“Everyone teaches, and teaches all the time.”
— A Course in Miracles
Aunt Josie (1904-1994), born in Piazza Armerina, Sicily, was and is my godmother. Today is her 122nd birth anniversary. She is my direct connection to Sicily. She knew me from Day One, and she understood me better than anyone.
Moreover, she understood my situation with parents, who took no interest in my life or what I wanted to do and sometimes actively worked to sabotage me (my father, a Ph.D., was determined that I go to work in the Post Office and abandon all hope of being a writer — among other issues, he was jealous.)
Josie made sure I could pay for the last year of my BA when my parents bailed out, and she made sure I had a computer when I graduated.
She was the main investor in what seemed like a great idea but was a terrible business and which for three years made sure students of SUNY and CUNY had a voice in the public dialog (see The New York Times, below). This included the critical project of taking the lead on cleaning up four dioxin-contaminated dormitories at SUNY New Paltz.
One Person Had Faith in me as Journalist
It is essential that young writers have at least one person who has faith in their abilities, especially when others are working against them. As the leader of a fledgling journalism nonprofit, that’s an important part of my role: recognizing and cultivating talent, and providing a support structure for the actual practice of journalism. (This had its greatest moment during the 2020 crisis).
Josie was, at once, the sweetest and most forgiving person, and also perceptive and shrewd. When I was editor-in-chief (that is, the founder) of Generation, the student magazine at SUNY Buffalo (serving 27,000 students), she would send me tightly-packed care packages including her famous oatmeal cookies as well as all kinds of candy. These would arrive with a manually-typed letter at the mail desk in the Student Union (among Josie’s skills was a knack for what was then called secretarial work).
Cookies and Candy for Everyone
I would promptly distribute the goodies to my editors and production team and there would be a little feast in my office, 81A Harriman Hall, otherwise reached at (716) 831-2248.
After I graduated, I mentioned that I never really ate the cookies and candy because I’m not into sweets. I admitted that I gave them to my staff. “I know,” she said, explaining that she thought this would help me politically. She was right; she understood the challenges of leadership and that little things matter.
At the age of 82, she boarded an Amtrak at Penn Station and traveled from Brooklyn to Buffalo to visit me and my team at Generation. That was a 10-hour trip, door-to-door (Josie had a Sagittarius Moon and loved to travel; she was also a stubbornly persistent optimist). We had a fantastic time; she stayed in the Generation off-campus apartment at 54 Vernon Places and joined us for a production cycle with the 52-page weekly magazine.
In the Spirit of Aunt Josie
Much of what I do is in the spirit of Aunt Josie. My devotion to my readers and to my work, my commitment to unwavering journalistic integrity, my commitment to teaching writing, and the fearless approach I take when confronting political and corporate criminals — these things all carry some of the faith and fire of her love and recognition of my ability.
Among everyone else around me, Josie recognized that I am a man, with important responsibilities in the world. This is a concept that barely exists anymore, when everything has its seeming value in being self-serving.
You might say that my whole life is about passing forward what I received from Aunt Josie. Over the years, my faith in the writers and editors who serve my organizations has had excellent results that have traveled far into the future.
Our Troubling Times
We are in troubling times right now, when so-called journalists not only lie casually but when many of their readers and viewers demand to be deceived.
The darkness of our times is that of the cycle of deception and self-deception. This is the main support base of the endless cycle of war that our society perpetuates.
Above all else, Aunt Josie held the standard of impeccable honesty and recognition of the truth — and knew this is an act of faith. It is time to break the cycle of deception. You are responsible for what you believe. You are the most important teacher among the people around you.
Please support that spirit by investing in the work that happens through Planet Waves and our nonprofit Chiron Return. You may subscribe to our Substack, become a Core Member of Planet Waves, or tap on the gold and green medallion below.
In a fantastic book called The Secret Language of Birthdays, April 4 is, “The Day of the Inspired Exemplar.” I invite you to be that person in your life and in your world — and thank you for doing so.
Mitákuye Oyás’iŋ —
This is from Page B-1 of the Sunday New York Times of Jan. 31, 1993.
