“Measuring the Height and Breadth of a Life”

A brief Commentary on the film, “The Last Class”
by John Bennison, Mountain Shadow Director

“Aging is a funny thing ... So many people have come up to me and said, ‘Are you still teaching?’ or ‘Are you retired’ and i resist the urge to punch them in the nose.” - Robert Reich

Robert Reich is a well-known public figure of economics and public policy. Personally, I’m not much of a “numbers” guy. As an undergrad student myself over a half century ago, I barely passed “Econ 101.” All I really remember was the basic equilibrium (or -- one might argue -- disequilibrium) between “guns and butter.” It’s the trade-off governments choose to make between military defense and domestic programs.

But in this film, Reich lectures from his course entitled, “Wealth and Poverty,” asserting the subject matter is more directly related to something more fundamental; namely, democracy. It’s not just theoretical for Reich. Rather, the quality and capacity of our country to survive is directly related to what is happening in the current here and now. “It’s about understanding reality,” he says, “with a political/economic system moving through time.”

Before an overflowing student body at U.C. Berkeley, he talks about a “social contract,” which he defines as “what we owe each other, as members of the same community;” adding, “We can’t avoid these moral questions about what constitutes a good, decent society.” And so, this economics professor moralizes about widening social and economic inequality; enjoining his students to hold fast to an important distinction between understandable pessimism about the world around them and hopeless cynicism.

But aside from his “philosophical” lectures, he shares his own personal periods of reflection and introspection that has come to him in his latest life chapter. He sorts through the personal artifacts in his office; which he likens to an historical museum, filled with a lifetime of memories. He discovers a skill for sketching cartoon-like characters as a form of self-expression. He summarizes,

“In the last era of life – I call it the generative stage – where you are giving of yourself, you’re no longer worried about your career. You’re trying to leave people with something. ... Teaching is all about giving. And if you’re lucky – as I am – they’ll take it, and run with it. So you’re not letting go. You’re launching.”

Physically, Robert Reich measures under five feet in height. But, in terms of the life lessons he’s learned and subsequently taught so many others, he’s walking tall. I trust you’ll appreciate his story. jb