Coming Home

Last month saw a number of ‘reunions’ for me, not only the London Business School MBA98 reunion that just occurred this past weekend, but also a number of reacquaintances occasioned by the wedding of my “Little Brother” John Wirtz from my Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity days at the University of Wisconsin.

Seeing Wirtz get married to Lynn Weissenstein was quite a joy, even though I proved unusually sensitive to the champagne served at the evening reception (hint: that’s what the hors d’ouevres are for). Wirtz and I go back over 20 years, and our paths crossed on a number of occasions in Europe, where Wirtz was quietly building a reputation as an IT Project Leadership guru. The best such encounter was back in 2001, when Wirtz and I mounted a full frontal attack on Copenhagen and Southern Sweden and fought both to a draw over three relentless days.

Lynn, in turn, is a genuinely remarkable woman. A fellow communications professional, Lynn is a rare evangelical Christian who is as deeply committed to her faith as she is accepting of those, like me, who do not share it. A seminal encounter was when I was visiting Chicago during a snowstorm in 2007 and started discussing my never-ending frustrations with dating. Lynn asked, “May I pray for you?” While not asked in a Sicilian tone, it was nonetheless an offer I couldn’t refuse, and I am still touched by the way Lynn asked to this day.

Coming back to Chicago early this June was still a bit strange. While “Chicagoan” is as much a core facet of my identity as “Jew”, “American”, “Dual-Citizen”, “Badger (team of the University of Wisconsin, my alma mater), “London Business School MBA98” and “Landmark Grad,” the fact remained that I had no remaining friends or relatives—other than John and Lynn who were most otherwise occupied—who would host me for the weekend. I thus stayed at the Hotel Burnham, an excellent hotel in the heart of the City, but I was feeling intense feelings of disconnection and reconnection at the same time.

Chicago will always be ‘home’ in a sense, as it is not only where I come from physically but where many of my approaches to life originate. I grew up an ethnic Jew in a multi-ethnic milieu. I learned political consulting—the core skill set of my professional communications consulting—in the brass-knuckle world of Cook County Democratic politics. I learned to continue to support losing sports teams long past the point of futility or reason. I even learned to pronounce the plural ‘s’ like a ‘singular ‘s’ (“The Bears” is actually pronounced “Da Bearse”).

Chicago is also a world-tier city, a city of similar size and consequence to Paris, Toronto or Sydney. It’s a place I could live if the situation called for it—but it was not calling me home last visit…