HOPE AND SOMETHING A LITTLE QUIRKY

     THE SARGE WHO MANY FORGOT

     Reflections on the life of Sargent Shriver, who died today at 95 recall his linkage to the Kennedy dynasty-he was a brother in law. There are memories of his work as Director of the Peace Corp and some recall his run for the Vice Presidency.  More recently the patrician Democrat was the father in law of the Governor of California, Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger, husband of Maria Shriver.

     Yet some of Shriver's greatest legacy comes from his service in the Johnson administration when he served as Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity. Some historians have made much of his falling out of favor with Bobby Kennedy after the assassination of President John Kennedy.  Shriver stayed on with LBJ, as Director of the Peace Corp.  Bobby and LBJ carried on a long rumble.  In the Johnson administration, Shriver also ran the OEO and created an impact that continues now.  Head Start, the Job Corp, Community Action against Poverty, Volunteers in Service to America and Legal Services all began and flourished under his guidance. 

      Many powerful and famous live and die in Washington. Fewer leave a mark.  Shriver did.

FOR THOSE WHO ENDURE WINTER

     We spoke with friends in the Midwest.  

       "You remember.  It's one of those damp, cold, gray days.  Just dreary," he said. 

       Indeed we do remember, without a speck of fondness.

This is one bit of today's brightness.  After decades of the Midwestern midwinter

gloom, I am like a kid enjoying that special lift you get from early spring-

which comes to this part of California in January.  Incredible.

DAYBOOK

Dedicated to those of you in the land of winter

Morning fog in the valleys

A Narcissus 

Succulents flirting with the sun

A Breath of Heaven bloom

Do you know what this is?

Morning dew on arm of a deck chair.

Freshly plowed and fertile, next to a grazing field behind

Hollister Peak.  This is between the Pacific and the Pacific Coast Highway.

The moon rises, almost full as the setting sun lights the Santa Lucia Highlands.  The shadows come from our ridge-Top of the World.

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