Severalyears ago, the phone rang suddenly in my office. It was an aide to former Sen.Barbara A. Mikulski, that pillar of Old Line State politics known in somecircles as “the Little General in Pearls” due to her diminutive-yet-commandingpresence and jewelry preference.
The senator,back then still in office, noticed that I had written an article about 10individuals under the age of 40 who were upcoming movers and shakers in the localJewish community. She requested my assistance in gathering these folks for a funand informative lunchtime schmooze.
Nobody saysno to Barbara Mikulski, of course. So I did my best to make it all happen.(Plus, I was flattered just to know that a U.S. senator was reading myarticles.) We got together in a boardroom of The Associated: Jewish Federationof Baltimore. A lot of the assembled influencers — who came from all walks oflife, professionally, religiously and otherwise — went on to become communalpowerhouses who continue to be vital and effective leaders in Jewish Baltimore.
Mikulskiasked all of us to go around the room, introduce ourselves and talk about our personalvision and hopes for the community. The senator called on me last, and Imentioned that I was merely the lowly scribe who wrote the article. Mikulski’seyes lit up.
“Oh, you dida great job,” she said, to my eternal gratitude. “I’m so glad you wrote thispiece because we need to keep encouraging young people to step up and do theirpart for our communities. Your story was a good way to learn about these peopleand hear what they’re doing out there.”
What I wrotewas essentially a list. People love lists because they give us a sense ofstructure and context in a rather chaotic world. They help us make sense ofthings, even if they sometimes reveal themselves as being rather arbitrary.They’re an instantaneous guilty pleasure of the soul and senses.
I’m a suckerfor lists, although I take issue with them sometimes. Every few years, Rolling Stone comes out with its list ofthe 500 greatest albums of all time. Is “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”really the greatest album ever? Manypeople would say it’s not even the Beatles’ best album. When asked for myopinion by a friend recently, I put it this way: “’Sgt. Pepper’ is probably not the Fab Four’s best album, but it is indeed the greatest album of alltime.”
Make sense? Aparadox? Perhaps.
But that’sthe great thing about lists. While highly subjective and occasionally vexing,they provide us with grounding and exposure. They’re conversation starters andjumping-off points that help us organize and process information.
In thisissue of Jmore, we offer a very speciallist — our annual “10-Under-40” cover story. These influencers, thought leadersand game changers already have made their marks on our community, and we fullyexpect them to continue doing so.
By the way,they’re not the only ones. Despite the tendency in our culture to kvetch about and even ridicule theyounger generations, we know there are armies of young people doing their partin the advancement of their professions and industries, in community-buildingand in the name of tikkun olam,repairing the world. We salute them and thank them for their service.
And we lookforward to watching them grow in the years to come.
Sincerely,
Alan Feiler, Editor-in-Chief
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