A new year, a new day, with a brand new number to remember because it is January, the month of the two faced god – one to look forward and one to look back. Looking forward we see a new life for the Jolter in the midst now of slowly disengaging himself from the business of law and looking forward to a change in venue.
Looking backward, through the eyes of Suzanne M. McSorley in a tome resurrected while cleaning a closet in the office…it was her “thesis” entitled:
“THE METAMORPHOSIS OF REFORM: Ethnic Politics and The Social Issue in Philadelphia, 1962-1975” The period was my most active time in the political arena, so it was fun to reminisce and read of the battles of those days. It is a “tome” i.e. 8 1/2″ by 11” bound typewritten 280 pages of text, graphs, charts, and maps. It is not to be read in bed. It is similar to an unabridged dictionary and is best read while it is resting on a stand. Eight of those pages by the way are “bibliography” if any of you choose to further explore the subject. If you didn’t know that Sue had published such a volume, it is not surprising. I as the Father and some time bill payer had the privilege of receiving a bound copy of her thesis in the form of “receipt” for three years at Princeton. The thesis by the way enabled her to skip her fourth year and jump right into Columbia Law School.
I loved her acknowledgement: “My deepest gratitude to Tom who believed, more than I did, that one could be a law student and human being and finish a thesis at the same time.”
He is still a believer now that she is a lawyer, housewife, mother, and liturgical assistant, surprise party giver and receiver…etc., etc. Her work also confirms that Arlen Specter was a turncoat opportunist in 1967…no change there in 30 years!
I have been reading another book sent to me by Bill King. It is written by a friend and runner of both of us. It is “Going the Distance” by George Sheehan M.D. He was a cardiologist and lived in North Jersey by the sea. George and I had some things in common. He was one of 14 children, adopted a profession for a career after attending Manhattan College, where he ran the mile and the 1500 meters. He fathered 12 children, ran at least 21 marathons…the number he ran at Boston. He wrote a monthly column in several running and running related magazines. His columns became books. One was “Personal Best” which I had him autograph in 1992 in Atlantic City at the 20th anniversary of the running of its marathon. I did a 1/2 marathon…the last one and was first in my age group (over 80).
His writing, like himself, is very introspective and philosophical. He, though always a friendly guy, was not, as pointed out in the intro, a “high fiver”. In 1986 he contracted prostrate cancer. He continued to run and fight the good fight. The book is a report of that fight…the final years, i.e., going the distance. It is a moving document in its depth and humor. He died on Nov. 1, 1993…All Saint’s Day…a bit of irony George would have enjoyed. His epilogue, as his preamble writer notes is all the people he touched in a life of active participation in all of its facets.
I remember one other time we met. It was in Asbury Park Marathon in the ’80s. It was a cold a windy day. He caught me with less than a 1/2 mile to go and out ran me. He then proceeded to get ill…tossing his cookies. He complained to me how the old competition just wouldn’t let me stay ahead and now he was paying for it. He always was better 1500 man, or as we called them, dashers. I saw him several times at Sea Isle’s 10-mile beach run.
His book is full of witty and sagacious observations about the final race…death. At about the same time I was perusing it I came across a very appropriate quote by Montaigne:
“Fortune appears sometimes purposely to wait for the last years of our lives in order to show us she can overthrow in one moment what she has taken long years to build. In this last scene between death, and us there is no more pretense. We must use plain words, display such goodness and purity as we have at the bottom of the pot.”
George does this precisely. Even the subject matter, death, though treated seriously is not without humor. He notes that he had run out of subjects to write about so along comes this disease and it terminal nature, giving him a sure topic. He only wrote from his own experience and knowledge of the subject matter so here was a ready made one!!
I was particularly moved by a report of a talk he gave just a few years before his death in Unitarian Church in San Diego. The topic was “What’s New in Training, Nutrition, and Injuries” The questions however started to run deeper than training for races, carbo-loading and the like.
“What are your main concerns?”
Another “What would you do differently?” and then “Have you become more religious?” says George:
“They were looking at me as elder and wondered what happened after a lifetime of running and with time running out.
I was silent for a time. Then, my arms in front of me, palms upward as if in supplication, I looked heavenward and asked, “Did I win?”
It was a question of a schoolboy being asked by some just a few years short of being truly old. I have spent my life playing a game in which I am not sure of the rules or the goal. At this point I was asking whoever is in charge the big question: “Did I win?”…
Although I am seventy something, I still wonder whether I played this game of life well enough to win. It is so difficult to know what really mattered. It’s as if all my life was spent studying for the final examination, and now I am not sure just what was important and what wasn’t.
Did I win? Do any of us know? Is there anything we have done that assures us we have passed the test? Can we be sure we did out best at whatever it was that we were supposed to do? When Robert Frost was in his sixties he wrote, “I am no longer concerned with good and evil. What concerns me is whether my offering will be acceptable.” Frost wrote some hard things – and this may be the hardest and truest of all. The answer to the question “Did I win?” is “Yes, if your offering is acceptable.”
I am still working on mine (p. 134-136)
Well, we might answer: “Aren’t we all George?”
Our two faced god looking backward could also see the year’s second surprise party. This party is for Bill at the usual “surprise party headquarters” – Sue and Tom’s. He reached the golden age of 40 and he was surprised!!! Our friendly two faced observer could also see that five (5), yes FIVE, years ago I had my last taste of alcohol and I still don’t miss it…and just three years ago this month I took ride through the frozen city to Hahnemann Hospital to have my plumbing adjusted.
Now looking ahead we are happy to report another McSorley has been published! Andrew J. to be precise. His story was published in the Fall Issue of the Great Lakes Review. The review is a literary magazine of the State University of N.Y. at Oswego. I hope later to reproduce the story, with the author’s permission, and send it on. He learned of the publication only after the fact. They didn’t check with him first…but he still very happy about the matter!
An update on my leaving the practice: Richard T. and a friend James Millar, have agreed to rent the office beginning Feb. 1, 1997. I have physically moved out. I returned the other day to see a computer on my old desk and picture of a young man, obviously Jim’s son beaming out at me. It was a strange feeling…like returning to your old home where others now live and reminiscing. But I am still tied to a few matters. My last adoption hearing is set for Jan 28th in Doylestown. I have two other domestic matters winding down along with two Estates to complete…all I hope by the time we leave for a short visit to Petersburg in April.
I see once again I’m making these notes a bit too long…so with the hope to drop each of you a personal note…I’ll see ya!
Ron & Mary: Enclosed please find check for $150 bumper money…hope it takes the dent of your rear…bumper that is…June dreamed last night that Mary had two boys …put that in with the rest of the reported UFO sightings and other such certitudes… Hope for both the time is no longer than Valentine’s Day…Heard you got a good haul at the rain party…or shower…but according to Paul Jr. it was more like a rain party when it came to the gifts…is it a fact you have to buy another car since you got so many baby car seats??? No! Keep in touch and watch those guys in your rear…Love, Dad…