Saving the World Through a Commitment to Place
The Christian church recently celebrated All Saints Day, when we observe saints both known and unknown. In my life, I have been sustained by known, unknown saints. They are saints to me but unknown to the rest of humanity. They are my high school youth leaders who instilled in me their love of creation. They are the little old lady who greeted me at church every Sunday with a smile and who for years after would send all of us children of the small-town diaspora, birthday cards on behalf of the church. They are too many to remember, and in fact I couldn’t if I tried. Occasionally, perhaps when God thinks I need it, a memory of some kindness that was showered on me by some long forgotten saint, will crop up in my mind. In those moments, I am filled with gratitude.
I also remember them when I watch a movie like Field of Dreams. For many, the film can be a real tear-jerker. When Ray asks his dad if he’d like to play catch, people cry. It speaks to the fractured relationships many of us have with our fathers. For me, though, the real tears flow when the character Moonlight Graham very conscientiously gives up his childhood dream and chooses to save a young girl who is choking to death. It slays me every time.
There are no unresolved psychological issues at play in the scene, just a boy/man knowing his calling, knowing what matters, what gives him meaning. By this time in the story, we know that he has lived a life of service as a doctor, of caring for those in need, of loving his wife. Of all the men in the film, he is by far the most emotionally mature. Maslow would consider him self-actualized. Moonlight values well-being and connection over vain pursuits. In describing his community, (Chisholm, MN), Moonlight says, “This is my most special place in all the world. Once a place touches you like this, the wind never blows so cold again. You feel for it, like it was your child. I can’t leave Chisholm.”
When he’s challenged about that decision, after being so close to achieving his childhood dream, he says, “If I’d only got to be a doctor for five minutes, now that would have been a tragedy.”
Where are the tissues?
Moonlight Graham was a real person. He played one inning in one game for the New York Giants but didn’t get an at-bat. He was in the on-deck circle when the batter before him made the final out. That’s how close he was to his dream – one out and maybe 10 yards. His baseball career lasted a few more seasons in the minors, but he never made it back to the big leagues.
In reality, he did have a wonderful career as a local doctor in Chisholm, MN – a small community north of Duluth, in the heart of Minnesota’s iron-mining country. A place about as different from the bright lights of New York as you can get, where the wind blows mightily cold. He served that community through two world wars and the Great Depression.
The movie makes Doc Graham seem like a community saint, but if anything, the script’s adulation was muted. I’ve paraphrased this version of his life which was published by Minnesota’s famed Mayo clinic,
“He conducted immunization clinics, educated the citizenry about public health, advocated for city improvements that would result in a healthier community, supported civic groups such as Chamber of Commerce and Masons, served on the village council, school board, and as public health officer. He advocated dental hygiene, handwashing and cleanliness, sewer and street repairs, and proper disposal of garbage and manure. During his years as school physician, he had to deal with the flu epidemic of 1918, measles, diphtheria, typhoid, tuberculosis and polio. He conducted “Baby Welfare Days” and educated mothers on the care of their children. On the weekends he could be found opening his office to children of miners for eye exams and get them fitted with used frames from the community. Graham was involved in Red Cross blood drives, mobile x-ray units, and the Heart Council. He was an advocate for public health and had many interactions and collaborations with the Minnesota Department of Health. If that weren’t enough, he conducted a 15-year study of blood pressure in children and collaborated with doctors at the Mayo Clinic. He was first author on the resulting article that for many years was the definitive study of childhood blood pressure.”
In the movie as well as in real life, Doc Graham seems extraordinary. So much so that a statement from another character in the movie seems incredulous – when the Terrance Mann character says, “Small towns across the country are filled with Doc Grahams.”
I think both are true. Doc Graham’s life was exemplary and, thank God, our communities are full of them. We don’t hear about them as often as we need, because community narcissists and their unquenchable desire for a supply of attention deflects us from knowing these unknown saints. But they exist none-the-less, working selflessly because of their commitment to place. Somehow, someway, “a place has touched them, and the wind never blows so cold again, and they love that place like a child.”
For some that “place” is their community, their home or maybe even their business. For some true saints, it is all the above. Wherever they go, they serve. They see the value of others, they’ve put away childish things and live a life of, well, love.
And that is why, deep in my heart, I know that as bad as it gets, this world will survive climate change. Too many people simply love this place, this earth and they care for it like a child. They are in our churches, synagogues, mosques and temples. They are in our communities and homes and businesses. And because they are motivated by love, they cannot be deterred. Doc Graham served Chisholm through the “flu epidemic of 1918, measles, diphtheria, typhoid, tuberculosis and polio”, and our love of God’s handiwork will endure through climate’s equivalent catastrophes. And we’ll continue this work, known or unknown, because we just love this place so much.