And not quite back home yet. When I do get home, early next week, I think distance travelled may almost equal around the globe!
In a sense, I have been time travelling as well, reaching the absurd age of 80 while in Australia. In my home town (Adelaide, in South Australia), I visited some of the old spots, where I was as a boy, noticing that nothing stays the same.
The best of this trip occurred in Canberra, Australia's Federal Capitol, where, over the weekend just prior to the BIG EVENT (May 29) I enjoyed the company of my three children and my six grandchildren, like as not a once-in-a-lifetime event for each of us. It would be truly amazing were the like of this to happen again. My eldest daughter and her daughter live in Colorado, my son and his three live in Sydney, and my younger daughter and her two live in Canberra, while I live in Corning, New York State! Thus, a special event in all respects. In addition, I was able to visit with my sister (in Adelaide), and one of my two brothers (in Sydney). For what more might a fellow wish, entering the ninth decade of life? The pic is from the second picnic
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| And a Kangaroo looked on... |
Other special events marked this journey. In Denver, I attended the graduation of Uma's younger daughter from the prestigious Law School there, something that she longed to see (so, in a sense, I felt somewhat in her place), and catching up with several of her family, including her brother Ravi, with whom I plan to travel in India and Nepal later this year. Here in San Francisco I took my goodbye with a longtime friend who had elected to die under California law. Now I am back in time to join with her family in the celebration of her life at week's end.
So, you see, much by way of significant events marked the way.
As I think of my life, I muse, "Who could have predicted all the twists and turns of the path that has led over the years to the NOW?" Not that I am unique in this since it is so for everyone!
Particularly for an uncle of mine whom I discovered only in this past year. Like me, he too was born and grew up in Adelaide, but toward the end of the Nineteenth Century. He was the second child of my grandmother's first marriage. Her husband was a mounted police trooper. When Walter was only three months old, his father died when his horse fell and rolled on him. A decade later, my grandmother was courted by my grandfather and things did not go well for young Walter, the upshot of which was that he took off by ship to begin life anew in Western Australia. Toward the end of the century, the great gold rush in that part of the world caused the population of the state to double within a decade!
So, just eleven years of age and alone, he began his journey into manhood. Who could have guessed that, at age 24, he would be about to embark, as an immigrant arrived at Ellis Island, on the great adventure of life in the United States and be buried in Vancouver, British Columbia? His focus was on going to Columbia to study there at the University of Missouri. A year later, the local newspaper described his journey of 20,000 miles to achieve this goal. What are the chances of such an amazing exploit happening.
In Canberra, at the National Library, I was able to read the memoirs he wrote about this formative epoch in his life. He was an excellent raconteur; sot well he writes that it is almost impossible to put his work down! Since learning of him, I have been embarked on discovering as much as I can about him. Fortunately, others have been very interested in him and their work has provided many clues to his very adventurous life. No one, however, has attempted to tell the whole story.
This is the adventure upon which I have embarked. My plan is to complete the necessary research and to have a first draft done during this first year of my ninth decade. Of course, there are other interesting things to do but Uncle Walter will be a main focus for the time being. If I gain the confidence, I will mount the various chapters in The Cloud as they evolve. Let me know if you are interested to follow his story, which I will tell as through his eyes, but informed by my own experience of clinical psychology and work with dysfunctional families.
Here in Walnut Creek the weather is warm and balmy. I find myself recovering from the rigors of the journey so far (not a few beds, all differently comfortable, long periods in airplane seats, and the like). It is very pleasant to be nearing where I feel to be my home. Another week and I shall be back in Corning. I shall be glad indeed to be once more amongst my good local friends and to take coffee at Soulful Cup.
