Author Archives: jwlef1

Export to PDF | Export to DOC

So the second Women’s March happened on Jan 20,2018. Last year my wife went with a woman from DAR and an old friend. She was very impressed with the March and wanted to go this year. Unfortunately she doesn’t know any DAR members around here yet and her friend didn’t want to go. I was not comfortable with her going by herself so I volunteered to accompany her. The day started with an early train ride. When we arrived at the station there were three other women standing there. They asked if we were going to the March. My wife said yes and they screamed happily and said “and you brought a Man—YES!!” They then began to talk about the old days of the Women’s Liberation Movement. This then passed quickly into the size of their teen-age bras and then to burning their bras. This was the start of a very remarkable day.

When we arrived at Grant Park the crowd didn’t seem that big, but it kept growing. Estimates now are that there were more than 300,000 people in the park. I have never been in a crowd that large. I have never been in a crowd with that many angry, passionate, white women. There were some Hispanic and African American folks. There was also more than a scattering of men. Much of the focus of the day was to get everyone to register to vote so that we can get rid of the present administration. The crowd was remarkably well behaved. No physical violence happened and there were really a lot of funny and very witty signs.

The last time I was in Grant Park with a fairly large crowd was in 1970. We had gone down to see a free concert from Sly and the Family Stone. The crowd then was pretty happy and fairly high. You could almost get a contact high from the amount of weed that was floating in the air. Now since this was such a long time ago I need to talk a little about Sly and his group. They became really famous after the Woodstock concert movie. Everyone wanted to see them. The problem was that because of their own substance issues they were often late or often didn’t even show up for their scheduled events.

As we all waited and waited and waited for the band to show, the nice easy-going crowd grew more and more restless. All at once chairs were being tossed and there was a real threat that things were getting out of control. Now the Chicago Police at that time were not big music fans. This was only two years after the riots of the 1968 Democratic convention. By this time anyone with long hair was looked at as a Communist sympathizer trying to overthrow the government. They saw the crowd getting out of control and “By God there was not going to be another riot in this town!!” So the police charged the crowd and every body started to run. My friends and I were all semi hippie do-gooders. We tried to get people to not run and be careful. We though we were doing a good job until the tear gas and mace hit us. All of a sudden we couldn’t breathe and really couldn’t see. We all staggered away and were thankful that we weren’t hurt more.

So the Women’s March brought back a lot of memories. During the presidential campaign someone asked me why I didn’t want Trump to win. I said that I didn’t want to live thru the 60s again. I had already done that. I came from a very traditional family and always believed in our government. When I started college in the mid 60s the Vietnam War was just beginning to heat up. I couldn’t understand why people were against it. As the years passed and more and more information came out and more and more guys my age were being killed, my position changed. Not only did I not want to go into service, I didn’t want anyone else to either. Why get killed for a government that lies to you? We would march and wear T-shirts and armbands and have long alcohol driven conversations into the small hours of the morning. When the war finally ended we all were relieved and ready to get on with our lives and then came Watergate.

Unless you lived thru that, you really cant understand the absolute betrayal that we all felt. Our own President was conspiring in a criminal enterprise. How could that happen? The country was totally divided. The war had begun the divide and Watergate only made it worse. The group that supported Nixon was not as large as those against him, but they never forgot what had happened. As the Democrats and Republicans changed places in the government, they would always try to get back some of what they had lost during this time.

I think we all hoped those times were over, but the anger and seeming hatred of the past keeps coming back. Now it is starting all over again. The speakers at the Women’s March would have fit right in at any of our 60s and 70s meetings. I kept waiting for a crowd roar of “Power to the People!! No More War !! ”, but instead the new cries are “Time’s Up—It’s our time now!!’ and “We can Win!”. I hope my apathy and reluctance will go away soon, but everyday seems to bring a new crisis. I just think it really is time to step back and think about what I really want and how much I want to work on achieving it. Right now I am focused on my own very small world and the people in it and right now that is as far as I can go. Nikos Kazantzakis has a quote in one of his books. “When a man is young, the world is too small. When he is old, his own village is too large.” My village feels very large right now. I just want all the people in it to be safe. Maybe that is what I need to keep thinking about.

Export to PDF | Export to DOC

This is the season where memories return. Christmas in our family was always a sacred time. I remember growing up how my parents always tried to make it a special season. I also remember all the conflicts that went with it. After my Dad returned from the war and I was born, we lived in apartments in Chicago. Usually all were on the south side and fairly close to my grandparents. After my grandfather’s death we still lived only a block away from my grandmother. Even then there were all kinds of Christmas rituals. The whole process of buying a Christmas tree and setting it up was always an event. My parents would end up arguing on what was the best side of the tree and how it should be turned so it would seem the straightest. Sometimes this would be a minor discussion and sometimes not. One that always stands out was when we lived in Warrenville and they almost got into a physical conflict over Christmas, the tree and cleaning the house.

However usually my parents went all out for us at Christmas. My mother would shop and shop, so that we would all have something wonderful. All of this would happen when my parents really did not have that much money. When we were very young, we would all go see Santa. I still have old black and white pictures of me and my sisters sitting on Santa’s lap. Usually this would be at the nearest Sears store since that was where Santa lived when he wasn’t at the North Pole. Sometimes we would even go downtown to see Santa there and see the displays in the Marshal Fields windows. The movie “A Christmas Story” is very popular with my generation because it recreates a lot of those times. I still remember the magic. I never wanted to give up believing in it.

When Christmas Eve finally arrived we would all take our baths (hardly anyone had a shower then) and go to bed. We would have trouble falling asleep and I know I would always wake up very early. I would go and wake up one of my sisters and we would sneak into the living room where the tree and the presents were. We were afraid to turn on the lights so we would try and figure out what the toys were just by touching them. Then we would go back to bed and wait for our parents to wake up so we really could see what was under the tree.

I think back on the real sacrifices my parents made for us then and I think that is why I always wanted my sons to have special Christmases. They really had no one else. Their grandparents were dead and my wife’s father was involved in a new marriage. My sons didn’t look forward to any presents from he and his wife. They would always bring them hand-painted plaster ornaments. They had probably put a lot of time and effort into them, but they didn’t mean that much to an eight year old and a four year old. My sons still joke about that to this day. So I supposed at times we were too over the top. I still remember my wife and I staying up way too late on Christmas Eve wrapping presents or putting toys together. I remember the looks on our children’s faces as they came downstairs to open their presents. Sometimes it was still dark and my wife and I would stagger around and try and find a way to get a cup of coffee as all the chaos was going on.

I hope most families have at least some of those memories. I hope my sons pass it on to their children. Maybe part of the depression and loneliness at Christmas is because of missing those times or never really having any. One of the realities of life now is facing that time is not never ending. There is an end. My sister will be dead seven years this December. Christmas has not been the same since her death. She went into a coma on Christmas Eve and never recovered. She died two days later. So the memories now are somewhat bitter sweet. The way around this of course is to see the faces of children as they experience the magic of this time. Maybe that is where the magic always was—in the faces of children. Maybe just by being around them we can all still experience the joy and wonder of this time.

Export to PDF | Export to DOC

A beautiful new soul entered our life two weeks ago. Six pounds and eight ounces of absolute wonder. A new grandchild is always special but now we have a granddaughter. I don’t know how we’ll manage this new creature. We have two sons and one grandson but now there is a new arrival. My wife has always wanted a granddaughter. She loves the clothes available for granddaughters as opposed to grandsons. She has always believed that there are more clothes and toys for girls than for boys.

I am just prepared to be always confused and amazed. Some members of my family might say that is my normal state, but this will be a very special time. I remember one of my friends saying many years ago that one of the last roles a man plays in life is that of a grandfather. I don’t think my wife and I were even married at the time. He was married and had at least one child. I kind of blew it off then but I am thinking more about it now. There are so many family roles in life- child, son, brother, husband, father. As soon as you begin thinking about it, life expands to your extended family and to your work and social life. I have always tried to keep fairly firm boundaries between my professional life and my family. Some of the things I heard in my work were so disturbing I just couldn’t bring them home. My sons and wife might not agree with this. During my oldest son’s adolescence I was very strict because of the difficult and problematic adolescents I saw. He once told one of his friends that growing up in our house was like living in a Nazi concentration camp. Hopefully he doesn’t believe that today. My wife said that she thought that work made me very moody and it seemed to get worse as I got older. I just didn’t know how to keep them at a distance from some of the things I heard.

Now this new role of grandfather is upon me. I really enjoy being silly and playful with my grandson. I don’t think I was ever that way with my sons. Maybe it’s because I don’t see him as much as I did them and don’t have the same responsibility. I imagine it will be the same with our grand daughter, but maybe just a little different. I always used to joke that God was good in giving me sons because he knew I couldn’t handle a daughter. I would say that if I had a daughter she would never leave the house until it was time for her to enter the convent. Once we were doing a role-play presentation at a high school about drug use. After the role-play we asked one of the participants what her parents would do if they caught her smoking marijuana. She told us that they would send her to relatives in Italy to enter a convent. I always thought that was a good idea but couldn’t figure out how to do it with sons. If I sent them to Ireland they would probably have ended up as bartenders in a pub somewhere. Teen-agers always test and try to differentiate themselves. This always creates conflict within a family and our family was no exception. It will be interesting to see how my sons handle their own children’s adolescence.

So what does a grandfather do? . What kinds of role models are there for this? There is always Grandpa Walton, but I don’t think I could pull off the overall and suspender look. Grandfathers are supposed to be old and wise. I have got the old part, the wise not so much. I only had a grand father until I was five. My father’s dad died before I was one and my mother’s dad died when I was five. I barely remember him. My sons never really had one either. My dad was dead before they were born. My wife’s dad never really seemed to want that role. He rarely came to any of my sons’ activities and was really not involved in their lives. It may have been different if my wife’s mother had lived, but after her death he was more interested in his new life. I don’t want that. I want to be as much a part of my grandchildren’s life as I can. I can tell stories and play and laugh and go to games and recitals and graduations. I can tear up at special times and tell stories of the past. I want them to be able to remember their grandparents. I want them to have wonderful memories to share with their own children and always be able to say, “My Grandpa loved me very much and always thought I was very special”.

Export to PDF | Export to DOC

Why am I so tired of this political drama? Every day there is something new and some new political spin depending on which side you support. I make a real effort not to discuss politics with friends and relatives. I just don’t think it’s important enough to risk the relationship.

I wonder if this is what happened in Nazi Germany or Stalin’s Russia. People just got so tired of the ongoing crisis that they just said the hell with it. Something I read recently wondered how a supposed Christian nation like Germany could allow the persecution and atrocities it did. This was especially true since the Nazi party was a minority party. Only 5-10% of the population was ever card-carrying members. Yet no one really organized enough followers to stop them. I know that during that time Germany was going thru financial crises related to the depression and the aftermath of the war. The Nazis provided wonderful political theater, but somewhere people must have questioned where it was all going. Maybe there really were many and maybe they just stopped caring and let the dice roll. It’s fairly easy to criticize them now and say, “Why did you let this happen?”

Supposedly after the discovery of one of the concentration camps by American forces, the US commanding general rounded up citizens from a nearby town and forced them to come and see what had been going on. Their universal answer was “We didn’t know”. I wonder if they were just simply overwhelmed with the constant drama and just got to the point of not caring.

I think part of this for me is that I cant understand how anyone can believe some of the “fake info” coming out of the party in power. There are constant lies and exaggerations. Supposedly only 30% of the population believes every word that is said and refuses to accept any differing views no matter how much scientific or factual data is presented. Almost no effort is ever made to correct. When they are confronted they make every effort to discount the questioner or change the subject. When my sons were young every time I tried to discipline or correct my youngest son, his defense was always to try and get me to turn on his older brother. This really seems to be what’s going on now.

Maybe the real answer is to try and focus on the positives. This has the potential to be a really spectacular fall. Our family is awaiting the birth of a new grandchild. Our grandson is pretty focused on what happens when he loses a tooth and suddenly finds money under his pillow the next morning. The ongoing wonder in a child’s life doesn’t depend on daily political drama. Every day is a new day with the possibility of wonderful new adventures. This sounds so nice and some days I really can appreciate all of it. However then the reality of this time seeps thru again.

I remember when the president was elected. I didn’t vote for him and was upset that he won, but I was willing to give him a chance. I remember talking about this with my friends and saying “I’m willing to give him a chance if he will only just shut up”.

Of course that hasn’t happened.

I don’t know if it ever will. Somehow in the midst of this I have to keep trying to find some joy and wonder, but I don’t want to just let everything slide. I think the only thing I can do is to try and stay politically aware enough so I can never say, “I just didn’t  knew what was going on”. I am not ready to storm the walls or burn down the winter palace. I am ready to keep reading and trying to understand what is going on.

I’m willing to hold my family and love them and laugh with my friends. I am not ready to close my eyes just yet. Maybe if we all try to at least keep our eyes open, we can be ready when the time for real change comes.

Export to PDF | Export to DOC

So what are you afraid of? I don’t like stinging insects and try to avoid them as much as possible. Probably my most terrifying encounter with a large bumblebee occurred over 30 years ago. I was driving one of my sons to some event. It was a warm spring day. I had the car window open and was going about 50 miles an hour. Due to the weather I was wearing shorts and a tee shirt. Suddenly a large bee came in the window and landed in my shorts. I screamed and stood up while the car was still moving. Thankfully the impact had killed the bee, but I didn’t know that. I was able to pull the car safely off to the side, get out and shake the bee out of my shorts. All of this while my son was laughing hysterically. He still laughs today whenever this is brought up.

I also don’t like to fly. Up until a few years ago I would avoid this as much as possible. Since I’ve retired we have gone on quite a few vacations and it doesn’t bother me as much. I think increased exposure has helped greatly. I remember going to a lecture about phobias many years ago. The presenter talked about exposing people to their greatest fears and helping them through it. One of his famous cases involved a woman who was afraid of live lobsters in grocery stores. She was terrified that somehow they would escape their tanks and attack her. Now this sounds foolish, but it certainly wasn’t to her.

I still have a fear of heights. I am not sure where this came from. I used to go on our roof, install TV antennas, fix shingles, hang wire, etc. I remember standing outside on a ladder, balancing on one foot, painting the second floor of our home. However something happened and now heights make me extremely uncomfortable. I did fall once while painting inside, but it wasn’t that big a fall. Maybe that is where it started.

My wife loves heights. She always wants to go up to the highest point in every building. She loves Ferris Wheels and I don’t. She will go on them by herself while I take pictures of her. My sister has some of the same fears. There may be something to this genetic thing after all.

This is all leading up to our Alaskan Cruise. One of our sons went on this cruise last year and greatly enjoyed it. We decided to try it and went last week. I had some misgivings about going on a cruise ship, but that was fine. What I wasn’t ready for were the mountains and unbelievable scenery. I live in the beautiful but very flat Midwest. We do not have snow capped mountains in June or really any other month. Washington, Oregon and the Pacific Northwest have more mountains than you can count. When we got off of the plane we saw Mt Rainier– beautiful but very unusual for us. My cousin and his family have lived there for forty years. They drove us all over before the cruise showing us their beautiful state. Washington is very green and very mountainous.

When we started the cruise we went to Juneau and then to Skagway. During our stop in Skagway we took a bus tour up to the top of one of the mountains. The purpose was to show us the scenery and then to experience this famous train ride on the White Pass and Yukon Railway. This is supposed to be one of the real highlights of the trip because of the beautiful scenery. My wife loved it. I found it terrifying. Exposure didn’t seem to help. We were on this fairly old rickety train going up and around mountain passes. We seemed to be on the very edge of falling for most of the trip. I tried to be a good sport and took a lot of pictures. However at one point I really stood out from the rest of the passengers. The train guide told us to get our cameras ready because we were coming up on an iconic sight to take pictures. We entered a tunnel and came out onto a beautiful sight with what seemed like a six-mile drop down the side of the mountain. I leaned over with my camera and when we came out of the tunnel I said, “Fuck” and sat down very quickly. No one said anything, but there were some odd looks. I have no idea how many pictures I took since my eyes were closed most of the time.

I suppose if I really wanted too, I could work on this fear. However if that would involve exposure to heights I’m not sure I want to do that right now. One of my old psychiatric supervisors used to say that people finally change when they really want to and they are ready, I am neither of those right now so I will just enjoy my beautiful flat land and avoid anything higher than about 3 feet.