"During my travels I always carry
a paperback to read. A book that I
finished recently was a history (my usual subject) concerning some German
emigrants to America in the 1840’s.
Their story was entirely typical:
conditions in their village had deteriorated and they were lured by
glowing stories of the opportunities in the United States. So they sold their houses and all their goods
and made their way to the port at Antwerp.
Unscrupulous characters soon fleeced them. Broke and alone in a country where they had
no resources and did not speak the language, the putative emigrants were forced
to beg for food and shelter. Some
died. A shipowner agreed to provide them
passage to the new world in exchange for indentured service upon arrival. The ocean voyage was miserable, the crew was
inept, they ran out of food, water, encountered storms, and about a third of the
party died during the voyage. Shortly
after arrival in port, a smallpox epidemic took another third of the
company. The survivors were marched off
to indentured servitude; the remnants of families torn asunder. Only the strongest, or the luckiest,
survived."
"As I said, a story that was very
typical. Few people made it easily to the "land of opportunity."
My great-grandfather was of
German emigrant descent; that book could have been the story of his
parents. I never knew him since he died
before I was born, but I knew my great-grandmother, and I’ve written about her
before."
---------------------------------
"As a
very young boy my parents would take me to visit her in central Oklahoma. As a
young girl, she had walked alongside the family wagon as they moved west to new
territory in search of land and a better life. Yet she lived will into her 90s
and saw the beginnings of the space age."
"And I
had to wonder, as I thought of her and of the difficulties, dangers, and
hardships of the pioneers who made this country strong, affluent, and powerful,
do we still have what our pioneer ancestors had? My grandmother was old, small,
and frail when I knew her. What shone through during those visits was a
strength of character, a clarity of purpose, and a directness in communication
that made you forget the frailty of old age. Her stark assessment of those
pioneer days is still fresh in my memory: "The cowards never started, and the
weak ones died along the way." She faced that hardship and danger and had a
better life than if her family had not taken the risk to move west."
"What
is it, I wonder, that has made America a great nation? Abundant natural
resources are part of it. The availability of cheap labor was a factor. But
other peoples have had cheap labor and abundant resources and have not succeeded
in building a strong nation. I believe that it is due the American character;
an innate optimism and the bold willingness to take on risks if they hold the
promise of a better tomorrow. We have become the envy and wonder of the world
not because of our wealth and power, but because of our character."
"My
great-great-grandparents certainly had some appreciation of the risks they
incurred by moving west, but they could not have fully understood it. They knew
Risk in the Big Sense: danger, hardship, and death threatened their way:
accidents, disease, wild animals (wolves, bears, and snakes), hostile natives,
terrible weather, and the difficulty of travel through the wilderness, all of
these they must have recognized. But the details would have been only vaguely
understood. The details of hardship were of secondary importance, they knew the
Big Risk well enough. They took what preparations they could, and they set out."
"My
great-grandfather made mistakes; he literally lost the ranch in the great
depression. But overall, they avoided the Big Mistake: not taking a worthwhile
risk. Martin Luther once said "Sin boldly." That is not permission to do what
you know is wrong, but it is an admonition not to be paralyzed to inaction by
the prospect that you might be doing something wrong."
"Today
we live in the luxury of their legacy. Our greatest hardship may be mowing the
grass; our greatest risk may be driving on the freeway. These challenges just
don't compare with what our great-grandparents faced every day. Have we lost
the capability to weigh risk and reward, hardship and hope, difficulty and
opportunity as they did?"
So
the fundamental question remains, do we have those qualities that made our
ancestors successful? Do we have the judgment to weigh it all in the balance?
Do we have the character to dare great deeds?
History
is watching.
Further Review
George S. Patton --- "Take calculated risks. That is quite different from being rash."
Related Blog --- Built to Last
David Brooks --- Fair Shot
"Effort should lead to reward as often as possible. People who work hard and play by the rules should have a fair shot at prosperity. Money should go to people on the basis of merit and enterprise. Self-control should be rewarded while laziness and self-indulgence should not. Community institutions should nurture responsibility and fairness."
Article --- Risk-Taking and Leadership
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