James Baldwin on "Poster Children" outcomes

Krys Boyd, host of the KERA radio jewel, THINK, interviewed me earlier this week.  We talked about poverty and my assignment as chair of Mayor Mike Rawlings' new "Task Force on Poverty."  During the course of the interview, she asked me about the poor who battle through and "make it" to a better life.  I acknowledged that a very few do manage to find better lives on their own.  I call them poverty's "poster children."  The whole discussion reminded me of what James Baldwin once said about the idea.  He was quoted  in an Atlantic Monthly essay by Ta-Nehisi Coates.  

Here's what Baldwin said:

The people, however, who believe that this democratic anguish has some consoling value are always pointing out that So-and-So, white, and So-and-So, black, rose from the slums into the big time. The existence -- the public existence -- of, say, Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis, Jr. proves to them that America is still the land of opportunity and that inequalities vanish before the determined will. It proves nothing of the sort. The determined will is rare -- at the moment, in this country, it is unspeakably rare -- and the inequalities suffered by the many are in no way justified by the rise of a few.

A few have always risen -- in every country, every era, and in the teeth of regimes which can by no stretch of the imagination be thought of as free. Not all these people, it is worth remembering, left the world better than they found it. The determined will is rare, but it is not invariably benevolent. Furthermore, the American equation of success with the big time reveals an awful disrespect for human life and human achievement. This equation has placed our cities among the most dangerous in the world and has placed our youth among the most empty and most bewildered. The situation of our youth is not mysterious. Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them. They must, they have no other models. That is exactly what our children are doing. They are imitating our immortality, our disrespect for the pain of others.

Walter, again

Last night, as I'm sitting by the fire reading a mindless spy novel about the Middle East, Walter appears at my door.  You may remember Walter from previous posts. 

To make a longer story short, let me just say Walter has been a case!

But that makes this evening's encounter all the better. 

Walter knocks on my door and reports, when I open it to him, that he has a car, a job and five years sober.  I expect he is telling me the truth as the car is sitting in my driveway! And, as I checked my last note on this page about him, sure enough I realize he had been clean and sober for 5 years!

He also carries $200 in his pocket. 

What he needs from me is a solid referral to the CitySquare Thrift Store so that his funds can go as far as possible in his current effort to furnish his apartment.  Something about bed bugs destroying his most recent attempt at that process! 

He looked so good. 

Bright eyes.

Clean, neat clothes.

Good, solid shoes. 

He was understandably proud of his progress.

He thanked me and I pushed back against that, remembering how tough I had been on him in the past.

But, seeing him was a victory. 

What we are doing here is important. 

Living in the neighborhood where he can find me is essential. 

Nice New Year's day encounter.

The Importance/Necessity of Guides

I expect that most of us have heard the popular notion "Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day.  Teach a man to fish and he'll eat for a lifetime."

Across the years several of us have appended the common wisdom with an additional statement, "But best of all is pond ownership, or at least a key to the gate that lets you in so you can fish!"  Access to opportunity is essential no matter what one's skill set.

My experience last Friday reminded me of another important component to success in any life-sustaining endeavor that involves skill development:  all of us need a guide.  Mentors who teach us the ropes beyond just the raw skills are absolutely essential to success and progress as individuals and as communities. 

My oldest grandson, Wyatt, his dad and I went to Lake Texoma to fish for small mouth bass, commonly known as Stripers.

We met Roger, our guide for the day. 

All of us had experience fishing. 

We all knew how to cast a line, to use a rod and reel.  We'd baited many a hook prior to this trip. 

Roger instructed us in a few of the fine points of the particulars of fishing for Stripers, but he did much more than that. 

Roger showed us where the fish were! 

He went right to them because he knew the vast lake that stretched out for miles before us like the back of his hand.  He knew when they would bite.  He had it all figured out. 

So, all three of us got busy with what we knew--fishing.  But we put our weight down on what he showed us as our guide.  He navigated the waters, prepared us for the cold wind and spray and led us to the treasure!  By the time our day was over we all considered Roger not only the expert, but more importantly, our good friend! 

The city is full of people with great potential, many skills and great desire. 

What's needed in every case is a trusted guide or guides to walk alongside for just a ways until everyone can find the path to what they need most.  It is a self-deluding myth to believe that we can somehow make it in life all on our own. There is really no such thing as a self-made man or woman.  We all need help.  Those of us who are doing relatively well have enjoyed plenty of it.

Oh, and I apologize for shamelessly displaying our catch.  But pictures seem to make my point best of all. 

I assure you, without the guide, we have no photos, to say nothing of a completely different set of memories! 

"Success"

In his book Ethics. . . Bonhoeffer wrote about the way people worship success.  The topic fascinated him.  He referred to it in his letter from Barcelona many years earlier, in which he observed the fickleness of the crowds at bullfights, how they roared for the toreador one moment and for the bull the next.  It was success they wanted, success more than anything.  In Ethics, he wrote:

"In a world where success is the measure and justification of all things the figure of Him who was sentenced and crucified remains a stranger and is at best the object of pity.  The world will allow itself to be subdued only by success.  It is not ideas or opinions which decide, but deeds.  Success alone justified wrongs done. . . .With a frankness and off-handedness which no other earthly power could permit itself, history appeals on its own cause to the dictum that the end justifies the means. . . . The figure of the Crucified invalidates all thought which takes success for its standard."

God was interested not in success, but in obedience.  If one obeyed God and was willing to suffer defeat and whatever else came one's way, God would show a kind of success that the world couldn't imagine.  But this was the narrow path, and few would take it (page 363).

Bonhoeffer:  Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy

by Eric Metaxas



John Wooden (1910-2010)

John Wooden was arguably the greatest basketball coach of all time.

But, beyond that, Wooden was clearly one of the greatest teachers of all time. Just listen to his players years after they played on his teams. Listening to Wooden is no waste of time.

The Go Giver

If you haven't read The Go-Giver, you need to check it out! 

The principles apply in business, but also across the board generally for all aspects of life. 

My friend and partner, Dr. Jim Walton gave me a copy for my birthday this year.  Thanks, Dr. Jim!   Great, inspirational read.  Not so much a new message, but packaged so well in a story that pulls you along to the next page. 

"a God who lingers"

It was just a descriptive phrase offered up in a morning prayer.

But, like so many other "break through moments" in my own understanding of authentic spirituality, it hit me somewhere deep and with power.

A "neon" moment in a typical church service.

The minister prayed, describing the object of her devotion as "a God who lingers."

What insight!

My faith and my experience line up on that one. The God I seek to know and experience is surely "a God who lingers."

Not a God who comes and goes. Nor one who grows weary and gives up. Certainly not a spiritual power or force who flits willy-nilly about my life or the lives of others.

"A God who lingers"--now there is a model for my life.

I have found that the secret to effectiveness in just about every dimension of life is almost always discovered in the staying.