarkable document which demonstrates how much things have changed. Her name is hand written on real sheepskin in a script which is both elegant and impressive, and signed by the entire faculty...all seven of them. 

My father graduated from the University of California in around 1936 , and I followed in the family footsteps. I received a letter from Clark Kerr, then the president of the university, congratulating me on being the fourth generation to graduate from the University of California, but I honestly can't imagine who that fourth generation person could have been who would have attended attended UC before my grandmother. The university was founded in 1893.

I'm also fascinated by the motto on the old diploma. Indiversi versati. In unum versi.  I couldn't find a translation, but versi  means 'to turn' in Latin so I'm guessing it is something along the lines of diverse people occupied with diverse things all turning to one thing...education. It doesn't surprise me that the motto has now been changed to Fiat lux  although it doesn't even appear that way on my diploma (extras) but as 'Let there be light'. The lofty ideals of 1899 boiled down to a rather tepid motto that has to be rendered even less specific in translation. I'm sure the explanation for this is that Latin is no longer considered important and nobody can understand it anymore anyway, and not the fact that diversity has become controversial....

We had a delightful zoom meeting with Lady Findhorn this morning laced with laughter, especially when she whistled to Spike and he went running all over the place looking for the whistler. He eventually looked at my computer which I had put on the floor, and must have seen her because he rushed off to get a toy, his traditional greeting....zoom is still good for some thing, but we still miss you, M'lady....