A Look Back At Your Profession

MON., OCT. 2, 2000, 1:38 PM
SIU CAMPUS, BACK OF WOODY

On a warm, early Fall day on this familiar campus you pick a spot new for a Teaching. This building is a center for administrative “stuff,” which was not part of your long career. Some leaves have fallen already, and it won’t be long before all of these above you are on the ground, for you are now into the Autumn season, a pretty one here in So. Illinois. (I do notice such “things!)

You wrote a rather good piece on the relationship of health and spirituality, and this morning you “delivered it” to Yvonne, and you’ll be interested in how it “looks” in a publication of hers. It wasn’t as easy as in the days of your active profession… to “gather” ideas, organize them, and produce a coherent, interesting paper. Will this be your last one or will there be a request or so more? Just be ready if such it should be.

I was with you as you contemplated a career, though, obviously, not as actively as I am now. I knew coaching would not be your life work, but you did need to have some experiences with teams and young athletes while you were still young and eager. And, of course, it was vital that you got to Honolulu and Punahou School in that late summer of 1948 in order to meet and become acquainted with Lenore., who was to be your life-mate. Your coaching career gave you opportunities for both wins and losses; it was an important step in your career and gave you connections with a fine school (and young kids to teach) that continue even now (both school and those who were once “kids”).

You were influenced toward health education by Ned Johns… and then by Ted Byrd. But isn’t it interesting that neither of these “mentors” gave you any encouragement in including the spiritual as an important dimension of health?! Actually they did, but not in words or affirmations. Each was a caring mentor of you and gave you examples (in self) of how spirituality could be manifested without specific words. You decided on this field because of these two men, and you just went on to offer this aspect of health in words as well as in actions and behavior.

You had some students to your home on Casanueva, then on So. Oakland, and, finally, many classes and student gatherings at the Farm. And remember that Ned had been one to “introduce you” to such a “class activity.” These mentors were not overtly spiritual, even as you are now, but they “were” in ways that encouraged your later development of this as even a basis for health education.

Tex, particularly, with his physician training, saw health as primarily physical, but, toward you as an Assistant Professor he entered into a relationship that was more holistic. He let you grow in ways good for your future. But it was not to be there, at Stanford, and so I helped in the somewhat complex “process” of bringing you here, to this place. Again, it was a man who considered himself ethical and moral, but not actually spiritual, Don Boydston, who hired you and then allowed your development in identifying this spiritual dimension. It was not easy for him, because of his background and view of life, but the fact that he let you develop as I wanted you to is… was… quite a spiritual “act.”

Again, part of My encouragement of you to be a leader in this “reintroduction” was to establish yourself as a competent professional, and you did this in the alcohol studies sub-field. This also brought you into relationships with David Works and other clergy, as well as social scientists who helped increase your perceptions of both the alcohol field and health education. You developed well, and thus deserved the status you finally were “awarded” in health education. You participated actively in your professional organizations, but seldom in any official capacities. (Again, My direction)