Contemplating Life…

MON., APRIL. 2, 2001, 2:15 PM
FARM, STUDY

… past. This arose as a “thing to do” in the form of a 9 line postcard that you wrote to your parents and sister in the Fall of 1943. It was from the Methodist Church camp in the mountains, your last “adventure” there, shortly before you took the train to Berkeley, donned your Navy uniform, and became part of the U.S. Armed Forces (though you did spend the war preparing to be an Ensign, USNR). The card indicated (as you do remember) that you were having a good time, defining yourself (and Wilber) as the “Toast of the Camp.”

Your high school “career” was over, and you had done well, both as a student and as an athlete. You were a Comus (even having been President of that Club), and, with reference to the card, you would never have known “Willy” if you hadn’t been a part of that 2-school “fraternity.” But now you were waiting for active duty. You don’t remember exactly how you felt about serving in the Armed Forces in wartime. But you were a fine “cadet,” even finishing this military career at UCLA as Battalion Commander of the NROTC unit. By this time “your war” was over, and your “side” was victorious. So, you had had some success in the “military,” and gave “staying on for some sea duty” some consideration, but you opted for returning to UCLA for 2 more seasons of football, experience as an athletic trainer, and preparation for a career in health education.

You had been active in the Methodist youth group… and that experience influenced your “contemplating” in those teen years. You went to church fairly regularly, and never gave up that “connection,” though you weren’t “overtly Christian” as a Comus and athlete/scholar.

And, yes, it was yet another mountain experience (it doesn’t seem like the same one, does it) that you sought My help, on your knees on a mountainside, presumably lost. You don’t remember the details, but it was quite an early response to the “call” I was preparing for you. It wasn’t yet time, but you can consider it as a brief, early “call”, that came 36 years later.

During those 36 years you finished your degree, decided on (with My help) going to Punahou, having a short coaching career and experience in teaching junior high and high school kids, meeting and marrying Lenore, earning your doctorate from Stanford, spending a few years on the Stanford faculty, and then moving with a family well started, to Southern Illinois, where your career flowered. Finally, you moved to this Farm, discovering and making the best life-style for you both… and your sons.

As you contemplate this life, from Long Beach to Honolulu, to Stanford, and to this place, you see that My guidance has been ideal.

As your teaching career developed here you inherited or created courses in which the spiritual dimension to health could be evident. So… you became comfortable in sharing the truth that (or “proclaiming that”) this “spiritual” was an important dimension to the health of humans and of this earth.

Your publishing and consulting “careers” had been more than adequate for you to be respected in our field, and you (by this “authority”) helped this spiritual dimension to be recognized as a legitimate factor in health. It was a bit late in your university and professional life, so your influence can surely fade, but could be recovered and reinforced by a few of your former students.

So now, as an Emeritus Professor, you contemplate the life you have enjoyably led, concluding that it just “couldn’t have been better.” You look back on a busy life and realize that it shall be not much longer… with few accomplishments yet to be. You have multiple infirmities, and this one involving your feet has left you with less strength and agility than you hoped for in this decade of your life.