The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults.
— Alexis de Tocqueville
Note: There is a LOT going on with the Rotary these next few weeks, especially over the weekends. Please review the newsletter in detail when you get a chance.
Liz Sutton leads outreach and community engagement at the UWM School of Freshwater Sciences, building connections between researchers and Great Lakes communities. She has established the School’s outreach department and plays a key role in regional collaborations such as the Freshwater Collaborative of Wisconsin Outreach Network and Milwaukee’s One Water, Our Water initiative. In 2018, Liz served as a Science Communications Fellow with the Ocean Exploration Trust aboard the E/V Nautilus, sharing live research with public audiences around the world.
A former educator and museum professional, she continues to focus on translating science into meaningful, accessible experiences. Liz has a master’s in science communication fromStony Brook University.
It's been 6 months again! Join Sandy and his veritable stellar cleanup crew this Saturday to beautify our roadside! Should take only an hour or two, hope to see you there!
The Thiensville-Mequon Lions Club came through big time for our Rotary Playground Project, handing us a check for $50,000! This will go toward the Roller Table Project which will be named in honor of the Lions Club. It is always gratifying to see all of our local service clubs come together in partnership and service to improve our community as a whole. A heartfelt thank you to our Lions Club brothers and sisters!
Thanks to all who participated in our Rotary Connection Game this week! It was a great way to get to know our fellow members better. The results were as follows:
1st place: Peter G (the quickest)
2nd: Jenne H
3rd: Shelley W
4th: Ellen M
5th: Maureen O
Angelica will go over the answers on Tuesday and will be bringing a sweet treat for everyone since almost half the group filled out their entire card!!
Our walk day is almost here! Get pumped, stretch out, wear red, and show up with the energy we need to make the last push to eradicate polio on the planet! Let's do this!
Join us on Tuesday, October 27th, at Port Washington State Bank in Thiensville for Rotary on The Road! This is a Joint Meeting with all of the North Shore based clubs. This is a wonderful opportunity to meet fellow Rotarians around the region. It is always great to be a part of a service community that extends throughout Metro Milwaukee and Ozaukee County.
Please RSVP by October 20th if you can attend, so that we can plan for numbers.
It's Happening! All of our hard work, volunteering and fundraising is paying off. So proud of both of our local Rotary Clubs, the communities of Thiensville and Mequon, and everyone who put in the hours and efforts to bring this project to fruition. Congratulations everyone, hope to see you all there.
If you’ve been to a traditional (or somewhat traditional) Christian wedding recently, you may have noticed that the bride generally stands on the left and the groom on the right during the ceremony. If somewhere between the vows and the bouquet toss you found yourself wondering about the “why” behind that arrangement, you’re not alone. So how did this tradition emerge?
A quick scan of the internet will show you that most explanations for this custom center on the idea of “marriage by capture.” The idea is that in centuries past, men would abduct women to be their brides, either in secret or by slaying the woman’s family. This is said to affect the standing positions during the matrimonial ceremony because grooms needed to keep their sword hand — their dominant hand — free in case anyone came to try to take the bride back. Because most men are right-handed, standing on the right meant that the left hand could be free for wedding duties while the right hand would be ready to pull out a sword if there was trouble.
As swashbuckling and dramatic as that may sound, there’s little evidence to support this theory, and also little evidence that marriage by capture was ever a common occurrence in Europe. Marriage by capture probably did happen on occasion — it’s mentioned in Greek mythology, the Bible, and ancient Hindu legal texts. But if it seems like an unworkable way to conduct society at large, that’s because it is.
The idea of marriage by capture was notably championed by Scottish lawyer and ethnologist John Ferguson McLennan in his 1865 book Primitive Marriage. However, more recent historians and anthropologists have noted that McLennan made no distinction between the ritualized mock battles that take place in a number of cultures before marriage and actual abduction.
Other explanations highlight the sword hand idea but don’t directly tie it to the capture theory. Instead, the groom having his sword hand free was meant to be a general boon to the bride’s protection, in case of impending duels from jilted lovers and the like. But this too lacks evidence. In fact, the sword hand theory seems to have emerged as part of a 19th-century fascination for explaining customs (wedding and otherwise) with reference to a rough, barbaric past, even when actual evidence is thin.
So why does the bride usually stand on the left in Christian weddings? Like many traditions, it probably arose for a bunch of different reasons, rather than one clear one. Wedding customs vary a lot by religion and region, and the standing arrangement isn’t consistent.
In some regions and eras the bride stood on the right instead. (That’s the case in today’s Jewish weddings.) The practice of standing on the left likely arose in Christian Europe thanks to some combination of liturgical symbolism (the right side is associated with honor and authority in Christian tradition) and the practicalities of ritual (the groom sometimes needed to use his right hand to receive the bride from her father or place the ring).
By the 19th century, Western wedding positioning — and many other customs — had become standardized in etiquette manuals. By that time, the original reasons for the custom were unclear.
Today, however, etiquette experts say the people getting married should feel free to stand on whichever side they like. Factors to consider include whether the sun might get in your eyes, showing off your good side, and facing your side of the family (if seating arrangements are split down the aisle). Thankfully, you probably won’t have to worry about which hand can more easily grab your sword.
