Reflection #62 (Only 1014 to go): A Man of an Uncertain Age   Earlier this month, I celebrated my 75th birthday.   It’s not that big a deal; it is what it is.  I no longer can jump as high, or run fast, but those weren’t really my strengths when I was young anyway. This milestone did prompt me to become somewhat reflective.   Despite the advancements of modern medicine, it’s a pretty good bet that this will be my last “quarter century” celebration.  (No, I haven’t heard any dire report from my health-care provider.) This “reminiscence” is just about the years when I turned 25 and 50. When I turned 25 (Hmmm! It sounds like a missing verse from a Sinatra song.), I was fairly new at teaching and being at Ignatius.  I remember trying to copy the styles of other young teachers, like Carm Pintozzi and almost any Jesuit scholastic who was there.  They seemed to be on the same “wave length”…the terminology of the day …  with the students and had developed a rapport with them that I envied.  As a side note, around that time, Stan Wisniewski, SJ. (not yet a priest) encouraged me to join the Jesuits.  In retrospect, it was good for me…and probably for the Jesuits…that I didn’t. Of course, Mal and “Moos” were still going strong, but they were “gods”, whose mystique was unattainable.  Neither Pat O’Mara nor Bob Gabric had arrived yet, and ultimately, they would become not only my mentors, but my friends. By the time that I turned 50, O’Mara had passed away, and Gabric had moved on to greener pastures.   Many things had changed in those 25 years, both at Ignatius and in the world.  At Ignatius, 6 principals had come and gone, including Frank Raispis, the first lay-principal.  In the church, Vatican II had taken hold.  World events included men traveling to the moon, and the Vietnam war was an unpleasant, but distant memory…except to those who were in it, or had a relative who was. Personally, I continued to perfect my skills both as a teacher and a tennis coach.  I have often said that I learned 90% about how to teach in my first year, but over the next 50+ years, I didn’t fully learn the last 10%.  I realize now that a part of the problem was that things change.   In 1961, there were no hand-held calculators.  When girls entered the scene, our approach had to be “tweeked”.    No more hitting, for example.  Now textbooks are being phased out, and replaced by laptops. Finally, I am now in a place where I think about the best, and safest, way to carry out the next task.  Trust me when I say, “safest”.  In the last 3 years, 4 close friends and contemporaries have fallen, and their lives have, to varying degrees, been altered.  Using my coaching experience, I have instructed my friends to walk “with their feet apart and their knees bent”.  Many already do that out of necessity, but it’s fun to watch whole groups of 70- and 80-year-olds walking that way.   Reply Forward Click here to Reply or Forward 0% full Using 0.01 GB of your 30 GB ©2014 Google - Terms of Service - Privacy Policy - Program Policies Powered by Last account activity: 3 minutes ago Details