Bev, Gerry, David, Mary Rachel... My beloved A_____n family,
As I return from this visit with you, I have a frame of reference:
As God is my witness, for $100 million to be spent on my pleasure I would not trade the very worst single 1/10th of a second of my last 5 years in DC for a lifetime of the above (excluding the " * " items. Why? Pure, enlightened greed. Duh:
I just did. These 8 hours I've just spent with you all. I once again basked in what you Give me, so impossibly often. And what is that? Well, I don't know for sure, and I probably never will. It might be Universal Love. It might be Acceptance. It might be Kindness. It might only be total Tolerance. It might only be sheer, Total Endurance of me. But it is a Miracle to me. And, it is a Miracle For my Work. It amazes me. It Awes me. It Feeds me for my work. It Supports me in my work. It Overwhelms me.
I think it is Universal Love. I Know it is Goodness; Yes. I Know it is God.
I have a frame of reference.
As I return from this visit with you, I have a frame of reference:
- I was born and raised in Short Hills NJ, a NYC suburb, then and now one of the most over-privileged towns in the entire world, in the $2-3million house my self-made father built, exactly on the edge of an enormous 2047 acre, idyllic, untouched nature preserve - my personal playground Garden of Eden. Attended expensive private school. Belonged to not one, but two of the world's most desirable country clubs my entire youth including the world-envied Baltusrol Golf Club - the staff knew me by name as I played golf and dined there so often over the years; we were good friends.
- I've skied the Alps, Rockies, Canadian Rockies too many times to count.
- I've been to the worlds finest resorts throughout my life.
- My father* was a Saint and brilliant teacher, and my mom was a social butterfly that was the envy of all that knew her, both of whom spoiled me beyond imagination.
- My older sister* is the definition of loyalty and kindness to me.
- I had the privilege and Joy of attempting to contribute the the lives of two biologically related sons for many years.**************************
- I had the privilege and Joy of trying to be a good husband for many years to a woman I Love very much.***********************
- I spent most of my adult years in my $500,000 house in one of the most desirable suburbs in the Philadelphia area.
- Most of my adult life I rose within the fascinating, challenging, heady, exhilarating computer industry as an executive in new business development and business turn-around. Profoundly enjoyable, stimulating, emotionally, intellectually and financially rewarding. Worked with some of the brightest minds, from the world's great universities, over and over and over again.
- When the owner of a firm in Salt Lake City, and he and his family loved me, who wanted to woo me to move there as a partner with him in his firm, I was re-engineering his business for him, I lived with he and his family (I was commuting every other weekend back to Philadelphia) in the Park City Utah Ski Resort in their multi million mansion at the resort in the mountains, with the same, a mansion in Park City being offered to me as well.
- I've saved the jobs of hundreds if not thousands of folks when I was in industry, liberating them from crushingly oppressive mangers and management structures - putting themselves in charge of their own destiny and in the process watching them come aLive as never before they had been and turn their relations to many thousands of clients from predatory to that of radical Service.
- I've lived and worked with an incomprehensibly wonderful Family in their work / business / life, as a much Loved friend.
- ....
As God is my witness, for $100 million to be spent on my pleasure I would not trade the very worst single 1/10th of a second of my last 5 years in DC for a lifetime of the above (excluding the " * " items. Why? Pure, enlightened greed. Duh:
- Now, I am re-united with, and living every moment with my Entire family now; I live every moment with my family in Gaza, the West Bank; my global family in the lowlands at waters edge who face drowning, starvation, war and displacement by the 100's of millions from my/our US fossil fuel burning; with my family in Darfur; with my family in Haiti; with my family in the Niger Delta; with my 3 million displaced from Iraq; with my family in Sub-Sahara Africa, Congo, dying of desertification, and oil, and minerals, and war; my 20 million aids orphans; with my children in Chester PA, and DC and...; with my billions of fellow over-privileged (middle & upper class) zombies, who were born Human, and might become Human again, as I have after 30 long years of Death, by the Grace of God, and by Jesus, and by my biological sons, and my Father....
- Now, every moment I live with my dying forests, my dying fish populations, my dying Appalachian Mountains, my dying glaciers, my dying reefs, my dying ice caps, my 100's of species going extinct each week, my burning forests... my crucified and dying planet....
- Now, I am immediate "family," and co-laborer with some of the greatest sheroes/heroes in the world - Diane, Rick, Thomas, Ellen, Ann, Liz, Connie, Gael, Nancy, Timothy.
- I was too late to give my life in support of 1-5 Jesus, King, Gandhi, Lincoln, Roosevelt... but I've been given #6, Pres. Obama to give my life with, shoulder to shoulder on the field, battling for the future of all humanity.
- I was near-fatally narcissistic, self absorbed during the great battles for Humanity of the '60's but I've been given now the greatest battle, the final battle in the history of Humanity - Climate Change, the final battle for Civilization.
- And .........................................
I just did. These 8 hours I've just spent with you all. I once again basked in what you Give me, so impossibly often. And what is that? Well, I don't know for sure, and I probably never will. It might be Universal Love. It might be Acceptance. It might be Kindness. It might only be total Tolerance. It might only be sheer, Total Endurance of me. But it is a Miracle to me. And, it is a Miracle For my Work. It amazes me. It Awes me. It Feeds me for my work. It Supports me in my work. It Overwhelms me.
I think it is Universal Love. I Know it is Goodness; Yes. I Know it is God.
I have a frame of reference.
