The Two and a half Americas

I recently went to the other side of the mountains here in Washington state. For those of you not familiar, Western Washington, where I live, near Seattle, is greener, more populated and has the mountains. Going east over the mountains means you enter into what most people think of when they think of Western U.S., lots of tumble weeds, farms, ranches, rugged terrain, etc. Anyway, my wife and I had to pick up our hopefully pregnant golden-doodle in the upper north-eastern part of the state. The breeder lives on a small dog and horse ranch, that she bought at $2,000 an acre. She lives with 25 dogs, over 20 horses, some ferrets, and 6 internationally adopted kids, who are wonderfully helping her run the ranch. It was really a reminder to me that she lived in a very different world, with very different needs, than where I lived in the suburbs of Seattle. For one thing, she talked about having certain dogs to protect the humans and the horses from bears and cougars. The 5 hour drive through beautiful, winding, mountain roads, reminded me of my youth, growing up in the wilderness of NY, and how the needs of the rural population in the U.S. is very different from those in and near the city.

Ben Franklin grew up in the city of Boston, which was the largest city in America at the time, but was only about 7,000 people at his birth in 1706. When he decided to strike out on his own, by running away from his indenture ship under his brother, he chose to go to NY and then Philadelphia, rather than striking out into the wilderness to acquire the plentiful lands that were available in America. He was a city/town kid. I grew up in the country, less than 500 people in my little community over a 5 mile stretch of road, and as an adult have lived mostly in metropolitan areas, and there is a definite difference in the two areas. In the rural areas, you are,and want to be, more on your own. You don't want anyone bugging you, especially not government. However, the more populated areas need and want things like police and traffic lights. So, it makes sense that as Philadelphia grew, Franklin started creating things like fire depts., and police depts., and militias. Things need to be more organized and more institutionalized, with more people involved.

We've always had two Americas with 2 kinds of people, and 2 kinds of needs, that the 2 political parties have always tried to manipulate for their gain. In recent times, the Democrats have catered to the larger metropolitan areas by advocaqting government programs that support roads, dealing with the homeless, police, and taking care that people don't over-run their environment. In the rural areas, there isn't as much need for institutionalized structures because there aren't as many competing needs from different kinds of people. Their is a greater need for self-protection because their is no one else to protect one from animals and the occasional intruder. There is a greater church attendance per capita because they provide a chance for community, which is more needed in remote areas, and a belief in God gives them a greater sense of control over Nature. As I think about it, though, there is the third entity that was not relavent until about 60 years ago, and that is the suburb, which is kind of a mixture of the two in terms of its needs. They have the need for infrastructure, but they do not want to pay for it at the level that the city needs it. Hence, they do not want to pay high taxes, especially because they own more land, houses, and general stuff than city dwellers. Ultimately, the need for keeping their money often overrides their need for things like schools and roads, as I've experienced here in Washington. As a result, the Republicans cater to an almost contradictory 2 groups of suburbanites and country folk by emphasizing low taxes, small government, and available guns,(suburbanites have to protect their stuff), and protecting their religious freedoms, while democrats emphasize the need for more government, which appeals to the city dwellers' higher need for social programs, and police, etc. One could argue how much the Republicans really care about rural people, as they don't have much clout economically, but in the US they do have more influence than, say China, because they do get to vote. Jobs are being lost, and it is getting harder and harder to live in the country,but I'm not sure that the politicians are doing anything for the rural population, besides trying to make sure the government doesn't do anything. I guess that's why you open a puppy farm, if living in the semi-wild is important to you because there are so few jobs left in "real America", but I guess it's not the governments problem, right? Anyway, it just makes more sense to me, now, why there are 2 if not actually 2 and a half (the half being the suburbs), Americas out there, and that there are different needs, not better or worse ones. Unfortunately, in the desire to cater to the different needs, we've polititians and pundits have vilified the sides and exacerbated the natural differences to the point of creating division.

As far a my goals... well, I lost 1 lb. this week. Well, off my goal, but it wasn't from lack of effectiveness from the program, but more due to my not being able to be on the program this weekend. So, I'm going to stick to the "Mom diet" and see how it goes. Also, I'm going to dedicate myself this week to my Health Care blog, and get it up and running.

"It is the working man who is the happy man. It is the idle man who is the miserable man."

Well, I lost another half a pound. The 3 apples is still a hard thing to achieve, but I think it is a big part of my losing wieght, so far. Some thoughts on goal-setting. Less than 10% of Americans routinely set goals (beyond the usual New Years Resolution). One of the things that made Ben, Ben, was the fact that he was always coming up with new goals for himself. He was also a social-climber, but he did it in very non-traditional ways, through hard work. In his day, a common tradesman like him would have to "marry up" to improve his status. He was unusual in that it he married a commoner, Deborah Read, who had no dowry and could not help him economically. Interestingly, Deborah was a very hard and cooperative worker, who was just as frugal as he, who was also very good at making money. She seemed to support him in his goals, but socially Ben achieved his eventual status as a gentleman, inspite of his wife's lowly and uneducated ways. Franklin's ability to climb out of his common existence through hard work is also part of the American Dream, but this was not a common occurrance, as marriages for economic and social status were the norm up until very recently, and may still be true. How should I know because I am not a part of the upper class? Interestingly, I found out the other day that my household income is at about the 70th centile in the US. I realize that we are probably in the middle class, although it doesn't feel that way to me. I suppose if I'm not careful or if I put a little effort into it, I could end up in the Upper Class. Pray for me, I know not what I do. Not that I'm against the Upper Class, some of my best friends are wealthy, but I'm so not like Ben, in that I don't want to be there just to be there. Although, there are some appeals to being a man of liesure, which is what Ben became at about my age. Being able to travel, write, have a jacuzzi and tennis court in the back yard...Nonetheless, to quote Ben, "It is the working man who is the happy man. It is the idle man who is the miserable man." So, it's off to work I go!

Do good to friends to keep them, to your enemies to win them.

So, I lost 1.5 lbs. on the first day of my “mom” diet. I’m trying two significant things from my childhood, I’m trying to eat 3 apples a day, and I’m “eating my liquid” with my meals. When I was growing up, I ate about 3 apples a day, along with other fruits and vegetables, and I’ve seen studies that show that you lose weight in just eating 3 apples a day, which makes sense on a couple of levels. I also was not allowed to drink with my meals, which necessitated eating an apple with my daily P and J sandwich, or having some sort of liquid rich vegetable with dinner. I’ve also read that “eating your liquid”, is a way to lose weight, hence the eating of apples with at least 3 of my meals. I’ll tell you, eating that many apples is no easy feat, and they do seem to fill me up. We’ll see…

Oh, I had a Benjamin Franklin quote that came in handy the other day, “Do good to friends to keep them, to your enemies to win them.” I was at a workshop on anger management that taught therapists to teach their clients how to turn the bullies in there lives into buddies. Basically he was teaching how to love, respect, and agree with our enemies, whenever possible, which takes the wind out of any attack or argument. It was an interesting technique that can be used with anybody. I’ve already started teaching my clients how to use it, especially with parents of teens or couples to diffuse an argument. I’m still working on it in my own life with my own wife. It is so hard to find agreement when the other person is just wrong. How dare her! Doesn’t she know that she’s supposed to agree with me?!

Unfortunately, we think that we have to attack our enemies or defend ourselves from them in order to be safe. You see this at the international level as well as the domestic. It is interesting that we started getting more success in Iraq after we started “befriending” the locals, with gifts and money, look how well that also worked with the American Indians, Manhattan for $24, what a deal. Of course, that only worked until the Indians figured out they were being ripped off, and then they wanted it all back. Those Indian Givers! Speaking of domestic matters…. Think about how far we could get if the “two Americas”, would just get along, and maybe even find things to like about each other. It was tragically funny to watch the Republicans in the Congress, try so hard to make sure they were caught liking Obama. Differences should never be an excuse for division.

Big Problems Need Big Solutions

Franklin didn't start out to overthrow the English government. He wasn't a revolutionary so much as he was a "fixer" or reformer. He loved living in London, but he was born in America and loved the opportunities that it afforded him. Yet, he was a pragmatic, more than an idealist, like Jefferson and Adams, so when he saw that remaining with England was no longer practical, he became a revolutionary. He had come to the conclusion that the system needed more than a little tweaking, but rather they needed to start all over.

What can we learn from our American revolution? Well, for one thing, radical change is not such a bad thing, and at time is the necessary change. We elected Obama because he promised change, but this is exactly why many Americans are afraid of him. Humans have always fought change, and let's remember, many colonists supported and fought for the English during the revolutionary war, including Ben's own son. Change is scarey and unpredictable. Take the current Health Care debate, many on the Right belive that the system needs to be tweaked with things like tort reform, while the Left is demanding a radical overhaul. Health Care in America is a big problem, as I am learning about and will soon be writing about in a seperate blog, and something like tort reform will only slightly improve the situation. There needs to be a complete overhaul. Let's also remember that the U.S. also danced around the issue of slavery for the first 70 years of our existence, before Lincoln made a radical decision to outlaw it. Obama needs to be a radical, which I know scares the Right, but I'm not sure his personality, which is very cerebral and calculating, is capable of pushing for the radical shifts necessary in Health Care.

So, what does this have to do with my goal for the week? Well, I've decided that I am, not only going to make minor shifts in my diet, but by going with my childhood diet, it means giving up many of my "comfort foods' like pop and red meat. Also, I've put out the goal to lose 16 lbs. over the next month, starting at 215 and ending at 199, which would break my former record of losing 15 lbs. in a month. Now, 16 lbs. in a month is a lot, but studies have shown that men who make bigger goals around weight are more likely to lose weight than men who say they just want to lose a couple of pounds. Let's face it, we get more motivated by big challenges than small ones. So, I'm off to eat an apple!

Reading is easier than writing

Well, this weeks goal of reading and writing an hour a day, was mixed in its result. I did manage to read an hour daily, some days more, which is definitely an accomplishment. And it was more than just the sports page. One of the truths about Ben is that he would furthered himself well beyond his artisan roots, mostly because he was a dedicated reader who would often stay up all night reading. Now, I didn't do that, but I have been reading up on Health Care, as well as continuing my research on Ben, and I will be writing on Health Care in the coming weeks. I was spotty on the writing as it does take a little more time and preparation, and I didn't want to write just to say I wrote. I think I will continue the daily reading part, but I am going to re-commit to 5 times/week writing. We'll see how that goes.

This week I am going to work on my diet. What does this have to do with Ben, one might ask?
Well, Ben had an interesting relationship with food. When he was young, he definitely "Ate to live, not lived to eat." He prided himself as someone who didn't particularly enjoy food, and at one point in his teens ate basicly broth and bread in order to save money for books. He was an on again off again vegetarian, out of a moral bend of sorts, (his pragmatic morality was consistent in his character). Of course, he grew to be portly in latter life, which was somewhat the result of his station in life, as well as moving from an English diet to a French one.

In my own life, I grew up looking very much like a Sudaneese refugee. I tried to put on wieght, and managed to get up to 155 lbs. by the time I graduated from High School. Now, you've got to know that I am 6' 2", so that was still rather skinny for a guy. Anyway, I finally did fill out to about 185, and for a couple of years, from about 20-28, I looked pretty good, but through the next 17 years I've battled the dreaded "Counselors belly". I've seen it with many a male counselor, you know the belly that looks like you are about 6 months pregnant. I attribute it to the fact that we sit around all day in a slowed sense of being, ( a necessity to effective therapy. Do you want a anxious and figidy therapist?) Also, I learned to eat throughout my day, probably to calm my nerves, (you also don't want a hungry therapist. I tell my clients, if they have to wait while I shouvle down my dinner while they have to wait outside my office for an extra 5 minutes. "I eat so I won't be a grump, and a happy therapist makes for a happier client.")

As I sit here, I don't look six months pregnant, as I have managed to lose about 20 lbs over the last 10 months, but I still look about 3 months pregnant. I would like to lose the last of my "baby" weight, so I have looked to Ben and my roots to see if I can't do so over the next 2 months. Specifically, I am going to return to a diet very similar to the one that my mom gave me growing up. She, like Ben, was a 90% vegetarian, who ate mostly to live, and as a result taught my brother and I this as well. She was such a bland cook, that most meals I simply endured. Also, have you ever tried to gain weight eating fruits and vegetables? I am going to revert back to that diet over the next months, but in a way that would do the scientist Ben proud. I am going to do my childhood diet 2 weeks, then do a high protein diet for 4 weeks, then go back to the childhood one for the last 2 weeks, to see which is most effective, and to create a little friendly internal competition, another Ben trait. Oh, I'm also going to institute 1 1/2 hours of physical activity/day, 2 times the usual, to see if I can't jump start my therapist metabolism. So, here I go, and off to the grocery store to get the proper bland food that would do my mother proud!

Are we a Victim of our History?

"Well, that's the way it's always been done!" I'm not against tradition, but if we aren't careful, we can ignore our history or worse "deify" it and make it into a sacred cow which eventually sends us to hell. We do this in the U.S. by citing the founding fathers and their wisdom to justify the status quot. My current thoughts are on Capitalism. In the U.S., one is accused of being a socialist, communist, or a fascist, and definitely unAmerican, if you say anything negative about Capitalism. The thing is, the founding fathers were progressives. They didn't get bogged down by tradition. Ben Franklin, didn't start out as a revolutionary, but became one when he saw that it was necessary in order to move forward. We should not hold onto the past at the expense of the future. Capitalism started when our economy was quite different than it is today. We did not need the level of restrictions we need today to keep it stable and to keep people in check. One builds a 2 story house very differently from how one builds a 100 story skyscraper. Franklin's formation of the paid night watch in Philadelphia, along with the public library, and community fire department, showed that he was not a victim of history. but a person who created the necessary structures to fit the time.

In the U.S. today, we need to vigorously regulate the financial sector, in order to keep it from sinking the overall economy. When the top 1% make as much as the bottom 95%, the economy can easily topple from being so top-heavy. Additionally, we have historical precedents for the need for regulations, i.e. anti-trust laws, child labor laws, banking regulations, which were all put into place because capitalism was becoming abusive. Unfortunately, we are like an abused woman who can't leave her abusive lover for fear of the unknown. We keep giving Capitalism another chance to hurt us. No, I say! Without the proper boundaries, and I believe some major cognitive therapy, capitalists will continue to abuse. Now is the time for us to all rally and just say 'NO" to further abuse! O.K. that was more Patrick Henry than Ben Franklin, but I hope you get the point.

Ben, the Fire Department and Health Care

What can history teach us about today? There is an obvious debate going on in the U.S. around health care. This is not a new debate, as we have been trying to get a handle on health care for over 100 years. Much of the debate is the role of government; should it regulate or even take over health care, should health care be for profit, should we provide universal coverage? In Ben’s time, health care was very primitive, and based very much on what people could afford. Of course, you could get away with giving the doctor a chicken or some other means of bartering, which wouldn’t fly today. Although ,when you have to foreclose on your house to pay your medical bills, I guess that is sort of a bartering system. Unfortunately, 700,000 Americans went bankrupt because of medical bills last year while every other industrialized country with universal health care had exactly zero.What struck me with Ben was that he was very civic minded. In Philadelphia, he helped put together a basic police force, the first public library, would eventually be one of our first Postmaster, started one of the first insurance cooperatives, and started a community fire department. In his mind, we should all be helping each other out and cooperating in this endeavor.

It occurred to me, that we should be looking at the Healthcare debate like we look at the Fire Department, Police force, or even Public education. For instance, we don’t say that only certain people should be entitled to have the fire department come to their house when it is on fire and other's should not. Also, one should not have to pay taxes that go towards the fire department because they are not worried about their house going up in flames, or that they shouldn't have to pay to put some stranger’s fire out.(They were probably negligent in starting it anyway-smoking in bed, or forgot to turn something off, you know how irresponsible people can be, especially the poor.) Of course we don’t feel this way because we are a civilized society that would never turn a blind eye towards someone in peril, but this is what many have done in terms of health care.

There are at least 20,000 medically preventable deaths per year because the victims were one of the millions of Americans who didn’t have proper health care coverage. (With countries with universal health care, these deaths are almost zero.) What if 20,000 homes went up in smoke each year while the fire department sat around drinking beers? Wouldn’t there be outrage?! We have some of the best medical care and training in the world yet because of a poor overall health plan, care is denied or rationed beneath effectiveness by for-profit insurance companies. This would have been appalling for Ben, and it should be for us as well.

Swimming along and writing ahead

Well, I did get my 4 times of swimming in this week. In honor of Ben and the fact that I'm still rehabbing my dislocated shoulder, I did mostly breast-stroke. What that has to do with Ben, is the fact that the breast stroke was the swimming stroke of his time period. The crawl wasn't introduces until the late 1700's, just before his death, so when he was a swimming stud in his teens, he was probably doing variations on the breast stroke. Anyway, it was good, but I think I will scale back to swimming 3 times a week from here on out. Oh by the way, I am still going to bed earlier, but I think I'm battling a slight virus, so I'm sleeping in a little. Hopefully, I'll get back to "early to rise."

This week I'm going to work on reading and writing, two things that were halmarks of Ben. This week I'm going to continue this blog and start a blog on Health Care, which will also allow me to explore how Ben would have handled or thought about current situations, and how we can learn from history.

Outliers success

Malcolm Gladwell's book, "Outliers" talks about the idea that one needs a number of factors to succeed beyond talent or inteligence: one needs to put in a lot of hours of training or practice, one needs to be in the right place at the right time, one needs to have good enough social skills, the culture you are raised in, the biological and historical background you and your family come from.


Gladwell talks about how those people who put in more hours than those with the same amount of ability, rose to the top. Ben Franklin did this in many ways. He would read when others would eat or read through the night because that way he could return books before they were noticed gone. In fact, he was known to be a tireless worker, a real nose to the grindstone kind of guy. For me, my major limitation is that of being somewhat lazy. I don't always work particularly hard. I'm probably not the exception, but I am learning I can work, if it is interesting enough for me. I think that that is an important thing to look at and learn from Ben, part of his exceptionalism, was that he could really get interested in a number of things, and then go for it. He had no interest in being a soap-maker like his dad, but his dad saw his love for reading, and he thought being an apprentice in his older brother's print shop was a better fit. From that, Ben not only continued to read, but also became an accomplished writer by practicing and eventually writing for his brother's newspaper.


Gladwell shows that Canadian hockey players born in January-March have a much better chance of success because the cut-off for age devisions is January, so they were older and bigger than their peers, and subsequently were initially ahead, so put in place better training throughout all the way to the pros. Ben was born in January and was bigger than his peers, eventually growing to be 6 foot, which was substantially taller than the average man of that time. So, he was predisposed to be a leader. I wasn't born earlier in the year, but I am 6'2", and was always taller than most of my peers growing up. I also was used to competing physically and mentallly with a brother 6 years older than me, there was a seven year gap for Ben, which made my peers seem weak and simple in comparison. I was always put in leadership position because of my precosciousness, just like Ben.


The time in history is also very important. For instance, Gladwell shows how being born just before the onset of the industrial revolution or the technological revolution created more million and later billionaires. Ben would not have been a "founding father" of the U.S., if he had been born 100 years later. He was in the right place at the right historical time. I guess I can learn to be content in the fact that I wasn't in the right time period for anything as great as Ben, but I must say that in my field, it was good that I came along before it became so much in vogue to be a Psychology major, because now it is hard for someone starting out in the field to make a living.




Ben definitely had good enough social skills, but additionally he lived in a time when Philadelphia was basicly a small town, less than 10,000 people, which enabled him to be freinds with the governor of Pennslyvania. I can't have those kinds of connections, but I can work on my networking skills. It is interesting how many counselors out there don't have very good social skills. I think much of my current success in the field is because of my extroversion, which sets me apart from about 70 per cent of my colleagues, but I have gotten lazy about networking, something I actually enjoy. I'll be making that a goal before the year is over.

I guess the point of all of this analysis is that there are many factors that come into play for the level of success that Ben had, that can not be replicated per se, very often or by many people, but there are some principles and practices that I can do.

Ben: The first American Idol

To start, let me say that this weeks goal is coming along swimmingly, pun intended. I have swum 2 times already, and I am going later today as well.

Back to the analyzing of Ben... I was thinking that he was the first celebrety figure. We can learn a lot about a country by who they make to be their heroes, and how they expect their heroes to achieve their status. Through the years of watching shows like American Idol and America's got Talent, I have noticed that the people who win are not always the most talented, but someone with talent and likeability. In my field, we would say that they also had a high E.Q., emotional I.Q., which leads to more success ultimately because people like you, and you are able to manage your own drives to go towards your goals. The notion of Ben just working hard and being a genius, actually may get in the way of ultimate success. Too often Americans think in terms of success as a fast and lucky endeavor, or the other extreme of putting the nose to the grindstone. In some ways this keeps the masses happy, and the very rich safe. What I mean is that it is very difficult to be as successful as Ben, kind of like winning the Powerball Lotto, but as long as it can happen to one person, it gives hope to the rest. How this keeps the wealthy safe, is that they can point to commoners like Ben and say "see, if you work hard, you can be successful like him," and they don't resent the wealthy. It also helps that he was relatively uneducated because this keeps people from striving after education, which is a way for them to make more money as well. Capitalists needed to make Ben an Idol, to legitimize and make "fair" their riches because they could say "you, too can be one of us, if you apply your talents, like Ben." This is my explanation currently on why we protect the rich. We have this notion that they worked harder and should therefore be rewarded more, which is not necessarily the case. Wealth breeds wealth after a certaqin extent. Many people work hard and have a lot of talent, but never become rich. Also, we exult the rich (we have shows like "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, and Cribs) because this is the American dream. If you start attacking the rich, you are also attacking the dream. Unfortunately, this if a distortion of who Ben was. I benefit more by seeing Ben as someone who was constantly growing, because that is something I can do, but becoming rich and famous is something that has to have many factors coming together. Next time, I want to use the backdrop of the book Outliers, which talks about success, as a way of looking at how Ben succeeded, how I can succeed more, and how Americans can succeed more individually and as a country.

Ben and the American Dream

What is the American dream and what does it have to do with Ben Franklin? The dream of Americans is freedom, but more importantly one of achieving wealth, but not just a little, a lot. It is not an accident that Ben ended up on the $100 bill, and not the $1 or the $5. He made it rich in the way Americans want to believe that it can happen to them, through their hard work, and intelligence. When Ben was growing up, if your dad was a particular socio-economic class, you were not only likely to become the same, but you were probably going to be in the same profession as well. Even though Ben did not end up in the same trade as his dad, he still ended up a tradesman, as a printer. However, he was able to use this to further his career and become somewhat of a celebrity figure and through hard work, intelligence, and an extraordinary personality. He wasn't exactly a rags to riches story, but certainly a "hand-me-downs" to riches story. He later was used as the patron saint of capitalism, by the industrialists of the 19th century.

A couple of question emmerge for me? 1. Is Ben's story and the American Dream one that just any American can replicate?
2. How does the American Dream effect us today?

I do not think that what I need to learn from Ben is that I, could be like him. It would be like me saying that if I just practiced shooting the ball, I could be as good as good a player as M.J. However, as the industrialist started making their obscene $, they perpetuated the myth of Franklin, which said 'the common man can work hard, save prudently, and then again, work hard, and you too, will be rich and famous', like Ben. After all, Ben said "God helps them who helps themselves." Hard work is usually necessary, but not sufficient when it comes to success. Usually there are other factors at play, and this was true with Ben as well. So, for the next time, I will explore the factors involved in Ben's success, and why capatalists want to ignore them.

First Week review and swimming into the next week

So, how did I do with "Early to Bed, and Early to Rise..." Well, I'd say it was more of an Earlier to bed and earlier to rise, at least 6 of the 7 days. I don't know yet about making healthier and wealthier, but I did use the time to do a lot of reading and writing, so I think I'm wiser, and certainly more productive. I'm going to keep doing it. Oh, it also was a sort of bonding time with my wife because we were going to sleep together, and now that she's entering into teaching again, I may have to be even "Earlier".



I also learned that Ben Franklin is not an easy historical figure, not only because he was a pretty complicated fellow, but also because there are 300 years of historians writing about him from so many angles which further complicates him. I'm getting closer to the approach that I want to come at with him, but at times I've felt like a swimmer flailing in the surf. Which leads me to my new goal for the week...swimming! This is very appropriate with Ben, because he was an avid swimmer, and even did some of his first tinkering by developing fins and hand-pattles as a way of improving his swimming, as a young man. For me, I'm needing to rehab a number of injuries, and swimming is a wonderful way to do so. My goal, therefore is to swim for 20 minutes, 4 times a week.

Why we need a Hero

As we saw in the last posting, Ben's family had recently gone through a number of traumatic deaths, including 3 of his siblings, just before he was born. The question is how this effected him and at least partly led to his greatness. Within Family Systems theory, different people get into different roles in the family, and these roles become more pronounced and more rigid, the more dysfunctional the family and its situation. For instance, there are the scape-goat, the lost child, the victim, the perpertrator, the dependent, the co-dependent, and the hero, who's "job" is to excell, fix, and heal the system. When Ben was born they needed a hero and to an extent even a savior to take away the hurts of the other kids dying, and this was a role that was nurtured when his father sent him to school to eventually become a minister. He lasted only one year, not because he wasn't able, he excelled to first in his class, but his father pulled him out for "financial" reasons, which was debatable, and decided to keep him in the trademan realm. This created a particular kind of hero, one that would have to emmerge from the common man's world, rather than excelling academically.



Throughout our American history, there has been a mythos around the common man hero that starts from very humble roots to achieve great things. The rags to riches story. In Jungian Psychology, this would be a kind of archetype. A universal story that fits a need for the society. In the same way that Ben's family needed a hero, Americans need a certain kind of hero. Franklin was a common trademan who became respected in business, politics-both domestically and internationally, science, as a writer, and social commentator. The archetype that appears over and over as an American hero is the hard-working, self-made individual, out of the box thinker and doer, someone who overcomes all sorts of obsticles, including societal and economic ones. Ther is a societal need for "self-improvement". Ben was the first such hero and is in many ways the "father of the self-improvement" movement, but it also shows up in such figures as Abe Lincoln, Andrew Jackson, and Daniel Boone. Because we are a nation of immigrants, that didn't usually arrive with socio-ecomomic advantages, this is a very appealing story. As we go on however, we will see that Ben became larger than his own life, through this incredible need of society.

Family blessings and tragedies.

9-2-09
“The only thing worse than worshiping our heroes is crucifying them when they do not achieve our expectations” In my learning from Ben, I hope that I will do neither. People are far too complex, especially ones worth learning from, as we will see…Oh, one other Bennism that came to me yesterday as I was pondering why I was in such a celebratory mood on such a cloudy day: “In order to love a rainy day, you must first plant a garden.” Once again, give me feedback on both quotes. By the by, I am fine with you giving me feedback and constructive criticism as we go along. Keep in mind these are all “first draft thoughts” that are very much in need of refinement.

So, back to our friend Ben…what is the significance of the 5 generations of last boy in the family? Well, according to birth order theory, the youngest in the family tends to be more introspective, charming, fun, and often given special privileges. These traits were certainly hallmarks with Ben, but some added dimensions were the fact that his dad may have had a special place in his heart for him because he too was the youngest son in his foo, and the fact that he was also the oldest in his particular family configuration. (He was separated by seven years from his next oldest sibling, and had two younger sisters.) Consequently, he had many of the traits of an oldest as well, i.e. strong leadership qualities, high achiever, disciplined, self-starter. As a result, he had an unusual mix of characteristics that summarize as follows: introspective, charming, fun, spoiled, leader, high achiever, disciplined, and self-starter. These traits show up over and over again as you read about Ben.

A factor that is very important from a psychological analysis that historians note, but don’t emphasize, is the number of tragic deaths that occurred right around Ben’s birth. Granted, it was quite common for their to be a high percentage of deaths within families, as Franklin’s dad had already lost his first wife and two infant children, but in the couple of years before Ben’s birth a half brother died at sea, a 16 month old brother died in his father’s bathwater, another baby died, and his paternal grandfather died in England. I don’t care what time you are in, this is going to make an impact on a family and create a significant environment to born into. How I believe this impacted Ben, we will discuss tomorrow.

Why look at ancestry?

Well, first off, I was afraid this would happen, if I started writing around the time I went to bed or get up in the morning; my mind hijacked me in the middle of the night! I awoke at 3:30 a.m., as did my darling wife, Trina, and then my stomach started acting like a hungry baby waiting for a feeding, and my mind wouldn't go back to sleep. Trina, in her dedication to my noble sleeping cause, jumped up and got me some milk and told me not to get up to write. I nonetheless did write down a couple of Bennish quotes.

Tell me what you think: 1. "Young men injure themselves saving the cat, middle-aged men injure themselves tripping over the cat, and old men get a dog."
2. "In America, the upper class make things happen, the lower class have things happen to them, and the middle class is constantly trying to figure out what the heck is happening.
3. How can Americans "love their neighbor", when 75% don't even know their last names?
4. Gridlock in the government is highly achieveable as long as Congressmen remember that, in order to get elected, they need to care more about their own constituents, than they care about the needs of the country.

So, I did struggle back to sleep after a half hour. My poor wife was not as fortunate, as it took her well over 1 hour to get back to sleep. Before we proceed, let's have a moment of silence to acknowledge her sacrifice for the cause......

Why pay attention to one's lineage? It is more than just some way to appreciate our ancestors. It is a way for us to see patterns, to get some insight into who we are, to gain strength or to see what we need to do differently to break a pattern. By examining Ben Franklin's heritage, one can get a fuller understandling of what he was about, and what motivated him. From this we can
learn as well through seeing what are the deeply held beliefs that we need to act upon, either through their encouragement or through their oblideration.

Ben's family came from Ecton, England and they took on the descriptive surname of "Franklin"
which means "free man." They had a tradition of being blacksmiths. Ben was the youngest son ,of a youngest son, of a youngest son, of a youngest son, of a youngest son. (No, I do not studder, that's five generations of youngest sons.) They were Puritans. His father came to America for financial and religious freedoms. They were vocal and wise people in their communities, as well as tradesmen. In Ben's immediate family, he was the youngest boy of ten boys, and had two younger sisters. In the two years before he was born, two different brothers drowned. What do all these clues mean? Well tomorrow I will tell you my analysis.