The other day I was reminiscing about the people I've met and the friendships that have been formed. It occurred to me they mirror my collection of music CDs ... eclectic. The CDs found in my assortment range from classical to country, from jazz to new age and pretty much everywhere in between. The same is true of the people I've met over the years, and like my music, they bring me great joy.
To single out any one person, outside of my family, would be impossible. I have shared meals with every strata of our society, from homeless substance abusers who were HIV positive to presidents. On many occasions I have spent the night in discussions of every sort with people from all over the globe. And I have witnessed true humility in men and women, that in their own way, have made a difference in others' lives.
To write something describing each one would require a lengthy book. Yet, to simply pick out a few is a daunting task for they all are very special in their own way. Perhaps, I am more fortunate that most in that it would be impossible to select only a few to describe in a short blog piece. So many people go through life with just a short list of those who have influenced them.
In very general terms I can go back to my early school years and recall the nuns who taught me and whom I detested for their discipline. But it was this discipline that proved invaluable in college and post-graduate school, they taught me how to learn. Or, maybe to a man named Tom Looney, my eighth grade science teacher who imparted a quest for learning and installed a curiosity that made learning fun.
In later years, it was seeing the despair of so many who had nothing but never gave up their dignity. Although, there were times that dignity became mired in a sea of chemical induced haze. There were also others to whom fate dealt a nasty hand.
One person I'll never forget had suffered a massive stroke robbing him of his mental acuities. At the age of 14 he was discussing ancient philosophy and reading Sanskrit, a dead language, with college professors. But, in his 60s he had lost what the doctors estimated was 80 percent of his intellectual power. Dave surprised everyone by his pure tenacity and recovered nearly all his mental capabilities.
Then there is a middle-aged nurse, who spent the summer camping in primitive conditions trying to figure out what to do with her life. Her caring and compassion overrode the prejudice she experienced as a native American to lead her back to practicing her profession.
In the north Georgia mountains, the heart of what some consider "red-neck country," I learned African dances from a group of students studying at Georgia Tech from Kenya. Some two thousand plus miles away in a small California community, 125 miles from the closest Walmart, I became friends with a man who could hardly figure out how to tie his shoes but was a world renown environmental architect and met a lady who's life dream was to become a simple seamstress. She had literally been a rocket scientist and project director for NASA.
My travels have taken to many countries and I've been privileged to share my life with the lives of so many diverse peoples. I like to think, in some small way, I may have made a difference in a minute way to help better the lives of those I've met. Yet, whatever my contribution may have been, it is dwarfed by those I've met and who I call my friends and their impact on my life.
It just proves the adage that one's life can be enhanced by everyone they meet.
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