Musings

This fall, my brother’s third-youngest daughter will start on her Master’s degree at Oxford University in London. Of his five children, the oldest is pursuing her Doctorate at Stanford, his son and next two oldest daughters obtained (and are obtaining) graduate degrees from the London School of Economics, and his youngest, a teenage daughter, is a math genius who is being groomed to possibly become another Planck or Einstein.

I have mentioned in prior posts here that our family was impoverished in my childhood, because our father chose to follow the noble path of his father as a conservationist and game warden. This path however, was not pursued by my brother and me, although we carry on the tradition in other ways. He became a scientist, while I became a sometime businessman and electrical engineer.

I came across an old and grainy photo of my first year primary school class in 1946. I was six years old when it was taken. Here it is for your amusement:

Even as a youngster, I had an attitude: I am the brat in the second row (second from left) with my hand on my hip, a chip on my shoulder, and a defiant expression on my face.

Well, the military changed all that for me and I was challenged to excel. I accepted the challenge and applied myself with a vengeance. I have been a millionaire twice in my life, and my younger brother became a millionaire many times over (most of which he has given to charity and environmental causes over the years).

Had I not been challenged, and guided by wise mentors who saw my potential, I probably would have become a drifter or worse. As it is, I am proud of the fact that I developed this in 1972. It is one of the first of its kind:


The reason that I am revealing all of this for the first time in this blog is that there are many children out there who are gifted and impoverished, and who may drift away into the future unless they get the motivation and guidance to achieve their potential. It is especially important in these troubled times.

This is not just the task of educators. It is the task of all of us. Our immediate future on Planet Earth depends on applying the best of humanity to solving our pressing problems. If you know of such a child, it is your duty as a human being to offer a helping hand. And, if you are such a youngster yourself, please take my advice:
You can accomplish anything your set your mind to do. It (not-so-simply) requires commitment to your dream and the self-discipline to get there. Set aside all of the distractions and wastes of time in modern life and apply yourself diligently to your goal. The good news is that it gets easier once this behavior becomes a habit.

One of my dear and nearly life-long friends called me to explain that he might be dying. The painful, invasive biopsy of his lungs confirmed the worst: widespread lung cancer. As he has suffered a collapsed lung twice in the last few decades, the prognosis is grim. And, his smoking like a furnace has turned his chest into a war zone over the years.

His life has been replete with hardship and grief: both of his children were struck down with medical traumas, and only his son survives. His marriage has been torn asunder, and financially, for most of his life the wolf has been at the door.

In spite of these hardships, he has always tried to maintain good cheer, laughed at my feeble jokes, hiked with me in the wilderness, skied the Black Diamond runs together, shared the last of our food and water in secret desert places, and always respected our friendship as something precious and true. As is typical of him, he had a hard time telling me of his condition, of his fear and grief.

So this, Al, is for you. As your computer is history, I know you are unlikely to read this directly on-line. Perhaps I can work up the courage to print it out and hand it to you in person sometime soon.

A wise old Hopi Indian once said, “Take a kernel of corn, plant it in Our Mother Earth with the sweat of your body, with what you know of the times and seasons, with your proper prayers. And with your strength and manhood Our Father Sun multiplies and gives it back into your flesh. What then is this kernel of corn? It is not a simple thing.

Nothing is simple and alone. We are not separate and alone. The breathing mountains, the living stones, each blade of grass, the clouds, the rain, each star, the beasts, the birds and the invisible spirits of the air---we are all one, indivisible. Nothing that any of us does occurs in a vacuum, but affects us all. I would have you consider how you fit into the pattern of the whole; how far your influence may spread. What it may grow into……

We know that we are all one life on the same Mother Earth, beneath the same plains of the sky. But we all know that one life must give way to another so that the one great life of all may continue unbroken.”

Should the outcome of your trial by great pain and suffering be death, know that you will live on in the memories of those who knew and loved you. Like the ripples in a pond from a pebble thrown into the water, your influence and essence spreads to infinity—through your son, and his children, and his children’s children into the fog of time. It is the web of life, and it is good.
Oil on canvas by Fredrick Remington