October 2020 Newsletter
The Pioneers Club is Up ‘n Running
After days of clouds and rain showers, the warm, sunny afternoon of Sunday, September 13 arrived… opening day for the Chicago Bears; however, the Bears weren't the only ones kicking off their season on that fine Sunday afternoon. After much planning and anticipation, Midtown's father-son club, the Pioneers Club, had its first session, too!
Pioneers Club offers the opportunity for a dad and his son to spend quality time together, along with other dads and sons looking to do the same thing. The first meeting of the Pioneers was just that: dads and sons arrived in pairs and gathered for the virtue talk. Mariano Gomez spoke about the virtue of honesty, providing numerous relatable examples and anecdotes. The talk was geared to the sons, but the dads attended to provide an opening for father and son to discuss honesty on the car ride home.
After the talk, the boys went outside with Mariano and Pedro Caranti to play an exhilarating game of Jenga, while the dads stayed back for a talk and discussion about virtue development in general, with specific references to honesty. For the boys outdoors, however, this was not your regular Jenga. This was jumbo Jenga – the tower of wooden bricks was taller than some of the boys! The boys, split into two even teams carefully dislodged the wooden bricks, trying hard to not topple the tower. After 30 minutes of nail-biting intensity, the tower finally came crashing down, just as the dads were coming outdoors.
The two Jenga teams soon turned into two kickball teams, this time with dads included. Though some dad-son pairs were a bit fuzzy on the rules, they soon got up to speed with the help of those pairs who were nearly kickball pros. The game saw plenty of close calls, great catches, and several big homerun kicks. Out on the field, Lukas Pardilla had a clutch catch in the last inning, even while some of the dads had more difficulty catching easier kicks... Come on, dads! After 5 innings, the game wrapped up and everyone headed to the Oratory for a short meditation preached by Fr. Derrick. Following that, we gathered outdoors for snacks and CapriSun for the sons, and beers for the dads. All in all, it was an awesome kick-off to what looks like will be a fun and formative year for these fathers and sons!
Midtown Center for boys School Year Program Launched on September 28
Midtown Center for boys launched its school year “Midtown At Home” program on September 28. This follows the remarkable summer program, in which daily online attendance rates averaged near 90%.
Midtown’s Fall Programming includes one-on-one tutoring for 4th-6th grade boys. Tutoring begins with a 10-minute character talk for the students, and a parallel 10-minute formation talk for tutors on topics like friendship, family, and good use of technology. The boys are also challenged through interactive tools to stretch their Math and English language arts skills.
Middle School Boys have fun, interactive classes to prepare them for their high school entrance exams and high school life. After high school entrance season ends this Fall, the boys will turn to hands-on activities like robotics. High School Boys have Midtown’s traditional college prep classes, extracurricular art activities, and thought-provoking “How To Be A Man” character classes.
If you’re interested in volunteering as a Tutor or Mentor and would like more information before applying, please contact Center Director Peter Ladwein. Or you can apply here.
Learn more about Midtown and the parallel program for girls, Metro Achievement Center, here.
Book Review: The Tyranny of Merit by Michael J. Sandel
Whose contribution to the common good is of more value: that of a nurse working the night shift at a city hospital, or that of a billionaire casino mogul who makes a thousand times more? If the casino owner makes so much more than the nurse, is that because he is more successful than the nurse? Isn’t success in a free market economy due to one’s own hard work and talent, and therefore something merited? But does that mean that those who are not successful lack talent or haven’t worked hard enough? These are questions that Michael Sandel, a professor of political philosophy at Harvard University, asks in his newest book, The Tyranny of Merit. As he invites us to consider these questions, he lead us to others: what determines the reward I receive for my work? Is it based on what I deserve? Or is it a function of the value given to it by the market, something determined by the scarcity of the talents I have and the goods I produce coupled with how much consumers are willing to pay for it? Is this value a real indicator of my contribution to society? Or, worryingly, is it simply a price based on how well I satisfy consumer wants?
As he asks these questions and ponders answers given by a variety of economists and philosophers, Sandel weaves them into a diagnosis of the simmering resentment and discontentment growing in those left behind by a system of meritocratic sorting and market-driven globalization. Like Arlie Hochschild in Strangers In Their Own Land, Sandel senses that growing discontent among working-class workers is not just a question of low wages and the lack of any socio-economic safety net. Instead, it is an aimlessness resentment that arises from the sense of being left behind and excluded from the opportunity to make any meaningful contributions to society’s common good, either because of unemployment or by being made to feel that one’s work is somehow inferior and unimportant.
Sandel’s most thought provoking section is Chapter 7: Recognizing Work, where he thoughtfully reexamines how we view work and its real contribution to the common good of society (which goes beyond the value that it has in the free market): “Any serious response to working-class frustrations must combat the elite condescension and credentialist prejudice that have become rife in the public culture. It must also put the dignity of work at the center of the political agenda.”
This leads to a wider consideration: “… the way a society honors and rewards work is central to the way it defines the common good. Thinking through the meaning of work would force us to confront moral and political questions we otherwise evade, but that lurk, unaddressed, beneath the surface of our present discontents: What counts as a valuable contribution to the common good, and what do we owe one another as citizens?”
Sandel then brings up an even more fundamental consideration: should the way we think of the economy and work be based on simply how we satisfy consumption? Or should we look at it from the perspective of production and the dignity of work? And what does that say about the common good? Sandel invites us to ask these questions and more as we reason together about competing conceptions of justice, the common good, and a refreshingly new viewpoint on the dignity of work.
In the Words of Pope Francis
The Holy Father, Pope Francis, made headlines on September 6th, 2020 when he said: “Please, brothers and sisters, let us make an effort not to gossip. Gossip is a plague more awful than Covid!” (Angelus, September 6, 2020). Gossip destroys charity, which is the key to our life with God and others. Pope Francis’ encouragement to resist gossip is nothing new. He frequently speaks strongly about gossip, pointing out that it divides communities, calling it a “daily lynching”, and labeling it an “act of terrorism” because of the damage that it does. Rather than gossip, the Holy Father has encouraged us to live the practice of fraternal correction.
October Day-Retreat
Please join us for a day-retreat for men on Saturday, October 17 hosted by Midtown Cultural Center at St. Mary of the Angels Parish.
Begins with Mass at St. Mary of the Angels Parish, 8:00am and concludes at 4:00pm
Includes meditations by a priest, talk by layman, Rosary, spiritual reading, opportunity for Confession, and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament
Lunch is included
Cost: $15.00 for lunch payable upon arrival (cash or check)
Registration is requested; please click here to complete the form.
Men’s Recollection at St. Mary of the Angels
For the foreseeable future, there will only be one Evening of Recollection in English at Midtown. It will be held on the second Monday of each month from 7:00-9:00pm. St. Mary of the Angels is hosting the Recollections. We meet in the main Church, which allows ample room for social distancing.
Support Midtown Cultural Center
You can now make tax-deductible donations online at our secure site. Thank you for your generosity!
“Your work must become a conversation with Our Father in heaven.”
— St. Josemaría Escrivá