A few observations:
Resurrecting these memories reminded me of just how often people really do deliver for each other with no expectation that their effort be rewarded. It gave me hope and the incentive to try to do the same.
I’m not a bucket list person. Most people don’t have that luxury. It is a privilege to enjoy the rewarding cycle of being curious, trying something new, failing a bit and succeeding. I still want to try hard things and to finish what I’ve started. Between about six-teen and fifty-five years old the “hard things” and the “had to” was a way of life. Now it is a choice. It never want to stop taking risks and trying.
I love the breaking of a glass at the celebratory end of a Jewish wedding… representative of life’s fragility and the reminder to us all to commit to pick up life’s pieces and try to create good. So, I conclude on a sobering story because life is messy and our world is a mess. Creating the chance to say thank you is my way of picking up a few pieces of broken glass.
Finally, when did we stop putting a space between sentences? There are some things I’m just incapable of evolving.
1975: Dear Mr. Barber and Ms. Priest,Turns out, I learn best by doing
Dear Mr. Barber and Mrs. Priest,
Riding horseback to spend the night in Anasazi cliff dwellings, hosted by Hope Native families to learn about their way of life while making traditional blue corn recipes and tasting the wonder of a Prickly pear cactus fruit.
1975: Dear Dr. Ginsburg, It’s Ok… lots of kids get seeds stuck in their ears
Dear Dr. Ginsburg,
Every year of my elementary and middle school years (1960’s and 70’s) we dutifully came to your pediatrician’s office for my annual, school check- up. These visits were straight forward, routine and a generally pleasant experience.