l family today that he is devoted to. He recently edited a book on the effect poetry can have on recovery. Previous to this he was the founding editor of the world's most referenced web site in the field that he is now a freelance editor in. These are the young Americans I knew growing up and it was boys like that, and men as they are today, that makes me resist the notion that America is need of a renovation of its principles and an apology for its attempts to bring order to a chaotic world. Yesterday, My wife and I visited the National Museum of the United States Air Force outside of Dayton. One should have to go no further than the sacrifices of so many who have given us the opportunites we have today. We will never be asked to climb into a sphere of steel plate, nuts and bolts for a bombing raid over Nazi territory, or helicopter into a dense forest to rescue a downed pilot, but we are being asked to bring our life into balance and moderate our recreations in order to read and meditate enough to discern a nation in collapse and earnestly seek any way we can be of help.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Friday.....America.....God Directs Our Steps
It was the summer of 1963 and my mother and I had just moved to Pittsburgh from Buffalo. My parents had separated, and remained only separated until my father's death in 1979. We were searching for a place to live....by taxicab. I remember the day distinctly. As the cab turned the corner on the street where my home would be until joining the Army, a boy my age was riding his bike and perched on his shoulder was a raccoon. Unusual to say the least, for a suburb of Pittsburgh. He would become my best friend. God directs all of our steps and He certainly led my mother to that address that day. My life would be influenced, one way of the other, by the friends I would find there. If they were involved in drugs or crime, I probably would have also. If they had had no desire for higher education, then I doubt that I would have. Eight boys, from three families, lived within five houses of ours. We spent our days eating pizza, playing card games and street football with an occasional movie. Three went on to be PhDs and two of those are college professors today. There's an architect, economist, electrician, nurse, government worker and myself rounding out the team. I'm so fortunate that my mother responded to the classified apartment for rent placed in the Pittsburgh Press that day. The Catholic high school I attended drew boys from numerous surrounding communities. Our Catholic grade school sent eight boys that year. Its Tom that I want to talk about here. He lived up the hill a ways. I never met a nicer young man. He was a true athlete and scholar. If ever anyone had the right to place themselves above others it would be him; a football star who went on to play at Carnegie Mellon, he is the same humble caring person I knew 40 years ago. I have had a small reminder of Tom with me constantly over the years, a bump on my collarbone from a collision in short center field in sandlot baseball. I lost track of Tom over the years. I heard that he was in journalism, an editor of some sort. I later heard that his wife had been killed in a car wreck and I tried unsuccessfully to locate him. I tried again earlier this year and was successful. He was a model for me in my teens and his character is still a model for me today. He struggled for years with depression after the accident. According to his testimony which I found on the web, he used poetry to regain his life and has a wonderfu
l family today that he is devoted to. He recently edited a book on the effect poetry can have on recovery. Previous to this he was the founding editor of the world's most referenced web site in the field that he is now a freelance editor in. These are the young Americans I knew growing up and it was boys like that, and men as they are today, that makes me resist the notion that America is need of a renovation of its principles and an apology for its attempts to bring order to a chaotic world. Yesterday, My wife and I visited the National Museum of the United States Air Force outside of Dayton. One should have to go no further than the sacrifices of so many who have given us the opportunites we have today. We will never be asked to climb into a sphere of steel plate, nuts and bolts for a bombing raid over Nazi territory, or helicopter into a dense forest to rescue a downed pilot, but we are being asked to bring our life into balance and moderate our recreations in order to read and meditate enough to discern a nation in collapse and earnestly seek any way we can be of help.
l family today that he is devoted to. He recently edited a book on the effect poetry can have on recovery. Previous to this he was the founding editor of the world's most referenced web site in the field that he is now a freelance editor in. These are the young Americans I knew growing up and it was boys like that, and men as they are today, that makes me resist the notion that America is need of a renovation of its principles and an apology for its attempts to bring order to a chaotic world. Yesterday, My wife and I visited the National Museum of the United States Air Force outside of Dayton. One should have to go no further than the sacrifices of so many who have given us the opportunites we have today. We will never be asked to climb into a sphere of steel plate, nuts and bolts for a bombing raid over Nazi territory, or helicopter into a dense forest to rescue a downed pilot, but we are being asked to bring our life into balance and moderate our recreations in order to read and meditate enough to discern a nation in collapse and earnestly seek any way we can be of help.
