A Kind Man

My uncle died last March. A host of medical conditions conspired to do him in at 93. His death certificate listed heart failure as the immediate cause of death. But macular degeneration, edema, and melanoma, among other ailments plagued him in the years leading up to it. Despite being hampered by the shackles of old age, my uncle always had a kind word, a smile, a gentleness that belied his suffering.  And his mind remained sharp till the end.

His final decline began with a fall in late January. Bruised and bleeding, we insisted that he go to the hospital. His wounds healed, but he failed to regain enough strength to walk on his own. When he stopped making progress, his medical insurance insisted that he be discharged. He wanted to go home, but he lived alone, miles from his nearest relative. I convinced him to go to a personal care home where he could continue receiving physical therapy. I told him it would be temporary – that he shouldn’t give up hope that he would get back home.

Regardless of what I told him, I worried, lying awake night after night trying to figure out how he could possibly go home in his disabled condition. My wife, God bless her, did not waste time worrying. She took action to get his house ready for his return. He would be using a walker or wheelchair, so she replaced his worn shag carpeting and curling linoleum with new, low pile carpeting and laminate flooring. She looked into 24-hour in-home assistance services. She did everything possible to facilitate his return home.  He never made it.

In the next few weeks, my uncle bounced between the personal care home, the hospital and back again. My wife was with him at the personal care home when he passed away in the early hours of March 4.  The nurse had sent me home earlier with the assurance that, “It won’t be tonight.”

Nearly nine months after my uncle’s death, I still feel the loss. I often think I should give him a call. It’s been too long since I last talked to him. Then I realize he’s no longer here.

He may best be described as an extraordinary ordinary man. Living through the Great Depression taught him thriftiness, but also generosity. Every time I took him to a doctor’s appointment, he insisted on buying me lunch.

In World War II, he was aboard the troop ship S.S. Leopoldville when it was torpedoed by a German U-Boat on Christmas Eve 1944. He spent hours in the frigid waters of the English Channel before being rescued and then hospitalized for exposure. 

He had a high school education, worked in one of Pittsburgh’s steel mills and married the girl next door.  Years later, when his wife was confined with Alzheimer’s disease, my uncle didn’t let a day go by without visiting her.

After my father died, I looked to my uncle as a surrogate, visiting and telephoning him as often as I could, and inviting him to dinner during the holidays. During those dinners, my children would tell him about whatever was going on in their lives. “Is that right,” he would say, more as an acknowledgment than a question. I never saw him lose his temper, treat someone badly, or disparage anyone.

I once asked him how he would like to be remembered. “As a kind man,” he replied.  That is how I will remember him.

For What It's Worth

There’s something happening here

What it is ain’t exactly clear

* * *

There’s battle lines being drawn,

Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong,

Young people speaking their minds,

Getting so much resistance from behind.*

Sixteen-year old climate activist Greta Thunberg organized a Climate Strike to raise awareness of the environmental crisis facing our planet.  Millions of young people from around the world participated.  Then on September 23, 2019, Ms. Thunberg spoke at the United Nations’ Climate Action Summit, pointing out that, “For more than 30 years, the science [of climate change] has been crystal clear.” 

She went on to admonish the assembled gathering of world leaders:

"You are failing us. But the young people are starting to understand your betrayal. The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us, I say: ‘We will never forgive you.’”

The reaction of our U.S. President to Ms. Thunberg’s emotional speech was to mock her in his favorite medium, Twitter:

"She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!"

Our President’s cyberbullying of a teen-aged idealist is bad enough.  What is far worse are the actions taken by his administration to sabotage efforts to address climate change.  The New York Times recently reported that 85 environmental regulations adopted by previous administrations were being scaled back or eliminated under Trump.  These include withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris Climate Agreement, weakening fuel efficiency standards for automobiles, and repealing the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan, which set strict limits on carbon emissions from coal and gas-fired power plants.  In early September, Trump announced a rollback on the phasing out of incandescent light bulbs.  According to the U.S. Department of Energy, LED light bulbs use 75% less energy and last 25 times longer than incandescent bulbs.  But, according to the President, the energy efficient light bulbs make him look orange. 

Donald Trump has, on numerous occasions, called climate change “a hoax” and has opined that, “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.”

This is embarrassing to me on at least two levels – first as a citizen of the United States, which is the world’s second largest emitter of greenhouse gases.  The U.S. President’s statements and actions serve to thumb our collective noses at the rest of the world that has committed to take steps to mitigate climate change.

Second, like Donald Trump, I am a member of the Baby Boomer Generation.  When we were young, like Greta Thunberg, we vowed that we would not be materialistic like our parents but would focus on making the world a better place.  We would clean up the environment, eliminate poverty, improve the education system and embrace civil rights for all.  In fact, many of my generation worked toward these ideals, though many others ignored them to focus on accumulating wealth.  

For most of his life, Donald Trump focused on accumulating wealth, while ignoring the efforts of others to save the planet.  But as President, he has chosen to undo the work of those who genuinely tried to take a few small steps to mitigate climate change.  

So exactly what is happening here, when energy efficiency standards are eliminated or rolled back?  More energy is needed, so more fossil fuels will be burned, resulting in more greenhouse gases being emitted, accelerating climate change.  If everybody’s wrong, and climate change is a hoax, these rollbacks will mean we are depleting limited resources faster than we need to, leaving less to meet the needs of future generations.

So please, young people, speak your minds, regardless of the resistance you are getting.  Because, Greta is right.  We are failing you, and if we don’t correct that failure, you should not forgive us.

*  “For What It’s Worth,” Stephen Stills, 1966.

This Wheel's on Fire

If your memory serves you well
We were going to meet again and wait
So I'm going to unpack all my things
And sit before it gets too late
No man alive will come to you
With another tale to tell
But you know that we shall meet again
If your memory serves you well*

July 14, 2018.  If your memory serves you well, that was the date of my last blogpost.  So I’m going to unpack all my things, and post again before it gets too late.  And there is a lot to unpack.

1. Movin’ & Shakin’ – Officially, my wife and I moved from our home of 34 years in Pittsburgh to our new home in the Borough of West Chester in May 2017.  We undertook several major projects at the new place in 2018 including a new roof, a small deck (“steps replacement project” if you talk to the building inspector), a Sunsetter awning over our hot tub, and re-landscaping of the backyard.  In August 2018 we sold our Pittsburgh home to our youngest son.
2. Addition and Subtraction – Technically, our grandson Miles was born before my last blogpost (May 17, 2018).  Anticipating Miles’ birth, my wife and I leased a studio apartment in Queens, and we spent nearly every Wednesday through Friday providing daycare for our grandson so our son could continue to stay active as an entertainer and our daughter-in-law could continue working as a fashion designer.  Our lease ran till the end of April 2019. Knowing we wanted to continue to be an active presence in our grandson’s life, we purchased a studio apartment in the same building in May.  Then in July 2019, our first granddaughter Ilona was born in West Chester, bringing the number of our grandchildren to three.  Often with great joy comes great sorrow, and in January 2019, my dear, 93-year old uncle took a bad fall and spent the next 6 weeks between hospital and personal care home, only to pass away in early March.
3. Writing – Though I haven’t posted anything on my blog in over a year, I have not stopped writing altogether.  I wrote a couple of articles for the newsletter of the antique car club I joined.  I also participated in a writing workshop in June 2019 at Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia.  I continued to work on my novel, “The Letter,” and submitted several chapters for critique by professional writers.  Many of the comments I received were helpful; some, not so much.  Perhaps the biggest project over the past year has been my chronicle of our time in New York.  I may post some of that on my blog.
4. Blog On – There’s a lot that needs to be said.  While there are many other voices saying much of what I want to say, I feel I should add my voice to the conversation.  Since my last post on gun violence, there have been countless deaths from guns, and Congress refuses to do anything.  Since I last wrote about global warming, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased significantly, and the average temperature of many areas of the earth has increased beyond the 2°C level that will cause major problems for future generations.  Yet the Trump administration continues to roll back environmental regulations put in place to slow the dangerous build up of greenhouse gases.  We live in the world’s greatest democracy but can no longer feel sure that our election process is secure from tampering.  I want to talk about these and other important contemporary issues.

So, I am re-activating my blog. I plan to post new material at least once a month.  Some will be opinion, some will be discussion, and some will be just for fun.  Just count on the fact that I will come to you, with another tale to tell.  You know that we shall meet again, if your memory serves you well.

*This Wheel’s on Fire, Words and music by Bob Dylan and Rick Danko.