Almost every morning, before breakfast, I walk the length of my neighborhood. I live in a Ryan Homes development a few miles north of Lewes, Delaware. In fact, the border between Lewes and Milton, is the road that leads into our development. All my life I wanted to live in a nice neighborhood. In fact, you could say that acquiring a home in a nice neighborhood has been a lifetime goal of mine. Some people aspire to be a great success in their chosen career. Some others aspire to get married and have a family. Me? My goal was just to have my own home in a nice neighborhood with nice neighbors. Folks, it has taken me most of my life to realize this goal. Growing up my family lived in second floor apartments. Apartment buildings that weren't in neighborhoods. Walking to school I envied what my classmates, who lived in "regular" houses, took for granted. A porch, a first floor, a second floor, and attic, a basement and a back yard. I never had that "luxury" until my parents built a 1,100 square foot, three (small) bedroom, one bath house on three and half acres of land in the country outside of Downingtown, Pennsylvania. I was 16 years old and, for the first time in my life, I had my own bedroom. Nirvana folks, nirvana. However, my happiness was short-lived because I was a senior in high school. After graduation I left home and joined the Army for three years. From that date in January 1963 my life has been a series of apartments until our first house. A row house in Philadelphia. We didn't have a porch or an attic or a basement but we did have a small backyard. Progress! Then in 1980 we bought seven acres of land near where my parents lived in Downingtown. Four years later we built our dream house. We finally had a porch, basement, and attic. Only problem, where we lived wasn't too friendly to two gay men who had the chutzpah to move into and live in their straight neighborhood. Not all the neighbors were homophobic but enough were that made periods of our twenty-five year stay uncomfortable. In fact, at one time our next door neighbor went to the township police chief to "report" us as gay. She truly believed that by exposing the "gaywads" who had the nerve to live next to her (we were there first by the way, she and her husband built their house years after we had built ours). Fortunately for me the police chief knew that Bill and I were gay (his boss the township supervisor was my boss at the bank) and informed this hateful ignoramus that "They have every right to live wherever they want to" which came as a shock to this terrible woman. We continued to live there several years after this woman's attempt to have us arrested. Of course she nor her family was "neighborly" to us. The rot continued with neighbor below who told Bill once that he made her "feel uncomfortable." And now we come to today.
I decided to sell our Pennsylvania home and leave Pennsylvania because of their steadily increasing their school real estate tax. We just couldn't afford to live in Pennsylvania anymore. And to be very frank, I wanted to spend my remaining years in a more tolerant environment. An environment where we didn't make our neighbors "feel uncomfortable." This morning, returning from my morning walk in the rain I encountered two of my neighbors, Rich and Bob. Both are conservative Republicans. And as you know I am not. I'm one of those PROGRESSIVES. But you know what folks? even being the conservative Republicans that both of these men are, Bill and I are appreciated for just what we are, two human beings who are just trying to live their life in peace and tranquility. I don't have a whole lot of years left on this earth folks but I am so thankful that for the few years I do have left, I am in a nice neighborhood. And with some VERY nice neighbors.
I knew it! It was only a matter of time before Mr. Family Values filed for divorce. Rick Santorum, former senator from Pennsylvania and a staunch and unwavering advocate of "one man-one woman" marriage has filed for divorce blaming "the gays" for the crumbling of his 23 year old marriage.
Next thing you know the Internet will be swirling with rumors that Rick and Lindsay will be setting up house.
Senator Rob Portman, Republican of Ohio, came out today in support of family values by supporting marriage equality. Thank you Senator Portman. Senator Portman is the first sitting Republican senator to support marriage equality, also known as same sex marriage or gay marriage. Could this be the start of the crumbling of the 100% Republican opposition of marriage equality? Just as Samson crumbled the twin pillars of hate in ancient times, the coming out of every gay man and woman will destroy the twin pillars of modern times. Of course I think the fact that his son, Will Portman, came out as gay to his dad two years ago had a lot to do with Senator Portman's decision to support marriage equality for all of our citizens.
Every gay man and woman has its own unique journey in coming out to their family. Some are easy and accepting and some are not so easy (my experience). After I came out to my family my father never mentioned it the rest of his life. I didn't push it but I didn't hide either. I just lived my life. My Mother grudgingly accepted the fact that I was gay but I think to her dying day she still felt she did something wrong in raising me. I have a new found respect for Senator Portman, who today displayed great political courage in putting his family first and politics second.
Will Portman and his dad Rob Portman
I wish I had a picture of me and my father like this. I am glad that Senator Portman's son has his dad's support. I think I now know why Senator Portman wasn't selected as Mitt Romney's vice presidential running mate. Really? Oh yes, no way was Romney going to run with a running mate who had a gay son. Just saying. All around me folks, I see the foes of equal rights for gays and lesbians lose their argument for "family values" as more and more members of their very families are gay. Who would've thunk? Brava Senator Portman for endorsing real family values.
Ike (my brother), me and Bill - September 27, 2012 - our Christmas card photo this year
As of a few minutes ago, our posting on "Gay Marriage USA" has 42,670 Likes, 2,338 Comments, and 6,218 Shares. The webmaster of "Gay Marriage USA" sent me a message this morning saying our photo was the second most popular photo ever posted to their website.
A "Sergio" informed me this morning that our photo has now been published to "Occupy Borders" and that we are becoming "quite famous." Hey, finally my Fifteen Minutes of Fame!
I am working on reading all the 2,338 comments. About 30% of them are negative from the Usual Suspects, the Religious Right and the hateful homophobes. I don't respond to them but I am attempting to respond to all the positive, supportive comments. Never in my lifetime did I dream that the relationship I have with Bill would be "accepted" so positively. Of course I always knew it was right and had always assumed that we would go to our graves living in the shadows of legitimacy. Now that there is an actual real possibility that we can be married for real, it is almost too much for me to comprehend. Even if marriage equality doesn't happen during our lifetime it will happen for those who follow us. I am glad that Bill and I were able to do our part in furthering this fundamental human freedom of the pursuit of happiness with the one we love. It's all good folks, all good.
Yesterday my posting of the "then (1964)" and "now (2011)" picture of me and Bill on the "Gay Marriage USA" Facebook page went viral, much to my surprise. This after an innocuous e-mail from my cousin Tim Tipton suggesting that I post a photo of me and Bill to the Gay Marriage USA Facebook page. A few minutes ago I see where that posting had 40,868 Likes, 2,198 Comments and 5,864 Shares. Wow. My Fifteen minutes of fame has finally arrived at the grand age of seventy-one years. Who knew?
So, my goal is to read all of the comments and acknowledge the positive comments. Of course there are more than a few negative comments of which I will not acknowledge or even engage in conversation, learning long ago that when a person is that insecure in their own person and fearful of two men (or women) loving each other, it is a waste of my time to try and convince them otherwise. And I definitely don't feel as if I have to defend myself. What is there to defend? Finding the one true love of my life and living a life that all too few people live, a life of true happiness? Yes folks, I know what I have and what they don't have and will probably never have, happiness.
Reading the comments I came across several from the Reverend Fred Phelps. You know him don't you folks? He's the one who gets his congregation to show up at military funerals and blame the death of those soldiers on gay people, who he calls "Fags." Yes folks, I have arrived. I have stirred the ire of the Hate Monger in Chief, Fred Phelps. To tell you the truth, all I can do is smile.
Yesterday my cousin Tim Tipton sent me a message that I should post my and Bill's picture to the new Facebook website "Gay Marriage U.S.A." I thought "Why not?" Bill and I have been together a long time (48 years) and why not show others that it is possible to stay with the same person you love even if you don't have the many legal and financial benefits of marriage just like heterosexuals have? Yes indeed, "Why not?" Imagine my surprise this morning when Cousin Tim calls me and asks me if I saw Facebook this morning. As a matter of fact when he called, I was just turning on my computer to check my e-mail and perhaps to update my blog about my morning visit to have an ultra-sound. Well guess what folks? My "little posting" of the Before and After picture of me and Bill went viral on Facebook!
My first thought was "OMG! Bill's going to kill me!" Bill is of the Old School of Thought that things like gay should be kept a secret and not discussed in public or polite society. Believe me folks, I've been working on him for many years to convince him that it is ALL RIGHT to be open about his gayness and our relationship. We have had many a battle over my openness and his desire to stay in the closet so as not to "offend anyone." It's only been the last couple of hears that Bill has stuck his big toe and finally the rest of his feet out of his self-imposed closet. I think the way I won him over to my way of thinking was convincing him that many people just don't care that we live together. They are more concerned about their own lives than to waste their time worrying about those two old men who live next door to them who always have those fabulous flowers out in the driveway (I just put in winter pansies yesterday folks!)
Winter Pansies in driveway
Bill's down in his room now reading the over 27,000 (so far) comments on our Facebook photos. That should keep him busy the rest of the afternoon.
Bill reading FB comments on his iPad a few minutes ago
Hey folks, I have to say this positive reaction to my Facebook posting does my heart good. You have to remember where we're coming from. When I moved in with Bill in 1964, gay couples weren't cool. In fact, just being gay wasn't cool. In fact, being gay was against the law. Man oh man, how far we have come as a country.
Never in our lifetimes did we ever think we could live openly as a gay couple let alone get married....for real. Nothing against civil unions and individual states legalizing gay marriages, all steps in the right direction but to us, the only thing that matters is getting married for real and that means same sex marriage recognized on the Federal level with all the legal and financial protections that are now applied only to heterosexual married couples. Our goal is to be married on our 50th anniversary with is in July of 2014. At that time I will be 73 years old and Bill will be 86 years old. Two old guys, two old GAY GUYS but not too old to get married.
I have three e-mail accounts. I use my AOL account for 95% of my e-mails. I have a gmail account with my full name. Somehow, someway the Boy Scouts of America started to send me e-mails about Boy Scout Meetings. WTF? Hey, when I was of the age to join Boy Scouts, I wanted to in the worst way. Like any ten year old I wanted to be accepted and liked by my peers. But as a ten year old Fifties Poor Kid living in the Poor White Section of the small town of Downingtown, Pennsylvania, one block away from the segregated black street of Cox Avenue, joining the Boy Scouts was out of the question.
WE.DIDN'T.HAVE.THE.MONEY. Case closed. Mom told me "We don't have the money for THAT." Perhaps it was just as well that I didn't join the Boy Scouts but instead played with my friends up and down Washington Avenue. My friend Larry joined the Boy Scouts and from his retelling of his experiences, I didn't miss a whole lot. Fast forward to the present time and the Boy Scouts well known discrimination toward gay people. Hey, I was gay back in the Fifties. Of course back then my "condition" was called HOMOSEXUAL and something to be feared. To tell you the truth I didn't want to join the Boy Scouts for any "activity" but just to be accepted. To be like the other boys. So how ironic is it that this past summer I started to receive e-mails in my gmail account informing me of upcoming Boy Scout meetings and events. I ignored the first few and deleted them. However, they kept coming, flooding my pristine gmail account. WTF? So then I sent an e-mail asking them to stop sending me their e-mails. I received no response and the Boy Scout meetings e-mails kept a coming. Almost every week I received two or three e-mails about bringing crates of food, meetings, whatever. These e-mails were really annoying me because I had my gmail account as a private account, for special message to cut through the spam I receive in my AOL account. Now I was getting Boy Scout spam. So I took the bull by the horns yesterday and sent this message:
I asked them to take me off their mailing list and told them I was GAY. That did it.
Me (on the right) and my gay friends at Ft. Devens, Mass. 1960
Well, it's been a year since "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" has been repealed and the sky hasn't fallen in. Did someone think to tell the angry old man John McCain? He said it was a "very sad day" when DADT was repealed. See here.
When I joined the Army in 1960, I was the only gay boy/man in the world. I didn't meet other gays until I joined the Army. Ironically, it was the Army Security Agency were we all had top secret clearances and we could get kicked out if we were found out (we weren't although a lot of our friends were).
I enjoyed my three year tour of duty in the Army. I made a lot of friends (gay and straight) and had a great job at the National Security Agency in Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, right outside Washington , D.C.
Sal De Rosa and Ron Hampton - two of my best friends at Ft. Meade. Yes, they were both gay and put on a Broadway (what else?) type show at the Ft. Meade service club - that's my sign!
I would have stayed in the Army or even transferred to a civilian status and continued to work for the NSA if it wasn't for the fact that I was gay and could lose my job at anytime if exposed.
National Security Agency Headquarters, Ft. Meade, MD
The reason I would lose my job was that homosexuals (the quaint term used back in Those Days for gays) was that I would be subject to blackmail. Of course there was never a documented case of a gay man or woman ever being blackmailed to reveal secrets but that didn't prevent this very discriminatory law to stay in place. I couldn't even transfer to a civilian status to work for the NSA because they had the same law, no homosexual could hold a top secret clearance. Of course it was a Catch-22 law because if gays were acknowledged and accepted they wouldn't be subjected to blackmail.
I am glad this country has finally done the right thing and repealed this stupid, discriminatory law. I'm still waiting for John McCain to admit he made a mistake. Where is all your courage now Senator McCain?
After my God Awful posting of this morning of Facebook and Mark Zuckerburg, I had to find something inspiring to post to my blog. I found it.
I never thought I would live to see this but we are evolving as a society aren't we? This simple welcome home of a young man and his Navy boyfriend brought tears to my old eyes. Who knows, maybe in my lifetime gays and lesbians will no longer be second class citizens and can express their love as openly as anyone else in our society. Just maybe.
Hey folks, when I saw Thomas Roberts of MSNBC (Thomas also happens to be gay) interview Brandon Morgan yesterday I just had to share this video. I like Brandon. He is genuine. The photo wasn't staged. It was a true display of emotion just like straight people do all the time. Brandon even apologizes if he "upset" anybody. I don't really think an apology was necessary but it was nice of him to do so. He also said he didn't kiss his boyfriend to make a statement or because he was a gay activist (which he's not) but just because he was glad to see his boyfriend after a long absence and he had settled some "issues"in his mind. To me folks, a young man like Brandon will do more to lessen homophobia than all the gay marches with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgences in the world.
President Obama made a promise during the election that the ridiculous "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy would be discontinued. Just recently he said, "It will happen this session of Congress." Well, it isn't going to happen. The repeal of the DADT bill isn't even going to come up for debate, much less be repealed.
When President Clinton was running for president he promised to lift the policy of banning gays from the military. When he encountered opposition, he caved. Thus resulting in the absurd "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy which has resulted in ruining thousands of careers of dedicated gay men and women who only want to serve their country. When Clinton caved, that's when I stopped listening to him. I never believed anything he said since. I still don't to this day.
I believed Obama when he was running for president and said he represented "Change we can believe in." Well, I believed. Now that Obama and the Democrats are in power, I see that they are doing the same thing Clinton and the Democrats did back fourteen years ago. They took the gay and lesbian vote for granted. They assume gays like me have no where else to go. In a way they're right, I would never.....NEVER vote for any of the Republicans today as long as they remain in lockstep to destroy the Obama presidency.
What I can do is not make any more contributions to the Democratic Party. And, for the first time since1964, I will probably not vote. Ironically I cast my first vote for Barry Goldwater. Back then I was a Republican when a Republican had real values. Ever since the Republican Convention in Houston where Pat Buchanan drummed out of the party gays like me, I left the Republican Party. Those cheering white folk who approved of Buchanan's hate filled diatribe reminded me too much of the Good Germans who cheered and gave the Nazi salute to Hitler at the height of his power.
No, I'm not going to be the Charlie Brown to the Lucy Democratic Party anymore. Bye.
There are two dates embedded in my memory that I know exactly where I was when I first heard those life changing events.
The first event was John F. Kennedy's assassination. I was 22 years old and working at Lipsett Steel Products in Coatesville, PA. Lipsett Steel was a scrap metal company. I was the accounts payable clerk in the small, dingy office located in the scrapyard.
It was a Friday afternoon and I was finishing posting invoices to a ledger. This was back in the day before computers. Everything was done by hand.
My office manager, Charlie Ashe, called out of his office next to mine and said "Kennedy's been shot!" My first reaction was that I couldn't believe it. My second reaction was: would this interfere with my Friday night that I was planning to take the train to Philadelphia and hang out in the Westbury Bar with my friends, Ron and Ed? Sounds selfish, and it was.
I tried to call my Mother to tell her that I heard that Kennedy was shot. I couldn't get though the lines, they were jammed. This is the first time I ever experienced that situation.
I called my friend Ron, who worked at Girard Bank in Philadelphia and told him the news. He had already heard.
You know it's funny now, but I don't remember if Kennedy's assassination did interfere with my Friday night plans. What I do remember is the wall to wall news coverage that weekend.
I remember very clearly that it was a rainy Sunday morning and I was ironing my shirts. I had the TV on and would look up occasionally at the TV screen. Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused gunman, was being transferred from his cell to another location. The time was about 9:30 am. As I was ironing my shirt I heard a gunshot and looked up at the TV and saw a lot of commotion. I thought it was acting. Someone had shot Lee Harvey Oswald! I could not believe it.
Fast forward to that crystal clear, bright and cool day on September 11th, 2001. I was now working at the Hampton Inn in Lionville, PA. This morning was my first morning as a sales assistant. My training was to begin on the computer. I was at the computer, ready to learn new functions (prior to this I was a front desk clerk at the hotel) when Cathy, the breakfast hostess called over the front desk and said "A plane just flew into one of the World Trade Center buildings." Beth, the manager who was going to train me, left and turned on the TV in the corner of the room so we could see what had happened.
The first thing I thought was that I couldn't believe it. The second thing I thought "Was this going to interfere with my training today?" Sounds selfish and it was. I hadn't changed much over the years.
Everyone gathered around the TV that was mounted high up in the corner of the back office room and watched the smoke billow out of the World Trade Center tower. Yes, this was going to interfere with my training.
While I sat at the computer waiting for Beth to come back, another plane crashed into the second tower! Now I knew this was no accident.
Forget the training. My life and everyone else's life had just been permanently changed forever.
Today, as I look back over my life of 68 years I realize that I have always lived under some kind of threat.
When I was growing up it was the threat of the atom bomb. I remember being told that if the A-bomb or, even worse the H-bomb (how could it be worse? Aren't all bombs bad?) that we children in elementary school were to huddle under our desks. Even then my ten year old mind realized that huddling under my wooden desk with metal legs wasn't going to provide me with much protection. My ten year old mind quickly figured out that I would be burnt toast if a bomb was dropped. I was more concerned with hurting myself by squeezing in between those sharp edged metal desk legs that the East Ward Elementary School had at that time.
As I became a young man my next concern was being drafted into the Army and being forced to shoot somebody. I didn't want to do that nor did I want anyone to shoot at me. I decided to join the Army so I at least could have some say as to what I would do in the Army.
After I got out of the Army and came out as a gay man there was the Vietnam War that seemed endless. Just as growing up the Korean War seemed like it would never end. Now the war in Afghanistan seems like it will never end.
Because I joined the Army I wasn't drafted to go and fight in Vietnam like many of my peers, some of whom never came back alive. I dodged that bullet.
Then there was the window of relative peace and tranquility for me. The years from 1969 to 1980.
My job at Girard Bank in Philadelphia (my friend Ron got me in there) was one that I liked and it paid well. I was out as a gay man and lived in Philadelphia. Thus I enjoyed all the benefits of being young, attractive and within walking distance of all the popular gay night spots. I took full advantage.
Then came a time of 1980. A new malady was sweeping through the gay community. It was called "GRID" which was an acronym for "Gay Related Immune Deficiency." It was rumored that gays caught it by sniffing poppers. I sniffed poppers. Acquaintances and friends became ill and suffered horrible deaths. We're not talking "Love Story", Reclining On a Pillow Deaths here. We're talking ugly, painful and terrible deaths.
I figured I was getting a little long in the tooth to still hang at the bars and besides, I was losing interest anyway. There was more than one night when Last Call was called that I wondered why I was in a smoke filled bar, boozed up looking for I don't know what.
I decided at 37 years old to chuck that "lifestyle." I told Bill that we had to sell our home on Naudain Street in center city Philadelphia. I wanted to move out in the country where I could breath. I also wanted to live near my parents in case they needed as as they got older.
We sold our townhouse in Philadelphia and built a two story gambrel roofed farmhouse on 6.875 acres of land in East Brandywine Township, in Downingtown, PA.
We lived there for twenty-five peaceful years. My only concern was holding onto my banking job as the banks merged and my former secure banking job was now in jeopardy.
I did eventually lose my job at the bank and was collecting unemployment when I decided to apply for a night auditor job at the Hampton Inn in Lionville. When I had got out of the Army my first job was as a night auditor at the Pittsburgh Hilton in Pittsburgh. I thought to myself "I can do that job." The only reason I didn't stay at the Pittsburgh Hilton was because I was homesick for my family in eastern Pennsylvania. In Pittsburgh I was five hours away.
I applied for the night auditor job at the Hampton Inn and was hired immediately. It wasn't too long that I was asked to also fill in for some of my co-workers at the front desk. The next thing I knew I was a full-time front desk clerk. Then I was also asked to help the sales manager. That was how I came to be sitting at the computer on 9/11/2001 waiting for Beth Mancini, the hotel manager to begin training me as a sales associate.
Now here I am nine years later living in Delaware. Bill and I sold our house in Pennsylvania because I could no longer afford to pay the ever increasing school taxes of Pennsylvania. Plus, I always wanted to live "near the water."
This is where I am now. I am living near the water. The Atlantic Ocean is two miles from where I am sitting right now. Every morning I drive the six miles to Rehoboth Beach to "walk the boards." This is my exercise of both body and brain. It is amazing how refreshed I feel after walking up and down the boardwalk four times, for a total of four miles.
I recently began this wonderful, life affirming activity. I feel fulfilled after I return home at about 8 am in the morning. However, I think it is so ironic that in all my years I am still living under a threat.
Of course the most immediate threat is again one of nuclear annihilation. Not of a long range Russian bomber plane but of some nut bag suicide bomber who drops a dirty bomb in Times Square.
My second threat is economic. I never thought in my retirement years that I would have to worry about our elected representatives taking away benefits that we were promised and that we paid for. I remember very clearly having FICA taxes deducted from my pay for over fifty years. In fact, it is still being deducted. And yet our wonder lawmakers remind us that there is "no money left in the Social Security trust fund." That's because they spent it all on wars and their pet projects.
I was promised lifetime medical care, if I needed it, when I joined the Army back in 1960. When I lost my job at the bank I needed medical care. I had to have two surgeries and I had no medical insurance. The Bush administration tried to disallow my earned VA medical eligibility because I wasn't a disabled veteran. Thank goodness they never got that law changed. But, because they tried to screw me, I changed my party affiliation from Republican to Democrat.
I was a lifelong Republican (my first vote was for Barry Goldwater) but I didn't recognize this Republican Party anymore. Especially since the 1992 Republican Party Convention that was held in Houston, Texas. Pat Buchanan gave a speech in which he equated homosexuals like me with what the Republican Party was against. When I saw those lily white, well dressed, Republican men and women the audience wildly cheer and raise their fists in approval, a chill went down my spine. I thought "I am not wanted in this political party anymore." In fact, those cheering "Good Republicans" reminded me all too much of those grainy pre-World War II films in which "Good Germans" give the "Heil Hitler!" salute to Hitler as he passes by during one of those big production number Nuremberg Nazi rallies. I didn't know these people, those white, clean cut, smiling Republicans cheering Pat Buchanan during and after his hateful and divisive speech.
So here we come to today. I voted for Barrack Obama and "change we can believe in." Now I am coming to the realization that that was just empty rhetoric to get him elected. Barrack Obama is against same sex marriage. Barrack Obama has done nothing, not even a stop-loss, to prevent gays and lesbians being kicked out of the military. Barrack Obama passed a health care bill without a public option. This is a phony bill. The only thing that has changed for me is that my premiums have gone up. Now Barrack Obama is getting squishy on letting the Bush tax cuts for the rich to expire.
For the first time in my adult life I don't think I will vote in the next election. The Republicans are dangerous and only have their own self interests at heart. All they want to do is have tax cuts and deregulate. The "Every man (and woman) for themselves" philosophy. The Democrats are spineless. They are also controlled by special interests. They are part and parcel of decimating the middle class (of which I consider myself a member, the bottom rung.) They care nothing for people like me, a gay male of the lower socio-economic ladder who doesn't have children and isn't a member of the "Good Old Boy's Club." Neither political party cares for people like me. They are only interested in maintaining their power base and they do that by appeasing their special interest groups who fund their campaigns.
Every morning now I drive in the dark (I get up at 4:30 and leave by 6) to Rehoboth Beach. Except for a few other hardy souls on the boardwalk, I am in my own world. I listen to the waves crash on the sandy shore of the beach. I hear the seagulls looking for their daily meal. Other early morning sounds are the sound of sneaker clad feet pounding the boardwalk of those souls who think running is better than walking (I'm not one of them.) For a few peaceful, tranquil moments I am soothed. All is right with the world.
I walk. I listen. I appreciate the fact that I have lived a good life in spite of the many threats that have loomed before me during my Journey. If I should die tomorrow from an illness or an accident or a terrorists attack, I will die knowing that I have beat the odds. Too many friends and family have died or are dying. Either by luck, skill or a combination of bought, I got this far and I intend to keep going.
