BLACK SHEEP
I don’t talk much about my family. But when I do, it’s with a nuanced curiosity and deep respect.
I’m the black sheep. The under-achieving over-achiever of our generation. My cousins have accomplished far more in their professional lives than I, and my sister would have (and still could!), had she not paused her career for 15 years to raise kids. This is the truth, not a self-flagellating imagined hyperbole. Our fathers, who were brothers, have both passed, and it’s now the four of us keeping our shared heritage alive.
In leaving my family behind in 1989 for a move to Colorado that I’ve neither never doubted nor considered reversing, I moved off the path, and made some big trades, including…
A New York State Of Mind for the Rocky Mountain High (I’ve seen it raining fire in the sky!)…
An Ivy League heritage for the Wisdom of the hills …
Financial wealth for Spiritual depth …
All of which reminds me of the question David Gilmour sang in the Pink Floyd classic “Wish You Were Here,”
Did they ask you to trade…
Your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
Here I am today, wearing a tie-dye, logging into Eric’s Zoom room for a “Cousins Call.” I’m deeply at peace at our home in Nederland, a small mountain town outside of Boulder, while they are logging in from a pair of New York City highrise apartments, a Boston mansion, and a Connecticut country club enclave.
I’m more fully comfortable and at home in myself than I’ve ever been, and follow the path of self-discovery and it unfolds before me … and, still, as I Zoom into this call, I’m wondering…. What If? In the end, I know, I chose the Road Less Traveled, and that has made all the difference.