Grandpa in Chicago

I am working on an “Education and Society” blog posting about the birth of progressive education in Chicago in the 1890s.  It reminded me of a story my grandfather used to tell on himself.

            Grandpa was born in 1883.  His father, who had been born in Prussia, died in 1899.  Grandpa had hoped to attend a seminary in Erie, but, with his father’s death, that goal had been abandoned.  Charlie, the older of the two sons, stayed home with his mother, Lizzie.

            They lived on Strawbridge Avenue in Hickory Township (now Hermitage, Pa.), where his parents had owned about 8 acres of land.  One day, Lizzie sent Charlie to the grocery story to buy some pork chops.  On his way to the store, he encountered a friend who was driving a wagon filled with his personal belongings.

            “Where are you headed?” Charlie asked his friend.

            “Chicago,” the friend, forever nameless in Grandpa’s story, answered. “Want to come along?”

            “Sure,” said Grandpa, and hopped on board and went to Chicago.

            He stayed there for two years, working among the immigrants who dominated the workforce in those days.  When he returned, Grandpa recounted, he stopped at the grocery store and picked up those pork chops before heading home. 

            I think about that story when I read or write about John Dewey and Jane Addams in Chicago, about Hull House or the Pullman Strike.  I wonder if Grandpa ever found himself in Halstead Street—home to many German immigrants—or at Hull House itself.

           Grandpa never talked about Chicago itself, only about going and returning. I suspect Chicago was a brief period of excitement in a life that was otherwise tormented by alcoholism and disappointment.  It is part of my memory of him (he died in 1960) and one that has been renewed as I study the great things that were happening in Chicago around the same time as his visit.   It is nice to have another connection with him.

Antique Music

Karen and I dropped in at a big antiques mall near Milroy, Pa., the other day.  Two stories of great old stuff.  I bought three LPs for less than $5, including the Eagles Greatest Hits.  Back in the 1990s, this was the best selling LP of all time.  I am playing it as I write this.  It is good music. 

I also bought two Christmas albums.  One by Kate Smith ("Christmas Eve in My Home Town" is an old favorite) and Eddie Arnold (my Mom loved his music and he has a really solid style).  We have an incredible library of old Christmas albums that we bought at yard sales and antique stores, plus a few that we've carried with us through the years.  These will be good additions.  Christmas is a time for memories.  I remember, for instance, that my mother gave me my very first LP for Christmas:  Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are a'Changing."

Instructions for Life from the Dalai Lama

Below are the “Instructions for Life” by the Dalai Lama—“20 Ways to Get Good Karma.”  They are worth keeping posted on your bulletin board or inside your medicine cabinet or on your refrigerator.  I especially like the last two.

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
2. When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.
3. Follow the three R’s:
   -  Respect for self,
   -  Respect for others and
   -  Responsibility for all your actions.
4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
6. Don’t let a little dispute injure a great relationship.
7. When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
8. Spend some time alone every day.
9. Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.
10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
11. Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and
    think back, you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time.
12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.
13. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don’t bring up the past.
14. Share your knowledge. It is a way to achieve immortality.
15. Be gentle with the earth.
16. Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.
17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.
18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.
19. If you want others to be happy, practice compassion.
20. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.

"Where are the Others?"

I just finished reading Along the Way, an excellent father/son memoir by Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez. Toward the end, Sheen writes:

"There's an old saying: If you arrive at the Kingdom alone you must answer just one question: 'Where are the others?' We are made so that we must travel alone, yet we cannot do so without community. No one can live our lives for us or carry our inner burdens, yet we can come to know ourselves only through our compassion for others." 

This, it seems to me, is what is missing from the public debate over health care, gun control, and some other issues today.   Our nation has polarized over political ideology.  And, for the most part, that ideology itself is not well-articulated or well-communicated.  Instead, people latch on to pieces of it:  freedom of markets, corporations as independent operators in society,  the right to keep and bear arms, etc.  Missing is a discussion of fundamental moral issues: 

What defines the U.S. as a "community?" 

As citizens, what are our responsibilities to others who share our community?

The big public policy issues are, in the final analysis, not questions of cost or freedom of markets, but of responsibility.  What is our responsibility to others?   Government--and the taxes that support it--are the vehicle by which we help each other in order to sustain our community.   If we believe the Christian adage, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," how should we use our government?  And, as a community, what should we expect of corporations that thrive on the work of individuals in our community?