Tag Archives: Simon Schama

Our Hollandse Maagds (Dutch Maids)

March 25, 2015 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

Each year our little town of Pella, Iowa celebrates its Dutch heritage with the annual Tulip Time festival. At the core of this traditional celebration is the election of our Tulip Queen and her court (Our daughter, Madison, was a finalist in the contest back in her day). Our dear friend, Megan, is on the court this year, and so Wendy and I headed out last night to a packed community center auditorium to watch the Queen and her court perform the program that they will take on the road to promote our town, our festival, our heritage, (and our local businesses!).

I’m not sure that most residents in our town appreciate the way this annual tradition taps into some of the deepest sentiments of Dutch heritage. As the young republic of the Netherlands fought its revolt against Spain, one of the most powerful national patriotic metaphors emerged out of the deep sentiment the Dutch held for hearth and home: the Hollandse Maagd (Dutch Maid). Young, beautiful, and verdant, the Dutch Maid appeared with the rampant lion amidst her small fortress symbolizing the small republics small fortress state set amidst the sea and her enemies.

Later, the Dutch Maid’s fortress became a lush garden of prosperity over which she was enthroned.

Writes Simon Schama in The Embarrassment of Riches:

“The enclosure had by now become the verdant and well-stocked garden – the tuin – that signified the divinely blessed prosperity of the Netherlands and within the Dutch Maid, both comely and vulnerable, was now enthroned.”

The Dutch Maid even found her place on Dutch currency.

I enjoyed watching last night as our local Hollandse Maagds paraded out in traditional Gronigen costume, complete with Dutch hat. The Tulip Queen and her court will metaphorically preside over our prosperous tulip gardens, lead our parades, honor our traditions, and promote our local commerce. All five of them truly are amazing, beautiful, intelligent, and talented young ladies. And, I realized last night, whether they know it or not these young ladies embody a metaphor that is more deeply entrenched in our heritage and speaks more deeply to our community psyche than most of us know or can possibly imagine.

Wayfarer's Journal

Tom’s 30 Day Blogging Challenge Day 2

October 28, 2011 Tom Vander Well 5 Comments

Mr. Shimoni's table — Image by Dennis Wong via Flickr

If you could have an elegant dinner along with anyone presently alive, whether you know them or not, who would you want it to be?

Of course, Wendy is on the top of my list for elegant dinners along with my close circle of family and friends, but what interests me about this question is the thought of those I don’t know with whom I would like to dine. The question also says “anyone” so I’m going to take liberty to name a few people with whom I would love to share an elegant dinner:

Queen Elizabeth – I think she’d be a fascinating conversation, and she’s the Queen
Pope Benedict – Would love the conversations of faith and life, seems a fascinating man
Sir Anthony Hopkins – great actor, would love the stories he could tell
Dame Judi Dench – ditto
Bono – love his rock star/world citizen/believer mystique
Leonardo diCaprio – great actor and I imagine an interesting person with heart
Tom Hanks – ditto
Simon Schama – Love his take on art and history, would love to pick his brain
Craig Ferguson – Would like to meet the man behind the curtain of jokes
Bill Hybels – Would love to ask him about his journey
Paul Johnson – My favorite historian, breadth of conversation would be amazing

Okay, so it’s a long list. But, there are a lot of people I would love to know and to learn from and to share a long, elegant dinner conversation.

How about you? Who is on your list? Feel free to share it in a comment to this post!

Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Psalm 127

July 22, 2009 Tom Vander Well 1 Comment

Don't you know he enjoys giving rest to those he loves? Psalm 127:2b (MSG)

I have been reading a weighty book that my wife gave me for my birthday. The Embarrassment of Riches by Simon Schama is a treatise on the Dutch culture. It investigates of how the little nation rose from medeival obscurity into the greatest economic power in the world in only two generations. Schama summarizes his own endeavor by saying that he wanted to find out what made the Dutch so, well, Dutch.

Being born to a Dutch father, I have been raised in what is known as the Dutch work ethic. The Dutch work hard. As I've been reading, our forefathers survived by raising their homeland out of the sea. By the sweat of their brow and the pumping of their windmills they tamed the ocean and made it do their bidding. Then they restlessly scoured the earth on their merchant ships and eventually drove the world's economy. My Dutch forebears brought their Dutch work ethic to America and scraped new life from the wild, untamed American prairie. The Dutch mantra could very well have come from Solomon: "Go to the ant, you sluggard, consider its' ways and be wise." If it's one thing I've been raised to appreciate, it's the value of hard work.

Raised in that obsessive work ethic, rest is easily seen as a vice – not a virtue on equal terms with work. It's easy to look at rest with secret suspicion and scorn. God is, however, adamant about the importance and value of rest. Isn't it interesting that working hard did not make the list of the ten commandments, but resting did?