Anniversary Tribute

                      

“Only passions, great passions, can elevate the soul to great things.”                    ~Denis Diderot

 

 

He came from a humble beginning. He was born and raised in the blue-collar city of Flint, Michigan. His father was a General Motors worker and his mother, a stay home mom. He had an older brother and an older sister. He was the youngest of the brood. They lived in a subdivision in a cookie cutter bungalow of the 1960’s.

 

 He remembers a lot of the good times he had as a child. Halloween is his favorite holiday. He often reminisces about the days when he would trick or treat in his neighborhood and his family went all out decorating the home like a haunted house. He smiles when he thinks about the summer days he spent swimming in the creek at his grandparents’ property in Tawas, Michigan and swimming in their above ground pool in their backyard. He has that amazing glow when he recounts stories about his youthful adventures with his childhood friends.   

 

He also remembers the time when his parents divorced when he was twelve. How his world came  crashing down when he came home from school and his mother was not there. He searched for his mother and found her at an Aunt’s home and was told to go home to his father because his mother did not have the resources to raise him. His heart still breaks when he recalls the humiliation and anger he felt when he saw intact families going about their business in their neighborhood when his was torn apart.

 

He recollects his high school days. These days were blurry and full of angst. He did not want to be there. He just wanted to get it over and done with so he can take a factory job. He did not think he was a college material. He was resigned to living a blue-collar existence.  Men in his city were proud and hardworking: they made decent amount of money to buy homes and keep their families fed. That was all he aspired for.

 

Fast forward to what he had accomplished and who he became. He traveled all over the world. He got a college degree. He wears suit to work.  He loves what he does for a living. He has an intact family of his own. He has been married for twenty something years. He sends his children to the best schools he could afford and dreams of seeing them lead happy and productive lives in the future. He plans on taking courses to get a graduate degree.  He is dreaming of retiring in style on acreages with a creek and a cottage like his grandparents had. 

 

He does everything with enthusiasm or not at all.  His passion sets him on fire to achieve.  He attributes much of his success to his wife. Truth to be known, his glory is all his. He is who he is because he is a passionate man.