Ex altus vincimus

“How many roads must a man walk down, before he finds the one, the answer my friend is blowing in the wind. ...” Notwithstanding that this was written in the heyday of psychedelic recreational dugs and when listening to Dylan you never quite know what he is talking about, I recently had a conversation with my blood brother on how life has turned out. If you go back to the days when you were supported by your parents and the future was before you then almost anything was possible. In this rainbow nation of ours we borrowed from the Yanks that we could do anything we set our minds to. Life will teach you this is not correct. ‘Stupid is as stupid does“ is not going to be an astronaut with no amount of training. There are currently a few books out right now that a positing that if you spend ten thousand hours at a subject (roughly ten years) you will be a world expert at that subject. The books fail to mention that you will also be a bore. Who the hell wants to only know about one subject even if it makes you rich! You will be poor in other ways. I have many more hours on the subject of staying alive and have managed to do so for over forty years so far. What a ride it has been. Has my life gone to plan? It depends who you ask I suppose.

I have regrets but far more importantly I have memories that I am very happy with and friends that have lasted a lifetime. As I sit and type this I have an African grey parrot sitting on my shoulder and nibbling my ear. My German Shepherds are at my feet and the thought of impregnating my wife could be a good way to spend the rest of the afternoon. Buckwheat you are the rarest of all children and it is your insecurities and strengths that make you in some ways my best friend that I hardly ever see anymore. I like spending my days with folk smarter than me and chatting to you via email reminds me of the drunken discussions we would have when life was before us. Now that we are in the middle we have the advantage of hindsight and the future before us.The size of our group pushed us to be better than we really were and I think that continues today.

I envy you Buckwheat all the stories you will be able to tell your children as the few I know have always been an inspiration. There are some that you are not aware I know and will save them for the course of our next forty years. To you I say, ”Ex altus vincimus“, blood brother