sun Hailey
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Ketchum
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Sun Valley
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Bellevue
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Carey
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s t a n l e y • F a i r f i e l d • S h o sh o n e • P i c a b o Bali Szabo talks about the abundance of local bird varieties in the Valley this year
the weekly
Local Farmer’s Markets begin early next week Page 3
Dollars for Scholars benefit dinner this week Page 5
FREE Document Shredding Event on Thursday
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J u n e 8 , 2 0 1 1 • Vo l . 4 • N o . 2 3 • w w w.T h e W e e k l y S u n . c o m
ahead of the curve
Paul Murray is collaborating with student artists and goldsmiths in the Northwest in hopes they can produce enough of his “ancient elegance” to snag a contract with a jeweler like Tiffany’s.
of authenticity offering carbon dating results that date back to 2,500 B.C. in some cases. “They’re great pieces for bar mitzvahs, christenings, even weddings with their ‘something old, something new,’ ” he said. “Each is a one-of-a-kind design because each glass piece is completely unique. And some of the colors are unbelievable.” Originally, Murray dug for the shards himself in places of antiquity like Jericho, Tiberius, Masada and Jerusalem. Now he buys bags full of glass from the Israeli Antiquities Department, which carbon dates much of the broken glass and pottery that is retrieved from archaeological digs that ensue when builders run across archaeological finds while building a new building. The Antiquities Department is interested only in intact vessels, Murray said. Chris Roebuck carries Murray’s jewelry at Christopher & Co. jewelry store in Hailey. “He certainly has a different style of jewelry. The fact that it’s such old glass makes it a rarity,” he said. People want something authentic, “an authentic story,” Murray said. “And these have ambience, history, personality.” tws
LEFT: Colored pieces of glass that once comprised glass bottles or perfume bottles are very rare, said Murray. “Blue, scarlet and purple belonged to royalty. I look at this and I like to ask: Who did this belong to? A king? A high priest? An apostle? If this glass could speak, what would it say? ”
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aul Murray crouched in a storage locker in Israel hoping that he could survive dehydration and the Hamas. As he thought of his girlfriend Darlene Norton, tears welled up in his eyes. It was those tears that saved him, he said, giving him sustenance for his parched mouth. “My thoughts were racing so much. I thought I would never see Darlene or my friends again. I thought I’d never see my home again,” recalled Murray. Paul Murray, a Hailey goldsmith, had gone to Israel in May in search of pottery shards and broken glass to create into antiquities jewelry. He had made the trip before, bringing back pieces that may have comprised King David’s drinking vessels to remake into necklaces, pendants, bracelets, earrings and rings. But this time was different. He had gone to retrieve 600 pounds of broken glass shards that he had bought 10 years ago and stored in a locker near Ramallah. But now the locker was in Hamas territory. To retrieve his shards, Murray hired a Palestinian Arab friend with an Israeli ID card to drive him to the locker. It was a dangerous mission, compounded by the fact that Murray is Jewish. “The Hamas and PLO patrol the area with AK47s. If they had found out I was there—“ Murray broke off. I knew it was dangerous. But this is my job, my career. Without it, I’m finished.” Murray entered the storage locker, locking the door from inside while his Palestinian friend locked it from the outside. “If they get you, they will kill you,” the Palestinian reminded him.” Murray spent the next five days in the storage unit packing the glass pieces into 70 shoe boxes that he could
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’m proud. Damn, I’m proud! Returning to my 45th reunion at Wellesley College last week, I was inspired, motivated, nurtured, and challenged. Wellesley is a liberal arts women’s college located west of Boston that is ranked fourth (with Middlebury) among U.S. liberal arts colleges by U.S. News and World Report. I could go on, but I won’t because it gets pretty obnoxious. The point of all this is that I was damn lucky to be “selected” back in 1962. Then, my fine private college education cost $3,000/year, which my parents paid with a loan. (Tuition is now $50,000 but Wellesley insists that few students pay that sticker price.) The education was demanding and, having come from a progressive high school, I found it a bit straightlaced, although others thrived on the tight structure. More than the academics, though, it was the students who made the college special; reunion proved that again. The Wellesley ethic, “to serve, not to be served,” means that girls who enter silly, serious, snooty, gorgeous, athletic, talented, nerdy, lively, scared or self-assured, grow into accomplished women who, for the most part, are deeply involved in their communities and dedicated to justice, fairness and social equity. Forty-five years after graduation, my classmates have not stopped learning, growing, or trying to make a difference. They care more than ever about the underserved and pursue a feminine value system to create a better world. I see that my drive toward informed and forward-thinking economic development in our Valley was sculpted in my college years. It was hammered into me that wise, long-term decisions cannot be made in the absence of inclusive deliberation, careful research, and accurate, in-depth knowledge. I was taught the value of informed action for an intelligent democracy. Friday, alums heard a lecture on “solidarity economics” (similar to the community-based capitalism I discussed here last week). Saturday, we learned about the economics and politics of Social Security and Medicaid, particularly to help us evaluate policy for its long-term impact, rather than be snookered by the typical obfuscating statements of politicians. Wellesley lives its values. The diversity quotient is large, with Wellesley taking students from 65 countries on a need-blind basis. Eleven percent of these come from families who have never before sent someone to college. The campus boasts a sustainability institute, experimental programs to monitor climate change, and a farmer’s market that sells campusgrown produce. Students engage in formally scheduled debates on charged topics: Is affirmative action fair? Does single-gender education make sense? Is global warming real science? Muslim women comfortably wear the hijab on a campus whose students share experiences of Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, and Hinduism in interfaith services. In a society in which civil discourse has all but disappeared, it was reaffirming to be with 160 women (and
send back home. He paused only to eat hummus on pita bread and sip from four gallons of water he had taken with him. One night, four gunmen heard him and tried to look through the air perforations on the door to figure out what the noise was. They eventually seemed to conclude it was a rat, theorized Murray, who spent several tense moments holding his breath. But when he ran out of water, Murray came close to screaming for help. “It was dusty and hot and my mouth was so dry and I was so thirsty,” he recalled. All I could think was how I wasn’t going to live to see my girlfriend again. All of a sudden, I heard a voice inside of me saying, ‘Drink your tears.’ I wiped my tears off my face with my dirty fingers and put those on my tongue. They weren’t much but they were enough to see me through.” Eighteen hours later, Murray made the one cell phone call he’d been given, alerting his friend to retrieve him. And none too soon he was on his way back home, ready to make his jewelry again. Murray stumbled onto his jewelry by accident. He was in Israel studying Aramaic when a man pushing a wheelbarrow came around a corner too fast, and spilled the broken glass he was carting away from an archaeological dig. “I heard the glass hit the floor and saw him cussing in his best Hebrew. Then I bought all 29 pounds of it and shipped it home,” Murray recounted Murray turns those pottery shards, which once formed the rims of glassware and perfume bottles, into necklaces, bracelets and pendants. He wraps some in silver wire and embedded diamonds in others. He sells them for prices ranging from $35 to $1,600, with certificates
PHOTOS & STORY By KAREN BOSSICK
Va ll
By JIMA RICE
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • LOCAL JEWELER, PAUL MURRAY, TALKS ABOUT HIS RECENT TRIP TO ISRAEL
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Reunion Reflections
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