Why the Second Generation Drops the Ball: Isaac Botkin's Reflections on Boston Trip - Part Two

Hello!

I've been struggling with tiredness bordering on exhaustion for a few months now.  I figured it was mainly stress from the increase in the number of appointments for my son, starting new jobs for me and my husband, and dealing with emotions from my son's premature birth.  To be on the safe side, though, I had my doctor run some blood tests just to be sure there wasn't a biochemical basis.

Turns out my thyroid isn't functioning particularly well.

I'm starting to feel like my entire body is falling apart all at once - and at a time that I really don't have a whole of time available to schedule anything. 

After a couple of rounds of blood tests, my doctor doesn't think I have Hashimoto's disease which is the most common cause of hypothyroidism for women my age and an ultrasound of my thyroid looked like the structure of the thyroid is normal.  My doctor has referred me to an endocrinologist because she wants to be certain that the thyroid is the issue and not something that includes the adrenal glands.

I'm glad she's being cautious - it's one of the many reasons I like her as my primary care doctor - but I'm tired of feeling tired.  I know that it'll take a while for the thyroxine replacement to work and possibly longer if I need to try a few different dosages - and I'm frustrated that each test has lead to a week or longer wait for a new test that I need before I can start treatment.

I miss having more than about 9 hours of the day that I can use for active activities like working, exuberantly playing with my son, shuttling of my son to doctor's appointments, exercising or doing outdoor chores.   I'm doing my best to stay active while being thoughtful about planning rest periods throughout the day - but I miss not being wiped out at the end of a day of subbing or working at my retail job.

Of course, there are compensations.  Because I was in the house much more than I usually am, a pair of robins built a nest on one of our dining room windows and laid three eggs before we noticed.  This has given us a close-up view of the birds brooding their eggs much to Spawn's delight - and I'm enjoying how much he enjoys the birds.

Unfortunately, there are not nearly as many compensations for trying to make sense of the podcast "Why the Second Generation Drops the Ball" by Geoffrey, Isaac, Anna Sofia, Elizabeth, Ben and David Botkin.   In the first post of the series, we learned that Isaac made a hot mess of the Emerson family history...although I have to admit I find his statement that we have Ralph Waldo Emerson to blame for Thoreau to be giggle-inducing for me.

Unfortunately, Isaac Botkin didn't stop with the Emersons.  Next up, he gives a fascinatingly foggy example of a lack of intergenerational faithfulness.  For those who are new to the concept of intergenerational faithfulness, it's a CP/QF concept that teaches that once a patriarch has found the True Christian Faith (TM) all of his descendents are morally obligated to follow the plan the patriarch has laid out for his family.   Let's see how Isaac Botkin tries to make this work in the family of Nathan Hale, Revolutionary War hero:

There are a lot of stories like this in Massachusetts where you see great men and then their children begin to fall away and their grandchildren are really the enemies of the grandfathers. Nathan Hale is someone that we all know of. He's a very heroic figure during the Revolutionary War. As he was being hung as a spy, he said, "I regret that I have only one life to lose for my country." His great nephew Edward Everett Hale was also a Unitarian pastor and author who really did a lot to undermine the things his ancestors had done. And statues of these two men are very close together in Boston. You can walk between the two and when we stood under the statue of Edward Everett Hale. And there are many examples of this in Boston.

Nathan Hale was a brave young man who volunteered to spy for the Continental Army in New York City.  George Washington badly need to know the placement of British troops before launching a force to attempt to recapture Long Island and regain control of New York.   This mission was exceptionally dangerous.  While Americans tend to treat the Revolutionary War as being the fledgling US country against England, a large number of Americans supported British control of the colonies known as the Loyalists.  There was a substantial risk that any person sent over to spy would be recognized by the Loyalists as an unlawful enemy combatant and killed.   Nathan Hale was the only person who volunteered for the mission.   He was recognized as a patriot, apprehended and hung for spying when he was 21 years old.

I can see why Isaac Botkin chose Nathan Hale to start an intergenerational faithfulness chain....kind of.  On the pro side, he's the manly man who fought against a tyrannical government and paid for his beliefs with his life.  Since the Botkin Family is still waiting for the violent fall of Western Civilization, Nathan Hale's life may well act as a model for CP/QF children when the evil government comes for them.   The problem that I see is that Nathan Hale died so young that we don't have any real support for his Calvinist credentials.  He went to Yale.  While Yale was founded to train ministers, the curriculum had expanded to include humanities and some basic sciences.  We know that Hale chose not to train as a minister because he worked as a teacher prior to joining the military.

There is one more reason Isaac Botkin chose to start the chain with Nathan Hale.  The other spot to start the chain would be with Nathan Hale's great-grandfather John Hale.  We know that John Hale was a staunch Calvinist who was a minister to boot.  The downside with John Hale is that history remembers him for his involvement in the Salem witch trials.  For fans of "The Crucible",  Rev. John Hale is portrayed as a well-intentioned young minister who is unable to stop the trials that he believes have gotten out of control.  The real life Rev. John Hale was in his mid-fifties during the trials and supported the trials until his second wife was accused of being a witch.  That type of human frailty is objectionable to the Botkin Alternate History so the Hale Family starts with the hero who died young enough to avoid the mistakes and stains we all accumulate in life.

At least Nathan Hale is a direct descendent of John Hale.  Edward Everett Hale is the grandson of Nathan Hale's sister.  I could see being obsessed with Edward Everett Hale if he was the sole surviving member of the Hale Family - but he's not.  Nathan Hale was one of twelve children, at least nine of whom survived to adulthood according to Find A Grave.  His eight siblings who married produced at least 20 nieces and nephews -so I think we can safely say that Edward Everett Hale had at least some other people equally related to Nathan Hale as he was. 

There's plenty of reasons for Geoffrey Botkin to dislike Edward Everett Hale.  Hale was a proponent of religious tolerance which Geoffrey Botkin is against on general principles.  Hale was also an ardent abolitionist.  Based on Botkin's history of wanting to bring back the death penalty for adultery and fornication, I'm confident he's ok with slavery on a Biblical basis.  (Although - I do wonder how that meshes with his daughters' friendship with Jasmine Baucham.)  And of course, Hale is a Unitarian.  The Botkin Family seems to see no irony in decrying the persecution of Calvinists by the Catholic Church while despising the Unitarians who broke away from the Congregationalist (Calvinist) Church in the US. 

Oh, well.  The next post will look at Isaac Botkin's unique views on why Calvinism failed in the US.