Passings and Legacy

Moonstone Beach, Cambria CA

    It happened this week, the passing of two men who made big differences. In the way of things, there is a confluence in my life. 

 I knew them and I was inspired by them. I still am.

Photo by Charles Bennett, Associated Press

      Birch Bayh was the quintessential Indiana public servant and one of the most historic and arguably effective members in the history of the US Senate. He passed at 91 and leaves a legacy that has led some to refer to him as a "modern founding father."

     Bayh was the author of two constitutional amendments and creator of Title IX. He also authored what could have been a third constitutional amendment, the ERA. These are accomplishment of historic proportion, shaping the constitution, the spine of this democratic republic.

    The 25th Amendment deals with Presidential disability and succession. The 26th Amendment lowered the voting age to 18. Title IX prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any educational program or activity that is federally funded. It was nation changing. 

    Bayh was an architect of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, 1965 Voting Rights Act and the Juvenile Justice Act that required separation of juveniles from adults in prison. He was co-author of the Bayh-Dole Act that allowed small businesses and universities to own inventions that were developed using federal funds. It helped lead to the technological explosion that has fueled our modern life and led to new business horizons in communications, and technology.

    Bayh led the Senate opposition to Supreme Court nominees Clement Haynsworth and George Carswell. He was a contender in the 1976 Democratic Presidential nomination. Birch Bayh was a three term Senator and father of Evan Bayh, Governor of Indiana and a two term senator.

    I covered and got to know both men. They were different personalities. Evan ran one of his father's election campaigns. Birch Bayh may have been one of the best "retail," one-on-one politicians ever. Before social media, candidates spent more time talking to individual voters in person. Birch would light up a room and if possible spend time with everyone, sitting with them, putting his arm around them, leaning in listening, shaking hands and having true conversations. It was a marvel to see. 

    He was a veteran, a Purdue graduate where he was President of the Class, played baseball and was a champion boxer. He was elected to state government in his 20's and had a stellar career and impact before being one of the youngest men elected to the Senate.

     After the Civil Rights act was passed, he and his friend Senator Edward Kennedy were on a flight between Washington and Massachusetts when their light plane went down. Bayh extricated his wife Marvella and then freed a trapped Edward Kennedy, who suffered a broken back. Others on board were killed.

      It was a privilege to know and a joy to joke around and talk with this plain spoken, down home leader. When I think of America being "great," I think of Birch Bayh and his indelible influence on this nation. He is one of the giants in the human rights movement.

    Friend, colleague and inspiration, Bob Foster, on the right in the photo above, lost his long hard fight with Leukemia this week.

   Frequent readers will recall Bob's contributions to this blog

beginning in August of 2011 as he chronicled his harrowing wait and experience with a bone marrow transplant.

   In the picture above, Bob and I were a morning team on the radio, seen here doing a remote broadcast.  Bob had a wonderful career in radio and his great love was live sporting events. For a number of years he was a premier play by play man in Hydroplane racing and other sports.  

    Bob had a good run in the advertising world, but after complications of his disease was sidelined for a while, only to come back to his first love, radio sports.

     He was on the air and running a sports talk station in Iowa at the time of his passing. In the last couple of years he had battled pneumonia and this week that is what took his life. It is the same disease that claimed Birch Bayh.

    In September of 2014 Bob was having a triumphant moment and sent this post.

Photo Courtesy of Iowa State/Bob Foster

Never did I imagine that I would again be testing the wireless broadcast system on the sidelines at Jack Trice Stadium before a Big 12 game.  Resuming duties as a game site producer on a Big 12 Football radio broadcast seemed no longer possible.  Saturday afternoon was very emotional.  I wept several times and knelt in sprayer of thanksgiving before the game began.  Now, I am better prepared mentally and emotionally to approach with intensity the game broadcast at Texas on 10/18.  It is all because of Jesus I am alive.

Bob Foster.

      Bob was a man with a strong faith and as you may recall from his earlier posts, even when near death and an uncertain future, he said he was blessed to be able to lift the spirits of others who were facing challenges.

    His wife Diane told me when he took his last breath he had a smile of relief. His timing was always perfect.

     Life always moves forward. New generations go to meet their future. There are, however, those who precede them who make their path a little easier.

      Birch Bayh and Bob Foster leave wonderful and positive legacies. They loved and cared about others. 

      See you down the trail.

PERPETUAL LIGHT-SELFIE HELP-HE'S BACK

BRIGHT

BRIAN WILSON

Living Legend

     If there was a Mount Rushmore of rock and roll, Brian Wilson would be up there.  More than two hours of high energy performance and what you get is hit, after hit, after hit.

    The principal Beach Boy was joined by his pal and an original Al Jardine for a powerful evening at the Vina Robles Amphitheatre in Paso Robles. Jardine lives just up Highway 1 in Big Sur.

    When you open with California Girls, Dance, Catch a Wave, Hawaii, Shut you Down and Little Deuce Coup you set a mood and the audience was into it.

     Wilson has assembled about as tight and solid a band that a living legend can get. Scott Bennett and Darian Sahanja lay in vocal support that is every bit as good as what Wilson got from the Beach Boys. He is a musical savant and still pushes the edge. Who else would stage a live performance of Heroes and Villains-a tricky number even in the controlled environment of an edit studio? He introduced a fully instrumental Pet Sounds and asked the audience to "just listen what a band can do without vocals."

     Wilson's rapport with the audience was warm and genuine. It appeared as though he and Jardine enjoyed sharing the stage again.

      The maestro introduced God Only Knows as his "greatest song writing accomplishment." His "best!" But there were plenty of others, In My Room, Little Surfer Girl, Then I Kissed Her, Don't Worry Baby, Wouldn't It Be Nice, Sloop John B, Help Me Rhonda, I Get Around, and etc. It seemed as though the Amphitheatre jumped up in mass when they played Do You Want to Dance. And the place practically levitated when he lead into Good Vibrations.

      By the way, Jardine's voice is magic. He still sounds like a kid in his 20's. Brian is older, the band is bigger, but he's still a musical magician and can make you feel like kid and as if you are in perpetual sunlight. 

Here's how some of the big kids arrived-

A MESSAGE FOR MALES

Are you paying attention NFL?

HELP FOR OUR AGE

WITH A SMILE EVEN

     A HAPPY UPDATE

     Those of you who have been following this blog for a few years will recall the posts about my friend and former colleague who wrote of his battle with leukemia including a bone marrow transplant.  I'm happy to include recent thoughts and a photo from Bob Foster.

   Photo Courtesy of Iowa State/Bob Foster

Never did I imagine that I would again be testing the wireless broadcast system on the sidelines at Jack Trice Stadium before a Big 12 game.  Resuming duties as a game site producer on a Big 12 Football radio broadcast seemed no longer possible.  Saturday afternoon was very emotional.  I wept several times and knelt in sprayer of thanksgiving before the game began.  Now, I am better prepared mentally and emotionally to approach with intensity the game broadcast at Texas on 10/18.  It is all because of Jesus I am alive.
Bob Foster.

See you down the trail.

   

OUR INTRUDER , 2 SURE BETS, A LOSS OF THOUGHT and PACIFIC SPRING

FRESH

VARIATIONS ON A RIGHT FRAME

THE INTRUDER

    A midmorning call by one of our neighborhood Bobcats.

      This guy is considerably larger than Hemingway and Joy who were napping on the porch, or perhaps hiding under the deck.

THEY'LL MAKE YOU THINK

    If you like real life intrigue and are fascinated by science PARTICLE FEVER and TIM'S VERMEER are two documentary films you'll want to see.  Both are in general release, but if your art house or cinema doesn't offer them, they'd be great views at home.

       Particle Fever, directed by Mark Levinson is a brilliant, entertaining and even amusing suspense as the Large Hadron Collider at CERN comes on line and seeks evidence of the Higgs particle.  6 brilliant and charismatic scientists are your guide.  They are extraordinary and the drama is real.  

      Tim's Vermeer follows brilliant inventor, millionaire Tim Jenison on a six year quest to learn how the Dutch painter Vermeer (Girl with a Pearl Earring) captured light, glow and painted so realistically.  The film is produced by Pen Jilette and Teller. It features Martin Mull, British painter David Hockney and professor Philip Steadman.  It is a fascinating journey, amazing in what lengths Jenison will go to pursue the riddle.  

      I took personal pleasure in the viewing of both because they reaffirm the best of humanity, our desire to seek answers, learn, quest and take on mystery and to delight in the challenge.

     Which brings us to an however....

WITHOUT BENEFIT OF REASON

    Shouting into the wind or standing at the shore and telling the surf to subside may have the same efficacy as this, but here we go. It is appalling at how rapidly western culture is disposing of its once guiding trajectory of reason.

    Intellectual diligence, study and learning were either foundational expectations or the normative behavior of a culture that moved from superstition and ignorance to harvesting the benefits of knowledge and science.  Along the way we bipeds were encouraged to think and to wrestle with conflicting or opposing concepts or points of logic. Not so much anymore. 

    Knee jerk reactions threaten to become the norm. In social psychology they call it a rigidifying of the self concept.  People hear an idea they disagree with, feel threatened by it and throw up a defense, often launching  a response that doesn't seek conversation and in turn the other person responds in kind.  It's a bit like launching missiles back and forth. No diplomacy, or seeking an understanding, just an escalating scorched earth belligerence. 

    It's all over cable current affairs programming, in politics, especially posessed by zealots both in the public square and in religion and even in our little village.  Everyone seems to have adopted the "I'M RIGHT-YOUR WRONG" mind set.

     Had our forbearers been so inclined we'd still be hunting with stones and hoping for the invention of fire. We may never have learned to talk.

The New Blooms

With apologies to my pal Griff, who believes this blog is too heavy on California flora.

   As my friend Bob Foster, who's bone marrow transplant and battle with Leukemia I chronicled here over the last few years, said as he called today "Life is so good."  

    He was calling from Minnesota after driving from Northern Iowa, where spring is still only a hope. He said he has not felt this good in years. And he is especially grateful for the return of his quick and facile mind.  

   To paraphrase the old military cliche' "If you've got'em smoke 'em," if you've got a brain, use it.

   See you down the trail.

BEING TOUGH

BRAVO TO THE TOUGH GUYS

     It takes special character to evince toughness in 

the face of the winds of adversity.

 Photo by Daniel Ochoa E Olza/AP

   Juan Jose Padilla is tough.  You may disapprove of his sport

 Photo by Elena Munoz/AP

and you may even think of him as a fool, but you can not deny his courage.  The picture above was taken in October as he was being gored by the bull he was fighting.  He was severely injured and disfigured.  That he even survived surprised many.

 Photo by Daniel Ochoa Ed Olza/AP

     This is the 38 year old Spanish bull fighter back at work this week. Five months after narrowly escaping death, Padilla returned to the ring.

 Photo by Daniel Ochoa De Olza/AP

Photo by Daniel Ochoa De Olza/AP

     He did it he said because of the "...need to win, to triumph, to be a better man."

     Too bad Ernest Hemingway wasn't around to see a 

genuine article. 

      Juan Jose Padilla's comeback offers a perfect 

transition to one of my favorite Presidential Quotes.

Teddy Roosevelt

April 23, 1910 at the Sorbonne, Paris.

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. 

Hat's Off to another tough guy

     I've posted previously about Bob Foster, my friend and former colleague, who is in the midst of a bone marrow transplant in his recovery from leukemia.  Bob is not only tough, he demonstrates great humor and wit in the midst of battle.  Here's one of his daily postings, from just a couple of days ago.

Healthcare is like an artichoke (Sorry about the vegetable choice for the metaphor. I don’t like onions.) The longer you are treated for a condition, the more you finally learn the “why”.

I am gobbling down 3,200 mg of magnesium per day. Yet, I remain magnesium deficient. At this moment, I am receiving another 2,000 mg by IV. (That’s 5,200 mg for those of you listening in Loma Linda.)  

An anti-rejection drug (Don’t you wish a drug could have prevented rejection when you were dating in high school?)prevents some magnesium absorption. Got it. But that much? No.

This afternoon I learned engrafting cells consume mega amounts of magnesium and potassium to make new blood cells. Holy catfish! Those little buggers are ravenous. They must be grinding out new cells at warp speed. (“Make it so, Number One.” –Jean Luc Picard)  And God is Number One. 

Thank you, Jesus. Rev up that IV pump. Hand me the bloomin' pills. Engraft on, Lord.

I am crying with gratitude. Folks, your prayers are being answered. Was there ever any doubt?  

Here's a toast to all who battle on with courage and 
conviction, be the foe disease, a bull, a bully, an ideologue, a racist, sexist, ageist, corruption, poverty, or ignorance.
DAY BOOK

A TOUGH CHOP

See you down the trail.

SUSTAINABLE PLEASURE & BOB SCORES 100%

A NEW KID IN THE APPELLATION

The great looking design by San Luis Obispo

architect Heidi Gibson is the tasting room of

the new Shale Oak winery.

It's on a turn on Oakdale Road that just a 

couple of years ago was acreage for sale.

When ever I passed it I would tell Lana

"There's a great spot for a new winery."

New indeed!  And forward thinking.

As the Shale Oak philosophy states

"Sustainability in every facet."  They talk of

"holistic stewardship" of the vineyards.

Those are concepts and practices that 

are dear to Paso Robles wine growers and

drinkers.

Visible are the rain harvesting and water run-off

reclamation systems.

Their LEED certification is pending. Shale Oak

employs solar photovoltaic panels.

Regional natives are being used in landscaping.

Their beautiful tasting room looks out at vineyards

and Red Soles, a great "mom & pop" winery of distinction and elegant charm.

The winemaker, Kevin Riley, is known in the area

for a quality product. We left with a couple of bottles

and look forward to future visits and purchases.

Products from re-cycled, local and "green"

sources are sold.  We like the "ethos" of Shale Oak

and the commitment to doing it properly.

Even at that, I probably would not have posted

like this, had it not been for that "dream" that

always occurred as I drove by, usually on the 

way to Pipestone, another sustainable, organic

and top quality Paso wine.

Shale Oak promises to be a great addition to 

California's best appellation.

UPDATE FROM BOB

Frequent readers of LightBreezes have followed Bob Foster's 

progress in living with leukemia. As he undergoes pre-treatment

for a bone marrow transplant he is keeping busy.  He and 

I have begun preliminary work on a film treatment and

he's "tested" his brain cells.

I passed the "Amateur Extra Class" license exam today with a grade of 
100%. By upgrading my license to the highest level of Ham radio, I  
fulfilled a promise I once made to my father.

In 1964, Dad purchased a "BC-348-Q" WW 2 shortwave radio receiver for 
me. It cost $45, a lot of money for us at the time. The fact the radio 
came from a B-17 aircraft made it seem magical. Dad bought the radio 
only after I sincerely - as sincerely as a 14-year old boy can be - 
promised to one day earn the highest grade of Ham license. The old "348" 
opened the world to me. Many a night I sat, headphones clamped to my 
ears, listening to voices from Europe, Africa and South America. 
Interest in becoming a Ham would come and go. Slowly, I learned the 
Morse code. By age 20, I earned a "Novice" Ham license. By age 30, I was 
a "General Class" operator. Today, 47 1/2 years later, I fulfilled my 
promise to my father.  I am now an "Extra Class" operator. Thank you, Jesus.

Oh, Dad died last summer. I sure wish I could have called him today with 
the news.

--Foster

See you down the trail.

IN THE SPIRIT OF THE SEASON

BREATHING DEMOCRACY

LIVING A REPUBLIC

One of the great joys, and thus a reason for

gratitude in this season of thanks, is the 

vitality of conversation and political engagement

at Lilly's, one of the world's most unique coffee shops.

On any day you will see animated cliques of 

conversation as various knots of people gather on the deck.

Actually it is a kind of porch, partially under roof, set

amidst a trellis and arbor like construct that works

only in our mediterranean style climate.

The charm of the place is not the story.

It is the people and the earnestness of

the conversations.  There are conservatives, liberals, libertarians and critics. Musicians,

artists, writers, free thinkers, business people

and educators also abound and everyone

comes with a life of experience. So,

as you might imagine, the conversations

are vivid, eclectic, sometimes loud,

and always completely switched on.

I love it.  By nature, and training,

I want to hear all sides, so just listening is a joy.

It reminds me of an assignment in Brazil years ago.

It was just after the military dictatorship ceded control

to the first elected government in 20 some years.

The place was intoxicated with ideas of democracy

and republic.  Newspapers and radio stations that had

been shut down and boarded by the dictatorship

were opening again.  The cafes and bars were alive

with conversation.  Brazilians were quoting

Jefferson, Madison and American principals.  It

was a heady time.

We are lucky to have a little of that every day at Lilly's.

Thanks.

UPDATE FROM BOB

Here's the latest from my friend and former colleague

Bob Foster.

It's all good. My prayer has been that God would show the doctors what He wanted them to do. He has. Loudly. Clearly. 

One of the Mayo doctors consulting on my case recently attended an international symposium on CLL (chronic lymphocytic leukemia). Research conducted at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, WA, proved that CLL patients, meeting certain criteria, do not need to have their bone marrow below 50% involvement to successfully transplant. 

I meet that criteria. Further heavy chemotherapy only increases the risk of an infection closing this window of opportunity. We will maintain my relatively good health with weekly, low toxicity chemo treatments until transplanting in late January 2012. We are again moving forward.

Transplant is a 50/50 proposition. There is a highly promising, post-transplant clinical trial underway at MD Anderson. That is our back-up plan. Failure is not something I dwell on, but at least we know there is a "plan B." Anyone who worked radio field production with me knows that I lived for plan B. In this case, plan A would be just fine.  

Foster

DAY BOOK

AT THE MARKET

CHEERS!

SEE YOU DOWN THE TRAIL.