Happy Thanksgiving

I attended a spinning class this week. The instructor (my daughter) played her Thanksgiving soundtrack. The above is one of the songs.

Google "gratitude" and you'll get hundreds of quotations. Here are just three.

There are days when I walk through the center of Stockholm when I get this sudden feeling of happiness - a sense of belonging and at the same time gratitude that I'm so privileged that I can live my life in my city. Bjorn Ulvaeus

I hope all reading this can honestly replace the word Stockholm with the name of the city they live in. I'm glad to live in South Bend. I do think it's interesting that the writer talks about walking instead of riding. I'm much more likely to appreciate places when I walk.

It is through gratitude for the present moment that the spiritual dimension of life opens up. Eckhart Tolle

We learned about gratitude and humility - that so many people had a hand in our success, from the teachers who inspired us to the janitors who kept our school clean... and we were taught to value everyone's contribution and treat everyone with respect. Michelle Obama

After the Revolution

When Alexander Hamilton was 26, and approximately two years before the end of the American Revolution, he was already thinking about how the nation should be governed if and when it achieved freedom. According to Ron Chernow, when American entered the revolution, “People continued to identify their states as their 'countries,' and most outside the military had never traveled more than a day's journey from their homes.” (157) While the war somewhat diminished this lack of unity, Hamilton saw how this separateness made finding enough soldiers and money a problem for winning the war and accomplishing other goals. So in 1781, Hamilton begins to address this issue. Here is how Chernow describes it.

[Hamilton] introduced a critical theme: the dynamics of revolutions differed from those of peacetime governance; the postwar world had to be infused with a new spirit, respectful of authority, or anarchy would reign: “An extreme jealousy of power is the attendant of all popular revolutions and has seldom been without its evils. It is to this source we are to trace many of the fatal mistakes which have so deeply endangered the common cause, particularly that defeat which will be the object of these remarks, a want of power in Congress.” where revolutions, by their nature, resisted excess government power, the opposite situation could be equally hazardous. “As too much power leads to despotism, to little leads to anarchy, and both eventually to the ruin of the people.” (158)

This seems relevant to the issues of the day and it is still difficult to achieve the right balance.

Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow. Penguin Books, 2004.

Alexander Hamilton

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I spent Saturday afternoon in Chicago watching Hamilton, and like so many others, I loved it. The music captures the emotions of the story: sorrow, excitement, commitment, passion, longing, jealousy, longing, conflict, and more.

I came home and started reading Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow, the book that inspired the musical (731 pages plus six pages of acknowledgments and 49 pages of notes). Lin-Manuel Miranda, was reading this book on a vacation—I picture him in a hammock—and was inspired to write the songs for this play. So far, Chernow's book does paint a picture of an exceptional man. I can see how Miranda was moved, but being inspired to write a musical is indeed an exceptional response. Who could have predicted that a rap musical about one of the lesser-known founding-fathers would be so successful? (President Obama says rap is the language of revolution.) Miranda tells the story of our American history in a way that engages. He says, "You want to eliminate and distance between audience and your story." History teachers cannot teach history like Miranda does, but Hamilton reminds all teachers that a list of facts doesn't stick well. Hamilton provides emotional engagement that makes the facts of history relevant and important. And as a bonus, it's enjoyable.

This video shows President Obama introducing a presentation to Hamilton before it is performed at the white house. If the introduction is too long, you can skip to 8.3 to hear the introductory song. This one is a great interview with Miranda by Chris Hayes.

Using History to Change Your Heart

I read The Warmth of Other Suns in 2013. It was a book that stayed with me. Therefore, I was pleased to see the Krista Tippet of On Being recently interview the author, Isabel Wilkerson. Wilkerson's book details what is called “the great migration.” Approximately six million African-Americans moved from the former slave states in the south to northern states between 1915 to 1970. These immigrants were not completely welcomed, but still, for most the north was safer and offered more job opportunities. 

Tippet's interview of Wilkerson is informative and moving. I encourage you to listen. For me, it adds to the thinking I've been doing lately about the importance of history and how it affects how we see ourselves, our country, and our world. 

People (mostly white people) often say that slavery and prejudice is in the past, that continuing to talk about it just makes matters worse. Wilkerson answers with this analogy:

When you go to the doctor, before you can even see the doctor, the very first thing they do is they give you all of these pages to fill out. And they — before the doctor will even see you, he wants to know your history. He doesn’t want to know just your history, he wants to know your mother’s history. He wants to know your father’s history. They may go back to your grandmother and your grandfather on both sides. And that’s before he will even see you.

You cannot diagnose a problem until you know the history of the problem that you’re trying to resolve.

Much of us this—I'd like to think the worst of it—happened before we were born. For some, it may have happened even before our ancestors came to this country. But if we are truly committed to this country, then we have acquired its history, and it still causes dis-ease today. It is tempting to ignore it because it's painful to look at it. As Wilkerson says, “It’s looking into the human heart and examining it and allowing ourselves to feel the pain of others. You don’t want to feel your own pain. Why would you want to feel someone else’s pain?” She continues, “So I think it’s an act of love and an act of faith to allow yourself to feel the pain of another.”

We are good at looking at our countries triumphs. How would this country change if everyone could truly feel the pain of those oppressed by history?

History, the Musical

I'm looking forward to seeing Hamilton in a couple of weeks. I the meantime, songs from the musical are running through my head, and I marvel at this new way to think about the past.

If it were an operating system...

I started reading this book by Stephen Dinan with skepticism. It has a new-agey feel that I don't trust. And sacred can have very trite religious connotations. But so far, he has some fascinating ideas seasoned with suspicious optimism. I especially like his description of how America has evolved. He says,

I see America's growth through the lens of the evolution of new levels of consciousness that expand our respect for the freedoms and right of others and which are then institutionalized in the form of law....I see the deepest and most enduring activities as those that lead to an evolution in our worldview and the societal systems that support it. To help understand these, again, I uses the metaphor of the evolution of computer operating systems. Here is my list of the major upgrades to the American operating system in the last 240 years:

1. America 1.0 (1776-1787): Nation is born. Articles of Confederation
2. America 2.0 (1787-1865): Constitution and Bill of Rights.
3. America 3.0 (1865-1920): Slavery is abolished.
4. America 4.0 (1920-1933): Women included as voting citizens
5. America 5.0 (1933-1960): New Deal legislation expands role of government to create safety nets
6. America 6.0 (1960-2000): Civil rights movement and women's movement expand full inclusion of more citizens
7. America 7.0 (2000-present): Emergence of truly global era, with globalized Internet, trade, travel, and movement of finance. (page 5)

I believe most of his book is going to discuss the best way to create operating system 7.0. (I'm on page 31.) I like this evolutionary metaphor. It reminds me of Ken Wilber's theories but with much simpler terminology.