Every year (for the last 40+) at about this time I have had the same thoughts and emotions. It’s an occupational hazard for teachers of high school students, especially those who have been as fortunate as I have been.
For so many years I have been overwhelmed by the passion and determination, care and consideration of my fellow teachers. They literally provide blood, sweat, and tears for their students. More than that, though, they are such incredible inspiration for young lives just beginning their journeys, finding their own passions. I have known teachers who have given more to their students than to their own children. Why? I suppose because they feel the responsibility, the tremendous burden, of helping someone else, and count on the same care from their children’s teachers. Maybe, like me, they are truly blessed to have spouses who help so much.
Over and over, as well, I have watched those children—other people’s children—step forward and receive their first, most significant recognition as adults: a high school diploma. Oh, my…I won’t even attempt to name names, but I have been privileged to see some incredible people take that leap from the nest and then absolutely soar to the very stars. They are farmers, teachers, mothers, fathers, scientists, diplomats, entrepreneurs, business persons, doctors, lawyers, machinists, thinkers, dreamers, artists, poets, musicians, dreamers…. I watch those beautiful young people step off the stage with their diplomas, and I can see them taking wing into their futures.
I hope they know that the wings with which they fly are the very lives of their parents, the efforts of their teachers, and the wishes of all of us who watch them leave the grounding of their childhood for the thin air of the future. It’s scary, because only they can really make that future for all of us.
I also hope they know how proud we are of all they have accomplished. “Congratulations” doesn’t seem like enough, but it’s all we have left sometimes because we have given everything else already.
So…once again: Congratulations to the Class of 2014, whether you’re graduating from high school or college or graduate school. We made it. Now make yours.
DrDan 05/14/14
After so much loss in 2013, memories make the new year and the continued chronicles of my life a parade of daily reminiscences. Sometimes I find myself laughing through my tears. I have been fortunate in my misfortunes because the past from which my future grows is the fertile soil of so much love from so many wonderful people. Although the following poem was written many years ago and in tribute to my mother, I know my sons gained similar strengths from the arms that nurtured them. I hope everyone shares this love. Happy Mother’s Day.
Home Again
Too many summers and winters, springs and falls
keep me away from the flour,
and Band-Aids, proud smiles, and reproaches
when my heart calls.
I can’t just cry and know that any hour
there’ll be the warm arms, companion tears,
and always the knowing “It’ll be alright; you can do it”
to ease my terrible doubts and fears.
The many falls and summers, springs and winters
have taught me that I can and will
make the best of my life because of hers,
but there are the days and nights
I need her still.
When I can go no more on my own strength
and the arms I want to lean on can be no other’s,
I run away to my memories and, at length,
find the peace and the hope I always received
from my mother.
Daniel J. Cox
10/12/78
from Dandelions & Other Flowers
© Daniel J. Cox, 2014
 | shirleyeleanorj on “Citius, Altius, Fortius—Commu… |
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 | drdancox on “Connections” |
 | Marie Davy on “Connections” |
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| shirleyeleanorj on “Citius, Altius, Fortius—Commu… |
| Mark Sebring on “Friends Old and Young” |
| drdancox on “Connections” |
| Marie Davy on “Connections” |
| Melissa Ratner on “Foul” |
Howling at the Moon 
“It’s a Man’s World”
In the last month I decided to purchase a vacation home in Summit County, Colorado. On-line I viewed properties and contacted a real estate agency. A woman (whose name I can’t remember) at Slifer, Smith and Frampton put me in touch with Tonia, who works out of the agency’s office at Keystone ski resort. I flew out in early April and Tonia spent almost two days showing me properties that might interest me. I selected one and began the process.
My friends and advisors at Merrill Lynch here in Omaha—Kandiss, Peggy, and Dan—assured me that we could make this happen since my late wife, Nancy, left me financially independent in my sudden retirement. A woman in Des Moines (whose name also escapes me at the moment) and Eric (a number cruncher with Bank of America) tried to make a mortgage loan happen through Bank of America. Unfortunately, that wasn’t possible. Tonia put me in touch with Darlena and Aimee at Colorado Bank and Trust in Breckenridge. They’re more in tune with resort properties and were quite accommodating. John made sure of the appropriate numbers and interest rates even while attending a conference in another city.
Approximately one month after I started the process, I sat down with Darlena and Aimee and Tonia and signed the papers to make this dream come true. I am now the very happy owner of a vacation home at my favorite ski resort and summer paradise.
One thing that occurred to me as I sat and signed my name over and over on the loan and purchase document the other day is that throughout this process, I have been treated cordially and professionally and with the kind of concern and care that comes from people who genuinely wanted to make me happy. Now I not only have a great condo as a second home in one of my favorite places on earth but good friends who feel like family I have known forever.
Look back through that list of names. As I did, you may realize that those who truly made this happen are all women. They’re relatively young (OK, I’m old), but they’re all quite expert at what they do, very intelligent, and provide the kind of attention to detail and genuine care for their clients that I think I could only expect from people who are care givers.
It may be “a man’s world,” but that’s only because women like these several are taking care of us. I have been lucky in my life due to the many, many wonderful women who have been such a generous part of my life, from my mother to my wife to my “daughters” and people like these on whom I have relied to guide me and care for me and ease me through it all. Thanks, ladies. I see you.