Saturday, March 20, 2021

Dr. Spock

 

In the 1989 movie, “Field of Dreams”, Ray Kinsella (Kevin Kostner) hears a little voice in his head that said, “If you build it, they will come”.  He sees a vision of a baseball diamond in the cornfield and the great "Shoeless" Joe Jackson (Ray Liotta) standing in the middle. Ray believes if he builds a baseball field, Shoeless Joe, whom his father idolized, can play baseball again. Annie is skeptical but agrees to him plowing under part of their corn crop to build a baseball field, knowing the financial hardship it will bring.




As Ray builds the field, he tells Karin about the 1919 Black Sox Scandal. Several months pass, and just as Ray is beginning to doubt himself, a ball player appears one night, whom Ray recognizes as Shoeless Joe. Joe asks if others can play and returns with the seven additional Black Sox players. Annie's brother, Mark (Timothy Busfield), unable to see the players, warns that Ray is going bankrupt and offers to buy the farm for its valuable land. Meanwhile, the voice urges Ray to "ease his pain".

“Field of Dreams” was a great movie. In addition to being nominated for 3 Academy Awards, it was also a commercial success, earning over $84,000,000 at the box office, on a budget of $15,000,000. The field is located in Dyersville, Iowa, and our family stopped there on the way back to Illinois (from Minnesota) sometime in the 90’s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field_of_Dreams

This morning, I heard a little voice in my head. The voice didn’t even speak an entire sentence. It just said, “Dr. Spock”.

What?

Both of our kids are well into their adult years, so we no longer need any advice on hos to raise them, but the little voice in my head made me curious, so I researched Dr. Spock, and learned that he was a very interesting man.

Benjamin McLane Spock (May 2, 1903 – March 15, 1998) was an American pediatrician whose book The Common Sense Baby and Child Care (1946) was VERY popular. 500,000 copies were sold in the six months after its introduction, and 50,000 copies were sold by the time of Spock’s death in 1998. The book has been translated into 39 languages. The book's premise to mothers is that "you know more than you think you do”.

Both of Spock’s parents were educated people. His father attended Phillips Andover Academy and Yale University, and his son followed in his footsteps.

After graduating from Yale University, Spock attended Yale School of Medicine, but graduated from Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, where he graduated first in his class.

In addition to his intelligence, he was also a very accomplished athlete. While at Yale University, he was on the rowing team that won a gold medal in the 1924 Olympics.

Two years before graduating from Columbia, he married Jane Cheney, who later assisted him in the research and writing of his book. After nearly 40 years of marriage, they divorced in 1976. Later that same year, he married Mary Morgan, who was 40 years younger than he was at the time.

Both of Dr. Spock’s wives were very liberal, and politically active. His first wife was active in Americans for Democratic Action, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy.

His second wife, Mary, was arrested numerous times for civil disobedience - and so was he. She introduced him to massage, yoga, a macrobiotic diet, and meditation. 

Doctor Spock always loved the water. He and his wife lived on boats for more than 20 years. During the winter months, they lived on “Carapace” in the British Virgin Islands, and in the summer, they lived on “Turtle”, which was moored in Maine. Amazingly, he won 3rd place in a rowing contest at the age of 84, so the lifestyle encouraged by his wife kept him a very young man.

Starting in 1968, he began protesting the Vietnam War, and he also became active in other political causes as well. He ran for public office in 1972 and 1976, but never got elected. Although I haven’t been as politically active as he was, I’d readily admit that he and I are “on the same wave length” on a number of topics.

Since I was an insurance underwriter for a lot of years, and a teacher (full and part time) for close to 20, I long ago developed an ability (and an interest) in doing research – which is why I decided to dig a little deeper into Dr. Spock. One fact that I found especially interesting was that he died on March 15, 1998, exactly 4 days before my mom died.

When I was a college professor in China, I often told the classes that they could stop learning when they reached the age of 88, and I still believe that today. To do that, sometimes you just have to listen to that little voice in your head.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Spock

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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