INTEGRITY AND GRACE

Our family is mourning the recent loss of a dear, dear friend. Our friend, a Korean War veteran, went on to a career piloting the boat that puts the pilots on and off of ships  at  Los Angeles Harbor.  As a young child, I was fortunate enough once to have been allowed to ride that boat out to pick up a pilot who had just safely taken a large freighter outside of LA's breakwater (this was a very long, long time ago). What a terrific object lesson in integrity, and grace!  A small boat,  maneuvering in to come aside a looming hulk,  and the harbor pilot climbing down a simple rope ladder onto the boat that would return him back to the pilot station, until, in reverse process, he would be taken out to command yet another boat requiring guidance into the Port of Los Angeles.

One may marvel at grace and choreography in ballets, but that is nothing to the choreography, and the steady hand required in safely putting a pilot onto the large ships that traffic our harbors.  And integrity- if one has ever seen how insubstantial the ladder down the side of the ship appears,  and if one has felt how the swell of the sea causes the small pilot boat to heave up and down next to the leviathan craft- it becomes clear that pilots would only entrust their safety to a captain of a pilot boat who had demonstrated day in, and day out, fair or foul weather, a steady hand, a steady heart, and utmost integrity.

But why do I mention this here, on a page directed at development on Donner Summit? Well, one of our friend's greatest loves was the sea, and fishing.  Now, fishing is a funny thing, in my mind, because  of course some fish inevitably wind up quite dead,  and, if big enough, in somebody's freezer.   But, as all true fishermen know, the relationship between the fisher and the fished is much more complex,  and on the part of the fisherman,  predicated on a deep concern for the entire ecosystem that supports the fish.  A true fisherman is the ultimate good steward, who understands that fish swimming in streams, fish running in rivers, and fish in the sea represent grace, pure grace-  A gift of grace that requires hard work to protect, in the sanctity of the streams, rivers, and  the sea.

In that vein,  I would like to ask all readers of this page to remember the grace of fish,  and the importance of protecting their habitat.  And I would like to say to my best of "dutch uncles", thank you for demonstrating integrity and grace in all your life-