I have not been posting much lately and have been wondering why. I woke up quite early this morning and think I have found the answer. I have spent many years looking forward on behalf of my readers and myself, considering life challenges ahead and how to manage them. Of all my writing, only one book had to do with my life experience, namely the nine years I spent in the seminary and monastery.
At age eighty, it seems time for me to look at where I have been rather than where I am headed. So that is what I plan to do. I would like you to join me as I look back on my life, its opportunities and its challenges. Perhaps some of my life experience can shed some life on issues you may face in your own life. I certainly hope so.
I will start today with my earliest memories. I was born in Dunkirk, New York. Dunkirk had the makings of a fine port city with two railroads serving the small city. It was seen as having more potential as a port that Buffalo had. However, the powers that be (or were) decided they would prefer it to be a resort area. The largest employers were a steel plant and a locomotive factory.
My paternal grandfather worked at the locomotive factory. Even in my earliest memories, he was on the way to serious loss of hearing. I have always seen this as a result of deafening noise in the locomotive factory. My maternal grandfather came off the family farm in Belfast, NY to become a druggist, working in Niagara Falls before he formed a partnership in Dunkirk known as Gill and Will Drugs.
I was born in 1943 in the middle of World War Two. At the time of my birth, my father was stationed in Guam as a pharmacist’s mate in the navy. Most of my uncles were also away in the service. I wore a miniature sailor suit at the time. I lived with my mother and grandparents. I thought of a picture in the living room as “my father” and did not recognize the person who came to live with us after the war.
That is how my life started. Stay tuned for further adventures.