A Lucky Guy

Merano, Sept. 11th

Having come this far, I am grateful for many things; I am a very lucky guy.

I owe gratitude to my grand-parents, for their Taylor, Morehouse, Waller and Cook genes are providing me a platform of health on which I think I can still think; and on which to travel, crew, X-country skate-ski, and mountain hike. Yes, I have two artificial knees, a re-built shoulder, two plastic lenses in my eye-balls, no gall bladder, a “uni-cep” rather than a bi-cep, and only 2/3rds of a colon, yet here I am drafting this on my 84th birthday while hiking about the Dolomites and the Texels. And of course, I am especially grateful for the dedication and skill of Dr. Bruckner (knees), and for the team of Dr. Walsh (the insistent gastroenterologist), Dr. Hanly (the gifted surgeon) and the remarkable ICU staff who saved my life at St. Mary’s in Grand Junction, Colo seven years ago.

I am grateful to my parents, first for having me in the fall of 1934, the second lowest birth year of the 20thC, which meant doors easily opened at colleges and universities I could never crack open today. Second, for their dedication to educating their children. And mostly, for their values of integrity, self-reliance, and service which are the standards I test my impulses against again and again. And for my sisters, whom I see all too infrequently, who share those values and who are models of artistic and social activism.

I am grateful, looking back, for enforced national service, back in the day, and my resulting immersion into the melting-pot of Army life. And I guess I must admit, ruefully, gratefulness for being born white (though Ancestry says I have a trace of Benin or Togo in my DNA) and thus an unconscious beneficiary of wholly undeserved white privilege.

I am grateful for the counseling and therapy and reflection that fortified me to break my first marriage and leap into the unknown in search of intimacy and partnership.

I am grateful to the karma that brought Ann Janes into the Rotary Club meeting to which I was speaking — and, thus, into my life. I am so grateful for Ann — for her curiosity, for her love of outdoors, for her love of music, for her charm in groups that makes up for my lack, and most for our mutual, unconditional love that has carried us forward together for 30 years.

I am not grateful to religions but for the teachings of men like Jesus, the Buddha, Socrates, Locke, Marx and Piketty. I am grateful for many who modeled for me leadership, judgment and initiative, people like Jim McFarland, Pete Townley, Bill Marriott, Bob Anderson, Karen Lane, Sabah al Dhahar, Bob Hutchinson — responsible people who made good things happen — and also for those several other associates, who shall remain nameless, who modeled for me negative values and behaviors to eschew. And I am especially grateful for many friends — social couples, old chums from Minneapolis, buddies from the Olympic Club, Horizon House and Pratt — you know who you are.

I am grateful for the discipline of work, for through it both Ann and I have achieved modest successes that provide sufficient financial security to allow us to explore and experience the world.

I am grateful to Barbara, mother of my three children; despite all, we teamed to raise three healthy and productive adults. I am grateful that two of them are better parents than I, and the third, the best uncle any niece or nephew could want. I am grateful for the spouses they have brought into our lives, and for Ann’s two sons and their families who so enrich my life. Between us: nine fascinating grandchildren, one great-grandchild and a second great-granddaughter on the way.

I am sure this sounds preeningly self-congratulatory — but is not life so transitory, change so inevitable, the future so unforeseeable? I am increasingly self-conscious about being such a lucky guy and so very grateful for the blessings I have received.

(Posted 22 Sept upon return from Italy since was unable to post from Merano.)