Book Reports - Page 2

Chapter 3: describes the first half of life. The first half of life container is made up through impulse controls, traditions, group symbols, family loyalty, respect for authority, civil and church laws, and a sense of goodness. There are mistakes that we have to make and learn from. We have to learn how to fall and learn from that fall, as you learn how to recover from falling by falling. We need to limit our egocentricity with laws and traditions and to make marriage and community possible. We need lase like the Ten Commandments so that we can believe someone, not envy others, feel safe. Laws prevent anarchy and chaos. We need to be tutored in a limit situation in our first half so we can properly parent children. The best person to hire to get a job done well is one who has faced limit situations as they have not been coddled and do have discipline and persistence. We need both unconditional and conditional love. The isms that have governed us in the 20th century have produced a negative foundation. Juniors have ruled us and they only want to protect their temporary privilege after acting and overreacting. The conditional and unconditional love has produced some great people in history. For me, I am not so certain that I had both when I was growing up. In organizations we need a good boss and a bad boss. If you whine about parents and authority for too long you will often become a narcissist. They use their victim-hood as identity, a ticket to sympathy, and an excuse for not serving, instead of using it to redeem the world. A mature people thanks the harder parent, tough coach, demanding teacher – later in life, though. Our Western dualistic minds do not process paradoxes well, unlike non-Christian religions who seem to do it (live with both law and freedom at the same time) better. We rush to judgment and demand a complete resolution and do not stop to see how a situation can teach us. It seems that indigenous and “primitive” societies seem less neurotic and anxious and have healthier psyches and ego structures. In the Western world we cannot build prisons fast enough and have enough recovery groups. Entitlement seems to be the rule. Elders are not serving as elders. Over the last 500 years tradition and limits have not been popular. The ego has taken control and has not prepared us properly for the outside world. The misuse of law and authority has had dire consequences Reliance on structure and authority has produced anger and blindness because the necessary self-questioning and self-confidence is not there. Unquestioning followers have waged wars and genocides and other tragedies. They take comfort in the fact that they can elude responsibility and the burden of thinking. We now love the habitual and familiar and do not want to leave home and family as Jesus wants us to. Father Rohr says that we need to use both-and as opposed to either - or. You need to eat the fruit of the garden to know what it tastes like. We can both know the rules and critique them at the same time. There seems to be a desire to return to the good old days (MAGA?) when we were on top. A new tribalism is taking hold in the world’s religions – traditions, ethnicity, symbols, roots – identity politics. With globalism, we have to defeat the other side to be on top and get a level of truth. We tend to redo a task that we were not able do in our first half and actually overdo it, with a mix of militarism, technology, consumerism and individualism. True conservatives tend to be like the Amish, Shakers, Mennonites, Quakers and Poor Clares. A lot of seminarians had no father figure when they were growing up. It is also true in prisons, and the military. An all-male club is a tribe that is secure and superior. They become risk adverse. We have to discharge our personal “Loyal soldier” with closure at the end of transitions, including this one. We have to become thinkers and not blindly loyal citizens. The loyal soldier gets us through the first half of like by avoiding impulse and addictions, being careful when crossing a street, and learning the sacred no to himself so we can get boundaries and identity. But the security of the loyal soldier can be confused with that of God. And he cannot get you through the second half of life. He has to let go and have a new guide (think of Dante and Beatrice). Virgil is the first half for Dante; Beatrice for the second. The loyal soldier helps us fight the devil in half 1. It is like the super ego feels like God because we have nothing else to go by. In the second half we have to actually hear the voice of God. It’s now voices of trust, surrender, common sense, love, and destiny. Wholeness and holiness will always stretch us beyond our comfort zone. God, life and destiny have to loosen the loyal soldier’s grasp. Letting go will be a big break from your base. To break out you will need a guide or friend like Dante had with Virgil and Beatrice and Odysseus had with Tiresias, or perhaps a soul mate (maybe that for me is Ellen). When the loyal soldier is not able to help us with serious issues of life like death, suffering and sin. Maybe going through hell or Hades is the path to heaven? We will need soul friends and other than Ellen, and I am not certain about Charlie, I cannot think of anyone else for me. Maybe God has to work in secret and in darkness in the soul. If we knew what was going to happen we would probably stop the process. Chapter 4 is about the tragic natural world. We should learn from exceptions, and hose on the edge because they have much to teach us. They make us look and re-calibrate what is normal. Today’s world is full of diversity and variations of everything. There are lots of exceptions and Jesus had no trouble mingling with them. But we have had a sad history of abusing people we don’t think are right. When God forgives us, He is saying that his rules don’t matter. Absolute forgiveness should make us want to trust God. Jesus parables are often about losing something and going to great lengths to find it and then celebrate. Humans have a hard time with the specific and play pretend. There is rational and irrational, conscious and unconscious and forces of good and evil play out the tragedies and triumphs and lead to failure, hate, catastrophes, errors. These are supposed to lead us forward (the didn’t LISB disaster help me move forward?). Hubris makes us reluctant to apologize and admit a mistake. Our salvation is based on a tragedy (Crucifixion) and then a triumph (Resurrection). Jesus does not like people who don’t think that they are sinners (and He does not dislike sinners). He was able to find a higher order in the chaos. We need to find a unified field that Jesus had found and without it there are no healings to life ‘s contradictions and inconsistencies. Father Rohr also says that organized religion is not too comfortable with diversity and people being different. Passions that lead us away from Go d can turn us back to Him. God wants us to turn our loves around and toward the Great Love. Clergy have considered laic imperfect because they are doing something wrong. They blame the victim and do not pity them but yet worship the victim image of God. Our mistakes are to be pitied and healed as opposed to being hated , denied or avoided. Father also says that we should not get rid of our sins until you learned what it has to teach us and then not return. Goat stories of racism, slavery, world wars, and sexism were tolerated by Christian Europe and show our disillusionment and disgust with ourselves. We do not love the imperfection within ourselves so therefore we cannot love those that are not like us: non-Christians, non-whites, women and others that don’t fit into our order. We have been promised utopias with no room for error by philosophers but Jewish Scriptures say the opposite. Despite 5 sources in the Old Testament and 4 sources of Jesus’ life, the books of the Bible all seem to say that God is with us and we are not alone. In the big picture of life the tragic sense of life is not really tragic. Living in deep time and being connected to the past and the future prepares us for necessary suffering and keeps us from despair over our failure and loss. The tragic sense of life is not unbelief or cynicism , but it is just the ultimate and humiliating realism which demands a lot of forgiveness of almost everything. Faith is actually trusting the real and to trust God is found within it. The major stumbling stone and the price we must pay to keep the human heart for closing down is the faith to trust. Chapters 5 and 6 talk about stumbling and getting up. He reminds us that there will be things that we can never change, and we cannot achieve no matter what (for me, maybe it’s not being super successful and having lots of friends). We will always be losing something and then have to try and find it (lost sheep, prodigal son, lost coin per Jesus’ parables). We will have to deal with suffering. “the truth shall set you free, but it will make you miserable. The natural world believes in suffering, life & death and predator & prey. Humans don’t always follow this. Incarnational mysticism combines earthly embodiment and divinization. Reality, creation and nature have no choice in the matter of necessary suffering. Father Rohr also says that Jesus is the ultimate spiritual authority, as He is always spot on. Father also says that to get to the second half of life we have to follow Jesus’ warning to hate your family. Anyway, by part 2 we are often at odds with family and the familiar . Many of us have been kept from a mature Part 2 thanks to immature or pious Part 1 family expectations. Crowds and the collective can also stop us from going into Part 2 (Father cites a bucket of crabs as an example of being held back). We are still stuck with what everyone else thinks. Jesus uses strong words to push us out of the mainly nest and name a necessary suffering at the most personal level. It takes a lot to push beyond the destiny Mom & Dad decided for us. The break is hard and it’s not easy to establish new boundaries. Father noted that the great religious leaders and figures like Moses, Jesus, Buddha, Francis, Clare, and Abraham did a major turnabout and left home, endured downward mobility and went on pilgrimages. It was “leave home to find it”. Not necessarily the brick & mortar house, but the security, illusions, validities of home & family. Jesus told us that losing your life may also mean losing your self - a role you had created. It must die for you to be real. True self is what you are objectively from the beginning in the mind of God. Substantial self and absolute identity – It cannot be gained or lost by technique, affiliation, or mortality. It is necessary to surrender a false self, and necessary suffering to find the pearl of great price.

In chapter 7 we see that the goal of a sacred story is to let the hero return home, after first letting leave in the beginning. The typical home points in two directions - there is the foundation seed that points forward towards an ideal paradise – a human device. We yearn for home even if as shitty. Could be spiritual or nostalgia. It calls us backward and forward – foundations and future. We are sent and driven by the same Force. We are called forward and driven by a sense of homesickness. In The Odyssey the Greeks did not want to return home after they conquered Troy. Odysseus was the only one who did – he had to get home. It’s a stand in for us. The Holy Spirit works secretly within us, He keeps us connected and we discover the inner abiding when we draw on our deep inner life. We can think of Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz or Steppenwolf. Homesickness guides us. Home is the Spirit that we are, our true self in God. Per St. Teresa of Avila home is when we find God in ourselves and ourselves in God. We are homesick until then. Soul is the place of longing. The Holy Spirit is the advocate who guides us to and from home. The Holy Spirit speaks to us and for us. We don’t seem to have the inner voices that the ancient heroes followed to leave home. The postmodern peoples’ universe is not really enchanted. But sciences do explain and confirm the deep intuitions of religion. God has created things that continue to recreate themselves. His form of creation is evolution. Think of Odysseus when his oar is converted into a winnowing shovel. He can separate – and know the difference between the essentials and the non-essentials. For Odysseus it is the end of his journey and he is now home. No more sailing and oaring. He is now his true self. Father Rohr says that we

Have an inner drive liking for our true self;
There are risks and promises that led us to the second half and we are called to them;
Dare to fill out mine with additions and distractions;
If we go to the depths, we will fall upon something real and substantial;
Something real is what religions have called heaven, nirvana, or bliss;
These events become the hint of an eternal something – the real has to be forever.

Chapter 8 says that religion is to guide us to our true self. We draw upon a larger source. Mature religion tried to get us out of the false self. Spirituality is about unlearning more than learning. The growing boy usually becomes a major illusion to free the person and bring him back to beginnings in God. Our divine union is heaven and the loss is hell. They refer to present experiences. Only the True Self knows it is now. If you learn your true self you live in the big picture. We must let go of our little kingdoms. Choose union now, as exclusion brings hell. Life is about practicing for heaven and heaven is the state of union here and later. Being alone in heaven is not really heaven so there should be no exclusions. We get what we want and ask for. God excludes no one from union so how can He be unloving(?). Classic spiritual journeys start as elitist and end egalitarian. We are the “one” according to us and elitist instead of egalitarian. Pope John Paul II told us that heaven and hell are states of consciousness as opposed to geographical places. We are our own worst enemies and deny what is too good to be true. The ego prefers economy and merit – winners and losers as opposed to economy of grace, where merit loses meaning. Healing of amnesia and entry into heaven is rediscovering the world of a happy child. It also includes love, unique life journeys, and failures to keep us honest and grounded. Chapter 9 says that Adam and Eve were not literal historical people, and we have to be universal as Jesus is. It’s all or nothing. The transformation is both-and, which equals include and broaden. We now have the big picture for ongoing growth. God has to be for everybody or He is not much of a god. We are driven to all , including those who are “other”. God does not torture and exclude forever those that don’t agree with Him. We are created in God’s image and anything good we say about humanity can be multiplied exponentially for God. The universe cannot be evil or grounded in chaos. Most people want a magician type of God instead of one who works secretly and humbly. So evolution is not a problem. Basic religious belief is a vote for coherence, purpose and direction. Faith is saying God is good and one, and all reality is simple and beautiful too. We have to be able to carry anxiety and doubt. To hold the full mystery of life is always to endure its other half – the equal mystery of death and doubt. To know something fully is to hold a part of it which is mysterious and unknowable. The first half of life naivete includes a kind of excitement and happiness that is hard to let go of, unless you know there is a deeper happiness ahead of you. Elders who are in the second half of life have to tell us . First naivete is what we admire in young zealots but we wisely should not follow them or make them our leaders. Wisdom lives with mystery, doubt, and unknowing. It takes a lot of learning to know ignorance. In the 2nd half of life simple meaning now suffices and it becomes a deeper happiness. Souls have to have meaning. (it can stop people from killing themselves). Meaning is the shape of human happiness. A 2nd half person has this new coherence – a unified field inclusive of paradoxes. It is a return to simplicity after complexity. Once you can include people who are different into your field. Bring in the painful parts and once excluded parts into the unified field. Once you forgive yourself for your failings you can forgive others, If you have not, then you will pass your judgement, sadness, and futility on to others. Don’t miss out on the joy of the first simplicity and lose out on the magnanimity of the second simplicity. Hold together all of the stages of life. Chapter 10 tells us that in the second half it is bright sadness and sober happiness. And now there is less need in elimination the negative o fearful, as well as rash judgments, or holding on to past hurts or need to punish others (let go of the past). All of these are ego based and counterproductive (I learned that the hard way, especially with St. Francis and St. John’s). Ignore these urges. You now go fight only hen called to and are equipped. By the second half most frontal attaches produce evil in you. Remember the Grand Inquisitor or the Florida Koran burners who considered themselves holier than thou but never got holier than anyone. Maybe the court houses should post the 8 Beatitudes on the walls instead of the 10 Commandments. In the second half we should try to influence events, work for change, persuade, pray, change your attitude and to forgive. We now have here-ness with its own authority and influence. True elders do not need a lot of words – they keep it short and simple. You differentiate yourself when you are young (maybe like my days at Marist College?)In the second half we look for things we share in common – happiness in alike-ness. No need to dwell on differences in people. IN the second half we should be part of the dance and there is no need to stand out. It is participator and not assertive. I don’t have to prove that my group or I am the best (maybe Engine 2 versus Engine 1?)or anything else of mine is the best. There is no more amassing stuff, paying back, or giving back. Live simply. Generate life for the benefit on future generations. Love what you have right now. In the second half we don’t feel the need to impress others (unlike some of the blowhards from the other engine company). Inner brightness is its own reward. All of life’s problems can be solved by falling into a larger brightness. “Dearest freshness deep down things” per Hopkins. It is what we have been waiting for – the actual falling upward. Best criticism of the bad is the practice of the better. St Francis did not attack evil or others but spent his life falling into the good, true and beautiful. This inner brightness ends up being a better and longer lasting alternative to war, anger and violence. One shining person is the goal of humanity and the delight of God. “words have become flesh”. Chapter 11: by the second half of life you contacted your shadow self. You get detached from your persona (stage mask) which is not true since it’s made up by your mind. Your shadow self is what you refuse to see about yourself and what you do not want others to see. The more you created a persona, the more shadow work you need to do. The more you are attached to the self-image , the more shadow self you have. The more you live out of our shadow self the less capable you are of recognizing the persona you project and protect. Your purpose is what most people want from you and what you choose to identify with. Try to make friends with the people who have a challenging message for you (see Matthew 5: 25 & 26). We learn in chapter 12 that your world should grow larger but circle of friends /confidants should shrink (I kind of agree with this) but get more intimate (I am not so sure). In the second half of life you are n longer ticked off when people and institutions do first half of life tasks. Institutions must be concerned with memberships, policies. We have to honor needs of the first half while creating space and time for the second half. Groups have to be concerned with practical things but this leads to getting impatient with them rules, and protocols among other things. They worry about lawsuits. These are ego needs The Gospels; bottom line says that we have to hit bottom before we can go on a spiritual journey. It is hard to absorb the Gospel in the first half of life so we settle for answers and organizations and build on non-answer answers. Often a few friends help do better helping than organizations do. Big organizations provide skeleton and local level provides muscle, meat and miracles. Ego demands a tit for tat universe. Soulful people can calm temper tantrums and lessen urgency when all others are bickering. Soulful people are the ingredients to grow groups up. Jesus wants us to be the undertow to make it happen. The second half people are needed in groups to stop self-interest. Groups are concerned with identities and boundaries. Don’t demand what is not possible. In part 2 you can join organizations you can’t join in the first half again. Let them do what they want to do. Look for people who are multipliers (like the sower who planted in fertile receptive soil per Jesus’ parable) who are often outside the church. The 3 monotheistic religions defines themselves by against-ness and also did a lot of binding and not enough looseness. In part 2 you must be prepared to have old friends, groups and churches no longer speak to you like they used to. But you will have a new ability to be alone and maybe enjoy it. The cure for loneliness is now actually solitude. The first half of life is writing the text and the second half is commentary on that text. Introversion is now the thing. We don’t crave loud music, crowds, and needless diversions. Life has stimulated us enough so we are partial to under stimulation – silence and poetry seem more natural. Yu may think that you no longer have a place to lay your head but a whole set of new heads are starting to make sense. If you politics are not now compassionate and inclusive, then you are probably not in part 2 yet. Are the new friends and groups passed over to the Big Picture? The 2 or 3 gathered can create a new group with a new level of affiliation and friendship. But keep politics out of it. There is also a double belonging of people at part 2. No one group meets their needs, desires, and visions. Thing of colonized and occupied people, and minorities. They have to be in several levels of belonging to survive and get through the day. We now have a capacity for non-dualistic or both-and thinking. It’s almost the benchmark into entry into part 2. Calm and contemplative thinking comes into play. After years of conflict, confusion, broadening, and forgiving reality. We learn to incorporate the negative. And forgive our enemies. There is no longer a need to divide the field, It just is. This calm allows us to confront what must be confronted with even greater clarity and incisiveness. It’s not passivity but is the link between true contemplations and skillful actin. The small and petty you is out of the way, and God’s chances to have him use you improve. Dualistic thinking is the pattern of knowing things by comparison. But comparing is like judging and usually leads to concluding that one thing is good and another is not. Then there is a pattern of up & down (us vs them, good vs. bad, etc.). Dualistic minds compare, condemn, conflict, conspire, conspires, cancels out and crucifies. This is part of most of the 1st half – like my ethnic group or my team is the best. But it’s not good for the 2nd half. Many religions now have non-dualistic thinking, or both-and. It can be the benchmark of the 2nd half. You no longer halve to divide the field into all right or all wrong. The petty self is out of the way and God’s chances are better now. Dualistic thinking is a lot of comparison and judging. Non-dualistic wisdom is contemplation and is necessary to get you into the right filed if you are already in the right ballpark. But we do need elements of both dualistic and non-dualistic thinking. Chapter 13: Falling upward can lead us into a deeper and broader world where the soul finds its fullness. And is connected to the whole and the Big Picture. This is a gain and not a loss. These people have come to their human fullness often after suffering personally or vicariously They are the models and goals for humanity. Father Rohr talked about Helen Keller and how she used her handicaps to perform service to others. She was actually happy. She was a transformed person. Anne Sullivan was able to mirror Helen. Father said that a lot of people loved him for what he was not or rejected him for the same reason. But others loved him for what he was despite the shortcomings, and that is what really redeemed him. Good people will mirror goodness in us, and not-so-mature people will not and are harder to love. Only those people who respond to the real you, good or bad, who help you in the long run. Midlife includes learning to tell the difference between people who are still dealing with their issues through us and those who are dealing with us as we really are. By the 2nd half you should learn to tell the difference between who you really are and how others can mirror that or not, so you won’t take their praises or insults too seriously. In the 2nd half, you step out of the hall of revolving mirrors and you can only do this if you have one true mirror yourself., at least one true and honest friend to ground you (maybe Ellen for me). You need one true mirror that reveals your inner, deepest, and divine image. Mature spirituality insists on soul friends or mentors for individuals and prophets and truth speakers for groups. We do mirror ourselves though one another’s eyes and when that is done truthfully can we mirror others with freedom and truth. In the 2nd half people have less power to infatuate you (maybe why I am not impressed with some of the firehouse blowhards?) and less power to control you. I kind of agree, since I don’t let people do my thinking for me as a form of friendship. Like Father Rohr, I have also fallen many times relationally, professionally, emotionally and physically during my life, but finally bounced back and maybe fell upward (a decent career from 1989 to retirement, a lovely wife, a few friends, and so far, no serious ailments). After a catastrophe, God see it as an opportunity for us to work with him. Failure and suffering are great equalizers among humans, bur success is just the opposite. The Gospel provided the problem inside the solution – falling became the standing, stumbling became the finding, dying became the rising, and the raft became the shore. The small self cannot see that easily, and maybe that is why so many youngsters kill themselves. This is why we need elders and those who can mirror life truthfully. The true gaze of God receives us as we are. And transforms us. It’s what we wait for all of our lives. The gaze of God is what makes us really free to accept and include and forgive. It’s the accepting gaze. No need to ask if (s)he deserves it. Nobody can keep us from our 2nd half of life besides ourselves. Nothing can inhibit the journey except our own lack of courage, patience and imagination. It’s ours to walk or avoid. Maybe some falling apart in the 1st journey is necessary so we should waste time lamenting poor parenting, poverty, gender identity failed jobs or relationships or abuse. Pain is part of the deal. If you don’t walk into the 2nd half of your life then it is you who does not want it. God will give you what you truly want and desire. So desire deeply – yourself, God and everything true & good and beautiful. God abhors vacuums and will rush to fill them.

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On March 12th I started to read Little League Family by Leonard Wibberley. This book is about a family who lives in White’s Beach CA, a suburb of Los Angeles. The family consists of Peter the father, the mom, three sons: Kevin, Rory and Cormac (or Coco), and Arabella the daughter. Peter is a salesman for the Safehold Container Corporation. In chapter 1 an order that a New England foundry placed with Safehold was accidentally shipped to an orchid growing organization in Hawaii. At the same time, Peter and the wife were conned by the kids into going to a meeting at the White’s Beach Recreation Department. At the meeting, Peter is nominated and elected to the board of the department. The next day Peter is told by his boss to fly to Hawaii and fix the mis-shipment of the concrete containers sent there. He arrived and contacted the Orchid Growers Association director, Mr. Li, who told him to go to the site and arrange to retrieve the containers and arrange for their shipment to the foundry. But they were already picked up and the person at the warehouse (Boysies) did not know who it was. Peter then called Mr. Li and later they meet at a hotel and Mr. Li tells him that the containers were sent to the New England foundry as originally intended. He then was asked to stay in Hawaii to play some golf, and surf, at Mr.; Li’s request. Meanwhile, in California, Rory and Coco are enrolling in the local Little League and got their uniforms and their assigned teams: Indians for Rory and Yankees for Coco. Rory is assigned to the outfield while Coco becomes a pitcher. A transplant from Iowa named Dale “Spider” Edwards also joins the league as a starting pitcher and is assigned to Coco ‘s team. Peter came home from Hawaii in time for the league’s opening day and got to watch the Yankees play the Orioles. The Yankees took the lead until the middle innings when Spider ran out of steam and gave up several runs. Coco came in from the outfield to relieve Spider. Coco did a little better but the Yankees ended up losing 8-7. Mr. Hurley soon got selected as the chairman of the pancake breakfast fundraiser and has to figure out how to cook up enough pancakes for about 3,000 guests. Since he was not at the committee meeting, Peter got elected chairman of the Pancake Breakfast fundraiser. Now he has to figure out the logistics for a possible 3,000 guests. Then he had to go on a trip to Portland to make a deal with the Oregonian Cheddar Association for then to buy containers from Safehold, and later was able to make a deal with the Hawaiian Coffee Producers Association for Styrofoam containers. Meanwhile, back in California Kevin Is helping Coco with his pitching and they manage to damage the garage door which is being used as a backstop. Pretty soon Coco’s team, the Yankees, faces Rory’s team the Indians in a league game. In the later innings Rory came to bat and faced Coco, who was on the mound. Since the bases were loaded but the Yankees still let (5-1) rather than risk a grand slam, Coco walked his brother and only walked in one run. Eventually the other Indians were retired (2 K’s and a fly ball to right field) so the score stayed at 5-2, and that would be the final score. In chapter Peter attended the committee meeting to plan the Pancake Breakfast. They have to decide how to get the tickets printed, getting cooking equipment, and maybe having a prominent person appear as a guest to attract more people. They decided on a congressman named Soderstrom. Peter was against the ideas since he opposed mixing politics and baseball. But Mr. Heinz the baker, who was donating most of the ingredients, told him into inviting the politician. After all, they accepted he ingredients from Mr. Heinz. But two days before the Breakfast is to take place, Peter’s boss, Mr. Pestinock, told him to fly to Hawaii and meet with the officers of the coffee grower because they managed to place an order with Safehold’s competitor – Catchall Container Corporation. Peter was told to talk the Association out of the deal with Catchall. So he hastily flies to Hawaii, reluctantly, but managed to sell tickets to the plane’s crew. Once he arrived, he tried to contact the officers of the Kona Coffee Growers Organization but had no luck. But he was able to contact Mr. Li at the hotel. Mr. Li told him that Friday is a bad day to try and conduct business. Peter declines a game of golf with Mr. Li and flies back to California. Peter rushed back to California in chapter 10 and arrived in Los Angeles at 3 am Saturday to a nightmare. There wee o pancake ingredients at the bakery, the grocery store owner was away fishing and there were no trash cans. Soon the help arrived and were able to cook pancakes and serve 4,000 people over the course of the morning. Joe Soderstrom showed up and even helped in the kitchen. In the end, the breakfast netted around $2,900.00. On the field, Coco is still pitching, usually as a relief pitcher. He is still throwing wild on occasion but his brothers are still there to coach him. Rory is now catcher sometimes. There is the team called the Pirates who were stuck in last place in the early part of the season. But in a game played in June they scored a double play against their opponent and suddenly morale and playing improved. They got a winning streak and were soon challenging the Yankees for 2nd place. In a Pirates – Indians game, Rory is catching for the Indians. In an inning with runners on 1st and 3rd the Pirates’ batter hits a foul ball that was caught by the 1st baseman, who then threw to Rory at home after the Pirates runner headed home from 3rd base. There was a collision at the plate but the runner was called out. But the Pirates coaches said that the ball was dead since it was caught in foul territory. But the decision stood and the runner was still out. But in the end, the Pirates won that game anyway. Meanwhile, Peter is back in Hawaii trying to talk the Kona coffee growers out of their ideal with Catchall Containers. When he went back to the hotel, he had messages to call Mr. Pestinock and Mr. Li. He called his boss first, who told him to return to LA. When he called Mr. Li, Mr. Li spoke with him about the issues with the containers – none lost this time, but the competition has a two year deal with the coffee growers. He also asked Peter how the baseball league was doing. Peter told him that he had to fly back to Los Angeles and once there at his meeting with Mr. Pestinock it was pretty bad for Peter. His boss criticized his attitude and performance and had hi reassigned to the Arizona and New Mexico district. When Peter got back to California, he announced the transfer to his wife and children, who told him that family comes first, and they have root in white’s Beach. But Mr. Pestinock says the opposite. Later Peter goes to his boss to tell him that he is thinking of quitting. Chapter 14 is all about baseball. The Yankees are in 1st place with the Pirates and Indians tied for 2nd place. When these 2 teams faced each other, the Indians fell apart thanks to errors. Rory made 2 of them. Coco’s pitching on the Yankees was pretty poor, too. Soon it was the All Star Break and neither Coco nor Rory made the team. Peter did lose his job with Safehold and some blamed the Pancake Breakfast for it. During the All Star Break the boys headed to the beach to surf. An outsider wave comes in from nowhere and their friend Ron got banged up when he was wiped out. Another friend, Ray, had his thumb banged up. In Chapter 15 the brothers are sitting out the break and the White’s Beach team never got past the team from El Redondo on the road to Williamsport. Even though they did not make the team they still went to practices to help the team out. But the starting center fielder went with his dad on a fishing trip to Mexico, and now Rory is called in to replace him. Coco started to pitch batting practice and was eventually selected as an alternate pitcher. Peter went to the piers to try and catch fish and runs into Al Flint. Al left and headed past Heinz’ Bakery and told the owner that Peter was out of work. White’s Beach’s all-star team Westham 6-4 and next up was Toddstown West. Toddstown had 2 teams. The East team got beaten by El Redondo 8-1 to get eliminated. Soon White’s Beach trailed Toddstown West 2-0, but White’s Beach tied the score and then went ahead for an inning. It got tied again and went into extra innings. Spider Edwards came out of the game and Coco relieved him. Rory caught for his brother. White’s Beach won the game and soon would face El Redondo. There are now only 3 teams left after round 2. White’s Beach got a bye in round 3 while El Redondo soon eliminated Warren. In that game El Redondo went ahead on a triple and won 7-4. Two days later they faced White’s Beach for the district championship. Meanwhile Peter interviewed with Western Pipe and Appliance at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles’ Pershing Square. During the interview Peter said that he would not move from territory to territory, so he did not get the job. In El Redondo, the White’s Beach and el Redondo teams faced each other. For the Beach team, Spider Edwards and Ron Fields were the pitchers. Rory is in center field and Al Harter is the catcher. White’s Beach is up first as the visiting team but El Redondo goes up 2-0 in the 3rd inning. Then in the next inning the Beach men go ahead before the home teams is leading 5-4. It’s now 2 out with the bases loaded for the home team. In the 5th inning, the coach made a battery change – Coco is pitching and Rory is his catcher. In chapter 18 Peter arrived in the stands after his interview in Los Angeles. The El Redondo batter flied out to center field and the side was retired. But the score was still 5-4 in favor of the home team. When White’s Beach came up on the 7th inning, they ended their half with 2 out and a runner on first. Then another player reached base. When Rory come to bat, he hit a 3-run homer to put the Beach men ahead by 2. The final score was 7-5 White’s Beach. In chapter 18 the White’s Beach team won 3 more games but eventually lost to Mill Valley to get eliminated. But nobody was depressed. The team had reached the state’s semifinals. After the season there were banquets with trophies and plaques. Then the brothers went surfing. And Mr. Hurley still did not have a job. But soon Mr. Li called him to offer him a job with the Orchid Growers Association at their new West Coast office. The people from the pancake breakfast recommended him because Peter showed how much he cared about the people when he flew to California from Hawaii to help at the breakfast. They recommended home because of his concern for people. Peter did fly to Honolulu to sign up for the job. And later in the year after basketball season was over the Riley brothers asked him to come to a meeting. He was asked to chair a pancake breakfast committee and this time he accepted.

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On April 5th I returned to reading The Greatest Ballpark Ever and started with Chapter 7. In chapter 7 we see a lot of changes coming during 1938. First, the Brooklyn Trust Company dispute with the Ebbets heirs was dismissed. The club hired Leo Durocher as a shortstop (with plans to maybe make him a manager later on). Then they hired Leland “Larry” MacPhail as an executive vice president. MacPhail brings night baseball to the park (the Dodgers lost their first night game to Cincinnati’s Johnny Van Der Meer who pitched his second no-hitter against them), and also has it renovated. There are new uniforms introduced, as is Ladies Day on a regular basis. MacPhail also hired Red Barber as an announcer, who spiced up the broadcasts with some Southernisms. In 1938 the team also hired Babe Ruth as a first base coach, with the thought that he would become the manager. But Base and Leo feuded and Babe resigned after one season. On August 26, 1939, the first televised Dodger game was broadcast, and in October they televised football Dodgers’ game. Walter O’Malley came on board after a posthumous birthday party to Charley Ebbets held at the Brooklyn Club on October 29, 1939. During 1940 the Dodgers lost out to the Reds for the National League pennant, but in 1941 with the help of Pete Reiser and others, they win the pennant after beating the Braves in Boston. A crowd was waiting for their train in Grand Central Terminal, and MacPhail went to the 125th Station to get on and greet the players. But manager Durocher told the engineer to skip the station and go straight to Grand Central. MacPhail is left at 125th Street and when he does meet up with Leo Durocher at a hotel by the Terminal, he fired him. As for the series, the Dodgers’ first since 1920, they lost to the Yankees in 5 games. The heart breaker was Game #4 when Mickey Owen loses the ball on the third strike and Yankee Tommy Henreich goes to first after striking out, and the Yankees rally to win the game end eventually the series. Soon after the series, the country would be at war. Chapter 8 talks about what happened after the 1941 baseball season. MacPhail has the field re-sodded and football Dodgers have Ebbets Field as their home turf. These Dodgers started with mediocrity but soon started to win games and almost won the NFL East title. They payed the New York Football Giants on December 7th for pride and during the game military and civilian leaders were paged and told to report somewhere. Soldiers were told to report to their duty stations. Also in late 1941, on November 1st, Robert Moses’ new project, the Gowanus Expressway, opened up along 3rd Avenue in Sunset Park. I was wider than an elevated train right of way, and completely blocked off light on 3rd Avenue. It split the Sunset Park in two and helped start the decline of the neighborhood. In 1941 the local kids cold got to the movies for 11ȼ but the bleachers at Ebbets Field cost 55ȼ. So for most teens and tweens that meant listening to Red Barber broadcasting the games on the radio. During the war years service men were admitted to games free, and that helped to spread the popularity of the ballpark nationwide. Women who brought in enough cooking fats and grease also got in free on Kitchen Fat Day. In 1942 Hilda Chester started to come to games regularly with her cowbell and leather lungs, and even got to be friends with Leo Durocher. Gladys Goodding became the organist for the Park in 1942 and would be until 1957. She also played organ at the Garden for the Rangers and the Knicks. In the 1942 season, the Dodgers were favored to win the pennant but soon started to lag behind the Cardinals, who would up going to the World Series. This season was the start of 4F’s on the field and in the stands, since almost all able bodies men were in the armed forces. In late 1942 after the lost the pennant race to the Cardinals, MacPhail joined the Army and the club hired Branch Rickey from the Cardinals. Rickey was from an Ohio Methodist family. In 1943 he had an issue with Babe Dahlgren over a contract and sent Dahlgren packing to the Phillies. While World War II was raging, Rickey made plans to really build the team when the war ended, by first hiring a black player. Owners had denied that a color barrier existed. Some people said that integration would kill the Negro Leagues. Commissioner Landis opposed integration. When Bill Veeck offered to buy the Phillies and stock the team with black players, Landis vetoed the sale and had William Cox buy the team for half of what Veeck offered. Cox only lasted one year as owner. In 1944 the Allies are winning in Europe and D-Day took place. Then Charles Ebbets Jr. died. The football counterpart, the Brooklyn Football Dodgers, sucked. They changed their name to the Tigers and finished the 1944 season at 0-10. A new Dodgers football team joined the new All American Football Conference, and the Tigers merged with the Boston Yanks in 1945. In October 1944 Franklin D. Roosevelt visited Ebbets Field while campaigning for president and also visited all of the other boroughs except Staten Island. Also in late 1944 the club was sold by the Ebbets and McKeever heirs to Branch Rickey, Walter O’Malley and Andrew Schmitz. We learned that Walter O’Malley was half German, and graduated from Penn and went to Fordham Law School during the 1930’s. He got to know George McLaughlin of the Brooklyn Trust Company and was able to buy into the club. Then when Landis died on November 25, 1944 the way was cleared to integrate baseball. Branch Rickey could go ahead with his plan to hire a black player and in March 1945 he met with Red Barber at Joe’s Restaurant on Fulton Street to tell him of his plan. Barber was a bit shocked and thought about quitting, but of course, did not. Rickey announced that he had created the Brooklyn Brown Dodgers, who would play at Ebbets Field when the other team was on the road. This team was a front. At this time the New York State Legislature passed the Ives-Quinn Act which forbade discrimination on the basis of race, creed, color or national origin. On April 6, 1945 Joe Bostic of the People’s Voice went to the Dodgers training camp with two Negro Leagues players and demanded that they be given a tryout. The two men were given a tryout the next day but both Rickey and Durocher were not impressed. The Brown Dodgers played in the United States League for one season (1945). Around this time Rickey had criticized the Negro Leagues as being fronts for booking operations. The 1945 Opening Day game at Fenway was picketed and Major League Baseball selected two men to study the integration issue and the Negro Leagues – Branch Rickey and Leland MacPhail. In April 1945 Albert Happy Chandler was selected as the new Commissioner and he was for integration. There were other moves in New York to end discrimination. And the major leagues 1945 had 4F's, and the too old or too young on its rosters. On August 28, 1945 Jackie Robinson met with Branch Rickey at the Dodgers’ offices in Brooklyn and was told that he was to be joining the Brooklyn Dodgers, and not the Brown Dodgers. On October 23, 1945 he signed a contract with the Montreal Royals, the Dodgers’ top farm club. Chapter 9: In 1946 the Dodgers had a good season but lost the pennant in the end to the Cardinals, thanks to losing a best of 3 playoff series. In 1947 they were getting ready for the arrival of Jackie Robinson. But in November 1946 columnist Westbrook Pegler wrote a column saying that Leo Durocher was a moral delinquent, even though Leo fought for his players, but was into gambling. We also had the John Christian beating from a few years before. But Branch Rickey defended Leo and soon Commissioner Chandler met with Leo on a California golf course to tell him to stop associating with certain gambling types. Then Larry MacPhail, who had defected to the Yankees, said that Charlie Dressen was a new Yankees coach and Pegler kept attacking Leo in print. Leo did have a girlfriend named Edna Ryan who was a Copacabana showgirl and was also interested in the married actress Laraine Day, who was a Mormon. Laraine got a divorce in Juarez and then married Leo in El Paso. Now the Catholic Church under Vincent Powell threatened to pull the CYO kids out of the Knothole Gang (and did just that on March 1, 1947). And since O’Malley did not like either Rickey or Leo, he did nothing to intervene, and even Harold Parrott could not understand why O’Malley did not try to help. Later on when spring training started, Rickey chose Havana instead of the Southeastern US because it would be more tolerant of an integrated squad. Harold Parrot write an article in the Brooklyn Eagle for Leo to bait MacPhail over stealing Dodger coaches. Then in an exhibition game between the Yankees and the Dodgers, MacPhail had two gamblers in his box while Leo was barred from baseball for the season. That pissed Leo off. Then several Southern born Dodgers started to object to the idea of playing alongside a black teammate. Leo did call a late night tam meeting and aid that Rickey would be glad to shop them off to another team. He flew to Panama where the Dodgers were training and spoke with the players, like Bobby Bragan. He got Bragan to stay and years later he said that Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson were the two most important people in his life. April 15, 1947 was Opening Day and Jackie was part of the starting infield against the Boston Braves. The Dodgers won the opener, under the management of Bert Shotton. Later the Phillies came to Ebbets Field and Ben Chapman, a Tennessean, kept taunting Jackie mercilessly. Ed Stanky went over to the Phillies bench and told them to taunt someone who will fight back. And Brooklyn won the series against the Phils. Later when the Dodgers went to Philadelphia to play the Phillies, Jackie was not allowed to stay with his teammates at the Ben Franklin Hotel. But the next time the Dodgers were in Philly they stayed at the Warwick, where all the players were welcome. In the 1947 season, Commissioner Chandler suspended Leo for the season, fined Charlie Dressen for jumping to the Yankees, and fined Harold Parrott for ghost writing for Leo. Once the season started the idea of a warning track came up, since outfielders were crashing into the outfield wall and getting hurt, but it was shelved until 1948. During the 1947 season Jackie Robinson was helping the Dodgers win, and Ebbets Field was always packed. Jackie ended the season with the Rookie of the Year Award from The Sporting News. Jackie and the Dodgers helped bring America’s Jim Crow racism to light in Latin American America. The attendance at Ebbets Field for 1947 was the second highest n baseball, second to the Yankees. TV sets were becoming available in the late 1940’s but were quite expensive, so in Brooklyn people used to got to the sidewalk outside of an appliance store and watch the Dodger games on the TV sets in the window. The Dodgers won the 1947 pennant. They lost the first two games of the World Series at Yankee Stadium, won three games at Ebbets Field, but lost the next two and the Yankees were the 1947 World Champions. In chapter 10 we see that during the 1948 season the outfield fence is covered in rubber to help outfielders avoid injury when chasing fly balls. Several new players come up from the minors to join the team: Carl Erskine, Gil Hodges, Roy Campanella, and Duke Snider. Leo is reinstated as manager. But soon he is on the outs with Branch Rickey and is lured away to the Giants by Horace Stoneham to be their manager. Branch Rickey also invests in the Football Brooklyn Dodgers of AAFC, and they had a horrible season (2-12) and that puts even more hatred between O’Malley and Rickey. Soon O’Malley is planning to oust Rickey when he conspires with the minority owner. As for the 1948 season, the Dodgers finished in third place, with the pennant going to Boston. They would win the pennant in 1949 but lose the Series to the Yankees again. During the Series there was Old Timers Day and the 1916 team, including Yankees manager Casey Stengel, were honored at a game. During the year, the Ebbets estate was settled and was worth a lot less than in 1925 when Charlie passed away. Also in football Dodgers were merged away and eventually became part of the Baltimore Colts in 1953. In 1950 the Dodgers lost the pennant to the Phillies on the last day of the season, and Branch Rickey sold ¼ of the holdings to Bill Zeckendorf of Webb & Knapp. This helped Rickey in his eventual move to Pittsburgh. Then the other owner, John Smith died and O’Malley managed to obtain Smith’s share from the widow. And Rickey and O’Malley differed on a lot of things: the football Dodgers, Vero Beach, Schaefer Beer as a sponsor. And O’Malley never forgave Rickey for selling the ¼ to Zeckendorf. By 1951 O’Malley is in full control and meantime the Giants are off to a bad start. But soon Willie Mays was brought up from Minneapolis and proved to be an asset. During the summer of 1951 General MacArthur visited Ebbets a few times. And with the Sym-Phony Band doing well, there was a protest and threat of picketing by the Musicians Union Local 802. So the Dodgers had a Musicians Appreciation Night and told fans that they would get in free to that certain game if they brought an instrument to the park is support of the Band. Later in the season the Dodgers lost a game n Boston to what was a bad/wrong call and the bench cleared. So at the end of the season the Giants had been winning and were tied in the standings on the last day. That meant a best of 3 series and the Giants won the pennant on October 3, 1951 thanks to Bobby Thomson. Brooklyn was devastated since the Dodgers were the pride of the Borough in their rivalry with Manhattan. Chapter 11 takes us to 1952. Pitcher Joe Black, a veteran of the Negro Leagues, is brought up. And in a display of internationalism. Scotsman Alistair “Butch” Forbes, a fan in Scotland thanks to Armed Forces Radio, is brought over to the US (thanks to promoter Irving Rudd) to visit Ebbets Field. King Faisal II of Iraq was also a guest at the park and also was a guest star on Red Barber’s radio show. By the end of the 1952 season the Dodgers won the pennant but lost the World Series to the Yankees again (in 7 games). Reverend McKinney of the Unitarian Church in Brooklyn Heights how the Dodgers loss in the 1952 Series devastated some people. During the 1953 season the Dodgers’ attendance figures were second only to the Milwaukee Braves, who had just relocated from Boston. For the Dodgers, the batters were hitting and the pitchers were winning. And again, they faced the Yankees in the World Series and lost, again. Then O’Malley did not renew Charlie Dressen’s contract and hired Walter Alston for the 1954 season. Then Red Barber had a dispute with the Gillette Company and defected to the Yankees. He was also a Rickey holder and O’Malley was glad to get rid of him. And while the Braves relocated to Milwaukee, other multi-team cities realized that they could not support tow teams. The Browns considered the West Coast as their new home. The baseball leaders also considered making the Pacific Coast League a third major league. O’Malley had considered the possibility of a new park to replace Ebbets Field as early as 1952. In 1954 Don Newcombe and Willie Mays returned to their respective teams after military service. Willard Mullin created his beloved caricature, the “Brooklyn Bum”. In 1954 neither the Dodgers nor the Yankees were in the World Series. It was the Indians versus the New York Giants, and the Giants wept the Tribe and Willie Mays made his Catch. The following year the Dodgers had a great start. During the summer, for Pee Wee Reese’s 37th birthday, he won a new car. O’Malley still wanted a new stadium, and Mayor Robert Wagner, who was not an avid baseball fan, recalled a game as a youngster at Yankee Stadium with his dad and visiting Yankees owner Jacob Ruppert at his brewery in Yorkville. All that Jake asked him was how many people were there, no questions on who won or what was the score. So to Wagner, the only thing that mattered was the number of people in the stands. In the 1950’s the population of Crown Heights was changing for white to Caribbean – Puerto Ricans and the other islands. At the same time, the manufacturing and shopping industries were declining so there was not as many work opportunities for the new residents. And despite a great team on the field, O’Malley was trying to discourage people from coming to Ebbets Field. And now Robert Moses did not O’Malley and would not help him with his new stadium. In 1955 O’Malley wanted the land at the intersection of Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues and would use Title I eminent domain to get it for his new stadium. Robert Moses said no to him. Moses and Wagner were not baseball fans and Wagner was indifferent to the relationship between the Dodgers and the residents of Brooklyn. O’Malley was telling them that attendance was hurting because of the ballpark’s location. The Board of Estimate had proposed a study on the feasibility of the Atlantic & Flatbush location. At this time, the Los Angeles city council invited Stoneham and O’Malley to Los Angeles to look at the possibility of relocating there. In the meantime the Dodgers’ pitchers started to really win, including Sandy Koufax in his rookie year. The Dodgers clenched the 1955 pennant early and soon faced the Yankees in the World Series again. During the 7 game series Buckminster Fuller came up with a design for a domed stadium for the Dodgers at the Atlantic Yards location. The Dodgers did win the World Series on October 4, 1955, their only one in Brooklyn.