Ruth Ehman | Contributor

My friend was quite young when his grandfather passed away and so has known him in only anecdotal context; the stories he heard were frequently of his grandfather's love and stewardship of his land and farm animals. I understand — the following post from last July will suffice as explanation. His grandpa and I are heading out to the barn.

Photo of Little League by Ed Yourdon, released for public use via Wikimedia Commons.

How do we find the common good?

Jim Wallis, in his new book On God’s Side, says that we have lost sight of the common good—but we can find it again. “The common good and the quality of our life together,” he argues, “will finally be determined by the personal decisions we all make.”

What are those personal decisions? Wallis offers 10 personal decisions in his book. Today, I focus on the first one.

He tells a warm and touching story about how it plays out in Little League baseball with his sons. Here’s how he describes the decision: “If you are a father or mother, make your children the most important priority in your life and build your other commitments around them. If you are not a parent, look for children who could benefit from your investment in their lives.”

Jim Wallis, author photo courtesy of the publisher.

Restoring America’s Common Good sounds like a great idea, doesn’t it?

This week, I am inviting you to discuss the conclusions of best-selling author Jim Wallis in his new book: On God’s Side: What Religion Forgets and Politics Hasn’t Learned about Serving the Common Good. Also this week, ReadTheSpirit Editor David Crumm interviews Jim Wallis about the first half of his new book in which Wallis describes his spiritual inspiration. In OurValues, we’re looking at the second half of the Wallis book, called Practices for the Common Good, in which he outlines nuts-and-bolts ideas for reaching this goal.

HERE is the problem Wallis sees: “We’ve lost our civility, the ability to have public discussion that isn’t harsh or dismissive.” What we need, he argues, is a commitment to an ancient idea: the Common Good. It is “the best way to find common ground with other people — even with those who don’t agree with us or share our faith commitments.”

Wallis is a public theologian and overall editor of Sojourners magazine. The title of his new book comes from Lincoln’s famous remark, “My concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side.”

I hope you’ll add a comment today on our first question this week: Can we still find common ground so that we can begin to talk? Consider these responses.

Does each generation have One Thing — one big national or world event — that shapes and defines it?

Do events such as the Great Depression, the Vietnam War, the assassination of John Kennedy or the 9/11 terror attacks leave an indelible mark and define a generation’s worldview?

This week, we’ve seen that One Thing can be a transformative moment, ranging from a short video about conservation and paper towels to the monumental shift in perspective that astronauts and cosmonauts have when they view the earth from space.

It can also be one’s singular strength or focus, such as the harmonica music of legendary Bluesman James Cotton. It can also be a warning that success is never based on just one thing, as the leaders of Zingerman’s know.

One thing can change a life. For James Cotton that one thing was — and still is — a blues harmonica.

Cotton, along with Blues singer/guitarist Keb’ Mo’, was just interviewed by Scott Simon on NPR’s Weekend Edition. (You can listen to the podcast here. In addition to Cotton’s words, you’ll be treated to some great music.) After one audio clip of Cotton’s music, he says, in his now-raspy voice, “I guess I was born with the Blues. And I don’t know nothing else but the Blues.”

“When you get one thing right in life, you know,” says Keb’ Mo’.

“Yeah,” says Cotton.

“Do you know what the secret of life is?” asks Curly, the grizzled cowboy played by Jack Palance in the movie "City Slickers."

Then, he holds up a finger. “This.”

“Your finger?” asks Mitch. In the throes of a mid-life crisis, Mitch (Billy Crystal) and his buddies came out West to sort things out.

“One thing. Just one thing,” answers Curly. “You stick to that and the rest don’t mean s-t.”

“But, what is the ‘one thing’?”

Curly smiles, saying, “That’s what you have to find out.”

Click here to visit the free Vimeo video page where you can watch this inspiring 28-minute film.

“We had one life that we planned,” said Gretchen Spreitzer, “and that got taken on a different trajectory after Bob got diagnosed with ALS.” About 5,600 people are diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, better known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, in the U.S. each year, according to the ALS Association.

What happens when life takes us on such a dramatically different trajectory?