Last month, while at Maplebrook School for reunion my choice for the
Saturday trip was New York City. I had not been there for many years;
the only prior visit attraction observed was at the main art gallery where my
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teacher back in 1962, Betty Ahearn and I observed a painting by
Samuel F.B. Morse, an ancestor of hers who had a painting of historical
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interest.
Our alumni trip was quite different. We began with Ripley's Believe It
or Not Museum complete with a two headed cow, 600 pound preserved
man dressed as a woman, exhibit of how Eastern culture women have
from an early age had rings forced onto their necks to stretch them and
many other strange objects.
Steve, the driver of van 3 and I following lunch at McDonald's went with
the rest of our crew to Ground Zero. This for me was eye opening and
sobering, inspiring and a wake up call that we are living in a society
and culture which are fraught with challenge, opportunity and yes
peril. We must not take any of this for granted. At the pool where
the names of those who had perished in the towers lost their lives
in Tower 2 were four Rice family members; perhaps part of a family
which I did not know; maybe not related at all. I felt a bond
none the less. The greates tragedy for every single one of these fallen
was that they were taken from their loved ones before their lives
were at their point of greatest use.
Of all the journeys of my life this I felt was one of the most prfound.
You learn from it that each moment must be measured and treasured as
a speciel gift from your Creator.