28. JUST READ THE LATEST

Jack,

What a fabulous reaction to your web site! Just read the latest. I have just e-mailed a teacher about the site. She wrote a letter to our newspaper. I agree with one of your reactors, that you should write a book. Such would however be a focus change, in that the more personal might need to be included. You so deserve the accolades. It must be a trip to communicate with these new friends.

Best Regards, Always

REFLECTIONS: Not all e-mails are created equal, and this one is from a man who had more influence over my early life and development than any other person in my life, although he is not my father - he is my hero. When I need to check the compass of my life I still touch base with this man to see if I'm moving in the right direction. He too is an old veteran who, as an eighteen-year old, stood on the deck of an LST on the beaches of Normandy during that famous WWII invasion. When I read back through the hundreds of e-mails I have received there are patterns of life that seem to reflect lives of service. It seems to me, those who served their country in times of war often tend to stay in a life of service in some form. Maybe we feel a need to give back or maybe we feel some guilt for still being alive. Whatever it is that motivates us I can honestly say that it is in the power of the life lived by those I admire that inspires me to do the same. As I approach my sixtieth birthday - I can say that what I have become, I owe in large measure to this man.