Ramblings, Incoherent Thought and Family

It's hard to lose your heroes.  Such a profoundly obtuse statement in some ways. Of course it's hard. It involves dealing with ideas of mortality, growing into roles that until now we were happy to have filled by others and judging by the previous generations I've seen, an overwhelming urge to go to early bird dinners and eat peanut brittle and cole slaw (thank God I haven't gotten to that last stage yet...cole slaw still feels like an abomination YUCK) In the past few weeks I (and many many others) have been dealing with losing a true mentor and friend to cancer. Stan Gosek was a true renaissance person. Gifted in teaching, tennis and probably most importantly...music. He was a 'watershed' person for me and so many others I know. My wife asked me last week when I described Stan in those terms what it meant. I always defined a watershed person as someone who would come into my life, and change it so that every day after getting to know that person...my life woul...

 It's strange getting older.  I don't know if it's my generation or not...but in a lot of ways I still feel like I'm the younger person everywhere I go.  Even when I look in the mirror and see white hair (well...less of it on top but plenty on the bottom) and I realize that most of the music I listen to is in fact over 30 years old I can't help feeling that I'm still 'not quite grown'.  I think that's why I'm still surprised when I speak to my bonus kids or niece and nephew and they get this look on their faces that I don't have any idea what it is I'm talking about.  That in a lot of ways...I'm irrelevant. Not in any mean way. Just in that way that I can remember thinking my Dad and Mom and any person older than 28 couldn't possibly understand what it was like to be a somewhat socially awkward kid trying to navigate the simple things in life like High School, dating and how to program the VCR to record episodes of Next Generation...