I think the reflections are excellent; The interesting thing is I don’t think of you as disabled; funny, smart, handsome (yes!!! esp that picture when you were 4!) irritating, but not disabled. Yes, you do walk funny, but so what. Read Charlotte’s Web, the last line, and you’ll see what I mean.

As I age, and I am even older than you, I think that one of the many ways we 60s children were wrong, is that we thought that our work was/should be and define our lives. I’d do it differently for sure; be a doctor if it makes you happy, but why not make a living growing seedlings, and then enjoy your amazing ability in photography, your wonderful way with words in writing, and your great talent in finding good books to read, to enjoy life.

My reflections are, that life gives us plenty of opportunities, we just need to open our eyes to see them, and it is that opening that makes our lives more interesting. Just think, if you hadn’t responded to that brash Canadian at the gyn, where would you be now.

And you do have an extended family, us, with whom we’re going to set up the Aging Hippies Commune somewhere, and we can include a doctor in the mix…and a maid, or we’ll live somewhere with good electricity & dishwashers &, we’ll be fine.

Happy next 50.

In defense of our father, and perhaps as the girl-child, I saw him as a kind man who had genuine care for his employees -which perhaps led to a naiive belief that they would not betray him. His light-hearted, youthful side became overwhelmed with the stress of living in a war zone. Yes, he had his faults and, like most of his culture and generation, seldom expressed emotion – but it was there. He too overcame challenges in moving from a first world city to a third world outback, and he remains my hero of self-sufficiency. All in all, he did a pretty good job of parenting without a father figure in his life.

I was aware of the “fourth child” and will write an email to you about that…

Here’s to a wonderful, relationsl, happy, and prosperous second half!

I love your picture where you look like Robert Redford, in Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid, with the mustache. However did you escape the ladies? Must have been that social skills thing! Miss you so much, and I think you should, when things calm down in Zim, cut down the eucalyptus, and turn the property into the Aging Hippies Commune we’ve talked so often about.

We’ll organize on Nov 17th and try to Skype and if not successful, raise a toast to friends absent,…

To the Commune in France. !!! Where the second half will be at least as good.