A LETTER TO MY GRANDSON ON HIS FOURTEENTH BIRTHDAY!

July 20, 2006

Dear Taylor,

Happy Birthday! You are now fourteen-years-old and going into high school. This is a wonderful time in your young life and you will feed on it all of your days, as people of your grandfather’s age do now. Only today I wrote about someone I went to St. Patrick’s with, and then played football with in high school. His name is Tom Berdan, a powerful football player. I’ve lost track of Tom, and haven’t seen or heard from him in more than fifty years. That is what I’m talking about. These untroubled days you are now in are the most carefree of your life, so enjoy them and make the most of them. They represent your emotional and intellectual investment in the future.

I understand you are active in sports and have excelled in baseball this summer, and are looking forward to playing football. What I like about organized athletics is that they teach you discipline, how to play as a member of a team, how to take victory and defeat in stride, surprise and disappointment, in other words, as a preparatory course in life.

Athletics also coordinate the body with the mind, as both must work together to be successful in sport. The uncanny thing about this is that you do things spontaneously in sport, or without thinking about it as the mind and body assume a rhythm and mutual support system that results in “being in the zone” and “going with the flow.”

As important as athletics are, and they are important as I point out here, what makes life truly a joyous, almost a luxury pursuit is education. For every minute you hit the books, you will get an hour’s of recreational reinforcement when you are in your working years. Believe me, study separates the doers from the pretenders, the confident ones from the con artists, and the people who make a difference from those bent on making an impression. So, study, young man, study hard and with the same dedication, determination, discipline and energy that you display throwing or catching some kind of ball.

Your grandfather’s good fortune is that I had an uncle, Dr. Leonard Martin Ekland, that once wrote me words similar to those I am sharing with you here now, knowing that I was full of myself, and receiving accolades for my athletic prowess. I loved him and believed in his words, and he became my mentor and model, and the reason, I believe, for the life that I have enjoyed and the many adventures I have experienced.

There is no limit to experience when you are honest with yourself, and have a set of principles that are inviolable and that no one can deter you from putting into play. The game of life is the most exciting game of all, and you are moving into it with zest and a winning wind at your back. I love and respect you, and wish you always well.

Your grandfather,

Grandpa Jim