Earlier this afternoon I stopped at an area supermarket to pick up an essential food in my daily menu: bananas.  This gave me an excuse for coffee, and to pick up one other needed item.  Just an ordinary day, Dec. 28, 2021.

A gentle snow had begun while I was in the store – the big fat flakes gently falling, perfect for artists depiction of “over the river and through the woods”.

My car was covered by perhaps an inch of snow, enough to sweep, but no rigor required.  The man the next car over was sweeping his own car, and as I reached mine, he did my car as well.

“Thanks and Happy New Year”, I said.  I had no idea who he was: just one more stranger in my town, as I also was in his.

The action took all of a minute.  Off he went, as did I.  Just another day in our town.  A memorable small act of kindness, just because….

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This singular act outside the grocery store got me to thinking back over the last days, weeks, months, years.  As I write, I am visualizing a list of small, unnecessary, memorable actions by others that have made my life, and the lives of others, better.  One small – maybe even tiny – deed at a time.  Mostly they are people I’ve never met, will never even see again.  Their only name is their action.

I’d invite you to think about such actions by ordinary people in your own life that made your life better in 2021.  I guarantee you, it won’t take long, and you’ll be surprised what arrives on your own list of good deeds given to you, not the opposite.  If the spirit moves, and you know who they are, let them know how they contributed to your life, probably without their knowing.

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As I write I think back to an assignment I was given by my friend Judy Maghakian in the early summer of 2019.

The assignment came before we left on a two week trip via AMTRAK to Seattle, ending in Davis CA.  She was hosting a summer workshop at Macalester College, and she asked me to talk on the topic Servant Leadership to young people mostly from other countries.  Our trip is highlighted in yellow below.

I didn’t know what “Servant Leadership” was, except I thought it must be about actions by ordinary people in living their ordinary lives.  (There are books on the topic, if you’re interested.  Just type “servant leadership” in your browser.  I really haven’t read any of them before or since….  I have experienced this kind of leadership often.)

My focus wasn’t on prominent people, rather on people whose daily service is truly at the micro level – person to person.

So during the trip I very simply started to list things that I had experienced by ordinary citizens in the places we visited: a kind porter on the train; some passengers who were birdwatchers, enroute to an event; two native Americans engaged in good works back home in Oregon…on and on.

Not long before the trip I had touched base with my friend, Frank Kroncke, who has a compelling story going back to the peace movement of the Vietnam era.  I decided to ask him if he’d be willing to be co-presentor.  He agreed, as did Judy.

Together, I think we had an enriching hour of engagement – certainly nothing fancy, but fancy was not expected.  Servant Leaders by my definition are not fancy people, by and large.   Here is what I wrote at the time; (Servant Leadership is the second half of the commentary.)

Do your part to make 2022 a Happy New Year.

My neighborhood Dec 28 2021. about 2 p.m.  Directly across the street is the tree (below) that is lit every night. It brings brightness every time I see it.

Nov. 30, 2021

COMMENTS (more at end of post)

from Fred: Good suggestion for the new year! Overall, I have so much to be grateful for, that small acts of kindness and compassion might well be overlooked.

Have you noticed how often people go out of their way hold doors for others? The practice has grown more over the years. Of course it is possible that I started doing only after maturing. That was about four years ago so maybe I’ve got it all wrong.

Happy New Year, Richard!

from David: Thanks Dick, we will continue another year of peace work. Thanks for your support.

from Barry: Same to you Dick. I hope there will be some good news for this messed up country of ours.

from Rosa Maria: Lovely post, Dick.  May we all do good deeds to others and appreciate the ones that other do for us.

from Judy:  Dear Dick, you are a remarkable communicator and person.  Thank you, thank you.  God’s blessings to you in the New Year.

Rev. Lowell Erdahl died Dec. 14 at age 90.  He was very well known in Minnesota.  Details were in the Dec. 19 Minneapolis Star Tribune, which can be read here: Lowell Erdahl obituary Dec 19 2021.

Lowell Erdahl, with his twin brother, Arlen, at a Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers event Nov. 15, 2009.

My particular connection to Rev. Erdahl was in the area of peace and justice.  As his obituary states, “throughout his life he was an advocate, champion and leader for peace and justice.”  He “walked the talk”.  Lowell joins a long list of peace and justice leaders who passed on in recent years.  Their legacy is now the responsibility of those of us for whom they were mentors.

Those active in the movement for peace and justice will likely recognize the names of some of Lowells colleagues who have passed on.  These are leaders I came to know personally.  My apologies for any inadvertent oversights of others who I missed.

It’s our turn, and our children generation, to carry on.

R.I.P. in the last 20 years :   Lowell Erdahl, Hank and Dotty Garwick, Joe Schwartzberg, Lynn Elling, Leslie Reindl, Mary Rose Goetz, Mary Lou Nelson, Mary White, Don Irish, Lyle Christianson, Veryln Smith, Wayne Wittman, Bob Heberle, John Braun, Tom Atchison.

Your additions to this list are solicited.

Today, hats off to Uncle Frank Bernard, who, at age 26, was beginning his 7th year as a sailor on the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, December 7, 1941.  And to his shipmates as well who also went down with the ship.  (I had the privilege to meet Frank in person, just five months before his death at Pearl Harbor.  I was only a year old, but no matter….)

Frank Bernard USS Arizona, undated

Happy Holidays!

Three years ago Dec. 4, 2018, they wheeled me in to ‘slice and dice’, and I came out some hours later the proud owner of a new aortic valve in my heart, compliments of a bovine, to whom I’m forever grateful.  60 years ago at about this date I finished the last class for my college degree.  There’s a lot of water under that bridge, somewhere around 21,000 days in all, “practice” at being an adult!

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These days I typically leave the house before sunrise, and November 30 I was greeted by a newly decorated tree across the street:

Nov. 30, 2021

I hardly ever rhapsodize about lawn decorations, but this tree spoke to me, symbolizing the season.

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For a number of reasons, 2021 has not been a “normal year”.  I have some recommendations for you this season and forward:

1.  Ken Burns has partnered with PBS and others to form a new web presence.  I encourage you to at minimum visit the new site, Unum (as in E Pluribus Unum, “out of  many, one”), explained at Ken Burns home page.
2. John Noltner has just published (September 2021) his third book, “Portraits of Peace, searching for hope in a divided America”.  There are 31 short chapters, each about 6 pages, each generally about one person John interviewed somewhere in the U.S., each chapter deserving of personal reflection and discussion in such venues as book clubs. A bonus: John uses these chapters to reflect on his own experiences basically when the 2008 recession forced him to change his well-established career.  Check out the book, and John’s website, here.  The website has much information of value.
3. I happened to be watching TV on November 21 when the news shifted to the tragedy around a parade in Waukesha WI, in which 5 were killed and 48 injured.  For a long while, all that was known was that a red car was involved, and that the driver was in custody, but unidentified.  I will always remember the law enforcement official – the resident expert – commenting several times on why people do such evil things.  As I recall his mantra, the usual back-story reasons in the aftermath most often comes to be one or more of the following: Greed, Power, Hate, Revenge or Escape.  Of course, usually we immediately transfer this diagnosis to the alleged perpetrator.  It occurs to me that a good exercise for each of us at this season is to reflect on these words as they might apply to us, individually, now or at any time in the past.  It may be a bit uncomfortable, but, I think, useful.
4. Finally, in looking through some archival material this fall, I came across a booklet from June, 1955, a commencement address at Hamline University in St. Paul.  The speaker, John Cowles, was taking a stab at predicting the future for the graduates.  Cowles, publisher of the newspaper that today is the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, was 56 years old, a graduate of Harvard many years earlier, and predicting the year 2000, which would be about the future retirement age for most of the graduates.  Here are his interesting remarks: John Cowles Hamline June 6 1955.  How do you see 45 years from now (2066) in our U.S. and world, when today’s college kids are about retirement age?  This isn’t an idle exercise in these unsettled times.

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Here’s my most recent photo.  At right is college grandson Parker, my birthday kin kid, albeit 62 years younger.  In background, hardly visible, is Cathy, and at left is Grandson Ryan.  Photo by my daughter and Parker’s Mom, Joni.  Thanks and Merry Christmas.

Thanksgiving 2021

COMMENTS (more at end of post):

from SAK:  Many thanks for that especially the address by John Cowles to the graduating class of 1955.

He got some things right (population explosion, dwindling resources, communication watches . . .) &, as he himself predicted, got other things wrong! I think it was Niels Bohr who said “Prediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about the future”.  What I really liked was his warning about a possible nuclear war. Feels like we are closer to such catastrophe than at any time during the past few decades. He declares himself an optimist at the end of his address – I wish I myself could be as optimistic. Perhaps he would have toned down his optimism had he also predicted the climate crisis & the growing tensions between the US & China as well as the internal divisions poisoning so many countries.

Still I liked his address so much I converted it to a Word document – not as easily done as one would think assuming all the technological advances that he predicted!

Towards the end of his speech, he said:

“I hope that those of you who share my belief that the attainment of universal, enforceable disarmament is the most pressing problem of the second half of the 20th century will spread the doctrine with missionary zeal. I hope that those of you who are not convinced will continue to study and ponder the problem, always keeping in mind the alternatives.”

Surely the alternatives are too horrendous to contemplate but instead of universal, enforceable disarmament we have an escalating arms race with ever newer gadgets like drones, hypersonic missiles & cyber warfare. Friedrich Schiller got it right: “Against stupidity the very gods themselves contend in vain”.

Most of us will remember John Lennon’s Imagine (“Imagine all the people living life in peace” etc) well I also remember that the same John Lennon was shot dead on  December 8^th, a day like today, and for no good reason.

But this is a special season & I have put up a few decorations & intend to be Merry!

Merry Christmas & a much improved New Year to all,

Recently we’ve been flooded with important cases relating to the rule of law.  I’d name a few, but for certain I’d miss somebodies important one.  Take your pick.  They’re all important, and they all demonstrate how complex “law” is in a country of 330,000,000 people and a long history of some sense of democracy.

In the even you’re interested in “law” generally, even if not part of the legal community, I have a resource you may at minimum simply like to browse.  Perhaps something within will peak your interest.

Some time back I was browsing some potential archival materials for an organization I’ve long been part of, now called Citizens for Global Solutions (CGS), previously called United World Federalist Association (WFA).

The group was founded in the wake of the founding of the United Nations in 1945.  WFA first organized in 1947; it changed its name in 2004.  Its focus has always been on the need for a system of laws in which a diverse national and global society can at least function without going to war, or dictatorship.

In a box I found a 52 page pamphlet published in 1959 by the American Bar Association, as a series of ideas for discussion of the American legal system at the time of Law Day, proclaimed by President Eisenhower in 1958.  (In 1958, the U.S. population was approximately 181,000,000, slightly more than half of todays population.  Neither Alaska nor Hawaii were states in 1958)

I pdf’ed the booklet, which is presented here in four parts (my scanner was being irritable).  But all the pages are there, and I invite your taking the time to take a look.  Here are the pages. (cover – 17) Law Day Am Bar Assoc 1959; (pp 18-24) Law Day (2) Am Bar Assoc 1959; (pp 25-43) Law Day (3) Am Bar Assoc 1959; (pp 45-52) Law Day (4) Am Bar Assoc 1959.

The booklet is written for a general audience, for use in local events.  My favorite short essay is “Law in Treehouse World”, p. 49.

How are things the same in today’s world, compared with 1959?  How do they differ?  And what difference does that make?  These and many other questions are worthy of exploration.

POSTNOTE:

Coincident with my idea of forwarding this booklet, a good friend, a retired Priest and long-time activist Harry Bury, sent to me and several other friends his summary view of contemporary issues.  I simply submit his writing as his thoughts, food for thought and debate.  His thoughts are shared with his permission.

Yes, it’s an unusual time.  Have a great day, anyway.  Happy Thanksgiving.

Here is Abraham Lincoln’s proclamation of the first national day of Thanksgiving.  This includes a further history of the day as observed in the United States.  Fr. Jim Kent of the Franciscan Retreat Center, Prior Lake MN, reflected on “The Holiday Season” in the organizations Winter 2021-2022 newsletter: Holiday

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Last week I was invited to a home gathering in a twin cities suburb.  Finally, because of weather and distance, I decided I couldn’t attend, and the next day the host sent this photo of the group:

Home gathering November, 2021

A pre-gathering communication from the host to all of us said: “If you feel more comfortable “Masking Up”, feel free to do so.”  I wasn’t there, so don’t know if the above photo was staged, or the final reality.  I had said to the host beforehand “I’ll very likely ‘mask up’ as I have a medical test…[coming up, and the hospital is] real sensitive about Covid-19 exposure“.  But then I told them I wouldn’t be there.  So…only they know (though the odds are everyone wore the masks.  Minnesota is a current hot spot in the nation for Covid-19.)

Whatever the case, the photo shows a very nice gesture of “Minnesota nice”….

This Thanksgiving, making is not mandatory, but the practice seems to have caught on.  At my coffee shop, I’d guess that most customers come in ‘masked up’.  Of course, sitting and drinking coffee means no mask, but we aren’t crowded in, and most are take-out anyway.

Last week Thursday, at the Minnesota Orchestra, it was basically a full house.  Masks are required, as is evidence of vaccination.  The Orchestra, even the Chorale, were masked.

At Mass at Basilica on Sunday, I didn’t see anyone not wearing masks…and I’m an usher.  The sign at the door strongly suggests masks.

Most people here are now fully vaccinated.  This doesn’t guarantee no infection, but the vast majority of hospitalized Covid-19 patients did not get vaccinated.

I note that social distancing has caught on.  Generally, people in lines give space, where before, it was less likely.

Behavior, by and large, is much more civil than early on in the Pandemic.

It seems we have mostly learned something positive from out of the stress and difficulty of the past months. This is not universal, of course, but it is noticeable to me.

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I’ve spent some time just thinking about recent examples of Thanksgiving I’ve seen or experienced in my own life.  There are many positive incidences, most small, but all very significant.  I recommend this activity as part of your own day.  We are besieged by stories of problems; it is good to remember what is good, as well.

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Finally, Molly sends along some poetry for 2021 Thanksgiving.  You can read it here: Thanksgiving 2021.

In addition, she sent “some quotes to go with the poetry“:

At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.    –Albert Schweitzer

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”  — Albert Einstein

 Piglet noticed that even though he had a Very Small Heart, it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude.  ― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

‘Sometimes,’ said Pooh, ‘the smallest things take up the most room in your heart.’  ― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

My thoughts shimmer with these shimmering leaves and my heart sings with the touch of this sunlight; my life is glad to be floating with all things into the blue of space, into the dark of time. – Rabindranath Tagore, Stray Birds, #150

COMMENTS (more at the end of post)

from Donna: Happy Thanksgiving Dick,  I loved your post this morning.  I am so thankful to be a member of the Basilica.  Rich and I are part of a Circle of Welcome team from the Basilica and just met the first of three families from Afghanistan.  The Basilica along with Lutheran Social Services are helping them get settled in this country.   America and Minnesota should be so very thankful for this family of 10.  The father of 8 worked with the American Government so they left in August.  He and his wife are so thankful to be here.  I hope to see you soon at church.

from Molly: Thanks, Dick, ours will include a small gathering with our son’s family