Monthly Archives: August 2021

Humanitarian

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(We admire those we call “humanitarians,” but they’re just being human. That’s something all of us can be. Dr. Frank Crane wrote 106 years ago about what it takes to be a human-itarian—-)

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE JUST HUMAN?

It means to love folks; to be drawn instinctively to any human being; to gaze on the face of every passer – by with curiosity; to feel the heart warm a little even when looking at an old portrait in a book of one who lived five hundred years ago; to have a sense of uneasiness in    solitude, so that one wants to hunt up the sewing maid or the janitor for a bit of talk  to find pleasure in watching from the window the people in the street; to have every man and woman tempt to acquaintanceship; to see in every room, where people live, something to pique the      imagination; to follow with the eyes every schoolboy and wonder what home he comes from, what companionship he goes to, and what dreams occupy his soul; to feel awe at every old house, deserted and desolate, because human laughter has rung there; to reverence every church because men have worshipped there; to feel a touch upon the soul at the sight of a name carved on a tree, because human feeling is traced there; to hate war, because it means the extermination of men and the spoiling of men’s handiwork; to love human qualities in birds, beasts and things, as the fidelity of the dog, the playfulness and affection of the cat, the whimsicality of the parrot, the docility of the horse and cow, the water that babbles, the fire that talks and dances, the wind that sobs.

It means to be touched with pity at all human misfortune; to have a pang shoot through you when another’s finger is crushed; to shed tears when another’s heart is broken; to feel saddened at the thought of the many lives that are dull and hopeless; to take in one’s own mouth the misery of the multitude; to be shattered and rocked in the depths of the soul at the sight of a prison or a madhouse; to seek in one’s least words and ways to cheer and help any human being one may meet; to smile against the grain for another’s sake; to have an unconquerable aversion to causing pain, or even embarrassment; to avoid drawing attention to one’s own success before the unsuccessful, to one’s own talent before the ungifted, to one’s own health or beauty before the  diseased or ugly; to be insincere rather than unfeeling, so that one pretends mightily to enjoy the box of sweets a little child has given, though one inwardly detests them; to spare the feelings of   the washerwoman as readily as the feelings of the banker; to seek to set any one at ease who       approaches with shyness; when one asks the road to go with him a little way; to treat with respect all who wish to become acquainted; to be gracious even when in a surly mood; to listen patiently and interestedly to the egotist, the domineering and the opinionated, and to encourage the hesitant and diffident; to try to find some points upon which we can agree with every one; to shun all conflicts and seek all fellowships; to take some part in movements for the protection of   the weak, so that one helps do something in an organized way for the rights of children, of laborers, of criminals, of the crippled and the defective, of the common citizen against systematic plans to prey upon him.

To respect every human being and to despise none; to shrink from spoiling any man’s ideal or hope; to shun power and control over people and seek to serve and help people; to value a human soul above all moralities, religions or laws; and to esteem life greater than all institutions.

This it is to be just human.

Bicentennial

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A big weekend is ahead as Missourians celebrates its bicentennial—two-hundred years since President Monroe signed the proclamation making Missouri the nation’s 34th state, the second state west of the Mississippi.

But if all we do is look back, we’re ignoring a responsibility we have for creating the state that will celebrate its TRIcentennial.

The Maori people of New Zealand have an ancient proverb: Ka mua, Ka muri that translates into “walking backward into the future.”

That is what our bicentennial is about—walking into a future we cannot see while looking back on the historic and the familiar things that shaped the present, knowing that we have changed as a people during this journey and that our descendants will be a changed people, too.

Some who do not understand how different we are fear who or what our next generations will be—and out of that fear are making what surely will become futile efforts to confine that future to present, or even past, standards that often are not based on history but are based on the myths of history.

We cannot stop time and if we are realistic about our future as a people, we must recognized that those who gather to celebrate our state’s TRIcentennial in 2121 will be different in appearance, social relationships, political references and in a multitude of other ways we cannot anticipate no matter how hard we might resist.

We are honoring those first settlers of mid-Missouri. But the historical record shows how different from us they were.  We know the names of the men but it is harder to learn the names of their wives and even more difficult to learn the names of the slaves they brought with them. We know they were people of hope, of ambition, and hard work, qualities necessary to survive in a world where fire was an essential ingredient of life. We live in a world where fire is a disaster at worst and a mostly decorative feature of a modern living room at best.

In our world, our homes and even the furniture in them are not products of our own hands. We travel farther in an hour than they sometimes traveled in a week, more in a day than some of them traveled in their lives.

They were not the first Missourians.  In Montgomery County’s Graham Cave State Park, evidence has been found of human habitation 10,000 years ago, long before the Osage populated much of Missouri—and other sites in Missouri date back farther than that.

We are observing 200 years in a place inhabited for thousands of years. We should honor the memories of the ancient ones, too.

We celebrate the bicentennial of man-made boundaries that define where we are and a history that tells us who we have become. But if we look only back on what was and became what is, we are making a serious mistake.  Walking backwards into the future endangers those who will be that future.

Our responsibility is to turn and face that future, respectful of the past but unafraid of the changes that our descendants will make because they must remain, as the people of 200 years ago were, people of hope.

What we do today—what we ARE today—lays the foundation for the state and nation our grandchildren’s grandchildren will inhabit.

So the Missouri bicentennial gives us some choices to make.  Will we continue to follow the trails our ancestors established through extraordinary effort and the  inalienable truths and hope that they brought with them……or will we follow trails of fiction and fear too easily established these days, and too easy to blindly follow?

Will we be a people fearful of one another, often victims of those who would generate fear among us for their own purposes or  power…..or will we be a people who recognize there is nothing wrong with a different heritage, a different color, a different outlook on identity, a different faith?

Will we be people spooked into division, derision, and disrespect….or will we be a people of thought, who seek understanding rather than hostility, people who respect knowledge, and who trust our neighbors regardless of their differences from us?

Will we be the kind of people who choose leaders who  DEmand blind allegiance or the kind of people with wide-open eyes and minds who choose leaders who COmmand respect?

What kind of people are we going to be as we lay the foundation for the kind of people we want our grandchildren’s grandchildren to be?

A hundred years from now, our grandchildren’s grandchildren will gather around the then-weathered monuments we have put up to honor the bicentennial.

What kind of people—in what kind of counties, state, and nation—do we want to have gathered around those monument in 2121?

Our generations will take those first steps on the new trail that stretches before us—the steps that will determine what kind of people and what kind of nation will be here in 100 years. We cannot take those steps by walking backward into the future. We must be unafraid to recognize our grandchildren’s grandchildren will not be like us.  We have to lay a foundation that allows them to be better than us.

We have to create a trail that is broad enough for all and grows broader as it advances. We have to create a trail that is not darkened by division, derision, and disrespect but is brightened by intelligence, independence, and acceptance.

And we must begin building a foundation strong enough to support a  greater nation than we are today.

So let our celebration of the past be brief.  Let our steps today be steps that those celebrating the TRI-centennial of our Missouri will be as grateful to us for taking—as we are for the steps taken by those who were here first.

We will honor the yesterday by the honorable steps we take today into tomorrow.

(The State Historical Society of Missouri was designated by the Missouri General Assembly to be the lead organization for planning the bicentennial. Coordinator Michael Sweeney has worked with every county to plan some event or project celebrating the event. You can learn more about what’s happening statewide or in your area at https://shsmo.org/missouri-2021.)

Racing : Crossing over

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Both of the major auto racing bodies won’t return to the track until NBC has time for something other than the Olympics. But that doesn’t mean wheels have not been turning. Several drivers from both bodies are looking the next steps in their careers.

Trackhouse Racing co-owner Justin Marks (Trackhouse made headlines a few weeks ago by buying Chip Ganassi’s NASCAR operation) doesn’t seem to lack ambition. A few days ago he told Sirius XM’s Dave Moody he’s interested in fielding a car in the Indianapolis 500.  “I don’t think there’s anything that’s off the table.” He says he’s already had some discussions about how to do that.

Former NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson, who’s been racing on INDYCAR road courses this year, will see how he likes driving one of those cars on an oval later this month, perhaps at Homestead-Miami Speedway. He’d love to drive in the Indianapolis 500 next year. He says he might not run the full INDYCAR schedule next year if the overall test goes well. He’d use the time to prepare for the 500. The last NASCAR driver to run the 500 was Kurt Busch, who finished sixth in 2014.  Busch is still active on the NASCAR circuit although the sale of the Ganassi operation has left him unsure of what seat he’ll be in next year.

Another driver seeing what it’s like to turn laps only turning left is Romain Grosjean, who moved to INDYCAR from Formula 1 this year.  He ran 168 laps at Worldwide Technology Raceway, across the river from St. Louis, a few days ago and learned oval racing is harder than it might seem. “Everyone who thinks it’s easy to run ovals is absolutely mistaken,” he said afterwards, also admitting he enjoyed the experience.  He was about a half-second of the day’s fast time on the 1.25-mile track posted by oval veteran Colton Herta.

Ed Carpenter is courting F1 driver Nico Hulkenberg but the discussions are in the very preliminary stage.  Hulkenberg is a test driver for Aston Martin. He’s 33, a veteran of 179 starts but has never had a podium finish. His last full season was 2019 when he drove for Renault. This isn’t Hulkenberg’s first day with INDYCAR.  He talked with Ganassi when he saw himself being dropped by Renault and maintains an interest in INDYCAR.  He seems to be a fit for Ed Carpenter Racing because Carpenter runs only on the ovals. This year, Conor Daly has driven the car on road courses. Carpenter tells Racer he thinks Hulkenberg is interested at least in running an INDYCAR test.

And finally—The BC39 midget race on the quarter-mile infield dirt track at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is Thursday, August 19.  Crossing over from 3700-pound NASCAR vehicles to run midgets on dirt will be defending NASCAR champ Chase Elliott, who has run less than a handful of midget race before, and Conor Daly, a regular INDYCAR driver who has competed in the first two BC39 races and has midget experience beyond that.

NASCAR and INDYCAR return to action next Sunday. NASCAR is on the road course at Watkins Glen. INDYCAR races on the streets of Nashville.

(FORMULA 1)—A surprise winner at the Grand Prix of Hungary last weekend—Estaban Ocon, driving for Alpine-Renault, got his first F1victory but chaos during and after the race altered the final finish and the points standings.

Sebastian Vettel, driving for Aston Martin, finished second but was disqualified when race officials could not take a required fuel sample from his car. His team is appealing the ruling.

The DQ moved Lewis Hamilton to second place and expanded his points lead to eight over Max Verstappen.

The chaos began on the first turn of the first lap—a six-car mash-up triggered when Hamilton teammate Valtteri Botas late-braked and rear-ended Lando Norris who hit Verstappen. Verstappen’s damaged car was repaired during the red-flag period caused by the crash but he was able to climb back only to ninth.

F1 takes its usual summer break for most of August. Its next race Will be August 29, the Belgian Grand Prix.

(ROBIN)—A different kind of “crossing over” is facing one of the sport’s greatest reporters.  A lot of racing fans have seen Robin Miller on various racing television shows or doing pit-walks before races on television.  He’s been one of the greats in reporting on INDYCAR for decades.  Robin is dealing with cancer and leukemia and has penned a sort of farewell for Racer magazine, where he’s been a columnist for about ten years. Before that he covered racing for the Indianapolis Star for more than thirty years.

A couple of years ago, several past winners of the Indianapolis 500 gathered in the Media Center to honor Miller for 50 years of covering the Speedway. Among them where two of his favorites: Mario Andretti and A. J. Foyt.

This is part of what he has written for readers of Racer:

Facing your mortality isn’t something to think about every day or dwell on, because you’re alive and death isn’t in your daily mindset.

But when cancer and leukemia decide to gang up on you then everything changes, and you are suddenly lining up in a heat race with The Grim Reaper. Might be a 50-lapper, could be an enduro or you might get lucky and run for a year or two.

My situation is pretty cut and dried. There is no cure for my illness but it can be treated, and I’ve spent lots of hours at the clinic in Greenwood, Indiana with an awesome staff of doctors and nurses.

The outpouring of good wishes, prayers, positive thoughts and support from RACER nation is beyond humbling. I never dreamed that a guy who writes stories about race drivers could impact people’s lives and instill so much passion. I’ve had the greatest life anyone can imagine, and I’ve been lucky enough to share it with the fans.

Jim Hurtubise befriends me when I’m 17 and stealing beer for him at sprint car races, I’m stooging on his Indy 500 crew in 1968, then I’m covering USAC and IndyCar by 1969 for The Indianapolis Star, I’m working on Bill Finley’s pit crew by 1971 and driving him crazy by 1972, I’ve got a Formula Ford from Andy Granatelli thanks to my friendship with Art Pollard. I’m writing a weekly column about USAC by 1974 and a year later I’ve become the fourth Bettenhausen brother because I bought Merle’s midget…

. It was a great time, pounding up and down the highway with Timmy Coffeen, Bobby Grim Jr. and Tony Lee Bettenhausen. We didn’t have any money, but damn what an experience as we ran Little Springfield, Terre Haute, Kokomo, Eldora and some bullrings that were pretty sketchy but always an adventure.

Yet it was my job that gave me such an entrée into IndyCar history and such an education.

I idolized Herk, Parnelli, A.J., Rutherford, Mario, Gurney, the Unsers and Johncock and by the mid-1970s I was pals with all of them and it was the golden age of racing for my money. They were the modern-day gladiators and revered universally…

I almost died two weeks ago with a nasty infection and fever but my little sister, her best friend and a neighbor saved my life and rushed me to the hospital where three nurses also came to my rescue. I’ve put on 10 pounds and got my appetite back after three months, and my goal is to get to the triple-header at the Brickyard next month.

But I have to tell you about the amazing people who have stepped up with generosity that’s immeasurable.

Randy Bernard sent my sister an American Express gold card and said I wasn’t allowed to pay anything in the way of bills. Indianapolis Colts owner Jimmy Irsay did something that can’t even be imagined, but showed how big his heart is and it’s beyond humbling. Ditto for 1970 Indiana Mr. Basketball David Shepherd, whose generosity is off the chart. A.J. has called several times asking if I needed financial help and The Gas Man (Tom Sneva) has offered whatever I need. My best buds Steve Shunck, Larry Schmalfeldt, Feeno, Billy Shepherd, Davey Shep, Ralf Frey, Billy Benner, David Benner, Larry Walker, Bob Grim, John Mandlebaum, Al Freedman and Monk Palmore bring me lunch, dinner and hours of great conversation and they’ve rebuilt my condo, installed an electric staircase, built my sister a bed and kept me company daily. Nobody has more good friends than I do and I’m so… the word “lucky” isn’t appropriate. It’s beyond comprehension.

And my sister Diane has been here three months and I cannot begin to explain what an angel she’s been. I’d be lost without her mothering and nursing skills, along with her best friends Terri, Susie and Riney.

I don’t know what the future holds, but I’m at peace with whatever happens, be it a year or six months or six weeks or six hours. My plan is to move to Phoenix later this year because I want to watch the nephews and niece grow up and just peacefully pass on surrounded by my family, whenever it’s time…

But he says his first goal is to make it to the INDYCAR/NASCAR tripleheader at the Speedway later this month.

(Photo Credits: Grosjean–Chris Owens, IMS; Andretti, Miller, Foyt—Bob Priddy)

 

Making a house a home

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(It might sound a little old-fashioned, but what’s inside a house—or rather, what’s inside those inside a house—make it a home.  Dr. Frank Crane explains the values that make a house a home.)

THE HOUSEHOLD GOODS

The walls of a house are not built of wood, brick, or stone but of truth and loyalty. Unpleasant sounds, the friction of living, the clash of personalities are not deadened by Persian rugs and polished floors but conciliation, concession, and self-control.

The curtains that screen the household gods from the eyes of the vulgar and the curious are not woven of lace, but of discretion.

The food of the home is not meat and bread but thoughtfulness and unselfishness for these keep joy alive.

The real drink is not wine or water, but love itself, which is the only known thing that is at once a food and an intoxicant.

The bed is not to be of down and white linen but of “a conscience void of offense toward God and toward man.”

The lighting is not to be of the sun by day or by electric bulbs at night but by loyal affection, shining always in dear hears, burning always in true hearts.

Your home is not where you layoff your clothes but where you lay off your cares.

The cellar of your house is not be filled with apples or rare vintage but with the memory of sacred intimacies, of little heroisms unknown to the world of sufferings borne nobly.

In the attic, you do no store old trunks, letters and gowns, but you keep there the kisses, sayings and glances that cheered you when you gathered them fresh, and are now a sweet sorrow when dried by time.

The house is not a structure where bodies meet, but a hearthstone upon which flames of souls which, the more perfectly they unite, the more clearly they shine and the straighter the rise toward heaven.

Your house is a fortress in a warring world, where a woman’s hand buckles on your armor at morning and soothes your fatigue and wounds at night.

The beauty of a house is harmony.

The security of a house is loyalty.

The joy of a house is love.

The plenty of a house is in children.

The rule of a house is service.

The comfort of a house is in contented spirits.

The rats and mice in a house are envy and suspicion.

The maker of a house, of a real human house, is God himself the same who made the stars and built the world.

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