Big Shoulders and Pope Bob

I am not gonna lie: I am tickled the new Pope is from my hometown. It is exceptionally cool that Pope Bob hails from the City of Big Shoulders, a term coined by Chicago poet Carl Sandburg.

Chicago has had its share of cool people who, even if not born there, lived there. Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey, and Michael Jordan are the biggest names who have spent formative years of their career there. 

Now a Pope from Chicago? Not just an American, but a Chicagoan. This is unreal. Chicago went nuts when the Pope John Paul II visited in 1979. I didn't see him, but I remember the big deal of his visit. Now a homeboy? Forget about it.

The most amazing thing is Pope Bob sounds like me. Hearing a Pope speak in fluent English was one thing, but to pick up the baseline Chicago accent? That was special. Sure, he doesn't have the full Carmine from The Bear, but he doesn't sound like he is from New York or Boston or Texas. He sounds like a regular guy from Chicago. Pope Bob--what a name! Pronounced in Chicago to rhyme with Saab.

Chicago also has its share of decent, kind and hardworking people. The City of Big Shoulders, strong, hard working, resilient.

I am rooting for Pope Bob. I hope he does well and makes his city proud.

Chicago

BY CARL SANDBURG

Hog Butcher for the World,

   Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,

   Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler;

   Stormy, husky, brawling,

   City of the Big Shoulders:

They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I have seen your painted women under the gas lamps luring the farm boys.

And they tell me you are crooked and I answer: Yes, it is true I have seen the gunman kill and go free to kill again.

And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is: On the faces of women and children I have seen the marks of wanton hunger.

And having answered so I turn once more to those who sneer at this my city, and I give them back the sneer and say to them:

Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning.

Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job on job, here is a tall bold slugger set vivid against the little soft cities;

Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning as a savage pitted against the wilderness,

   Bareheaded,

   Shoveling,

   Wrecking,

   Planning,

   Building, breaking, rebuilding,

Under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with white teeth,

Under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young man laughs,

Laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has never lost a battle,

Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse, and under his ribs the heart of the people,

                   Laughing!

Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of Youth, half-naked, sweating, proud to be Hog Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation.