Gratitude

June 2020. To be thankful for, especially in this time of turmoil, form the magnificent to the mundane.

My magnificent wife and the two magnificent daughters we produced. Marrying Dena was my greatest life's blessing and being blessed with two daughters was the greatest gift we could have ever asked to receive.

The people who made all this possible -- literally -- include parents, brothers and sisters, friends and colleagues contributed in many wonderful ways to finding and forming the path Dena and I have traversed together. For me, many people have profoundly blessed me over the past 68 years, from neighbors on Leonard Street in Lackawanna, to the Grey Nuns of Immaculate Conception in Eden, to the teachers and coaches of Eden Central, and two the faculty, advisors and mentors of my college days, I have always relied on others to help me to find and stay on a good path. People such as Sr Mary Martina and Fr Hank Hilton. Professors Mickey Kavanagh, Jack Duffy and Hank Sims, college chums Larry Timm, Gary Levine and Jeff Cunningham, deans such as Joe Pichler, Jack Evans and Tom Bausch, running mates like Jim Brewer, Phil Montgomery, and Ed Eglinski, 'wingmen' like Jeff Striebich, Gary Greenberg and Bobby Friedmann, colleagues like Tony Redwood, Doug Grider and Jean Baderscheneider, female friends like Karen Madsen, Dianne Van Beber, Sueanna Miranda, Jill Docking, and Sharon Higgins -- all of them made mea better person and helped me to a better life.

As to the mundane, an abundance of hygiene factors, past and present, provided the foundation, the basic necessities for feeling and doing better in life, be it a warm house in winter and a cool place in summer, a good mattress on a big bed, a strong, hot shower, a comfortable car, a helpful Apple product, a delightful running course, the scenery of Kansas, Scotland, and Pennsylvania, and all the wonderful resources, assets and opportunities presented to me by God's favor.