Quiet night here at home. Diane and Gabe decided at the last moment to go down to the Cape with the Kenny’s and Townsend’s.   Leaving me here all alone with ‘only’ 7 Voices house guests tonight. Poor me J.. I ‘m going to use the quit to catch up on my sleep.  I got up this morning after 5 hours of sleep feeling pretty groggy. I wondered over to the computer to check out my MySpace and was pleased to see several messages about the article that Kate and Adam at WCAX had done on the Friends of Sam benefit last night. This is one of those few days when I regret not having real TV in the house I checked the WCAX website and was surprised to see the Friends of Sam story on their front  page.

The article is here and includes a media link and this  transcript

South Burlington, Vermont – July 30, 2007

Teenagers having fun at the Talent Skate Park in South Burlington have already learned life has its ups and downs. The toughest downturn: when their friend Sam Cohn was hit by a car and killed in November. He was just 14.

“When we lost Sam it was shocking,” 15-year-old Hannah Townsend said. “Really shocking.”

“Losing a best friend, it doesn’t hit you at first,” explained 14-year-old Sumner Williams. “And a few weeks in, you’re like, ‘Wow, I can’t do anything with this person anymore. It’s just so hard.”

Townsend said none of them had lost a friend like this, so they didn’t know how to grieve. But they knew Sam — a skater, snowboarder, guitarist and athlete — wasn’t the type who would want them to sit back and mourn.

“We wanted to do something for him because he would have done it for us,” she said. “He was a really good kid. We had to do something.”

That something turned out to be raising money for other kids in need. They collected money at the skate park’s door and sold ice cream and pizza that had been donated by local businesses. It was the third fundraiser the group had organized. Just a month after Sam died, his friends raised money to buy Christmas presents for kids who might not get any. Then they raised almost $3,000 to help a paralyzed snowboarder make his house wheelchair accessible.

“They’re not only raising the money, they’re finding the people who need it,” Sam’s father, John, said. “It’s really a kids-to-kids connection, and the rest of the adults are sitting back going ‘Who knew?’ It’s really cool.”

Sam Cohn has already saved four lives — his parents donated his organs when he died. Now he’s helping more people live better lives.

“I think he would have been really proud of his friends,” Cohn said. “And to the extent that he’s somewhere watching, he’s probably bummed he’s not here. We certainly are.”

Sam packed a lot of life into 14 years. But even in death, he’s making a difference.

“It’s amazing how big people’s hearts are,” Cohn said.

Kate Duffy – WCAX News

I’m still struggling  to download the media link so I can put it on a CD..   for now, I just recorded this on my camera… see the link  above for better quality video

I was so proud of Sam’s friends (and Sam) after seeing this article. They really are doing something great here.

I was talking to my friend Deanna and we were discussing different folks approach to grief. I showed  her the Friends of Sam video and she commented that it looked like we’d found a way to convert some of our grief into goodness. I liked that thought.. Nothing we do is going to fill the hole in our hearts left by Sam’s passing.. but it still sure feels good to turn our missing Sam into fun and helpful efforts like the benefit last night, SamStones and the work we do with Sam’s Foundation. I can’t imagine surviving without that.

 
OK.. Time for bed. .   I came home after snacks/dinner with friends Doug, Mark. Paul. Adger and Bryan,  

and fell asleep on the floor petting Chai. have to get more than 5 hours of sleep tonight.. Gnite all, gnite Sam.. you’re still doing good in the world !

-dad

ps. here’s a montage of skate board deck art I made last night.at Talent .. They are real works of art ! (thanks again Talent-people .. you’re wonderful)

First post: Back home agian at 9PM on Sunday evening. Diane and I left Omega at about 1:30… we picked Gabe up at our friend Trevor’s on the way home. It’s great to be back. It’s great to have Gabe back.. Max was here when we got home and the house was quiet and clean.. Ahhhhh…
   Diane, Gabe and I are just about to head out to see the transformers movie.. Not sure I’ll ahve time to write later… Home so.. But just in case, I wanted to get this  in… More later..
-jc

Ok. Now it’s later..   Diane Gabe and I went to see Transformers and it was really great in a shlocky-kids-toy-made-into-a-movie way.  I’ts now 1:30 AM and I’m just sitting down to write.. There’s so much going on in  our lives right now.. All good stuff… but so much good stuff.. This weekend was good down time jsut to think and heal..
     I just uploaded my pictures from the weekend  and I’m not sure where to start.. and I know it would be crazy to stay up another few hours to get it all typed in.   So,  I’m going to beg everyone’s indulgence here and just give you and outline of what I promise to cover tomorrow:

One thing I’d like to remind everyone before I do pass out is the ‘Friends of Sam’ Benefit at Talent Skate park tomorrow.  Here’s the info. Please come and help the Freinds of Sam help other kids !

-jc

ps. OK.. I can’t resist posting at leas one interesting thing.. I went over to the Monitor Barn on Rt 2 at about 12:30 AM.. to catch a little of the all night shoot the Voices folks are doing there.. Here are some pictures and videos from tonght.. I know some o the Voices dancers parents would like to see them.

Greetings from the spiritual center of Dutchess County. Diane and I are still at Omega Institute with Leah and L:arry.   I’m sitting in the cafe here at the retreat center.. the only interent access on site.. I’m entering this on a public computer.. so no pictures tonight.. and (sorry) no spell checker.. so you get me at my dyslexic best.
We are really enjoying the seminar we’re attending here..  The seminar is being lead by a guy named Brian Weiss… who is a hynotheripist.. and was the head of psychiatry at Yale U. Hospital. He’s spent the last 27 years doing regression therepy on people to help them address persitent pschological problems.. Dr. Weiss was practicing traditional hypnotherapy for many years when he started to find that he seemed to be able to regress people back into previous lives! Further.. he found in some cases  he was able to find sources for peoples physchological and physical problems in those past lives.. and treat them . His traditional medical training made this very hard for him to accept..at first… though he continued to use the practice because it often proved to be very effective. Over time his he came to beleive that he was tapping into real evidence of reincarnation.. He now beleives that all of us circulate through many, many lives… gradually working our way through ‘lesson’s towards enlightenment. What’s more is that we tend to ‘hang out’ more or less with the same group of souls through time… sometimes changing relationshiops, genders, etc. That’s such a strech for me given my religious and scinetific training….. but he points out that this is the established tradition in most of the worlds religions.. and was only removed from the Judeo-christine docterine in recent history.
 After listening to him for a day and a half.. I’m not sure what I beleive.. I will tell you that this is a very intelligent man, he passionately believes in what he’s doing I can also tell you that I’ve been deeply hypnotized 3 times in the past 24 hours.
Each time I’ve gotten a glimpse of something very vivid and beleivable.. I’ve ‘seen’ myself in Victorian enlland (I think) smelling coal smoke and watcihng people set up arc lights… I got a glimpse  of myself as a Roman-era wizard building gizmos for a local duke, predicting eclipses for fun and profit and teaching kids mischeif.. I had the most wonderful shop.. it was a half octagonal room with great light and views of the ocean (Mediterainien). I had lots of tools for shaping metal and tons of chemicals in pots. I was considered to be slightly crazy, powerful and harmless. Kids hung out and pulled my beard and hung around my shop to learn things..   and most recently as a  Jewish hermit/sorcerer that lived outside a large city in the woods of northeren europe dispensing charms and making astronimical projections for people who sought me out. Are these images real ? That’s still hard for me to beleive.. but there was something so clear and detailed about each of these visions.. it was if I could walk around and see anyhting I wanted. Much more vived than any dream I’ve ever had.    I’m still trying to process what it is that I’ve experienced here.. I will tell you this.. my mind and my heart are open

Right now we’re sitting in the cafe with one of the guys from the seminar who’s hypnotizing each of us ..and trying to take us back  It’s sort of  like the stuff that Max is able to do. only with a time machine..

I need to sign off now to see if I can find myself again somewhere sometime..As Jerry always said// ” What a long strange trip it’s been.”

Gnite all.. gnite Sam.. Namaste
-me

ps. THis place reminds me of one of my favorite modern poems.. “Sunflower Sutra” by Alan Ginsberg (who used to come here.. I think)

Here’s the last verse :

–We’re not our skin of grime, we’re not our dread

bleak dusty imageless locomotive, we’re all

beautiful golden sunflowers inside, we’re blessed

by our own seed & golden hairy naked

accomplishment-bodies growing into mad black

formal sunflowers in the sunset, spied on by our

eyes under the shadow of the mad locomotive

riverbank sunset Frisco hilly tincan evening

sitdown vision.

 
Remember.. poetry is good for you

So… sometimes I walk around with a word circulating in my brain without knowing why. Today… the word was ‘verge’…as  in ‘on the verge’ .. It came to me on my run and stuck with me all morning. I finally wrote it down on my trusty palm device.. to get it out of my head.

 On the verge of what ?  ..When it came to me I was standing in the sand pit.. thinking about the times I would bring Sam and Gabe here to play in the sand . I was wondering what it meant. On the verge of tears ? on the verge of a breakdown ? On the verge of depression ? Actually.. weird  as it sounds.. It seemed like I was on the verge of something good ? On the verge of happiness ? a  breakthrough ? Acceptance ? Dunno.. I wondered about it all day. It’s funny how your subconscious tries to talk to you…

 Today was pretty packed .. I started with a 7:30 call with my bosses which is always interesting.. I was barely awake after another 4 hour sleep.

I came downstairs to find Max asleep on the couch.. He was down here trying to escape the heat.   Neither of us function very well above 75 degrees.

The Voices kids were all in the kitchen eating ready to go in to work.. Breakfast has become a big deal around our house..

  I went out for a run in the woods with Chai.. It was a beautiful,  hot morning.. As I ran through the high field up  behind our  house I was thinking of all the times I ran that route before Sam’s passing.. sometime I’d be preoccupied with work.. other time’s I’d be blissfully mindless and happy. I realized that today  I was   almost  happy. That’s real progress.

 
Work was busy as usual. One cool thing that happened was that I had an hour meeting with some folks at the Discovery Channel  brainstorming about ideas for getting kids hooked on science Maybe something will come of our conversation. One of the guys I was talking to used to be the side kick for the original TV Mr. Wizard, Don Hebert  from the 70’s through 80’s (actually Hebert  was the third of 3 TV Wizards…he died last June at age 89)   I think I want to be Mr. Wizard when I grow up.

Mr. Wizard in the 60’s

Mr Wizard in the 90’s

The rest of my day was packed with meetings..  actually.. most of them pretty interesting..  I even managed ot squeeze in getting a new badge for IBM.. always a momentus event becuae you get to see your progrssion in the picutures.. I like my new picture…

Around 5 Diane called me to invite me out for a veggie sushi date.. We met up at Sakuras,  We had a nice quiet  dinner.. which is a rarity these days with all the activity in our lives.. After dinner, Diane drove home.. and I went out to meet my friends Camil. Bob and Marie for a quick beer.

I made it home just before 9 and the house was packed with kids again .. I think we have 10 sleeping here tonight.. It’s very nice…lots of music.. lots of goofiness.

Tomorrow Diane and I are off to Omega institute for a seminar.. I’ll be writing from there for the next 3 days.. hope they have an internet connection. We’ll see. Until then.. g’nite all. G’nite Sam.

-me