Rebecca: You cite Frederick Jackson Turner's 1893 paper, The Significance of the Frontier in American History & you write about how “Americans are the people of the frontier...going out on the edge, doing something different with your life, making a mark.” (p.18) What about this post 9/11 world of ours & our unique culture that makes your book so relevant?
Judith: Go For It! is relevant to the post 9/11 world for two reasons:
First, educators have lost confidence in & no longer understand the idea of America. Teachers emphasize America's sins (which are genuine) but ignore America's virtues (which are just as genuine) Go For It! celebrates the American character & points out that the frontier, in its vitalizing optimism & headlong energy, is an American invention. We should be proud of it & understand it.
Second, America has embarked on a new frontier -- the attempt to bring freedom & democracy to the Middle East. I fear this effort will not succeed but it is an expression of the American spirit in all its optimism, energy, & vitality.
Rebecca: What is The Frontier Frame of Mind?
Judith: The Frontier Frame of Mind is what the French call a mentalité, a subtle combination of attitudes, values & emotions. It's a mindset, which includes:
• delight in the very act of striking out for new territory
• taking pleasure in independence & innovation
• optimism & self-confidence
• energy & determination
• seeing one's self as a maverick
Rebecca: What are the Seven Satisfactions That Come From Frontiering?
Judith:
1. Earning respect: You respect yourself just for going pioneering, for doing something gutsy & original, win or lose. Other people respect you too for having the courage to go for it.
2. Becoming a founder, making a difference: On a frontier, it is easy to start something new & to make a difference to your place.
3. A sense of freedom: On a frontier, you feel loosened from social constraints. You are breaking new ground & doing things your own way.
4. Belonging to a community: People depend on each other on a frontier. This is a heady & exhilarating feeling. People think that going into the wilderness is isolating. It is not. It creates a new community, almost a new family.
5. Feeling needed: On a frontier, with a small population, you are needed & you know it. If you were not there, what you do would be missing.
6. Being able to change: When you leave the old country, wherever that is for you, you can shed your old identity & escape what is holding you back. There is a saying that you can't start all over again because your self comes with you. That is not true. You can change & many people do on a frontier.
7. Feeling authentic. When you frontier, you are making deliberate choices about who you are, what you value, & how you will live your life. You feel that you can finally be yourself.
Rebecca: Most of us raised in cities think of a frontier as a hinterland or wilderness, would you explain the difference?
Judith: A frontier can be a hinterland or wilderness. But a frontier is not just a geographic place. A frontier is any place that is new & unsettled. America has created frontiers in every direction. Science is the “endless frontier.” Underwater exploration is the “blue frontier.” Retirement is the “next frontier.” Americans create frontiers in sports, racial relations, business, the arts. Just look at any magazine & notice all the references to pioneering & the frontier. This is such an American image.
Rebecca: How do Pioneer Children feel different?
Judith: They don't have a strong sense of their limitations. Children raised in big cities see so many other children just as good, if not better, than they are. Children raised in big cities often develop a limited sense of what they can accomplish. Children raised on a frontier feel they can do more. They have done more.
Check out the TV reality series, Frontier House. Featured are families who went frontiering in Montana, reliving the 19th century. The attitudes of the children when they left their swimming pool in California & had to help their family build a house in Montana are striking. They felt needed.
Rebecca: In Chapter 5: First, Find Yourself A Dream, you recount the story of your Scottish research assistant, Michelle Graves, who grew up, as I did, in a culture which did not foster dreams. When I told friends & family I was working toward my dream of emigrating to America, they were shocked: “America's so wild!” Exactly -- a place where I could breathe! If we don't already, how can we teach ourselves to dream?
Judith: This is fascinating. Yes, I get this reaction from so many people raised in Europe.
How do you learn to dream? Many people learn to dream from a book. It was amazing to me how many people had used a book as a window into a dream realm. I'm hoping Go For It! will do the same.
Frankly, & though this is politically incorrect, many women who came to the Alaska frontier came because of their husband's dreams. Then they learned how to dream. They saw so many people they saw pursuing crazy, wild dreams. They figured, “I can do it too!” Succeed or fail, a dream gives your life purpose & meaning.
Rebecca: What I like especially about Go For It! are the stories you tell about both the successes & the dangers. How did you find these stories?
Judith: This is what we call in the research biz a “judgment sample”. I looked for people who saw themselves as frontiering, who were trying something new & different. These were so easy to spot. They were everywhere in Alaska. Then I learned they were everywhere in America. It was just easier to see them in Alaska because they were so often dressed in frontier imagery & symbols -- women homesteading, men trapping -- people who heeded Horace Greeley's advice: “Go West, Young Man!”
Rebecca: Before setting out on our journey, what do we need to take along?
Judith:
1. Practical good sense. Don't get into dangerous situations where you don't know what you are doing. Don't risk what you genuinely can't afford to lose.
2. A romance. Cast yourself as the hero in a frontier drama, feel you are joining the circle of American pioneers, one with Lewis & Clark, with Bill Gates, with Carly Fiorina of Hewlett-Packard. Take pleasure in the trip. For all of us, the destination is the same.
Rebecca: What's a Frontier Angel, & can anyone aspire to becoming one?
Judith: Frontier angels are generous people who see others trying to accomplish a great dream and give them a hand. There are so many of these people everywhere. People enjoy being generous & they enjoy seeing others attempt great things & live interesting lives.
Yes, anyone can become a “frontier angel.” You will get a “helper's high”, the contentment & pleasure of knowing you made a difference.
Rebecca: Thank you, Judith, for not only writing down the stories of frontier thinking & succeeding, for also giving us some signposts to watch out for along our way to our dreams. Is there anything else you would like to say?
Judith: I am a rebel in the academic world. I celebrate America where so many academics sneer at America. For me, writing a self-help book was a new frontier. But I had a message I really wanted to communicate: We Americans should be proud of ourselves, not because we are perfect, but because we are always trying, we are always heading out for new frontiers, with a headlong rush of energy & optimism & generosity.
Rebecca: Do catch my review of Judith Kleinfeld's exuberant & informative book Go For It!: Finding Your Own Frontier. - I hope it makes you go out & buy yourself a copy!
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