I guess you could say that the quest for “buying local” this Christmas season officially began in my South Loop social circles at a book club gathering several weeks ago. We had just finished reading Dr. Dale Moyer’s book The Flash and Outbreak of a Fiery Mind. We were impressed. We loved it.

Moyer — a psychoanalyst and a resident of the South Loop, whose wife Kathy is in the book club — has written a collection of imaginary letters from Martha Bernays to her then fiancé, soon-to-be-husband Sigmund Freud during their engagement from 1882 to 1886.

Moyer, who was taken with Bernays and how she thought about life, and how she lived with the famous Dr. Freud, was told by those in the business that the hardest way to write a story is through letters. But he did it anyway. Having read all of Sigmund Freud’s letters, studying the life and work of Freud, he constructed what might be construed as “Martha’s side of the story.” The letters include vivid details about Freud’s life, and about domestic life in Europe at the time. It’s quite an interesting read.

Moyer joined us for the evening and we eventually got to talking about how he could market the book, available “locally” at Sandmeyer’s on Printers Row. No one seemed to have a clue what to do, but they wanted to do something.

Shortly after that evening, residents of the city got notified that this Christmas season giving to the poor, having a cookie exchange and volunteering in the church choir on Christmas Eve was not a city priority. The thing we were charged with doing if we wanted to be good citizens was to “buy local.” Was this a chance for an author like Moyer to strike it rich?

It was pretty amazing to see how my friends in the neighborhood took their marching orders seriously, listing what they could get — a stone’s throw from home — that added up to the recommended $100 expenditure the powers that be told us to spend in our own backyards.

“Do you think if I buy a wreath from the Christmas tree guy at Polk and Dearborn, that could count toward my hundred?” one friend asked me. I told her to call the Mayor’s Office to find out.

Other people were stymied in other ways. What about Best Buy, Home Depot, Michael’s, World Market and other big box shops? Those stores are “local” now and we love and welcome them with open arms in our neighborhood. But is that what the city fathers meant by “buy local?” Was it the distance from home they were emphasizing? What about the proprietors of local businesses — shouldn’t they be required to live local, too? A lot of nuance is involved.

And what if you live in a neighborhood that borders State Street, That Great Street, that marvelous shopping paradise that takes 15 minutes to walk to from our South Loop homes? Is that considered buying local? Macy’s, Sephora and Godiva Chocolate are not exactly “mom and pops,” but they do pay many taxes to keep the city humming. Why shouldn’t the residents put all their $100s there? What if these places lack business and close up the “local” outposts? It happens in shopping malls across the country all the time. Is that somehow “good” for State Street? And the South Loop?

And what if you live in a neighborhood that has no local business? Were you supposed to go to another neighborhood and buy local there? Which one? To the neighborhood one over? Or to a neighborhood like the South Loop? And if you’re going to go all the way to the South Loop, you may as well go to the Central Loop, right?

The questions go on and on. What were Chicago residents really supposed to think, do and buy for the holidays? And how come the city didn’t publish a handbook of frequently asked questions, like the Shedd Aquarium does with fish you are supposed to eat and not eat? I can see the entries now: “In the South Loop, it’s OK to buy shoes at ‘House of Sole,’ a local business on Michigan near Roosevelt, and ‘Heelz’ at 16th and Wabash, but don’t go to DSW at Roosevelt and Canal.” Is that the message?

Which brings me back to Freud, and Moyer’s book. How does a neighborhood support a truly local author — not to mention those truly local stores, restaurants and services — without ignoring the big economic picture of a city? There are many authors in the South Loop and elsewhere who crave attention, and who deserve it. Just like the little boutiques, the local chiropractor and health club, and the local cook who sells the muffins and the good tuna sandwiches. And Target. It does, too. And it’s only one block from my house.

Are hundreds of distinct chambers of commerce necessary in Chicago, one for every conceivable neighborhood, all vying for business like Chicago high school football teams vying for First Place? Or should the buying-local mantra involve a network mesh of local, big business and overall economic health of the city overseen from the top? And I do mean overseen — by economists and MBAs, not slogan-making politicians.

As for Dale Moyer and his Freudian odyssey — as well as other neighborhood authors who yearn for more recognition beginning on their own turf, let’s begin here: Calling all book clubs in the South Loop, hear ye, hear ye! Get thee to Sandmeyer’s as fast as you can. Buy local, pay local, support local and read local. Even if the story you buy is about Vienna in the 1880s, you will be weaving a tale about your own neighborhood in 2012.

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By FreudPsa from New York NY
Posted: 01/01/2012 12:41 PM

One wonders whether this author read Freud's "Brautbriefe" --the actual letters written between Freud and Marta Bernays during their engagement. For more on Freudian psychoanlaysis, see http://freudpsa.org and THE APP with 33 books and 90 videos