Beyond the horizon of the place we lived when we were young In a world of magnets and miracles Our thoughts strayed constantly and without boundary The ringing of the division bell had begun
Along the long road and on down the causeway Do they still meet there by the Cut
There was a ragged band that followed in our footsteps Running before time took our dreams away Leaving the myriad small creatures trying to tie us to the ground To a life consumed by slow decay
The grass was greener The light was brighter With friends surrounded The nights of wonder
Looking beyond the embers of bridges glowing behind us To a glimpse of how green it was on the other side Steps taken forwards but sleepwalking back again Dragged by the force of some inner tide
At a higher altitude with flag unfurled We reached the dizzy heights of that dreamed of world
Encumbered forever by desire and ambition There’s a hunger still unsatisfied Our weary eyes still stray to the horizon Though down this road we’ve been so many times
The grass was greener The light was brighter The taste was sweeter The nights of wonder
With friends surrounded The dawn mist glowing The water flowing The endless river
Overhead the albatross Hangs motionless upon the air And deep beneath the rolling waves In labyrinths of coral caves The echo of a distant time Comes willowing across the sand And everything is green and submarine
And no one showed us to the land And no one knows the where’s or why’s But something stirs and something tries And starts to climb toward the light
Strangers passing in the street By chance, two separate glances meet And I am you and what I see is me And do I take you by the hand And lead you through the land And help me understand the best I can?
And no one calls us to move on And no one forces down our eyes No one speaks and no one tries No one flies around the sun
Cloudless everyday You fall upon my waking eyes Inviting and inciting me to rise And through the window in the wall Come streaming in on sunlight wings A million bright ambassadors of morning
And no one sings me lullabies And no one makes me close my eyes So I throw the windows wide And call to you across the sky
All of our children speak Spanish (we live in Southern California); we all speak English , of course, but I think it true to say we all speak, read and talk in Spanish every day. One has contact with native Spanish speakers by phone or in person virtually every day. There are neighborhoods that are majority Spanish-speaking in New York, Miami, San Antonio (Texas) and other places in California. But only 10-15% of the state-wide population are Spanish-speaking in states where Spanish is most common. However, the USA borders deep Spanish-speaking hinterlands in the Caribbean and the rest of the Americas.
Colorado like Washington State may be on the periphery of the Spanish-speaking world -but Miami , San Antonio, Los Angeles, New York City are not. LA and NYC are among the largest Spanish-speaking cities in the world and have their own Spanish-language newspapers and media. I , in fact, learned a lot of Spanish reading Spanish language newspapers and listening to World Series and World Cup games in Spanish.
I prefered Vin Scully when I hear the Dodgers but every single game is broadcast in Spanish and when we are the house of friends we hear the game in Spanish. We watch World Cup Soccer (Football) games in Spanish. Both baseball and soccer are very popular in USA Hispanic communities. MLB has all the scores and news in Spanish as well as English. https://www.mlb.com/es/news You can get the rule book in Spanish. Teams like the Dodgers actively recruit Spanish-speaking players from Latin America and have special tutors to help integrate them and make them feel at home. Many managers and scouts for the Dodgers and other teams speak Spanish.
We watch English movies with Spanish subtitles and Spanish movies with English subtitles. We also watch French and Italian films and shows with English subtitles.
I believe, by the way that English should be the official language of California (which it is) and English should be the official language of the USA.
But Spanish is not going away that is a certainty.
Not in my lifetime or the lifetime of my children. It will remain an important second language for many Hispanic Americans and be the primary language of private religious practices and family life.
One thing I DO NOT BELIEVE is that monolingual Spanish speakers will ever become a majority of the population of any state in the Union. Spanish-speaking populations will become more and more Americanized and bilingual over time and some will intermarry and not preserve their Spanish.
But as long as there is immigration from Spanish speaking countries and as long as the birth rate for Hispanic women remains over 2.1 Spanish will endure in the USA and in the Americas.
It’s Italian, German, and Gaelic I am worried about -those languages are endangered in North America. Ultra-minority languages will tend to disappear. Last I saw fewer than 500 people speak Gaelic in California. But Spanish is not alone there are many other competitors for large minority second languages. In many places, it has strong competition with Chinese, Vietnamese, Hindi, Punjabi and others. At Dodger stadium, I often hear Japanese. But Spanish is useful and taught in virtually every city and county in the USA. So after English, it is the language most familiar to Americans and is likely to remain so.
I have attended a few colleges in my life and got some benefits from them. The main barrier was COST. American colleges are very expensive. One should only go, in my humble opinion, if one has clear goals. It is important, for some careers, to have a formal diploma or credential. If I were young today I would take a practical course in Nursing or Engineering or Computer Science. Medicine or Law are good careers but very long and very expensive unless one can do them via the military. I many Navy nurses, doctors and Marine lawyers in my day. I would recommend to any young person to do at least one tour of duty or to join the National Guard or Reserves and for many this could be the way getting some college without incurring an enormous debt. I know a young man to worked and studying for ten years to finally get his BS in engineering and now has a very good job. But his first job after high school was in a supermarket in produce. But he kept on studying at junior college at night to get his AA and then finally transferred to a four year college.
When I did become a teacher in my early 30s I was a mature individual and so was able to handle the stress of the classroom and academic obligations. In high school I had studied five years of Spanish and two years of typing and those two skills helped me enormously in my professional career.
As a teenager, I studied some classes near to home at Seton Hall University and also a summer in Soria Spain via the University of Northern Iowa which was very influential in my life. The program no longer exists, sadly. I commuted to NYU via the 77 bus and the PATH train and it was (then) relatively inexpensive. I got a solid undergraduate education (BA with honors) but thought graduate school was too expensive and I really didn’t want to be in the classroom anymore. So my New York education was over. I took advantage of my time in New York to enjoy the museums and culture and baseball games (frankly the thing I miss the most) and made many side trips to Washington DC. (I was in the Marine Reserves and trained at Quantico.)
I wanted to see the world and have some adventure. So I joined the Marines and later lived in Spain and worked as a construction worker in the West. I always studied when I could and did some military history courses via American Military University. I found it very difficult to live, work AND formally study so usually my education was via books as an autodidact. I had some freedom because I always avoided accumulating school debt.
After a number of years in construction and later at the Bank of America I thought it would be best to go back to school to get some formal certifications. I had studied computers and accounting at the American Banking Institute and some of those classes were at Seattle University which at that time was across the street from the bank. I first thought I could get an MBA but then thought a better fit for me was to get a 5th Year Teaching certificate 4-12 which I did by working nights and going to school during the day.
The hardest part was student teaching (which I had to pay for) while working full-time to maintain benefits for my family and support them. In order to be as employable as possible I also got a certificate in English to go along with my Spanish and Social Studies certificate. I worked or studied seven days a week. for two years I cam home at 10 or 11 PM M-Thurs and 7PM on Saturdays. I did not watch television for about two years! I only saw my family briefly most days. On Sundays I was with my family from about 7am to 1pm but the rest of the time I had to read, study, and type school papers. I had dinner with my family only Sundays and after dinner, I stayed up as long as necessary to be ready for the next week. I took the CBEST (California Educational Skills test) in Math and English and passed it. On April 26, 1989 I was interviewed at the Tacoma Dome by an administrator from Arvin High School (Kern HS District) in California. They expressed mailed me a contract as a bilingual Social Studies teacher Varsity Soccer coach and JV Baseball coach. In the meantime I planned to get my MA in Spanish via the University of Northern Iowa in Soria Spain in the summers so from 1989-1991 I got 30 credits, got a Bilingual Certificate of Competence and a California Clear Credential. That was the most expensive educational project I had ever done and cost about $25,000. I paid about $10,000 in cash in 1989 but borrowed the rest. It took me about 10 years to pay that off but in the meantime I was able to support my family, buy a home and get tenured in the Kern HS District. From 1991-2003 I really wasn’t able to study formally because I was working nights, summers etc. In 2004 an opportunity opened up for a Fellowship to the University of Virginia and I studied there for one year (30 credits) but even with the Fellowship it was extremely expensive as I was maintaining two homes our family home in California and a one-bedroom apartment in Charlottesville. I tried to save as much money as possible by walking to school and not having a car. I rented one occasionally but traveled mostly by bus and train. At first I hoped I might finish my PhD but it was just too expensive, For me to have continued I would have had to quit my job, cash in on my retirement and move the entire family to Virginia. And I wasn’t getting any younger I was 49 in 20O4. So I maxed out my salary scale cut my losses and went back to my full-time job in the Kern HS District. I have since done many GREAT COURSES on literature and history and have been studying languages via DUOLINGO. I intend to do self education for the rest of my life. I am tempted to do on line classes in a more formal setting at times the problem is the cost and of course, I don’t need any more degrees or formal certification, I am retired (I do some part-time translating for lawyers or tutoring) and I don’t think I will ever work again except something I really love to do.
Thanksgiving is recognizing and thanking the One who has provided a gift or blessing.
We have blessing of the people in our lives whom we love and who love us, If we have the blessings of physical health and sight and taste and hearing and strength, We should rejoice and be glad -and thankful. If we have material blessings, a home , a cozy library, a kitchen of our own, a bit to eat and a bit to drink, music to enjoy, We should rejoice and be glad and thankful! We should also be glad for the spiritual blessings which give serenity and peace to our souls. I thank God for the blessing of memory so that my mother is always near and in my heart, I thank God for having known my father -my mother never knew hers- he was killed August 8, 1918. I thank God for having known my father’s father and learned so much from him especially about thankfulness. When I complained I was having a bad day he used to say what is it? IS THAT ALL! Laddie, it’s nae the end o’ the warld! It THAT”S a’ ye have tae worry aboot ye hae nae worries at a’, aye! To be trapped in a dry cave in Galliopoli wi’ the Turk a-shootin’ doon and a-comin’ if they can to cut your heid off -AYE that’s trouble!!!
AULD POP said:
Count your blessings, lad, not your sorrows, count your blessings, lad, not your disappointments, count your blessings, not your losses though they be many, Give Thanksgiving, lad, Give Thanksgiving! For all you have lived, For all you will live, and for all the joys and love and frienships in your life.” Remember, you are lucky to be alive, lucky to have someone to love, lucky to be loved, lucky to have a school to go to or a job to do, lucy to have a roof over your heid and lucky to have tea or soup at the boil. Lucky to have a welcome behind the door when you come home at night. Lucky to have the light of morning in a new day and there in the kitchen is your mother getting breakfast ready for us all. Aye, count your blessings lad.
Auld Pop is gone but he still is counting his blessings with us every Thanksgiving.
He is looking down from the mantle in his kilt even now. It is April 6th , 1917 in Salonika. America has entered the war and for him there will be no 5th Ypres And he will live to tell stories and play records to his grandchildren though he will sing no more. For the gassing at Ypres 1915 hurt his lungs and his song is silenced forever. But he still can whistle and drum out a tune. And he counted his blessings despite the hardships and the exile and the separations Because he lost a few years in the war but not his entire life. Unlike more than 7,000 men in his Regiment and 197 men in his company. They were 200 Scottish pals in August 1914 and by April 6, 1917 they were just three. One thing I learned from Auld Pop was gratitude and the meaning of Thanksgiving. Ne obliviscaris DO NOT FORGET
Spirit of Cecilia 
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