For this Thanksgiving Eve column, I wanted to quote from a
piece by William Edelin, a Palm Springs gentleman who
speaks with great eloquence and insight about the human condition. But Google
was failing me. I told my wife. She called her mom, who had introduced me to Edelin’s work many years ago. She said his name is spelled
“Edel*e*n”. Bingo! www.williamedelen.com. Thank you,
world’s greatest mother-in-law!
Edelen’s November 17, 2002 column was
titled “Gratitude”. He describes his visit from eco-architect and futurist Buckminster
Fuller. Fuller had asked Edelen to pick him up from
Fuller’s motel before sunrise. He led Edelen into a
nearby garden, where they stood in silence as the sun began to splash color on
the dawn sky. After some time, writes Edelen,
“Buckminster Fuller raised both of his arms full length to the heavens
above...and in a blessing that was an epiphany...addressed the morning with ‘thank
you’...’thank you’....’thank you’...’thank you’...four times.”
Please let me offer a few more public thank-yous. Earlier this month, my son’s bass amp started
cracking and popping, a few days before his band’s next gig at the Phoenix. Fortunately,
it was made in Petaluma, by Mesa Engineering. One day before the show, my wife
took it their to their Ross Street factory. The diagnosis was not good. After
hearing about the imminent Phoenix date, however, the people at Mesa came
through, and fixed the rig in time for El Toro to rock the house. Thank you, Mesa,
for doing the Mesa Boogie!
You may remember hearing of Petaluma Green Lane, a new
Healthy Community Consortium affiliate. PGL has been working with the Petaluma
High construction technology class, creating map kiosks to guide walkers and
cyclists along Petaluma’s growing network of off-street paths. We had created
half a dozen kiosks, but were about out of funds. I learned my new company, Tellabs, had a charitable foundation, so I contacted the
director. She said: send in a two-page “request for invitation”; if our board
likes it, we’ll invite you to submit a formal proposal. If things went well, PGL
could be awarded a grant early next year. As it turned out, our initial letter
was so compelling that the board immediately granted our $7,000 request without
asking for the full proposal. Now, we have enough money to build an additional
20 kiosks and print 2000 copies of the PGL Pedestrian and Bicycle Route Map.
Thank you, Tellabs Foundation!
On November 9th, I attended the second annual
“Miracles Happen Every Day at COTS” fundraiser breakfast at the Sheraton. Last
year we drew 150, but this year we didn’t hit our goal of 250 guests. Over *400*
people showed up, packing the huge banquet room, overflowing into the hallway.
I looked around at many familiar and new faces, all of them turned toward
helping those who are facing hard times. As I thought about the many disturbing
events and trends that darken the pages of the daily news, I envisioned the
energy in that room as an island of sanity and compassion. It wasn’t an island
going under; it was emerging, spreading, unstoppable… thanks to you, good neighbors!
Edelen closed his column with the words
of Christian mystic Meister Eckhart: "If the
only prayer you say in your entire life is "thank you"...that would
suffice..." Amen. I believe we are put on this Earth to give, that, as St.
Francis said, “It is in giving that we receive”. We appear to be separate but
we are not; our words and deeds, our thoughts and feelings reach out like
strands of an immense web, like notes in an infinite symphony.
This evening I hiked up Wotokipais
to watch my world turn, lifting its horizon above the sun as it has done
faithfully for the last 19,411 days of my life. Bay leaves offered their scent,
crickets trilled, Venus shimmered. I raised my arms, reaching. Miracles *do*
happen every day. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.