I'm Back. Summer 2008 Is Here. It's Hot Out There.

Dear Friends-
I'm back to blogging after a hiatus of a few months. Nothing happened. I was too busy living life and earning a living. Every time I leave my home in the morning I'm usually lucky to see my very nice neighbor who lives across the street, and some times we trade parking spaces because she works far away, and I usually have the alternate-side parking spot she could use, when I'm lucky to see her and her husband is gracious to a fault in a nice quiet way. She is a magnificent Lady who is kind, polite, friendly, and possesses a magnificent aplomb that is fast becoming a thing of the past. God bless her.

Well friends, I'm doing well, yet taking each day at a time. Please stay in touch and comment on this blog when you want to. It's nice to know friends do care. Indeed, I have lost weight, and I know I am living on the time God has given me, so I am trying to sound the clarion call about things that matter to me, even if only two handfuls read my blogs on a given day. I have always promoted niceness, so I do not like rudeness in people who should know better. I don't wear black not because it is not an agreeable color to me, black is beautiful, but because I wear it only for mourning.

I was never a bully so I don't like bullies. I was imbued with a sense of caring and a possession of sensitivity for the feelings of others. In the time when I was a handsome very young man, I dated the young ladies, and once in a while I stole a kiss, but I was never rude, disrespectful or "fresh" with any of them, and they all went away with a good impression of me. Most said, "He's a real nice guy, has good manners, and is very respectful", and they always asked me to go on a date with them because they felt safe, secure, and felt they could have innocent fun around me. I prided myself in knowing them as persons, they were never sex objects to me, and I loved knowing their Moms and Dads, and in turn, they loved me for I was genuinely a nice kid, and parents knew this.

I remember with a measure of somber recollection, the time long ago, when I dated a very nice Jewish girl while I was in High School, and we were quite fond of each other. She liked me immensely and I liked her. I remember she approached me in the cafeteria and said, "Can I sit here?", and I replied, "Sure, you're welcome". We got to talking, and she enjoyed my conversation. I got invited to her home, and her Mom loved me, for she saw I was a good young man at heart, but Dad did not like me. I was not Jewish. I had visited the home a half dozen times before, and he was never friendly to me in my visits. Racial prejudice got the best of him, and he went into a tirade about race, and one night, when I made an intended brief visit, this misguided Jewish Father lobbed racial slurs at me, hurting his daughter's feelings, while stunning his wife as he threw me out of his home, literally pushing me out the door of the apartment in Yorkville, with the hurtful words; "I don't welcome your kind, my daughter will not marry below herself, and don't come back here anymore. Don't let me catch you with my daughter at school!"

I went home shaken, teary-eyed, saying, "What did I do to deserve this, we were just talking." I got it, so I avoided her with much heartache, and I often went home during the first few weeks of that somber Winter, looking over my shoulder fearing her Dad might jump all over me if he even saw me greeting her. In spite of the deep hurt I felt, I moved on with my life. She graduated, kept correspondence with me through the college, years, and by 1974, she had married a Jewish fellow just like her Dad wanted. Time moved forward, and so did life.

Ten years later, I found myself changing trains at a subway station near Houston street on the East Side. There, to my amazement, I heard someone calling my name, and when I turned it was her Dad, approaching with caution, a half smile, and a kind word. "Franck .....my goodness you have gained weight, all these years I have wanted to see you.", he said. "Me? What do you want with me, I was not welcome in your home, remember?", I replied as I offered a delayed, limp handshake in return.

He answered, "I was wrong for what I did and said to you. I am so very sorry I hurt you, and how I hurt my daughter and my wife. I have regretted that day more than you will ever know." I replied with serene words of peace: "It's over, in the past, and we must move on. I have no hard feelings, I forgave you Sir." The gentleman 's eyes welled with tears as he took a few moments to disclose how his daughter had long ago left her husband who had been racially insensitive like him, and cruel to her during the marriage. He commented on the daughter he pushed away from this once-young man who was all too Human, but not Jewish : "She's in Vermont now, lives by herself, and I have always thought of you all these years living with remorse for my cruel words and terrible behavior, I am so sorry I treated you with such disdain." His words spoke to a heartfelt contrition, a sincere remorse, and I felt sorry for him at that moment, sensing he had also lost a lot as I observed the emotional toll his own cruelty took on him, the isolation, the despondency of a daughter who seemed to have put lots of distance between herself and her Dad, and this made me sad for him and for her.

I told him I wished him , his daughter, and his wife well, and that I wanted for his daughter nothing but the best in life. He seemed genuinely surprised that I could wish for him nothing but good things, but life had to go on and I had cast my hand of forgiveness over his memory a short time after his offense to me. I was stunned by his parting remark though: "My daughter probably would have been happy with you, if I had not gotten in the way. I guess I turned the hand of destiny's happiness, away from her, and I will always regret this" he said, as his tears fell. I hugged the now older gentleman.

"Put this behind you Sir, and see how you can make her happy now.", I replied.
With this, we moved in different directions toward our next destination in this journey through life. I never saw him, his wife, or his daughter again.

I have shared this story, so that you can know that I have lived through life's enduring lessons. I hope to find my way to God's Rainbow when the sun does set on my life. When that time comes, I hope those who have cherished my impact on their lives shall feel blessed to have given me the honor of being their friend, and for having shared their lives with me. I have never spoken from a pulpit of high acclaim, nor have I ever made headlines, but if I could be the tallest tree in the forest of wisdom, it would be to promote the peace, bring reconciliation, herald the hope of tomorrow in the future of our great Nation. I hope I am not being partisan in terms of political remarks, but I sense that United States Senator Barack Obama will give us as President of the United States, an America that honors the Elderly by ensuring that their lives will be filled with love, nurturing, and care until the twilight of the evening sun sets on their lives and they levitate to the everlasting embrace of God. Mr. Obama reminds us that our future can not be embarked with any degree of promise, if we do not honor those citizens who gave more than their full measure to make this Nation great for all of us to enjoy freedom, and peace, along with economic prosperity.

Senator Obama gives me that great feeling of hope much like I felt when John F. Kennedy ran for president in 1960, and I was enthralled then by Senator Kennedy's youth and vision for America. I see that vision in Senator Barack Obama, God bless him, and for once in my life time, I feel connected to a future President that is all too human like me. He lives every day, smiling for the promise of the sun as it greets us in the morning, while hurting and crying when we hurt, because he feels the hurts of all Americans. His wife Michelle, like his own children, hold him dearly and preciously in their arms as the caring devoted Husband and Father that he is, and we can cradle him in our arms and hold him in our hearts for a life time. I honor this magnificent American. I feel Senator Obama will leave his imprint on the history and posterity of our Nation like no other American has since the great Lakota-Sioux Chief Red Cloud,Thomas Jefferson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, Geronimo the great Apache Warrior, Louisa May Alcott, Harriet Tubman, Congressman Charles B. Rangel, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Edward Brooke, Mary McCloud Bethune, Marion Anderson, Hattie McDaniel, Shirley Chisholm, Nydia Velasquez, Ellen G. White, Congressman Henry B. Gonzalez, U.S. Senator Dionisio "Dennis" Chavez, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr, Joseph Smith the Mormon prophet, and Brigham Young. When we look back in posterity and recall the everlasting impact that these venerable Americans have had on our Nation, we will also crystallize what Senator Obama has imprinted on the American Landscape.

We can all hold in our hearts, the feeling of honor that comes to all with deep gratitude for United States Senator John McCain as the great patriot that he is, and a superb United States Senator from the great state of Arizona. Senator McCain honors America by his service in the hallowed halls of the United States Senate, and for his undaunted courage in the face of great and terrible adversity as a prisoner of war during the era of the War in Vietnam.

And so we move on.....

Please know that I will put up a more improved set of blogs with animated characters soon. My wonderful and lovely daughter Marisol who is quite the computer-Trekkie is helping me with this part, and she pledges that I will have one of those cool web sites before too long.

June, 2008 in New York has been pleasant except for 3 days we had: June 3rd, 4Th, 5Th, which were 91-99 degrees days...when the mercury went up quite badly. Hopefully we will not experience any meltdowns this summer. Yes I'm back.
Summer 2008 is here, and boy it's hot out there. Let's hope for a nice pleasant Summer. and stay cool out there. Remember to stay in touch and keep smiling.