When Jan Peerce died, I was reminded to be generously kind.<\/p>\n
When Bucky Fuller passed, I was reminded to work for the greater good.<\/p>\n
When Dr. Deming left, I was reminded to direct my mind into wisdom.<\/p>\n
When Beverly Sills departed, I was reminded to express in grace.<\/p>\n
When John-Roger transitioned, I was reminded to love it all.<\/p>\n
Recently, during SE\u2019s, the words above flew across my consciousness and I wrote them down.\u00a0 Upon asking myself why, I heard, \u201cThese are five for whom you shed tears upon dying.\u201d\u00a0 Reflecting on that, aside from family members and pets (which are family to me) they were those that generated grateful tears upon passing.<\/p>\n
When in college, I first met Jan Peerce, a long-established star of the Metropolitan Opera, and a singer whose artistry I idolized.\u00a0 He was what I call \u201cinstantly human\u201d with no seeming agenda other than to be fully present.\u00a0 We became friends.\u00a0 I know this because he told me so over a lunch one day, inviting me to stay at his family\u2019s home, should I ever be in his New York neighborhood.\u00a0 Not just dinner or a visit, a stay<\/u><\/em>.\u00a0 I was a kid in awe of his abundant kindness that gave me a completely new standard for the quality of generosity \u2013 inwardly and outwardly.<\/p>\n Some years later, I spontaneously purchased a ticket to an event at Carnegie Hall to hear a \u201csoloist\u201d named Buckminster \u2018Bucky\u2019 Fuller.\u00a0 Speaking to a packed house, he postulated that the President of the United States was a bit hamstrung in the good he\/she could do by swearing to \u201cprotect and defend the Constitution \u2026\u2026\u201d in taking the oath of office.\u00a0 Bucky instead choose to, \u201cSee what one human being could do on behalf of all humanity.\u201d\u00a0 He then proceeded to demonstrate, without a doubt, there was more than \u201cenough\u201d (food among other things) for everyone on the planet.\u00a0 A joyous, life-changing evening to be in the presence of one genuinely working \u201cfor the highest good of all concerned.\u201d<\/p>\n Dr. Deming was recruited by General Douglas MacArthur to assist the Japanese after World War II and is credited as a primary player in turning that economy into an \u201cAsian Tiger\u201d.\u00a0 At age 87, he delivered one of his famous, days-long, seminars in California.\u00a0 I was one of 500 fortunate attendees. His caring, intelligence and ability to teach were astounding.\u00a0 At times, making a point, his voice could be like rolling thunder.\u00a0 One particularly loud punctuation was, \u201cWisdom isn\u2019t hard to learn, it\u2019s hard to find!\u201d\u00a0 I remember that when my gratitude for \u201cfinding\u201d MSIA comes forward with the practical simplicity of the teachings.\u00a0 Deming was rigorous in the very best sense and an inspiration for me to, \u201cSit down and do these SE\u2019s!\u201d<\/p>\n If Jan Peerce was a star, Beverly Sills was a super-nova, at one time gracing the covers of Time and Newsweek magazines the same week. \u00a0To hear her sing live was to marvel at the size and beauty of her voice, delivering a musical expression that left listeners awestruck.\u00a0 I never got to meet her to thank her, but to my ears and heart, her expression was a reflection of the feminine polarity in \u201cFather, Mother, God\u2026\u201d \u00a0Remembering her, my only thought is, \u201cThank God for the grace of hearing you sing. \u00a0May my expression at times reflect your inspiration.\u201d<\/p>\n Sometimes when things appear good, but mostly when it seems they aren\u2019t, I try to remind myself to \u201clove it all.\u201d\u00a0 How many times did I see J-R demonstrate that in circumstances \u2013 large, medium and small \u2013 where I couldn\u2019t imagine how to be loving?\u00a0 More than I care to remember.\u00a0 Didn\u2019t I hear him say, \u201cBe patient, God isn\u2019t finished with you?\u201d\u00a0 I\u2019m grateful for all the keys given to me by Jan, Bucky, Dr. Deming and Sills, but most grateful for the Master Key delivered by a Traveler.\u00a0 His last physical words to me were, \u201cI love you, Tom.\u201d\u00a0 He loved us all.\u00a0 He loves us all.<\/p>\n Death can be a useful reminder that those we love live on.<\/p>\n Tom Boyer<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When Jan Peerce died, I was reminded to be generously kind. When Bucky Fuller passed, I was reminded to work for the greater good. When Dr. Deming left, I was reminded to direct my mind into wisdom. When Beverly Sills departed, I was reminded to express in grace. When John-Roger transitioned, I was reminded to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":110870,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[266],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}