Giving Thanks

DUKES FANS: "As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them." John F. Kennedy Happy Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year, and I wish you all a week of good thoughts and living more in gratitude. I noticed that many places this year seemed to skip Thanksgiving and move right from Halloween to Christmas displays and consumption, even before Halloween. So I am repeating a slightly edited version of a piece I sent last year about giving thanks and consumption: FROM BLACK FRIDAY TO GIVING TUESDAY: THANKSGIVING, AND COMMERCE There have always been links between seasonal changes and commerce. Early human groups traveled across different places at different times in the year and found different things available for both consuming and trading. In the ancient world, spring meant hunting and trading for more plants and seeds, and going to where the herds of animals and schools of fish were plentiful in order to get more. Autumn meant increased hunting, trading, gathering and traveling to harvest plants and to get supplies and shelter for winter. Most hunting-gathering people already saw religious and mythological links between changes in seasons and their lives, so the special importance of different products at different times became natural. The original autumnal “thanksgivings” were literally the “giving of “Thanks” to the gods for a good harvest and/or hunt, and also a hope for surviving the winter. As cities and the lifestyle known as civilization developed, more extensive trading and conquering happened, and many more things became available. New products came from different parts of the world, and the having of lots of products became associated with everything from class level to social wealth to religious worth to personal worth, to political power and more. Civilizations keep producing and developing more products at an ever-increasing rate. And when civilizations developed into empires, the importance of having, trading, giving, and owning products exploded exponentially. Commerce became more and more of a driving force in cultures. Over time we have developed systems for coming up with new products to keep the commerce flowing: Research and Development, planned obsolescence, and upgrades. We have come up with more ways of putting products in front of people-signs, advertising campaigns, product placement, pop-up ads embedded in websites, celebrity endorsements, and more. The bazaars and marketplaces of the old days have been replaced by shopping malls, warehouse outlets and now online giants such as Amazon are replacing many brick and mortar stores. And there is no end in sight to this growth and expansion. After the 1924 debut of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade, this post-Thanksgiving weekend quickly became the start of our “winter shopping season.” The gift-giving associated with the Christmas story became more and more the focus of Christmas, and the Friday after Thanksgiving was the time to get it started. Stores and shops ran special sales and campaigns to get people into the stores and opening up the wallets and pocketbooks. And this year it even started before Halloween. The term for that time is, of course, “Black Friday”, and the origin of that term has a dark side to it. In the 1950s, police in Philadelphia used the term to describe the chaos that ensued on the day after Thanksgiving. Hordes of shoppers and tourists flooded into the city to take advantage of the sales and in advance of the big Army-Navy football game that used to be held here every year on the Saturday following Thanksgiving. Suburbs were relatively new and expanding, and the new highways and freeways made it easier for suburbanites to get into the city to shop as well as go to sporting events. Philly cops had to work extra-long shifts dealing with the increasing mess of huge crowds and miles of traffic problems. Shoplifters also took advantage of the bedlam in stores to make off with merchandise, and pickpockets endlessly worked the crowds. To police, then, the Friday after Thanksgiving was not joyous at all. Instead, it was “black.” By 1961, “Black Friday” had become the local term for that day in Philadelphia. Retailers tried unsuccessfully to change it to “Big Friday” in order to remove the negative connotations of the term, but that term didn’t take off. “Black Friday” was what it was called, and Black Friday it remained. So retailers did the next best thing: they changed the meaning and explanation for the term. They turned it into a story about businesses on that day suddenly making a profit-going into the black. This new story of what Black Friday meant caught on, and the term’s true origin was forgotten. Not only did the phrase catch on across the nation. And what was originally a one-day event slowly morphed into a four-day event that spawned other “retail holidays” such as Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday. Cyber Monday” came into being in 2005 as an idea to encourage people to shop online and build this new thing known as online businesses. With the amount of online shopping increasing over time and really jumping due to COVID, it is estimated that Cyber Monday this year will bring in some 20 billion dollars. Clearly this seasonal urge to spend is quite powerful in our culture. It even applies to charities and non-profits. A 2023 survey found the some 50% of charities and non-profits reported that most of their individual contributions came in between October and December. The ideas of holiday gifting, seasonal calls for thinking of others, and tax deductions combined to drive more charitable fundraising these last three months of the year. And this has resulted in the development of “Giving Tuesday.” Giving Tuesday is a day for making donations to fund good causes following Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The founders wanted people to focus on giving after their weekend shopping spree, and to see a seamless link between spending for family and self and giving to help others. The idea quickly took off, and it is now an international movement. It even has its own website- https://www.givingtuesday.org/about which serves as a conduit connecting groups, causes, organizations and individuals. The website has history, tools to get organized, and connections to local movements from around the world. Given the widespread challenges presented by the effects of the COVID pandemic, increased natural disasters and increases in worldwide poverty rates, support for charitable institutions is even more critical. Giving Tuesday is one way of making that support possible. So the “Black Friday” phenomenon can, and in many ways, has definitely overwhelmed the intended sense of the original autumnal thanksgivings. It often seems to be about things and about consumption above all else. But with a true focus on gratitude, it can be about the simple joys of family and friends get-togethers. And it can also lead to a “Giving Tuesday” if we allow ourselves to get beyond consumption and the products and onto to something more meaningful. We can find another way to extend the notion of gratitude by giving back and giving to. I hope more of us can move to that this year. If you are so moved, please go to: https://www.givingtuesday.org/about For some interesting statistics on US charitable giving: https://www.definefinancial.com/blog/charitable-giving-statistics/ D

Finding Joy in This Fall

DUKES FANS I am jealous of two sets of friends today. One set got back from the Adirondacks last week, and one just got back from New Hampshire. And they both told me how great it was seeing Fall in all of its brightness and glory. I am jealous because Fall here in the Philadelphia area has been a tad subdued-drab. I have visited some of my favorite trees already this Fall, and they are not the spectacular reds, oranges, and yellows that had been so magnificently dancing with each other just a few years before. Coming up from the Richard Allen Lane train station, I was usually greeted by two tall widespread trees on Cresheim Valley Road that were a joyous mix of colors reaching for the sky. On Mt Pleasant Ave there is a bush in the 100 block which, when I look at it from the bottom of the little hill at Mt Pleasant and Germantown Ave, looked like a flaming red fire in the middle of the block. Both of these trees have shown a little red, but they are both much, much 'quieter' than they have been in the past. As the leaves have started falling, there is little chance of the appearing in their previous glory. I have noticed several trees on Germantown Ave near Mt Pleasant that have some good reds on parts of the trees, and that is good to see. But it has been somewhat of a disappointing fall for tree lovers in this region. The skies of the past couple of weeks, though, have been absolutely gorgeous. I did not get to see the Northern Lights earlier this week as I live in the city, but the moon, clouds, and skies of the past week have all been breathtaking. The cumulus clouds have been bright white, thick, and numerous, clumped together and/or stretching out in all sorts of wonderful shapes. It has been clear, so the clear, deep blueness of the sky has been almost sparkling in its brightness and depth. And the moon has been going through several phases, from quarter to almost full. And when I travel up or down Mt Airy Ave, I see bees and butterflies getting nectar from the flowers in the gardens in front of so many houses. My walking early in the morning, then, has been a true pleasure, and looking up has been marvelous. It has not failed to bring smiles. So it will be a "whisper" of a fall instead of the expected "shout." Some of the things that I have gotten used to and come to expect are not happening as I wanted them to, but there are also new and other plweasures to behold. I hope you are all able to find your own joys this season.

Vote As If Your Country Depended On It

DUKES FANS: “If you vote, it takes two people to overcome your ideas. But if you don’t vote, it only takes one” Ruth Edna Davis As usual, my mom’s advice was and is right on target. Election Day is less than 30 days away, and it is time to check your registration, and if you haven’t yet done so, register to vote. If you have paid even cursory attention to the news this year, you know that this is not only an unusual election but a supremely important one. This election may well be the one that determines the future structure, powers, functions, and direction that our republic will take for at least the next decade. It is vitally important that everyone who is legally able to do so register and then vote to have a say in this process. It is one of our opportunities and one of our duties as a citizen. If you do not like the outcome but did not vote, to me you have no right to complain. It is in our hands at this point, and we all need to step up. Registration deadlines for the tri-state area are October 12th-this Saturday- for Delaware, October15th for New Jersey, and Oct 21st for Pennsylvania. And if you are registered, it would probably be a good idea to check to make sure your registration is in order, especially if you have not voted in a while. Some states have removed people from the voter rolls, and they have not necessarily informed everyone who has been removed. Here is a link to a site that can help you find important registration and voting information: https://www.aarp.org/politics-society/government-elections/info-2024/state-voting-guides.html I hope you all participate in this process; it is essential to our republic remaining a republic.

Philly:One of The Rudest Cities in the United States?

DUKES FANS: “Be the change you wish to see in the world” Mahatma Gandhi “Philadelphia Ranked Among Rudest American Big City” is what the headline read on a post that came across my phone a few weeks ago. As a lifelong resident and lover of Philadelphia, I was taken aback. My city was one of the rudest cities in the US?? My hometown?? What was going on? I read through the article and a link or two, and I was surprised by what I read. It seemed that the respondents to the questions posed in the study were residents of the cities that were being studied, and that they had to have lived there for at least a year. And the behaviors that the study focused on were things that mostly occur in ordinary, daily life, and could well be taken as indications of friendliness, rudeness, and/or self-absorption. They include not letting people merge into traffic; being too loud in public; not noticing, responding to, or helping strangers; not stopping for pedestrians, even at crosswalks, and being rude to service staff. This reminded me of a phrase that I grew up with and still try to apply today: “common courtesy.” And it seems to me as I consider that article on rude cities that “common courtesy’ has become quite uncommon in many places and at many times these days. I was raised in a working class African-American family in the 1950’s. My parents, particularly my mother, put a great stress on politeness and common courtesy. We were taught to say,” Please” and “Thank You.” If you needed to go past someone, you said, “Excuse Me,” and you said it BEFORE you started moving past them. If you were on a bus and an older person needed a place to sit, you offered your seat to them. And you tried not to be too boisterous in public. Of course, I was/am not perfect in all of these things, but they are still a part of my social DNA. And as the society around me changed, it brought new challenges to politeness and common courtesy. I first noticed it with electronic devices. People with boom boxes were sometimes not shy about letting you know that they had them, and that annoyed me, especially on public transit or when I was sitting in a park. Headphones and earbuds meant that people could be in public but also be somewhat oblivious to the fact that they were actually in public. They would sing along with the song they were listening to, and of course, when you are plugged in you need to be louder in order to hear yourself. Cell phones multiplied all of that, as people would have loud conversations as they walked down the street, waited in line at the coffee shop, and rode public transit. I was so happy when the “quiet car” became a feature on most commuter rail lines in the country. Before that I would overhear family arguments, profanity, relationship details, and even business deal details whether I wanted to or not. But COVID, to me, really damaged common courtesy the most. It was as if people felt cornered or trapped and denied something, so they had to take it out on someone and make people notice them. Driving too fast, ignoring traffic signals, blasting music out of their cars was an easy way to do that. And people started buying larger cars, more trucks and more SUV’s. The combined result of all of that was a marked increase in pedestrian and cycling deaths that is still with us. Service workers were treated with more rudeness, verbal abuse, and even violence. Transit workers, servers, and nurses all reported increases in workplace rudeness and violence; nearly half of all US nurses reported incidents of verbal abuse and physical violence in hospitals and clinics. COVID made me realize that I had to be sure I was being polite and courteous; I had to be sure that I was acting the way I wanted the world to be. I smile the vast majority of the time, and I say, “Hi”, and “Thank you” to servers, transit workers, and others who help make my life easier and more manageable. And I have noticed things improving a lot in the past year and a half, I am glad to say. It has been a while since I have seen someone cursing at a service worker or clerk in a market. Transit workers still have to put up with a lot, so I try to say, “Hi” to them and wish them a safe and good day. I don’t know if that reduces the “rudeness factor” that this study looked at, but I do not that I am doing my part. And I still love this city. And I do not want to leave. (Here is a link to the article about rudest cities, should you want to read it. https://preply.com/en/blog/rudest-cities/ And please feel free to share any thoughts, ideas, etc that you have about it and/or this newsletter)

The Magic and Beauty of Fall

DUKES FANS: The Continual Beauty of the Fall Autumn 2024 came into the Northern Hemisphere on Sunday, September 22 at 8:44 AM Eastern Standard Time. That is when summer officially ended and our Hemisphere began gradually moving into that time of shorter daylight, cooler weather, the movement of butterflies, birds and other wildlife species across state lines, and the slow, steady emergence of remarkable shades of color on thousands of trees, flowers, and shrubs. It is a magical time. This region has approximately equal amounts of time in each of the four seasons, and I love each of them. But spring and fall are my favorites. They both make me super aware of and grateful for the way the natural world around us can announce itself. Spring, like fall, is about big color changes in our surroundings, the movement of animals, and changes in their color. The difference, though, is that spring is bright; it seems somewhat flashier, quicker, and louder. The changes seem to happen more rapidly and more intensely. Fall, on the other hand, is more subdued; it is slower, quieter. I love them both, but this is the time that I resonate with that slower and quieter feel of autumn. Over the next month or so I will have the time to fully take in and experience the changes just as they happen. I can delight in how a given street, or yard, or tree or a particular garden gradually makes its way quietly through these changes. And then, suddenly, there is a whole new landscape in front of me-differently colored trees and bushes, longer hours of darkness, and the arrival of more differently colored birds. It is a subtler process than spring, but both of them present me with changed worlds. Fall is always magical to me; it never fails to re-awaken my joy and wonder in my surroundings. It was not always like this for me; when I was younger, fall had not really been a “special” time to me. It was nice, but it was not “special.” That all changed one October when I was 20 and taking a trip to visit friends in Rhode Island. I was riding the old Penn Central rail line from Philly to Providence, RI., and a few seats in front of me was a couple that was apparently super-excited about the trip. They kept getting out of their seats, walking to one side of the train and then the other, looking out the windows, and “oohing” and “ahhiing.” I watched this for a bit and was mystified. It was just a train trip, after all; what was the big deal? So I went up to them and asked what was going on; why were they going through all of this running around and looking out the windows? The man looked at me and said, “We’re from Los Angeles. This is our first time East-we have never seen fall before! We read about it and saw some photos, but this is our first time actually seeing it! It is incredible!” Just then the train was crossing the Connecticut River. Looking down, the view that hit our eyes was an unbelievable riot of all different shades of oranges, reds, greens, and yellow. And through their eyes I suddenly awoke to a new appreciation of the season. That trip started my revised relationship with autumn. I spent the rest of the train ride marveling at the beauty outside the train window, and by the time I reached Providence I was hooked on fall. I still revel in the fall. I still feel all the beauty and can express gratitude and amazement as I once again realize what this world presents me with the gifts that are there just waiting for me when I take the time to notice and appreciate them. Happy Autumn, everyone. Enjoy and experience the beauty and wonder of the mid-Atlantic fall.

Thank You!

DUKES FANS: “Sometimes, the best thing to say is to say nothing” Anonymous Those of you who have been on the Dukes’ mailing list for a while know that I like to share thoughts, ideas, questions, and observation about a whole bunch of things. I often talk about experiences that I have had in particular places that have wowed me, particular books, music, and musicians that I love, experiences with the weather, and much, much more. This week, however, I have nothing special to say. Nada. Zip. Nothing. No, nothing is wrong; there are no problems. I simply do not have much to say about anything this week that seems to merit being in this newsletter. Except to thank all of you who show up at Dukes’ gigs and concerts and have done so for over 38 years. And to say, to “Thank you” to those of you who have signed up for these e-mails. Sometimes a sincere, “Thank you” is more than enough to say. So, “Thank you!” (If you do want to read some of my thoughts and ramblings over the years, please feel free to check the “John’s Blog” section of our website: www.dukesofdestiny.com And note that the website is in the process of being updated. I will let everyone know when the updates are complete.)

The Importance of Voting

DUKES FANS: “Buddy, you have to vote in every election. Every one. People died so you could get this right, and if you don’t vote, then you are spitting on their graves Ruth Davis That is what my mother said to me when I was a kid and she would take me into the voting booth with her. Voting was almost a sacred ritual to Ruth Davis. My family was a working- class African-American family, and I was born after WWII. This was at the start of the postwar rise of the suburbs, the rise of the middle class, and the beginning of the social upheavals of the 1960’s- the Woman’s Movement, the counter-culture, and of course, the Civil Rights Movement. Both of my parents were Southern-born, and they lived through Jim Crow segregation, Ku Klux Klan violence, and limited economic opportunities for Blacks.We subscribed to the Philadelphia Tribune, Philadelphia’s black newspaper, Ebony magazine, and the Evening Bulletin newspaper. Our church held voting registration drives and took part in marches and demonstrations to, among other things , get Pepsi Cola to award franchises to Black beverage distributors. I grew up in a family that read about, talked about, and took part in important social and political issues. Mom and Dad wanted their kids to live in a world that offered more opportunities for their children than they had as they were growing up. So it was not a surprise that in high school I participated in numerous Civil Rights and Anti-Viet Nam War marches and protests. The voting age at that time was 21, and I used to stand on street corners with petitions calling for the voting age to be lowered to 18. At 18 we had to register for the military draft and could be sent off to Viet Nam; many of us thought we ought to at least have a say in picking who it might be the one who would send us there. In 1971 the 26th Amendment was passed, and the 1972 Presidential election was the first one in which 18 year- olds could cast a vote. I proudly voted in that election, and I have voted in every election since. I was not going to be spitting on any graves. I say all of this to urge people to register to vote in the upcoming November election and then to show up and actually vote. If you have paid even cursory attention to the news this year, you know that this is not only an unusual election but a supremely important one. This election may well be the one that determines the future structure, powers, functions, and direction that our republic will take for at least the next decade or so. It is vitally important that everyone who is legally able to do so register and then vote to have a say in this process. It is one of our opportunities and duties as a citizen. If you do not like the outcome but did not vote, to me you have no right to complain. Registration deadlines for the tri-state area are October 12th for Delaware, October15th for New Jersey, and Oct 21st for Pennsylvania. And if you are registered, it would probably be a good idea to check to make sure your registration is in order, especially if you have not voted in a while. Some states have removed people from the voter rolls, and they have not necessarily informed everyone who has been removed. Here is a link to a site that can help you find important registration and voting information: https://www.aarp.org/politics-society/government-elections/info-2024/state-voting-guides.html I hope you all participate in this process; it is essential to our republic remaining a republic.