Harry Chapin Was a Happy Warrior

Forty years ago today, Harry Chapin's life on this Earth came to a sudden end on the Long Island Expressway at the age of 38. In those 38 years, Chapin was the father of five children, had managed to be nominated for an Academy Award, released 11 albums, had a number one song in "Cats in the Cradle", was a beloved performer and in the midst of it all tried to end world hunger managing President Carter to start a Commission on World Hunger. 

Now if a man tried
To take his time on Earth
And prove before he died
What one man's life could be worth
Well I wonder what would happen to this world

Chapin's children penned a joint op-ed piece in the New York Daily News extolling their father's legacy:

It’s been four decades without him — four decades of change in culture, politics, music and technology — but after all that change, and even a global pandemic, his legacy organizations WhyHunger and Long Island Cares remain centered on fulfilling our dad’s mission of deeply understanding the root causes of hunger and seeking solutions grounded in community power and self-reliance.

If Chapin were still with us I wonder what he would make of our unhealthy politics. Chapin was a liberal Democrat but when he was up on Capitol Hill in the late 1970's he lobbied anyone who would listen - Democrat or Republican. As I wrote in my tribute to him on the 30th anniversary of his death:

Chapin didn’t hate the people who didn’t share his politics. On the contrary, he wanted to persuade conservatives just as much as he wanted to persuade liberals.

Unfortunately, not only do liberals and conservatives hate each other many are now prepared to kill each other. It's hard to fathom what Chapin would have thought of the insurrection on Capitol Hill or someone who shot Congressmen on a baseball field. 

I shook his hand in the scene that made America famous

And a smile from the heart that made America great

We spent the rest of that night in the home of this man

That we'd never known before

It's funny when you get that close, it's kind of hard to hate

When it came to engaging others who might have not otherwise agreed with him, Harry Chapin was a happy warrior - a virtue in very short supply. 

To imbue Harry's Happy Warrior ethos requires a fidelity truth, commitment regardless of the outcome and a generosity of spirit towards others. These are qualities built over a very long time and few among us have the patience to build these qualities especially if there are riches to be found in the short term and in the easy way. Yet I would like to think there are those among us who would choose Harry's righteous path. Those of us who would choose such a path aren't filling his shoes but are rather better filling our own. R.I.P.