Author: earlblacklock

From deep water to joy

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When I work with people who have gone through deep waters – whose life experience includes trauma that overwhelmed their resilience and robbed them of their ability to cope – I sometimes recall my own traumatic journey and the path I took to wellness. From that journey, I learned to embrace joy – not the faux emotion we sometimes confuse with happiness, but the deep, abiding awareness that even in the midst of the worst of life experience, it is possible to align your spirit with the God who is the source of all that is good and glorious in the universe. Joy is to happiness as celebration is to gratitude. And it is in that realization that I gained an insight into one of the most essential and consequential truths of mental wellness – a realization that has made me a far more effective therapist. It has long been a mainstay of mental health treatment to encourage those suffering from depression to cultivate and foster an “attitude of gratitude” – to identify those things …

Why am I so anxious?

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“Do not be anxious for anything,” the Bible says (Philippians 4:6). As a psychotherapist, I regularly deal with people with serious and debilitating anxiety. And I know that simply deciding to not be anxious doesn’t work. Anxiety is the product of changes in one’s brain and autonomic nervous system as a result of trauma. And trauma is a life event that overwhelms a person’s emotional capacity and understanding. Traumatic response is marked by these characteristics: Submerged memory as the brain blocks you from again being overwhelmed; Emotional dysregulation as the brain blocks access to executive brain functions responsible for regulating how we feel and respond to stress; and Difficulty forming attachments and, sometimes, disassociation. Anxiety is what a person experiences when these characteristics are inadequate to deal with traumatic memories or new stress experiences. Anxiety is experienced emotionally, psychologically, and somatically (in the body). It is a state of readiness to either respond with aggression (fight) or by fleeing or avoiding the situation (flight). Anxiety is living in the expectation that the immediate future is …

The difference between guilt and shame

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As a mental health professional, I’m often asked the difference between guilt and shame. Guilt is “I did something wrong.” Shame is “I am what is wrong.” Guilt is “I violated a norm, a societal expectation, or a requirement set out by God.” Shame is “I am at my core without any worth.” Guilt originates from selfishness or self-centredness. Shame originates from trauma, from life experiences that overwhelm one’s emotional and mental capacity. Guilt requires forgiveness, restitution to those who have been harmed, and a decision of your will to change the guilty behaviour. Shame requires a reorientation of one’s brain to align itself with what is true. Guilt wears a person down. Shame destroys what it means to be a unique person who can enter into the joy of their relationship with a loving God. Guilt points a person to what needs to change in his/her life. Shame prevents a person from wanting to change because of a core belief that s/he doesn’t deserve wellness and normalcy. I deal daily with people who are …

Grief without sorrow

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My wife Carol got some wonderful news the other day. The Lions Foundation Guide Dogs program in Canada approved her request for a service dog to help her in the event she has a seizure. Our joy was tempered, however, with the realization that our beloved Lahsa Apso dog Rusty, which we have had for 11 and a half years, would have to be re-homed. A service dog can’t be distracted by another dog in the house. We were fortunate to find a loving home for our companion. Out of four offers, we were able to place him in a home that was similar to our own. That difficult task complete, we started to feel the grief of losing a beloved pet, one who had given us love and acceptance for so many years. We were fortunate that we still had time with him, but as the days count down, the grief that we feel is growing greater, not less. But it’s a grief without sorrow. Yes, we realize that we are readying ourselves for …

Meeting Jesus at Chicago O'Hare Airport Photo: Ronald Woan/Flickr

A Christmas Story

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We had just arrived in Chicago, on our way home. Carol’s wheelchair attendant was, as promised, waiting at the cabin door for her. He was a cheerful fellow, with a cheerful smile and a cheerful demeanor as he very cheerfully asked me to take the wheelchair. I understood – his tablet read my name, not Carol’s. “No,” I said. “It’s for my wife.” That’s when he saw her and could clearly see she had the greater need. “No problem,” he said. “Can you make it to the top of the ramp?” Being satisfied I was taken care of, he pushed Carol to the top while I hobbled with my cane behind, already exhausted. At the top, he said “Sir, you must let me take you as well. Your next flight is just too far away. I’ll get another chair.” Gratefully, I accepted. When he got back, it quickly became obvious he didn’t misspeak when he said he would take me and Carol as well. With one hand on Carol’s chair and the other on mine, …

How forgiveness stopped a riot. Photo: Flickr/scottmontreal

The Compassionate Widow

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1968 was a troubled year for race relations in the United States – in particular, April of 1968, when Martin Luther King Jr.’s life was cut short by an assassin’s bullet. In the two weeks following King’s murder, race riots broke out in Washington, DC, Chicago, Baltimore, Kansas City, Detroit, and Wilmington, Delaware. Rioters reached within two blocks of the White House, and President Johnston ordered thousands of federal troops into the streets to restore order. The day of the King funeral, a white bus driver in San Francisco named Martin Whitted picked up four young men in a black ghetto called Hunters Point. Whitted had taken the run for a co-worker who wanted to take the day off to honour King’s memory. He was nearing the end of his run when he was robbed and shot by the youth. Sniper fire prevented the police from getting to Whitted in time, and he was dead by the time he reached the hospital. Hunters Point, a black-dominated ghetto that had gone through riots just two years …

Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India Photo: Amit Gupta/Flickr

Christian Heroes – Dr. Paul Brand

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Paul Brand was a Christian doctor who dedicated his life and his skills to the people of India. He was the son of missionaries to India and, from the age of nine, was schooled and trained in England while his parents remained. After Brand graduated as an orthopaedic surgeon, he was recruited to serve at the Christian Medical College in Vellore. However, history remembers him most for his work at a nearby sanatorium for victims of Hanson’s Disease – leprosy. Little was known or understood about the crippling effects of leprosy on its victims. Brand realized that some of the same techniques used to rehabilitate the motor functions of victims of diseases such as polio held promise for treating leprosy. After a year of research and study, Brand began a series of surgeries on Krishnamurthy, a young man whose hands were completely atrophied and useless, his fingers curled into a claw position. Patiently, over time, Brand split moved healthy muscles and tendons to serve in place of paralyzed muscle. The claw gradually was restored to …

Athol Murray College of Notre Dame, Wilcox, Saskatchewan: Google Street View

Christian Heroes 4 – Father Athol Murray

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To those who met Athol Murray for the first time, it would have been easy to mistake him for a steelworker or a farmer. He was, instead, a priest, one of the most remarkable Canada has ever known. With the Catholic Church and other churches beset with the scandal that was the residential school system, it is good to remind ourselves that there were some who, given charge of young lives, emboldened and enriched them. It was said that Père Murray had “the mind of a Greek scholar, the vocabulary of a dock worker, and the soul of a saint.” Working with the Sisters of Charity of St. Louis, he established Notre Dame College in Wilcox, Saskatchewan in 1927 as a place where young men and women, Catholic and non-Catholic, could come together for both learning and intensive training in competitive sports. Especially hockey, the priest’s favourite sport. The Notre Dame Hounds hockey team has a storied history, with at least 14 Hounds making it to the NHL. Other alumni included Olympic Gold Medallist Delaney …

Washington, DC photo: bmward_2000/Foter/CC BY-NC

The President’s Silly Speech

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There is currently circulating on the Internet a clip from Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama in which the usually sure-footed orator is seen stumbling, repeatedly, over his words. Indeed, politicians have always stumbled on occasion when trying to wax eloquent about the issues of the day. And the media has not always been kind to even the most earnest attempt to speak of those issues. Asked to deliver closing remarks on a solemn occasion, one U.S. President spoke only briefly, responsibility for the principal oratory having fallen to another. Nevertheless, his remarks were savaged by the reporters present. One newspaper said “We pass over the silly remarks of the President — for the credit of the nation we are willing that the veil of oblivion shall be dropped over them and that they shall no more be repeated or thought of.” Another reported “The cheek of every American must tingle with shame as he reads the silly, flat, and dishwatery utterances of the man who has to be pointed out to intelligent foreigners as the …

Beatrice, Nebraska Photo Nicolas Henderson/Flickr

The Late Choir

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All of the members of the West Side Baptist Church in Beatrice, Nebraska knew what time choir practice started. They usually arrived at around 7:15, and practice started shortly after. The evening of March 1, 1950, Pastor Walter Klempel arrived at the Church early to get ready for practice. The sanctuary was chilly, so he lit the furnace, then went home to dinner. When it was time to return, his wife needed to iron his daughter’s dress, so he was delayed. The other members of the choir prepared to leave for the church, but for some reason, each one of them was late Ladona Vandegrift was late because she was having trouble with a homework problem, and she wanted to finish it. Royena Estes and her sister Sadie were late because their car wouldn’t start. They called Ladona for a ride, but of course they had to wait until Ladona was finished her geometry. Herbert Kipf was late because he had put off writing an important letter, and wanted to finish it. Joyce Black was …

Bristol, Rhode Island: Angusdavis/Wikipedia

A Most Unusual VP

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Bristol, Rhode Island is sometimes called “America’s most patriotic town”, with Independence Day celebrations dating back to 1777. Today, more than 100 thousand people visit the town to participate in its month-long celebrations. In 1932, however, as the nation coped with the Great Depression, the town’s celebrations were more subdued. The largest manufacturing plant in town had closed, leaving a thousand people unemployed and without hope. The owners offered the plant superintendent, Maurice Smith, a good job in one of their other plants, but he refused, feeling a duty to the people he had worked with for so long. He solicited funds to start a new business manufacturing rubber shoes, but the amount he raised wasn’t nearly enough. [Photo: Bristol, Rhode Island/Angusdavis/Wikipedia]

Japan’s Christian Voice

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[by Earl Blacklock] Throughout his life, Toyohiko Kagawa was a respected  voice in Japan, representing Christian truth and witness. Born to a concubine, Kagawa was raised by his father’s wife and her mother who, in their indignation, took turns beating the boy until he was old enough to be sent away to school. There he met two missionaries who taught him that all men were created by a God of love, and that any person could accomplish good simply by devoting himself to service. Inspired by their example, he plunged into study for the ministry, only to be struck down by tuberculosis. During his recuperation, he wrote Across the Death Line, a novel that was to play an important role in his life. Impatient with endless discussions about doctrine, Kabawa moved into the slum area of Kobe, where he was to live for 15 years. There, he lived the teachings of Christ, sharing his meagre resources to buy food for his neighbours. Called a fool, he proudly called himself “Christ’s fool”. When one man demanded …

The Heroism of Captain Carlson

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[by Earl Blacklock] Perhaps the first news event to capture the rapt attention of a world-wide audience was the sinking of the freighter Flying Enterprise. In December 1951, the ship left England for New York carrying 10 immigrants and a mixed cargo, including Volkswagens and pig iron. On Christmas Day, rough seas and gale force winds caused the cars and pig iron to shift, and the ship began to list to port. By the following morning, a crack had appeared in the hull and, despite valiant efforts by the crew, it was clear the ship was in trouble. On December 28, an SOS was issued, and the crew and passengers were ordered to abandon ship. They were forced to jump into the sea, where all but one were rescued. Meanwhile, the Danish ship captain, Henrik Kurt Carlsen, stayed behind to assist in salvage efforts.  More than 400 newspaper and radio reporters from 12 countries rushed to cover the story. It was, indeed, a compelling one – a single man alone on a ship with a …

Choosing people of character

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[by Earl Blacklock] Richard Evelyn Byrd was a remarkable explorer and adventurer whose accomplishments made history. An officer in the U.S. Navy, he flew perilous journeys over Arctic regions, one of which won him the Medal of Honor. In 1927, he crossed the Atlantic with three others, and survived a crash landing at Normandy, France. And in 1929, he began a series of expeditions to Antarctica, his best known accomplishment. So what did Rear Admiral Byrd look for when choosing his crew for these quests? Before leaving on his first expedition to Antarctica, he set out the criteria he used to select his team from the thousands of applicants who wanted to serve. First, he sought men who knew what it was to face prolonged danger without fear. That ability, he felt, arose in large part from “good heart and digestion” and exercise. Those who were in good health, he observed, were often those best able to deal with extraordinary challenges.

Crossing the Delaware

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[by Earl Blacklock] The American War of Independence, from 1775 to 1783, was an extraordinary event which changed the course of history. It was waged on multiple fronts, from the eastern seaboard to Canada, and it eventually drew in France, Spain, and Holland on the side of the rebels. George Washington, later to be the first President of the United States, was the general in charge of the Continental Army, which Congress had formed in 1776. By December of that year, it was an army in retreat, having been driven out of what is modern-day New York. Washington had fewer than 2400 men at arms, compared to more than 25,000 for the British. British generals Howe and Cornwallis were preparing to sail for London to inform their government that the revolutionaries had been beaten. The British had at their disposal battle-hardened Hessian mercenaries who now occupied the New Jersey side of the Delaware River. The Americans had limited supplies, with many marching without warm clothes or even boots. It seemed, indeed, that the end was …

The failure that helped make Lincoln president

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[by Earl Blacklock] Robert Todd Lincoln was a witness to some of the most momentous moments of American history. As Secretary of War under President James A. Garfield, he witnessed Garfield’s assassination at the hands of Charles Guiteau. He was Minister to the Court of St. James (U.S. Ambassador to Britain) under President Benjamin Harrison. He succeeded George Pullman as the President of the Pullman Palace Car Company in 1898 and, at the invitation of President William McKinley, he was at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo when McKinley was gunned down by Leon Czolgosz. Despite his lifetime of achievement, however, it was his record of failure which was, perhaps, his greatest contribution to history. Robert Todd Lincoln was the first son of Abraham and Mary Lincoln, and the only one to reach adulthood.

Man of the Year

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[by Earl Blacklock] Southwestern College in Winfield, Kansas was established in 1885 by the Methodist Episcopal Church to provide students with a liberal arts education. In 1951, the school took pride in its athletic program, and in its coach Harold Hunt. It was a difficult time for the school. The year before, a major fire had ravaged its administration center. With only 350 students, the school’s football team was always up against larger schools, and Coach Hunt had only 27 in his entire squad. College football was in trouble throughout the United States because of news stories about bribes and dirty play. The opening game against Central Missouri State College was one Southwestern badly wanted to win. Before a crowd of 2,000 fans, the team didn’t give an inch on defence for the entire first half, and the half ended with no score from either team.

Are you sure you buy that?

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[by Earl Blacklock] We’ve all seen them – the athlete or celebrity who, by virtue of their endorsement, can boost sales and raise profile for products and ideas. Companies line up for the opportunity to pay millions for the endorsement of a celebrity.  Remember the “I’m going to Disneyland!” campaign? Constance Talmadge was one of the champions of the endorsement game. If you’ve never heard of Constance, it’s not surprising. She was a star of the silent film era, a beautiful woman who made some 84 films before her career ended when talkies took over. Together with Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and her equally talented sister Norma, she inaugurated the Hollywood tradition of putting her prints in cement outside Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.

A most remarkable man

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[by Earl Blacklock] Eddie Rickenbacker. World War I fighter ace, race car driver, survivor. And devout Christian. What a life he led! Working from the time he was 13 after the death of his father, he suffered a severe injury that laid him up in the hospital for weeks. There he chose to devote the next stage of his life to the fledgling automobile industry. He had been smitten by a thrilling ride in a Ford runabout which traveled at more than ten miles per hour. By 1911 he was driving race cars at the Indianapolis Speedway. By 1915 he had a four car racing team, and he developed techniques to reduce time in the pits which saved 30 seconds at a time. In 1916, he won more than half of the major races he entered.

Bread and Circuses

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[Earl Blacklock] The Colosseum in Rome is one of the most visited tourist sites in the world. Millions come each year to view with awe its remnants. And little wonder. Designed to seat 50 thousand people, it was an architectural masterpiece. But it had a bloody history. The arena was the place where the idle gathered to amuse themselves, and Roman society had many idle, to the extent that the state had to placate them with free food and amusement to keep them out of trouble. By the reign of Emperor Claudius (41-54 A.D.), 159 days of public holidays were in place, of which Claudius devoted 93 days to spectacles in the arenas of the empire, of which the Colosseum was chief. Juvenal, a writer of the day, said of his fellow Romans that they “now long eagerly for just two things: bread and circuses”.

A warning not heeded

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[by Earl Blacklock ] As a young man, Walter Judd attended a youth conference in Lincoln, Nebraska. He remembered little about the conference except the story of the rich young ruler. He saw in the story a choice – to put a Cause before himself, or to be a quitter. He went home and announced to his parents that he had chosen to be a medical missionary. In 1925, after graduating from medical school, Judd went to a mission hospital in China, 12 days inland. After a succession of 46 malarial attacks, he was forced to return to the United States in 1931. What he had seen in China convinced Judd that Japan was preparing for war, and that the U.S. would inevitably be embroiled in it. He tried to convince anyone who would listen that American trade was helping Japan arm. No one took his warnings seriously.

A generous peace

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[by Earl Blacklock] Japan will long be remembered as the perpetrator of the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, followed by years of astonishing cruelty against those it conquered. This made them beyond redemption in the minds of most Americans. An associate of Dulles once called the behavior of the Japanese during the war “unforgiveable”. Dulles’ response? “Christ teaches us that nothing is unforgivable.” John Foster Dulles was born into a devout Christian home, a pastor’s family, in 1888. His grandfather, John Foster, was part of the team that negotiated an end to the Sino-Japanese war in 1895, and served as Secretary of State. His parents wanted him to follow his father into ministry, but his grandfather had other ideas.

Christian Heroes III – Dr. William Osler

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[by Earl Blacklock] Dr. William Osler was a Canadian doctor who profoundly influenced the practice of medicine. To be a doctor was not, however, his first career choice. William intended to follow his father into the ministry, even entering seminary with that intent. After a year, however, William decided to study at McGill Medical School. After graduating, Osler continued his studies in Europe. In London, he became the first to identify the clumps that form in blood after it is drawn from the body. He correctly concluded that the clumps, now known as blood platelets, had a role to play in clotting. The acclaim that accompanied his discovery prompted McGill to call its former student home as a professor of physiology.

Christian Heroes II — William Wilberforce

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[by Earl Blacklock] The slave trade was a lucrative part of the British economy. British ships moved slaves from Africa to the West Indies to be bought and sold, then brought sugar and other goods produced with that labor back to Britain. William Wilberforce was a young man, born to privilege, who was a close personal friend of Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger. In 1780, while still a 21 year old student at Cambridge, he was elected the Member of Parliament for Kingston upon Hull, sitting as an independent. At 25, he was elected the Member of Parliament for Yorkshire. Shortly after, partly due to the influence of his aunt, he went through a conversion experience, becoming an ardent Christian. He fought for social reforms such as the improvement of British factory conditions, and against  child labor and animal cruelty.

Christian Heroes I — Florence Nightingale

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[by Earl Blacklock] Something that has always astounded me is how completely the `world-changing influence of Christian men and women is ignored even as their legacy is celebrated. Ask the average person to give a summary of the impact of Christians on history, and you are more likely to hear their 10th hand rendition of real and imagined offenses during the Crusades and the Inquisition rather than how our modern society is indebted to the groundbreaking work of these Christians. One of the most influential of these Christian pioneers was a young woman, born to privilege, who created a profession that touches every life. Nurses around the world universally credit Florence Nightingale as the woman who made their profession one of honour. She  introduced virtually all of the protocols and standards that are now understood by even a first year student nurse.

The 100 year voice

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[by Earl Blacklock] Marian Anderson was a black singer in the U.S. whose singing ability was considered exceptional. Famed conductor Arturo Toscanini once told her she had a voice “heard once in a hundred years.” In 1925, she began singing with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, and was an immediate success. She followed that up with an appearance at Carnegie Hall in 1928, and a tour of Europe in the 1930s. She sang at the White House for the President and the King and Queen of England. A black singer in the U.S. during the 1930s faced enormous obstacles. In 1939, she was barred by the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) from playing at Constitution Hall. There was a public outcry against the decision, led by Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of the President. She, along with thousands of other DAR members, cancelled her membership in the organization in protest. She went further, helping to persuade Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes to permit Marian to sing in an open air concert on the steps …

High Seas Rescue

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[by Earl Blacklock] U.S. Coast Guard cutter George M. Bibb was designed as a ship of war – and of hope. In World War II, its crew rescued hundreds from the waters of the North Atlantic, but its greatest challenge was the post-war rescue of those in a downed trans-Atlantic airplane. The Bermuda Sky Queen, piloted by Captain Charles Martin, was a Boeing 314 flying boat with 62 passengers and seven crew. On October 14, 1947, the plane was flying from Ireland to Newfoundland when it encountered unexpectedly strong headwinds from a heavy gale. Martin realized that the plane didn’t have enough fuel to make it to land in either direction, and he decided to land the plane beside the Bibb, on weather station duty nearby.

The Incomparable Observer

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[by Earl Blacklock] From his childhood, Jean Henri Casimir Fabre was a gifted self-taught observer of nature whose extensive research and writings on insect and arachnid anatomy and behavior set the highest standard for scientific inquiry. Fabre won a scholarship to a school for teachers, where he taught himself Latin and Greek. While studying a text on entomology, he discovered an error. The book said that the hunting wasp kills beetles before feeding them to its larvae. Through careful observation, Fabre saw that the wasp instead paralyzes its prey, delivering them to its young still alive. From that observation, Fabre learned the principle that in science, all authority must be questioned. A teacher of biology at a high school for boys in Avignon, Fabre devoted his free time to the study of insects and arachnids. He would spend hours after school studying and recording the drama of the lives of creatures that lived nearby, from the way they would signal their presence to how they killed their prey.

Lift me up

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[by Earl Blacklock] In November of 1951, Captain John Paladino was a fighter pilot, flying an F-86 Sabre jet fighter over North Korea. He was flying home from an air attack on enemy railroads when the unthinkable happened. At 32,000 feet, Captain Paladino’s oxygen equipment failed, and he passed out, unconscious. “The first I knew I was in trouble was when the instruments went hazy. That’s all I remember”, Paladino recalled. Flying with the stricken pilot were friends Jack Miller and Wood McArthur.  They watched with concern as they saw Paladino take a sharp drop to the left. After dropping a few thousand feet, Paladino’s plane went through the sound barrier, then suddenly pitched up into a climb.

Arctic Survival

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[by Earl Blacklock] When Canadian bush pilot Robert Gauchie left Cambridge Bay on February 2, 1967, he had every reason to be confident he would arrive in Yellowknife, less than six hours away, by late afternoon. He flew a single-engine Beaver, built to be both rugged and reliable. He had every kind of communication and navigational aid available. Just over two hours later, Gauchie encountered a driving snowstorm. When he attempted to set up an instrument course, he discovered two crucial instruments – his turn-and-bank indicator and his artificial horizon – were not working. Descending quickly, he flew by sight until he spotted a stretch of clear ice. There he set his craft down.

The Butler Did It!

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[by Earl Blacklock] Elyesa Bazna was the butler for the British Ambassador to Turkey in the final years of World War II. He was also the highest paid spy in history – at least on paper. Bazna is known to history as Cicero, his German code name. He approached the German embassy in Ankara with an offer they couldn’t refuse – an opportunity to regularly see the contents of British Ambassador Sir Hughe Knatchbull-Hugessen’s home safe. The Ambassador was careless about following procedure, regularly bringing sensitive documents home. He was unaware that his trusted valet had made a copy of the key to his safe, and was regularly rifling it for secrets.

A husband’s love

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[by Earl Blacklock] Leprosy is a chronic bacterial infection which causes disfiguring skin lesions, blindness, and absorption of bones and cartilage. Formally known as Hansen’s disease, leprosy is only mildly communicable. Nevertheless, over a period spanning thousands of years, it has been a disease that has meant fear, rejection, and personal terror. Since its first diagnosis in the United States, thousands of people contracted the disease. Those diagnosed with the disease suffered shame and sorrow. Starting in 1921, public health authorities in the United States sent patients diagnosed with leprosy to the Public Health Service Center in Carville, Louisiana for isolation and treatment. Mail to the outside could only be sent by a staff member, after sterilization.

First to the Pole

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[by Earl Blacklock] Robert E. Peary was the first to lead a successful conquest of the North Pole, one of the great achievements of history. However, the measure of the man can be found in what happened after his return. Peary had made previous expeditions to the North, including a failed attempt to reach the pole in 1906. He and his men came within 174 miles before they had to turn back, barely alive. In 1908, at the age of 52, Peary knew he was facing his final chance to reach the pole. He planned his expedition carefully. A thick-hulled ship named the Roosevelt carried him to Cape York, Greenland. There he met his Inuit helpers and their families, who knew him well from his previous expeditions. They came on board for the journey to the jumping off point at Cape Columbia, the northernmost point of Canada. There, they spent the winter locked in ice. The Inuit hunted for extra food, and they built sledges for the journey.

The banker with interest — in others

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[by Earl Blacklock] Amadeo Pietro Giannini was an innovative banker who was responsible for most of the services we now consider part of what we can expect from our neighborhood bank. Where other banks opened from 10 to 3 weekdays, Giannini’s Bank of Italy opened from 9 to 5 every day but Sunday. Where other banks limited their business to businesses and industry, Giannini served the middle income wage earners from convenient branches. Where other bank executives closeted themselves in expensive offices, Giannini insisted his executives be out on the floor, visible and accessible. The bank was consistent in making a profit, even in the midst of the worst economic conditions. Only two years after starting the bank, Giannini’s biggest challenge arose with the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. He saw the challenge as an opportunity, however.