Life Lessons

After an uneventful day filled with frustrations, challenges and some victories, I leave the office anxious to work off a little stress and make some improvements on the golf range. I did both in the light of the setting sun at the Naval Base golf course. "Keep that right shoulder down".. my new mantra.

My friend and I packed up our clubs and stopped to pick up some more golf gear at the market on base. As we stood chatting in the parking lot about the high level of security, making light of what is truly terrifying, if only for a moments peace. A car passes us, beat up and raggedy. The young white men within shouted "Fucking Black Dykes!" We both stopped and looked at each other with expressions that sought to verify what we thought we heard. We then burst out into laughter.. wondering if that was an insult or were they simply expressing a personal fantasy. Great representation of our fighting heroes.
But that is not what this is about...

This is about the message I retrieved from my mobile as I drove off the base and back into the city. It was my best friend Angela. Since college, we have been buds. All she said was "call me when you have a moment". So I rang her. Then my heart sank. She told me that her father died today, and that she was at home trying to wrap her brain around this new reality. I was temporarily stunned into silence. What could I say that would help her at this terrible point in her life? I pulled over. I told her that I loved her and I am here to support her in whatever way she needs me. If she needed company tonight, I will be on the freeway to LA. If she wanted to talk, to cry, to say nothing, I'd be there to listen, comfort and hold the phone. She said she always thought that she would not be able to handle it when this day came. But now that it is here, and she knows her father is no longer in pain, she is okay. The waves of emotion come go but she knows her father is no longer suffering.

This type of enlightenment must only come when you need it for yourself. I still cannot imagine living through the day ..days where my parents pass away. I don't feel capable.. I don't want to be. But, like my friend, when it comes maybe I too will be blessed with the courage and grace that she has shown me tonight.

So that is what this is all about. Life. Friendship. Birth. Death. The things and people that are important to us all. That make our own lives rich with memories. Filled with character.
May our newest Angel rest in Peace....

Donde esta Fidel?

47 years is a long time to be stuck with anyone... In a marriage, in a job, but especially in the leadership position of governing a communist country (or any country for that matter). Illness has overtaken Dear Fidel to the point where even he must admit that he needs help. What else to do but hand power over to his little brother, the runt, the Destroyer as he has called himself. The drunk, as others have called him. From bad to worse, and that is not easy to do in Cuba.

Our own beloved Bush is preparing avenues to reconnect families that have been unncessarily torn apart for decades. There is some good.. The streets of Florida are filled with celebrations of what is believed to be the beginning of the end of isolation and tyranny.

But there has been some good. Castro started out fighting for the poor in his country. Trained as a lawyer, his grass roots efforts overthrew Batista in 1959.(good) He was prepared to bomb the United States with missiles from Russia. (not so good).

But Fidel is nothing if not a survivor. What is created after he is gone is anyone's guess. After 47 years, I would imagine the opportunity to open borders, participate in free trade, and reunite Cuba with her brothers and sisters around the globe cannot be lost.