The Dream Forger's Progeny
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| A hammer and anvil similar to the one my great-grandfather used to forge the tools which would lead to making it possible for my grandfather to forge his life of disability into one of re-ability and prosperity. |
The journey began over 100 years ago in a blacksmith's shop, in a village lost to a pogrom, which sat near the border of Russia and Ukraine. Great-Grandfather Terushkin was pondering his son's fate - my mother's father. The blacksmith's son, Jacob, shared with his father many necessary attributes to succeed in business.
Jacob was inventive like his father. Jacob had a business mind. Jacob had a personality which could draw people in. But! Jacob had something else. Jacob had a disability. Jacob had asthma. Jacob's asthma would keep him from ever taking over his father's blacksmith shop.
One day, Jacob's father wiped his brow of the profuse sweat produced by the hot blacksmith's fire - a fire so hot it could melt steel. Saddened by his son's disability, he bowed his head in despair. Then the streaking light from a falling ember gave him an inspiration, a ray of hope. Terushkin realized he had a secret more powerful than his son's disability.
"My son does not have to be the village blacksmith to succeed in the village," Terushkin thought to himself. "He need only start a business as much at the center of village life as the blacksmith shop is. The secret to succeeding in business is being a focal point of the community. So, I shall think of a business I can help Jacob start, in which community value can be built. He will need to provide a service to the men of the town they will need to keep coming back to procure. I have it. My son's business will be one in which the townsmen can go to exchange ideas and discuss the daily affairs of the village. I will help Jacob become the village barber."You see a master blacksmith was more than a forger of metal, he was a forger of dreams. For you see dreams need three things. Dreams need distance. Back in the day, the blacksmith's horseshoes assured that people could travel distances with their horses, so they can discover what lies beyond the horizon. Dreams need tools. The blacksmith can custom-make the tools. Dreams need time to flourish. The village blacksmith can help someone each step of the way. Terushkin realized that, most importantly, a true blacksmith forges community. But, other businesses can also forge community - like that of the village barber.
So, my great-grandfather called upon the community of traveling merchants, he forged through his services over the years. He had one of them bring the finest steel from Germany. He had another acquire mother of pearl from the Orient. With the finest materials he was able to forge a barber razor set among the finest in the region.
My grandfather used those blades as an integral part of his village barber shop. When he was traveling over to America, he was able to make money on the ship, cutting hair. He eventually traveled to Detroit and set up his own barber shop. He expanded the shop over the years (including a seamstress and alteration service provided by his wife, and he rented out the back to beauticians) so that he could make enough money to set up his dream business - a custom lamp making shop. The lamp shop gave my grandfather an outlet for his inventive skills. My mother said she did not know there was a depression going on, at first, when she was a little girl, because her parents were always able to put food on the table and take care of the family's basic needs.
So, a village blacksmith can forge many things. A village blacksmith can forge dreams. A village blacksmith can forge community.
A village blacksmith could forge new careers for people. A village blacksmith can forge disabilities into re-abilities. A village blacksmith could also be the village vocational rehabilitation counselor.
So I tell this story to share my great-grandfather's secret to success in business, his secret to a town's success, and his secret to turning disabilities into re-abilities. We all can become dream forgers. We just need some vision, some belief, and most importantly of all - we need to work together as a community. My grandfather's village was lost to a pogrom, but its spirit can live on in our communities today.
I am proud to be part of the dream forger's progeny. Anyone who reads this story and absorbs its meaning and spirit can become part of the dream forger's honorary progeny. Together we can reforge disabilities into re-abilities, and forge a greater community with our metaphoric hammers and anvils.
Thanks to my late mother for sharing this story with me as I was growing up. I, of course, took some literary liberties with it. I did have the chance to see and hold my grandfather's razors, back in the late 60s. They were still super sharp after all those years. My mother, the nurse, marveled at their surgical quality.
