"I've always felt, in all my books, that there's a
deep decency in the American people and a native intelligence –
providing they have the facts, providing they have the information." ~Studs Terkel

I think I was in college when I read Studs Terkel's book Working, a series of interviews with people about their daily work. The stories of a teacher, construction worker, nurse, and newspaper boy, to name a few, captured my attention. Later when it was turned into a successful musical by the same name fueled the notion that the work we do is really the art of our living. With our work we paint the picture of what it means to be the people of the day and time of our time in history.

In the book, Mr. Terkel, through these interviews, paints some very real pictures of people's dreams and disappointments, their hopes for their future and those places of great joy. After reading this book, I will never see a construction worker using a jackhammer and not remember the account of the man who comes home from work, dirty and tired, to sit in his recliner and watch the much-needed respite of television. As he sits his body still drums with the rhythm of the hammer that shaped his day. His body, internally, never stops the incessant thumping.

And then there is the story of the young boy who delivered the morning newspaper in his neighborhood. Riding his bike, the freedom of the early morning pulsing in his veins, he winds up with the power of a major league pitcher, throwing the paper toward the doorstep of the houses. His joy? To hear the sound of "boing!" as the paper hits its landing.

Studs Terkel died this past week at the age of 96.He lived a good life in which he said his work was "listening to what people tell me." He documented the context in which people lived. In so doing he made their lives real to the rest of us, making them somehow more human, more understandable.

Tomorrow we head to the election polls. As we do, each of us carries with us the context of our lives, our work and those values, beliefs, hopes and dreams that have shaped us. This will guide how we vote and for whom. It can really be no other way. In some ways it is like the real estate adage, it is 'location, location, location." I had a seminary professor who said we shape our theology in much the same way. Our location, where we live, our work, our life experiences,shapes what we believe and what we don't, and guides our understanding of God.

The real task of being a citizen is to try as much as we can to see, not just our own lives, but the lives of others, the whole of what it means to be the most privileged country in the world, as we make our choices. The real task is to look toward what will be the good for all the people and not just our own particular context. It is a difficult thing to do. But if being a citizen of the United States of American means anything it must mean that we work in all the ways we can to be just that….united.

It is a privilege not to be taken lightly. Vote.

So here we are. We have a choice to make. ~Studs Terkel