"Building Character"

It is almost a truism that one's character predominantly determines much of one's behavior and the outcome of one's life-time pursuits. Often, we are vague about what we mean by character, even though we recognize elements of character when we experience it. Many attribute character to one's history and involvement in religion or the qualities of one's birth family.

I am sure that these and more are relevant, but I was struck by a long article NYT magazine article today that focused on teaching character.

This article seems relevant not only to those involved in an educational career, but also to parents in general. It is hard to believe that anyone would read this article without thinking about its pertinence to one's own history or family.

(I mention that one of Sara and Nien-he's Philadelphia friends, Angie Duckworth, is referenced strongly in the article.)

I share my ruminations about the article.

First, I am amazed often that I turned out as good as I did (I know that those who know me will question my judgement!), given my family history. In a somewhat bizarre way, I attribute some of qualities that are noticeable to parts of my history that I now evaluate most negatively! Qualities like kindness (measured by the lack of anger, hatred, animosity towards others), steadiness of behavior (measured by consistency of my daily behavior over time), pursuit of goals (measured by incessant reading and inquisitiveness), affection (measured by genuine hugs and kisses), and truthfulness (measured by an almost incurable inability to lie) can be attributed to by internalized guilt-ridden religious education during my childhood that was reinforced by seminary indoctrination. I surely would not advocate anyone's path to character development by adopting my history and, yet, I have to attribute it to my avoiding catastrophe as an adolescent or your adult (I often wonder whether I could have handled the freedom of college at Holy Cross which I was accepted before at the last moment, deciding to enter the seminary). I could envision myself lost due to abuse of alcohol or sex (I had only experimented with alcohol; sex beyond kissing was way off the radar screen who would feared dealing with confession etc.).

Second, given the history with no plans for a normal family, I am impressed that the character qualities helped me transition from a celibate to married life with children. I somehow or other was able to use the "good" aspects of my character in a new setting. In fact, if there is something that I recall about my role as a parent was my repeated focus on qualities that are associated with character. I talked often to my children about love, about caring for others, about truthfulness, about developing all the gifts provided them naturally by their genes and family. I often shared my views of life and society from a moral or character perspective rather than economic measurements of success.

From many points of view, I look back on this aspect of my personal history as one that gives me most satisfaction. I can honestly say that I have no regrets about who I am, even though at times, I wished that I could have become the same person without my earlier history.

Patrick's Journal (27 Aug - 15 Sept) "I was just groomed!!

PATRICK’S DIARY

8/27/11	My Man and Woman’s son brought his contingent from New York last night. I will have to deal with Gloria, the bulldog, today when she wakes up (she does sleep a lot!) I did pretty well during the day. I got along reasonably well with a huge bull dog. What can you expect from me? They say that I am going to experience a major hurricane tomorrow. I have no idea what they are talking about, but it sounds interesting.
8/28/11	So far, I have been doing well with the hurricane. My Man got me out before the onslaught. We are now bunkered down with two children who are not paying much attention to the storm or me, as a matter of fact. I get bugged when I cannot play with them. As it turned out, the storm was less than predicted and we had a great time playing on the beach. I had a ball!!
8/29/11	Not having electricity is a big deal to my Man and Woman, but I could care less. My life is great! I eat, play, pee& poop! What more could you ask?
8/30/11	No electricity still, but that is no problem. In fact, I am getting more time than ever playing with Mika (their grandchild) and my Man!
8/31/11	All is well. Still, no electricity, but it is no problem to me. Electricity came back and the house was filled with cheers.
9/1/11	Sort of a routine day. We played, ate, walked. It was great.
9/2/11	My Man is happy because my behavior is so good.
9/3/11	It goes to show how pleased my Man when I jump on his lap! I know that he is aware that I only jump onto his lap when my Woman or the children are not around. Yet, even if he not my priority, he loves it that he is #3 or worse! How crazy is that?
9/4/11	Sara brought a friend from medical school for lunch. What really made my day was the Mika and Emi, my little friends. I just followed them everywhere, including the kiddy pool.
9/5/11	Labor Day is a rest day for me. Just my Man and me. My Woman went to work. It is strange to see her trudging to work after so much time taking care of Mika. You would think that my Man would go to work. He does not seem to do much except take care of me (did not prevent me from chewing up Mika’s bathing suit last evening!). The major treat for my Man during this time without my Woman, the person I love totally,  or the kids, I jump on my Man’s lap to give him some love. He is so needy that even if he #3 or 4 or 5, he still responds so well. The poor man!
9/6/11	There was a big deal made our of my pooping in the house. I don’t know why I did not alert my Man. I know how to do it, but somehow, I forgot. Live and learn, I heard someone say.
9/7/11	Lot of rain these days. As long as my Man is willing to take me out, I don’t care.  I waited all day for my Woman and Mika to return from their visit over night to New Hampshire. I am just so excited. I cannot wait to start wagging my tail!
9/8/11	Another rainy day. It let enough so that my Man could jog (he is old and not very fast) and he decided that he would take me along. No problem! I was a pro, as they say.
9/9/11	I really tested my Man today. I chewed one of his running gloves that he really likes. It is remarkable how he blamed himself for leaving his gloves to be accessible by me. Can you believe it? I got out of the mess scot-free.  I was left alone last evening for six hours while my Man and Woman visited friends. My Man played with me when he got  home. It turned out good.
9/10/11	I will be left along again for a few hours while my Man and Woman attend a funeral.  It will be in the day time so I will able to get a good rest. When they came home, I did not recognize my Man all dressed up with a tie and jacket, so I barked at him because I thought he too had become a terrorist!
9/11/11	It’s my Man’s birthday today.  9/11 has become famous but I don’t think that it has anything to do with my Man! He may be o.k., but believe me, he is not worth celebrating that much. But, when you consider my Woman, that is another story! She is great!
9/12/11	I am looking forward to Mika’s and Emi’s coming today. I missed the little ones. It could be my teething problem, but I am not making people happy with my increased need to chew. I even chewed through a new toy my Man bought me today. They say that this just a stage (hope that they are deluded!).
9/13/11	I now will not go upstairs, even with treats. It is a mystery to my Man and Woman and even myself. I did go upstairs freely in prior weeks, but I have stopped and can’t seem to get it together. Otherwise, I am enjoying the day while plans are being made for my first real journey next week. I am going to New York City and then to Virginia. I am told that I will love the Big Apple, but we’ll see. The place, I think, is filled with terrorists who need to be watched! My day ended up in a disaster. Because of all my chewing stuff, I vomited big time! It was not a pretty sight even for me!
9/14/11	My day started great. You would never know that I made such a mess last night. I was like brand new! Since I would not go to the second floor, I stayed in  the crate last night. I actually liked it.
9/15/11	I had a great sleep in the crate and had a great morning doing my usual which now includes a run with my Man who actually is quite slow.  The poor man is just getting old and I am such a young one! My day was principally spent at my “groomer”. Everyone says that I am even more beautiful than ever! How is that possible?

9/11/01 -- 9/11/11

It has been ten long years of all sorts of misery, not all of which can be attributed to disaster of 9/11. However, I suppose that there has been a cascade effect of 9/11 responses that has twisted its way into virtually all aspects of our national situation, characterized by a financial disaster, twisted priorities, political polarities, and a loss of power within the international community. Apart from all of this, everything is cool!

What I want to comment upon today is my culpability in the ongoing meltdown of our political discourse and collaboration to solve problems.

While I would like to think that I am a rational and relatively peaceful person, I know that there is a strain in me that is intolerant of what I would consider to be less than appropriate responses to situations.

When I think back on my history, I know that I left high school scarred by my family history, but otherwise, I was relatively ignorant of so much. I knew so little of the world, had no thoughts or insights into human personalities, scant knowledge of history, literature, or the arts, and surely had no vision of a world view. What I carried into the seminary was a history of guilt, not so much for what I did, but because the Catholic Church was able to penetrate my brain with the fact that none of us deserve our gifts and it made sense that I would live a life devoid of human intimacy to ensure my salvation and, possibly, the salvation of others as well.

While in the seminary, my ignorance was clear. There were so many who were better educated than I. I took this fact as a challenge and I then became a zealot. I had an extreme need to know, to know just about anything and, as much as possible, about everything. During the seminary,  I was taken back by the fact that for the first four years, I was taught some theological matters that were not only not "true" (i.e., not consistent with available theological literature), but the instructors must have known as not supported by theological gurus. I became then a person who no longer could depend on others for my knowledge. I had to find it myself and I did.

I came out of the seminary convinced that I had a vision for the Church that was supported by the Vatican Council. All that was needed was to persuade others, including my fellow clergy. When I found out how difficult, if not impossible, was the task, I became more aggressive in pursuing the "truth". I started to speak out more forcefully about the "truth" as I saw it. In fact, it then became personal because my personal world was impacted by the resistance of my fellow clergy and many of the parishioners. This pursuit of achieving change was swallowing me and, one way or other, I was going to lose. And, so I left.

Things quieted down during my return to graduate school. The need to adjust to married life and raising children was more than enough. Even my prior anger at our nation's involvement in Vietnam was abated. I watched the revolution occurring in Berkeley with interest, but no personal involvement.

From my understanding, my intolerance was not very striking until I retired. I enjoyed work enough and worked hard enough that my energies were satisfied. In retirement, I had more time to read and think that now it became apparent that I really was enraged by all sorts of things.

My slide from a devout and committed Christian steadily slipped into denial. I could no longer "liberalize" the inherent issues of Christianity. I began to see religions, all of them, as inherently a vehicle for promoting intolerance. I even became quite intolerant of religions!

And then, our nation's response to 9/11was like a catalytic converter for my intolerance and anger. I thought that the path advocated by President George W. Bush was a disaster and then some, And as time progressed, I saw more and more wrong with our policies and our national blindness. We were a problem to others in other nations and we would not examine our behaviors, including our expanding military role throughout the world, our overpowering involvement in the business of the affairs of other nations, our collective self-image of a nation that had it all. We were the best and, as such, we could not do wrong. We did not see that the nation's wealth and the maldistribution of wealth through the world would be self-defeating. We did not recognize that our military expansion would only result in more violence against us. We did not realize that our use of technology to control the affairs of others would only result in distain of our image. Somehow, we had become a super power without any controls. We even went down the road of torture, imprisonment with compliance with international standards, and killing of others without consent of Congress, e.g., use of drones to kill "enemies" identified by intelligence agencies.

While all this was occurring, our national politics became more divided and polarized. As much as I detested this divisiveness, I saw my own intolerance. I admit that I cannot understand the agenda of  the Tea Party or the general Republican agenda. Granted, I have been more disturbed by President Obama's lack of leadership, i.e., exercising more control of the political agenda instead of allowing Congress to mess around with the development of legislation. Since I cannot agree with virtually anything that is espoused by the likes of Rep. Cantor, how can I expect the Democratic members of Congress to do any better.

But, the end result is clearly bad. Intolerance is a very disturbing feature of anyone's personality. I clearly wish that I was different and yet, at the moment, I don't see how. In a way, I am no better than the intolerance that prompted 9/11!

European Debacle

As screwed up as this nation is, Europe is displaying its own resistance to the inevitable. There is no way that the Euro or Eurozone can perdure unless there is a default or a reorganization so that there is a federal government in control of all finances. To expect each nation to comply with a set of principles is expecting too much.

I doubt that the European nations want to lose their "sovereignty", but without such a change, they will drift lower into more chaos. At the end, they will still lose much of the money they have already loaned. It is all upside down.

It does make me feel good about our nation's structure. While we are now undergoing another struggle over state vs. federal rights, it is clear that we all agree that they are both relevant to the success of the other. We would not have a strong nation without our states being able to organize themselves according to the particulars of their geography and peoples.

Letter to the President

Today, I wrote another letter to the President:

I have previously shared my disappointment with your performance. I had such expectations and, in spite of a brutal set of circumstances and an impossible political impasse, I still expect more leadership. So many have suggested many options, some of which you endorsed. Steven Perlstein's column today epitomizes a set of initiatives that would be most impressive. But, the big thing that I emphasize is that you have to create the dynamics that demonstrate your leadership. You have to show that you are indeed willing to lose the White House rather than let the current situation perdure.

I feel bad about not being able to be more supportive of the President than I am. I still think that he is a great person, a most intelligent person, and one that wants the best for our country. But, Wow!, I am incredibly disappointed.

What is the essence of my disappointment is not that he has accomplished so little. Given the Republican resistance and the set of problems he inherited, no one could realistically get anything through Congress. What galls me is that he has not voiced strongly a vision that is consistent with the messages he provided during his campaign. I would want him to lose the next election if that was the price of exercising a strong set of principles that need to be the framework of any legislative action.

His style apparently is such that he cannot be that daring. It is too bad for us all.

Summer is Over

Not that Labor Weekend is any different than any other days for me personally (retirement being a 24/7 type of permanent vacation), I am aware that I experienced much during the summer.

We had our wonderful family together in early July, an annual visit that never gets old. It is so spectacular to watch your adult children interact with each other as well us of the elder generation. They have done so well in so many ways, not the least of which is that they are good persons.

We watched our grandchildren continue to grow and develop. It is such a gift, given that no one can guarantee normal and healthy children. One cannot take it for granted.

I continue to watch with such appreciation my wife's ability to deal so intensely with the grandchildren. As her assistant (a rather dignified term to describe my "help"), I marvel that she can continue for such long periods to interact with them. It almost in superhuman! I can never take her for granted either.

During the summer, I was persistently amazed that our national lawmakers could be so obstinate and, from my perspective, stupid. I cannot understand how they can so rigid that they do not understand how badly our nation is suffering.

I have become a devotee of Walter Mead during the summer. I have occasionally caught a column of his, but more recently, I am reading his daily blog. He is one impressive person, knowledgeable in so many areas. He reminds of Christopher Hitchens who, I understand, is getting closer to death. He will be missed. I have never read anyone whose range of knowledge can be expressed with such verbal skills.

Facebook was a delight during the summer. I made some "new friends" and, for me, any new friend is a treasure.

And finally, but not least, we have added Patrick to our household. He is such a great addition. He is smart and, in spite of marked timidness, he is most comfortable with us and, especially, the grandchildren. He cannot get enough of them.

"The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot

Having treasured the remarkable book about cancer ("The Emperor of All Maladies"), I now completed another remarkable book about cells ("The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks").

There are two aspects of this book worth commenting on:
(1) given that I do read a fair amount, including the above referenced book on cancer, I was struck that I had never heard of the HeLa cells (those originating from Henrietta Lacks' cancerous cervix) (and, by the way, I have written to the author of the cancer book re: his history of cancer that did not include reference to these cells);
(2) the author's ability to construct a readable and interesting narrative about the history of these cells that include her involvement with the family of Henrietta.

For those not about to read the book, the reason why her cells were so important for science and the development of treatments/vaccines, e.g., polio, is that the cells were the first ever to continue to divide endlessly in a lab setting. Most cells follow a normal path of "life", i.e., after a number of episodes of dividing, they die, as we will eventually. The HeLa cells kept going, allowing scientists to better understand the biology of cancer and also to experiment the impact on these cells by new treatments/vaccines.

The cells were taken from Henrietta during her treatment at Johns Hopkins during the early 50's, long before there was sensitivity to patient rights. Thus, she gave no consent and there was no knowledge that her cells were being distributed throughout the world to other scientists. In fact, lost to most people was even the name of the person who was the donor of the cells.

The book is one of the best.

No One has a Clue!

Walter Mead addresses an perspective on the economy that I have addressed often, i.e., the mess that our and the world economies are in are without a historical precedent. The number of factors that creating the mess and/or inhibiting creative responses are new. And, there is no one that has a clue to how to fix the problems.

Granted, politicians act as though they knew what would make a difference. I don't believe anyone of them. In fact, I am not convinced that any of the more academics have an answer that would work. Surely, that does not mean that certain responses will only make matters worse, e.g., how in the world does it make sense to give more billions in loans to Greece when there is no way that they will be able to pay back what they already have borrowed? Surely, our economy cannot develop as it should without reducing the unemployment rate significantly. But, how to create jobs is more problematic.

We are in the midst of a sobering set of problems. I lament that we do not have adequate leadership, but at the same time, I cannot be unrealistic. While Obama has been stymied by the Republicans, he has not provided a clear vision of how to address the issues. If he gave a coherent narrative, I would welcome it and feel as though it is possible to make things better. But, even though he seemed to be right in supporting the Green Revolution as a potential source of many jobs, this effort has been a failure for many reasons, not the least of which is that China's cost structure is impossible to compete against.

I do think that an Infrastructure Bank makes sense. Jobs will be created and who can question the need to renovate much of our infrastructure? After that, I am less than confident about the other ideas.