Life in Perspective

Here is an email from a girl I traveled with in Up With People in 1983 - nearly 27 years ago.

She refers to Camp Pendleton. During 1983, our cast spent a week on that base.

Also, after her letter are the lyrcis to a song that another cast members posted. It is written about the same topic…

Getting letters like this, in which it makes the war so real, because someone knows about the real person, make the war all that much more real.

And it makes me appreciate the freedoms that we have.

 

From: Leann Illig [mailto:leann88888@msn.com]

Larry, the son of one of my best friends, was killed last week, 7/1/10, in Afghanistan.  He tripped a roadside bomb while carrying an injured Marine to safety.  He was successful: his friend survived. 
 
His wife of just 3 months is in a news video I just watched, filmed at my friend's house in Colorado.  Stacia was reminiscing about her first kiss, which was with Larry, when she was 14.  
 
So young - Larry was born on 8-8-85.  8-8-58 is my birthday.  His mom is my Godmother, though she is younger than I am. 

 

I learned that God is real, not just a great idea, only a decade+ ago.  She's a preacher's kid and has been knowingly walking with the Lord all her life.  I am grateful that her faith will help her now.  
 
Larry began his Marine career in Camp Pendleton.  I sure could envision him there!  Wasn't that a fun and enriching time we E83ers had on that base?! 
 
Larry was a great singer, rapper, dancer, drummer.  He'd have been a great addition to UWP. 
 
He was a terrific friend to me and to my daughter, as a child and as an adult.
 
Steve, I'll save those lyrics for his wife.  She may need them.

Love~
 
Leann

 

From Steve - some lyrics to a song…

....This is brand new out of nashville....a well written song about life and faith....

 

 

 

Amy's got the letters I wrote
My picture in a frame
She's had a year to let go
She still wears my ring
It hasn't left her finger since the night that I proposed
When I promised her forever before I took her home
But I never made it home that night
A part of her died too
I watched her losing her mind
And there's nothing I can do
Yea sometimes she goes crazy screaming out my name
Saying baby please come and save me
I wish she knew I'd do anything

To kiss the tears right off her face
Tell her everything's ok
Feel her heart beat next to mine
And make up for lost time
Oh but God I know I can't
You can't let her live this way
It's too late for saving me
But there's still hope for saving Amy

Now 3 years have gone by
She's trying to live her life
And I still watch her sometimes
Just to make sure she's alright
She knows I'll always be there
In her heart and in her dreams
Cause God, I promised her forever and that's one promise I intend to keep

To kiss the tears right off her face
Tell her everything's' ok
Feel her heartbeat next to mine
Make up for lost time
Oh but god I know I can't
But you can't let her live this way
It's too late for saving me
But there's still hope for saving Amy
Saving Amy

I'll kiss the tears right off her face
When I walk her through these gates
Feel her heartbeat next to mine
Make up for lost time
God I thank you everyday
For giving a her that ounce of faith
That led her right back here to me
And most of all for saving Amy
Saving Amy
Thank you god for saving Amy

 
 

----------------------------------------

FROM FARMERS for FARMERS?

Last week, when I went to the Kansas City Airport to leave, I stopped in the
one airport Starbucks. At the counter, I saw this bag of coffee. "From
Farmers for Farmers." I wondered if they had rolled out a line of coffee
just for those states in the Midwest with farmers!?

46 Chocolate Bars

A good friend of mine, who thankfully reads a few of my blog entries, sent me a note today. He challenged me with this message:

"Hey RVF. A subject for your blog...heard a speaker who took one of those on-line life expectancy calculators (put in age, height, weight, family history, risk factors, living conditions, etc.) and it pumps out your "for fun" life expectancy. He turns 40 this week..and is supposed to live until 86. He put 86 chocolate bars in a jar...and then pulled one out for each year of his life and talked about what he learned...and how he fucked up...and then started making plans for the next 46 chocolates. Obviously just an illustration for "live your life like you are dying"...type stuff....I thought of you..it was kind of a combination of journals...and lists...what has happened and what will happen. Just for fun...."

 

As he sent it, I felt compelled to take him up on his offer. So, what about this idea of 46 chocolate bars. And how does it feel to take one of those life expectancy quizes?

Here are a few ideas and thoughs:

 

1. Does he really think that, for the last 46 years of his life, he will be able to each chocolate every last one of those years?

 

2. Perhaps a better idea is that he should eat double chocolate for the next ten years - eating the chocolate for the last ten years in advance just in case he either can't eat chocolate then or in case he dies early. And then if he did live - it would be borrowed time, and he would just go out and by more chocolate.

 

3. And besides, who would want to be eating 35 year old chocolate?

 

4. And, I would imagine that by the time we get to 40 years later from today, they will have created a way that we could eat chocolate, without any calories or ill effects!

 

5. As my parents reach their late 60s and early 70s, I have already heard the regret in their voices. They wished they would have traveled earlier. Walked more when they were younger. Taken those trips. Part of it is that while you may be alive, your body starts to fail you. The other part is that when you get to your 70s, you just have less interest in walking or hiking on mountains that you may have when you are 20 or 30 or 40!

 

6. I think a more interesting thing would be to make a commitment to go and try a NEW chocolate bar every year - for the next 46 years - and then write a book about each of those chocolate bars, what parallel it meant to life for the year - and what you learned. Hmmm. That sounds like a great blog or coffee table book to me Anyone want to sponsor me?

 

7. When I was born, in 1962, the life expectancy of a new born was 70.1 years of age for a US citizen. Globally, it was 54.9. By 2007, it climbed to 78 for a US Citizen. Hopefully, even better ideas will come along that might even alter my 70.1. (By the way - below - you will see that I am hoping to push that idea of 70.1).

 

8. I went and took one of those tests. (good one HERE.) Wow - there are a lot of factors that they take into account. It told me that I am supposed to live until I am 89 years old. And that my negative factors were being a guy and my family health. Not a whole lot I can do about that huh? It is also a sobering effect when a tool supposedly can take that into account.

 

9. I have made it a goal for a long time to live to be 100 years old. That means I need to find a way to make up those extra 11 years. And so - I went back to the tool, and started tweaking the tool to "better answers" just to see if I could get close to that 100 years. I was able to make it 99 - but there are a lot of things that I have to do, including:

• Insuring my mother and father to live to be 80 years old
• Stop smoking that marijuana. Ooops!
• Eat way more vegetables and cut out my gourmet bacon. ( low-fat foods with five or more portions of fruit and vegetables)
• Continue my kickboxing 3 times a week until I die! (exercise aerobically at least three times a week for 30 minutes or longer)
• Get more: proctoscopic examinations every other year
• For the rest of my life, not get a single traffic ticket
• And drop 25 lbs to be as thin as I was in high school. Shha! As if that will be happening!

10. But then, as I thought about all that change, I wondered just how much fun life would be over the next 49 years.

 

I think I like the idea of each 46 chocolate bars in half the amount of time, washing them down with red wine to counter balance, and writing about it all!

 

Wise words from a Movie

 

Hommage to the Easter Egg

A French style burger. Blue cheese. Two poached eggs with truffle oil.
Arugula. Rosemary potato chips. And a patty of grilled meat from angus
beef and pork. Who said Easter had to be traditional. Or boring? Happy
Easter!

Drunk Chimney Sweeps in New York City

Fatal winds for umbrellas today. Every corner is littered with black
ghosts of umbrellas with wires protruding. As if the chimney sweeps on
a drunken craze from a Mary Poppins movie gone wrong. Stop signs
flutter in the wind like playing cards. Doorman give up. Get soaked.
And hope you will recognize them with green to commiserate their awful
day. Flights are delayed or cancelled. They are so backed up at the
airport that just cancelled my 6:15 departure. But then called back
and put me on a flight that was suposed to leave at 3 and will now
leave at 7:00. I still think that arriving home tonight is iffy. No
worries. I have my Zabar Deli bag of groceries for a gourmet picnic
either on a plane, in a lounge or at a airline gate making
announcements as the night goes on.

DID YOU HAVE AN EXCHANGE DAY?

Did you have an exchange day today?

 

This is the kind of day, in which you basically give your life over to some other cause other than your own motivations.

 

For example – your work.

 

I realize that for many people, most of their days are “exchange days.”

 

I wonder sometimes. What is the right amount?

 

How many days do you have to give up, doing the things you would not do if you had a choice, in exchange so that you could have days that you would really like to do?

I have been lucky over the last year.

 

After my “retirement,” I have had far less “exchange days” – instead having days of selfishness, when I could do whatever I wanted to do.

 

But that was a fortunate opportunity. And I constantly remind myself that this was part of the very small minority in life.

 

Today, I had an exchange day. I started phone calls at 10:00 am. And I worked for the most part until 8:00 pm – after which I ordered a pizza, broke open a bottle of wine, and watched old re-runs of Battle Star Gallactica.

 

The best of the “exchange days” are days in which you would 1). Not choose to do those things if you did not have to work, but, 2). Were still things that were enjoyable.

 

That was true of my “exchange day.” Although I sat in a Starbucks for 7 hours working on a project, I enjoyed what I was doing. As long as I didn’t think about what I would do instead.

 

I am working on a project that is due next week. It is important. To me. And interesting.

 

If I could snap my fingers, and have it done would I. I think so. That is what makes it an exchange day. It is one day of your life that has gone away – and not because it was of your own passion and choosing.

 

But it was close. I did learn. And I enjoyed the setting.

 

Isn’t that about as good as you can get for an exchange day.

 

The worse would be if most of your days and life were an exchange day.

 

How about you?
Was your Friday a day of your choosing.

Or an exchange day – a day in which you exchanged one day of your life for something else that you either wanted to continue to do – or wanted to do?