I have this theory. Perhaps it's not so
much a theory as a kind of gut feeling about some of the things that
occur in life. When I think about it consciously, it goes something
like this: We all have a lifespan. During our lives many of the
creatures surrounding us have very short life spans, or so it seems.
We refer to “dog years” as seven years to our one. A Mayfly lives
only twenty four hours.
Then I think of such a thing as a
Hummingbird, whose wings constantly move so fast that we can't even
see them. They seem to be moving as if we were seeing a film played
at high speed. Perhaps they see us as if we are moving in slow
motion. Perhaps they can't even perceive our motions in the same way
that we don't often see the growth of plants. I think that such
amazing, and beautiful, creatures will only live a short time. And
then I have to wonder...
Do they really live such a short time?
It seems like we share the earth with others who, when we use
ourselves as comparisons, are somehow cheated of a full life. That
doesn't necessarily make sense, though. I think to myself that
perhaps the Hummingbird's sense of time is such that their life might
seem full, given that most Hummingbirds would live for the same
length of time as others. The Mayfly's life is probably a full life,
etc, etc. Perhaps lifespan has to do with the speed of their
heartbeats and the length of time it takes to reach a certain number
of heartbeats. I don't know; does anyone?
All I can say is that a Hummingbird
accomplishes amazing things in that short period of time, all the
while retaining its beauty. Those of us who love pets, know that we
will outlive most of them. We already know, whether we want to be
cognizant of the fact or not, that humans tend to have longer
lifespans than dogs, cats, or most other animals that we surround
ourselves with. Those pets may view, if they can, our lifespans as
being incredibly long, as we do when we see the Giant Sequoia trees.
Sometimes I have this feeling with
certain people. There are people among us who live shorter lives.
Shorter, yet sometimes, fuller lives. It's as if they had the energy
of the Hummingbird. It seems that they created more, they lived more
fully, they kept doing, in such a way that far exceeded what the
majority of us accomplish in a much longer period of time. Robin
Williams never stopped moving, never stopped trying to make people
laugh, was always looking ahead to the next “come-back”. Perhaps
he never took any time away from it and was saving his rest for his
return to forever.
I've had this feeling about Jimi
Hendrix. He did such amazing things at such a young age. He created
music that people are still trying to understand forty years after he
died. It's as if he accomplished so much, in his twenty seven years,
that though we still desire more, he completed his life. He lived a
full life. He lived fast and furiously and contributed greatly to the
world of music, influencing every genre of music since.
Perhaps the more intensely one lives
and the more things one accomplishes, the longer, greater and fuller
their life is, regardless of the length of that life in actual time.
Again, I don't know anything for certain but it seems that there are
certain people who, now that they are gone, fit this category where,
despite the brief time they lived, their lives were full and
complete: James Dean, Whitney Houston, Kirby Perkins, Elvis Presley,
Tony Pinto, Humphrey Bogart, Glenn Miller... ...and thousands of
others.
Please don't think that I am ignoring
the tragedy of their passing. Death never seems to occur when it is
supposed to. You would think that we should somehow know when it's
coming, given the billions who have proceeded us. We suffer
tremendously when we lose them. Do they? I cannot say...
I think about this when I need to
soothe myself over the passing of a friend, the latest of whom
reminds me of some of these others who, although they left me before
I thought they should, lived life fully and made great contributions
for the rest of us.
When I speak of Dominic living a full
life, I can only speak to the length of time that I've known him. We
became friends through working together in The Antique & Classic
Boat Society and especially working on our chapter's annual boat
festival. His wife, Maryann is the Festival Chair. He approached me
one day saying that he had heard that I was a former professional
musician and he told me that he had been the manager of The Army
Field Band, which is where he met Maryann who was a member of the
band. The stories he told me of his experiences there revealed some
amazing accomplishments, notably getting the Field Band into the
Montreaux Jazz Festival, perhaps the most important jazz venue in the
world.
One of my earliest recollections of
Dominic was when Maryann and he experimented with a business making
nautical furniture and began traveling to some of the same shows that
we do. In Upstate New York, four hundred miles from home, Dominic
noticed that one of our truck's headlights was out. He was a person
that always paid attention to “the details”. He found me and said
“Don't worry about it. I will take care of it. Maryann can man
our booth.” When I said that he didn't need to do that he said “I
know how to do it; it's easy. And, if I don't know how to do it, I'll
find out how. Give me your keys.” Then he said the thing that I'll
always remember him for: “I specialize in getting things done.”
I have to say that I really didn't know
what to think at that moment, but when we saw him later he told me
about how our truck was different from what he had previously worked
on and that it was a challenge, but that he enjoyed doing it. I
believe that everyone that I know knew Dominic probably had some
experience in which Dominic got it done. Dominic thrived on
challenges.
Because we live just a bit too far
away, and although I consider Dominic a great friend, I don't feel
like I got to know him as well as I would have liked. I did get to
work with him frequently and can tell you that he was always
thinking, always friendly, always willing to give of himself, always
trying to make things better, always available when someone needed
something, a great leader, able to provide criticism in a supportive
way, open minded, interested in new ways of doing things, he had a
great sense of humor and he was very caring. Capable of taking
seemingly untenable ideas, learning what was required for their
success, bringing the right kinds of people together and convincing
them to become involved and helping them to complete the job, he not
only got it done, he provided opportunities for others to share in
accomplishments they could really be proud of. He was probably the
greatest master of “Schmooze” that I have known. He was generous
and loved to see others enjoy themselves.
I have always seen Dominic as driven to
do well in everything he did. Although he always seemed relaxed, I
don't think that he liked to be without something important to do. I
don't know how he felt about his own accomplishments, but to most
people that I know, he would be regarded as having had a pretty
amazing record of success.
Of late, I can't help but feel that he
foresaw that he was running out of the energy to do what he loved to
do most. It took so much energy to do the great things that he did.
I don't pretend to know his thoughts, his feelings or his wishes.
But, from my vantage point, he reminds me of the Hummingbird, in
which despite the brevity of his life, it was full, it was rich, he
made the lives of others more enjoyable and he certainly gave me
things that I will remember for the rest of my life.
We'll miss you, old friend.
It was fortuitous for us that we had to
miss the famous Waterfowl Festival in Easton for the first time in
several years. There are a great many truly world class artists
representing many different disciplines there and it can be quite the
“heady atmosphere”. One discipline that I feel has been
underrepresented is that of model boat making. Waterfowling and
boats are like, well... …ducks and water...
When he mentioned a few of the other
model makers that he had invited, it was clear that he had assembled
a group of model makers that would have been appropriate for a
“Master's Gallery” of Model Makers at the Waterfowl Festival.
Because I am bad with names I won't attempt to list them, because I
might forget someone and they were all great. We had the
best in local, regional and some national talent, even including the
curator of the NewYork Yacht Club collection, which is considered to
house some of the finest models ever made. The models at the show represented a wide variety of boats and ships from different places
and different eras and those of the Chesapeake were particularly well
represented.
