Letter from the Editor: The Many, for the Few

This one was weighty. These stories have walked around with me the past few weeks and will certainly stay with me for a long time. In some cases, they’re shared stories—we all face the feared, unbearable, yet inevitable grief of loss—and in others, they’re rare stories, often misunderstood and in the fight of their lives to move through to the next hopeful stage. But I decided that if I’m going to focus on human interest stories and news, I’m going to focus on all that comes with being human.

When I considered a headline for the front page story about the Lake Bluff Children’s Home, a treasured point in our history as a village, I thought that small choices moving toward a goal is one thing—small choices as a collective is another. Methodist deaconesses found six children in Chicago and decided to act and the result was a multi-block home that nurtured, fed and educated thousands of children—one of which became the first principal and superintendent of LFHS.

That kind of initiative is inherently hopeful. I think of Jude Weinstein knowing himself at a young age and deciding, like our other brilliant Lake Bluff founders, to start a music festival he would want to play in himself. Michael Kopsick working to destigmatize and humanize his clients. The LBYC’s pursuit of excellence in sailing. The O’Connor family fighting for Ryan, while finding so much to laugh and love about. Lynn Johnson working to find a cure for Alzheimer’s one walk at a time. The Browne family honoring their truly exceptional father by showing up for each other every time, no matter how tightly grief is gripping them at the moment. And finally, the hope to be #1 in a beloved Lake Bluff tradition—Ribfest—while supporting an important charity.

We’re a hopeful bunch, Bluffers. The Many, for the Few.

In Community,

Megan Paszczykowski