Bill Choslovsky, Chicago
Age:
42
Writing letters since:
1985 (at least 50 have been published)
Life story in 50 words or less:
Born in Gary, Ind.; moved to Flossmoor as a kid. Went to University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, then Harvard Law School. Clerked for judges in Alaska and Denver. Returned to Chicago in 1996; started legal career. Lives in Lincoln Park. Found “a wife who tolerates him”; has three cute kids.
Self-description:
A voracious reader with a natural curiosity about things. “I had one friend who used to call me the ‘extroverted introvert’ and the ‘happy curmudgeon.’ ” Says his parents “somehow together taught us kids to be skeptical, yet also instilled a positive outlook on life and all its wonder.” Is passionate about Misericordia, where his sister is a resident.
Writing experiences:
Occasionally has letters published in the Sun-Times and Tribune but has had full op-eds published in USA Today as well. Choslovsky says he tries to stick local. “Before you change the world, you should try to change the community you live in,” he says. Exposing hypocrisy is what motivates him to write. “No one has a monopoly on hypocrisy,” he says, adding, “Letters are cheaper than any therapy would be, and probably more effective.”
Unique trait:
“I read at a 43-year-old reading level even though I’m 42,” Choslovsky says. He’s an “old-school” Sox fans who enjoys watching the Cubs lose. He also likes to play hoops and chess, two areas that don’t really overlap. On living in Alaska, he says, “Coming from Harvard where everybody thinks they know everything, it was refreshing to be surrounded by such real, sincere and grounded people.”
—
By Matt Watson, Tribune reporter
Choslovsky’s latest thoughts:
Facts matter. Or should. Yet too often now facts are either secondary or shoe-horned to support pre-existing positions and causes.
But whatever happened to following the facts to whatever messy conclusion may lie ahead?
A related concept: Nuance also matters. Or should. Problem is, in a society where all stories must be told in 30 seconds, nuance too often gets lost.
Another beef: We’ve created a political system in which our leaders — for their own self-preservation — are too often forced to tell us what we want to hear, not what we need to hear. The implications are self-evident, and I fear we are only just beginning to feel them.
I am convinced Charlie Brown was a Cubs fan. That is, who else could have the football pulled out from him every day, dust himself off, hold no grudges and then wake up the next day truly thinking “Today is the day”?
To be clear, I am a Sox fan.
So-called new media are great, as they are the great equalizer, essentially giving everyone the power to share her thoughts. But frankly new media make old media all the more necessary. That is, we need somewhere to turn for the objective, scrubbed truth.
This summer I taught two of my kids how to ride a bike, an adventure that reinforced how out of shape I am. It also made me wonder just what kind of father would I be if I actually outsourced teaching my kids how to ride a bike? But after much trial and error and a few scraped knees, we (or they really) got it, and off they went.
The experience reminded me of something valuable. Riding a bike is easy. That is, once you get going, it is pretty easy to keep your balance and continue on. But starting to ride from a stopped position is very difficult. And so it goes with most things in life.
All said, I am too young and hardly smart enough to be giving anyone general advice, but if I had to, I suppose I’d go with old school, timeless wisdom, which, in a word, means “love.” “Love” in the verb sense, meaning love someone. Or something. Yourself doesn’t count. And try to love freely. Be vulnerable. Be real. Be straight. Don’t try to be liked, as it’s over-rated.
Laugh. Especially at yourself.
And, as the kids say, speak truth to power.
