The day I became a Grand Rapidian

by John Bolt, Professor of Systematic Theology

Until the first week of 2007 I had a hard time answering the question “Where’s home?” or “Where are you from?”

I was born in one country (The Netherlands), immigrated to and grew up in another (Canada), and have spent the majority of my adult life in a third (U.S.A.). My professional life has been split between Canada and the U.S. and I have twice deliberately and quite self-consciously changed allegiance by becoming a naturalized citizen; a Canadian in 1969 and an American in 2004. Ask me who or what I am and I pause before answering. My first inclination when asked about my hometown is to say Vancouver, British Columbia where I grew up and my mother and sisters still live.

That has changed; I now consider myself a Grand Rapidian. At least it is what I aspire to, what I identify with and would like to be thought of. The days of mourning for Grand Rapids’ own son, President Gerald R. Ford, have left an indelible imprint on me; our city made me proud to be an American, proud to be from Grand Rapids.

I will not elaborate on those things that have already been said about President Ford: his integrity, his common decency and courtesy, his devotion to duty, his love of God, country, and family, except to underscore how these are the very traits that are highly valued and practiced, albeit imperfectly, in our town. As I stood in the parade route outside Grace Episcopal Church on the day of the funeral I was struck by the outpouring of affection, the high respect for the leaders of our community in civic and business life reflected in the conversations during our wait, the appropriate patriotism, and the uncommon civility of the crowd. While I was there no protests, no whining dissent, and wonder of wonders, no litter left on the sidewalks.

What holds this all together for me is how extraordinary all this normalcy is; so extraordinary it was repeatedly commented on by the thousands of visitors to our city as well as the national press corps. That is perhaps the essence of Grand Rapids, the internal core of President Gerald Ford: the extraordinary character of the normal, the greatness of the ordinary. Yes, the funeral was high statecraft with all the appropriate and impressive solemnity and pageantry; it was also noticeably the funeral attended by family and friends. Watching some of the aging and physically ailing titans of our community standing in the honor guard outside the church as the casket was carried to the hearse, I was struck not only by the great civic ceremony complete with military band and pall-bearers, but also by how much this reminded me of other funerals I have attended. Ordinary mortals, visibly affected by their own mortality, honoring a loved and respected close relative and dear friend.

I said earlier that being a Grand Rapidian, living and living out of gratitude for this extraordinary normalcy, is an aspiration not an accomplishment. We don’t live it perfectly ourselves; often forsaking the ordinary decency of our life together for partisan pursuit. Too often I fear that we disdain it, casting covetous eyes for those more exciting venues like New York, Atlanta, Los Angeles and, for the truly greedy, Paris, London, or Rome. For people in my profession the places are New Haven, Cambridge, Princeton, Palo Alto, and Waco, not to mention Oxford Tübingen, and Geneva. I have no quarrel with aspirations or dreams, of course not. All I would plead for is that these aspirations not disparage what is great about our own ordinariness, what is extraordinary about our normalcy.

For his final resting place Gerald Ford came home to Grand Rapids. This is utterly fitting for though the man left Grand Rapids for a time, Grand Rapids never left the man. He did not crave power or celebrity status; his was the simple and ordinary sense of duty. For that we should be grateful since it makes all of us better people if we are willing to be productively happy at home. “As for me and my house...” I am now happy in Grand Rapids.

Thank you Mr. President for the example.

(John Bolt has lived in Grand Rapids permanently since 1989, teaches theology at Calvin Theological Seminary, and is an ordained minister in the Christian Reformed Church.)

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