Over the course of my nine long road trips, I discovered that I had many fans, if that’s the right word to use besides “friends”. All of them (you, if some are reading this) stood out in one way or another, all unique in their own special way. But one stood out above the crowd, perhaps because I saw a lot of him, but probably because he had a special way of showing his interest in what I was doing and trying to accomplish, Jake Stein. I am saddened to write today that I lost that friend last night after his brief fight with cancer.
Jake was the consummate person in everything he did, husband, father, lawyer, friend, gentleman, dog guardian and dresser. For years, most of the time we talked at a local coffee shop after his long walks on weekends. Because of my trips, he would tell me over and over again that I was the most disciplined person he knew, without realizing that the more he told me that, the more disciplined I became. He so often asked me to explain what it was that I got from my trips that I was forced to think about that to the point where I realized that I was getting more from them than I thought I was.
On top of all his qualities, Jake had two qualities in particular that made him so very special: he was a thinker, and he was a questioner. He loved to do both, but rarely -or succinctly- expressed his own thoughts because he wanted to hear what we had to say, and he never dismissed our thoughts no matter how off they were. The two of us often talked about the fate of society in the 21st Century, realizing that there was little most of us could do alone to affect it. What he might not have realized was that by just knowing him and trying to emulate the good in him we would be making the world a better place.
Jake is no longer around to root for me on my road trips, or in my life, but after knowing him for almost two decades, I have enough of his friendship to carry me through many more road trips and the rest of my life.
Jake was 94 years old when he died. Truly, he had a life well-lived.
Ed Mulrenin
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