A Proper Portion of Pride

“No more than my place, no less than my space.” Alan Morinis, The Mussar Institute

In our Mussar (Jewish ethics) study, we learn that humility does not mean self-debasement or lack of pride. Instead, it’s about taking up the right amount of space for the situation. An example that Alan Morinis gives in his book, “Everyday Holiness,” is that of a policeman. When he is on the traffic beat, he takes up a large public space to get the attention of drivers. If he took up the same amount of space at his child’s parent-teacher conference, he’d appear arrogant.

When I attended the National Federation of Press Women conference in Baltimore in September, I had the pleasure of encountering a man who exemplified that lesson. Our group took a Rent-A-Tour bus tour of Baltimore with owner Chris Riehl, a Baltimore native, whose palpable pride in his hometown made the tour entertaining and educational. On the bus, he was self-assured, unabashedly proud, and humorously expansive. At the museums we visited, he quietly took a backseat as the volunteer tour guides led us through the exhibits. It made me think about the balance between pride and humility throughout our daylong adventure.

Chris explained that Baltimore is known as a city of “firsts.” Some were historically significant, like Fort McHenry, the first fort built by the US government; others were a bit less momentous, like the first OUIJA board! I had no idea.

We got to see several of the proud "firsts:"

We drove by the first Washington Monument since Baltimore’s version was built 33 years before its counterpart in Washington, D.C. Standing 178 feet, 8 inches tall, it includes 227 steps to ascend to the top. Chris invited us to return and climb for the view. I don’t think anyone accepted—an example of the humility of aging press women who know our limits? We also drove past the US Courthouse, with its statue of Judge Thurgood Marshall, the first Black Supreme Court Justice, who was born and raised in Baltimore. Another “first” on Baltimore’s pride list.

We visited the home of seamstress Mary Pickersgill, who was commissioned to sew a 30x42 foot American flag for Fort McHenry in 1813. The fort withstood 25 hours of British bombardment, achieving victory for the United States in the Battle of Baltimore. Chris told us that the citizens didn’t know which side had prevailed until the smoke cleared, and they saw Mary’s flag waving above the fort. The flag inspired our national anthem, and Mary’s home is now the Star-Spangled Banner Flag House. I teared up with a sense of patriotic pride.

The tour included a stop at the Baltimore Museum of Science and Industry, where we learned about other Baltimore “firsts” as well as lessons in pride and humility. The museum is housed in an 1865 waterfront cannery, where women, children, immigrants, and former slaves canned oysters from Chesapeake Bay. Thomas Kensett first canned oysters in Baltimore in 1815, a point of pride. However, that proud history should be balanced with a heavy dose of humility as oyster shucking was tedious and demanding work, done outdoors during winter months. The shuckers stood in oyster muck as they dropped the shells on the ground and the oysters in a bucket. They received wages based on the number of buckets they filled.

Another exhibit at the museum was a working 1936 linotype machine, first invented in Baltimore in 1884 by German immigrant Ottmar Mergenthaler, a clockmaker. While his original factory was in Baltimore, the main factory moved quickly to my hometown of Brooklyn, New York, for mass production, and The New York Tribune was the first paper that used the linotype. So, I got to share in the pride of the invention, birthed in Baltimore, raised in New York.

The museum also featured an exhibit about the AFRO News, the first Black newspaper chain, founded in Baltimore by John H. Murphy, Sr., a freed slave, in 1892 with $200 borrowed from his wife, Martha. The paper is still publishing, and in 2018 journalist and educator Frances “Toni” Draper, great-granddaughter of the founder, was named chairman of the board and publisher. Another point of pride for us women journalists.

The paper’s website boasts, “The Afro-American has crusaded for racial equality and economic advancement for Black Americans for 134 years…At one time there were as many as 13 editions circulated across the country. The Afro-American’s status as a black paper circulating in several predominantly black communities endowed it with the ability to profoundly affect social change on a national scale.”

Wow!

Learning about Baltimore’s “firsts,” I felt a deep appreciation for the city I had visited only once before. And it reminded me how pride can be a positive Mussar trait when balanced with humility and used in the right situation and in the right proportion.