This is the period of yearly "Christmas Letters". I haven't partaken of this ritual for many years. Initially I will admit that it was laziness, but as my sophistication grew, I was able to create more and more pseudo-legitimate reasons. "Think of the trees that have been cut down just to write the letters." "I don't want to add to postal worker's burdens." "The extra energy that is being wasted carting around all those Christmas card and letters."
Of course, as the Internet and email has grown, more and more of my friends use it. I would have to work very hard to use my environmental excuses. It's true that I might inconvenience a few electrons. Yes, there is a minuscule amount of energy which I would be using. But seriously, David . . . Give it up. . .
The Heart of The Matter
So here follows my 2008-9, One Year (Plus) in the Life of David M. Pittle. It has been an exciting year. To set it off right, though, let's begin with the end of 2008.
The Backtrack
On October 29, I had my first total knee replacement operation. Tamayo was kind to help me, even staying in my apartment for several days after the operation so she could handle chores and help me through the worst of it. In the hospital I received wonderful care. The nurses were great. I had seen them working with other patients, but now I was experiencing this for myself.For the first two weeks, I was in excruciating pain despite all the icepacks and several Vicodin a day. I moaned and groaned; complaining of how that operation was causing me so much pain and agony.
In the middle of the second week however, I suddenly realized that this was my own operation and my own pain. I was the decider. It was my knee and my pain. Almost as quickly, the pain receded. In mid-December I had an appointment with my counselor/psychotherapist. I see her once a month usually to make sure I'm keeping my own head on straight while working with clients. After I related this experience, she starred at me for a moment then, "David, you teach others to do self-hypnosis and tell them how it can help alleviate pain. Why did you not do this for yourself?" Uh..h..h...
Now for 2009
My second knee was scheduled for January 26. Beginning from mid-December I did that self-hypnosis and prepare myself for the second knee procedure.
For the second knee, I was given the choice of a general or an epidural anesthetic. The choice of the latter allowed me to be awake for the operation. I remember being able to joke with the surgeons during the operation and being awake during recovery--I even got a phone call from my daughter while in recovery.
While I was still in the hospital I did have a morphine drip, but I was conscious that the pain was simply not bad. After I left, I took an occasional Vicodin but only when approaching physical therapy. I relate this because it reaffirms the degree to which the self-hypnosis and an attitude of ownership made a difference. I have used self-hypnosis for other purposes but never had to handle this level of pain--and it worked.
Again, Tamayo was my angel, carting me around to doctor visits and physical therapy. I can't overstate my appreciation that I have such a good friend in life.
The Cowboy
Since these knee surgeries have influenced the course of the whole year, I'll give you a couple more facts: My surgeon is not the only one at Kaiser. There are several, but I chose Sol Rosenblatt because he also rides a motorcycle. Perhaps not a very rational way to decide, but since they are all excellent, why not? After the surgery I found out more about him. When the nurses started calling him the "Cowboy" I began to investigate.
Solon Rosenblatt, besides riding motorcycles, also flies airplanes, skydives--in fact he teaches skydiving--and is the physician member of a reserve airborne special forces unit. That's all fine, except for the skydiving. As a pilot, my attitude is to ask,"Why would any sane person want to jump out of a perfectly good airplane?"
By the end of February I was able to drive and in March was only using a cane to get around; even giving that up by mid-April. Not that I have even yet attained full recovery. Rebuilding the muscles takes time. I'm told that typical recovery time is 9-18 months. But getting around without even a cane was great.
Japan
The second biggest occurance of 2009 was a trip to Japan in mid-May. Some of you know of my history in Japan. In 1956, the US Air Force gave me an invitation to travel at their expense. (I had asked for a ticket to some European country, but it doesn't work that way.) While stationed there, I met several wonderful people including Sunao Yokobiki and his lovely wife, Mihoko as well as Teruaki Miyata, Suzue Ueno and Don Sears. Of course I also met Tamayo Sato. Sunao, Mihoko, Suzue and Don made me part of their family. They taught me so much about Japan, but also about human love.
I learned to love the culture and people of Japan in a way that was totally unexpected. I also got to visit a new university that was coming into being. Called, in English, International Christian University, it was designed with a new vision. Every student was to leave there with a bilingual education that encompassed a broad appreciation for the humanities as well as the more traditional specialization of their major field.
Leaving Japan in 1959, I returned to the US and a year later was discharged. I applied to ICU and was accepted, returning in 1960 and eventually graduating in 1964. Altogether I had spent seven years in Japan, learned to speak, read and write the language, came to understand some of the strengths and some of the weaknesses of the country and its culture. I also met Tamayo and married her. And even though we were divorced some twenty years later, she remains my closest friend.
In that context: Sunao, after all these years, made a point of researching the whereabouts of Don Sears, David Pittle and Tamayo Sato--and he did it without the Internet! He invited the three of us to come back for a reunion of souls. He organized and enlisted others whom we had known.
May 10th Don flew in from Kansas City, spent a couple days here in San Francisco and the three of us flew to Tokyo on the 12th. Prior to the trip, the Japanese wanted to rent a scooter chair for me, but I would have none of it. I did concede to take my cane, however. We were greeted at the airport and put up in splendor.
Over the next two weeks, Sunao, Teruaki, Suzue and many other friends gave us a luxurious reunion with visits to the old air base location in Saitama, now a much reduced size and occupied by the Japan Air Self-Defence Forces. We visited the location where my barracks had been--now turned into a wonderful public park. We got to visit the countryside, Sunao's home in Tokorozawa and various urban areas. After a week in which we also visited my alma mater, we transferred our base of operations to Yokohama where Teruaki and family took over our entertainment. We spent two days in a wonderful ryokan--Japanese hotel--visited hotsprings, and so much more.
Finally, just the day before Don and I were to leave, Tamayo's brother and wife, Toshihiro and Masako, picked us up and took us to Jogashima for the finest sashimi I have ever eaten.
My Japanese Family
Despite the divorce, there are some in Tamayo's family who have remained close to me. Toshihiro and Masako are among the most loving, caring people I know. Tamayo's mother and I fell in love the first time I went home with Tamayo. We have remained so. But also, Mariko, one of my nieces and I made a "connection" that gets strongly reaffirmed whenever we see each other. Unfortunately, that is not as often as either of us would like. Mariko was not able to get away from her work until the very last day of my trip. So on the day I was to leave, Tuesday the 26th, we arranged to meet at the airport. Even though the flight was not till the afternoon, by meeting at 10:30am we had several hours together. About 3pm everyone else showed up to see Don and me off for the return. But those few hours with Mariko were special.
Tamayo was not returning with us. She, already there, decided to take an additional week. Soon after we arrived, her mother went into the hospital, Tamayo left the trip to be there with her mother who seemed to recover. So Tamayo came back to our tour, but moved her return so she could stay an additional two weeks. While she was still in Japan, but after Don and I left, Tamayo's mother did pass away the next week. It was well that Tamayo was able to be there with her mother at the end.
Don Sears' Yokan
At the Narita Airport, after saying our goodbyes, Don and I started through the security together. My new, but metal, knees came in for some scrutiny, of course. But the security guards know about metal knees, and while they checked thoroughly, they quickly let me through.
I looked around for Don. He was no longer in the same line. The guards hurried me to the end of the "cleared" room. I stopped again to look and saw the guards going through his carry-on luggage with a fine-toothed comb. What little I could see was the guards and Don talking about the several blocks of yokan that he was carrying. ( For the uninitiated, yokan is a thick jellied dessert made of red bean paste, agar, and sugar. It is usually sold in a block form that resembles. . . you guessed it. . . some kind of plastic explosives.)
At last Don was able to convince the guards that he may be planning a sugar high, but he wasn't going to blow up the airplane. He started down the staircase on the other side of the room, so I started down on my side. They both led to the same boarding area.
The knee replacements and Japan visit were not the only things that occurred during the year, just two of the peaks.
Hugo
June brought a big one. Hugo (My grandson, Adriana's son) graduated from high school. I can take little credit--not even sure anyone can--but I am immensely proud of Hugo. His potential both for himself and for contributing to the betterment of the world is enormous.
He is an amazing young man. He has been an exemplary child, helping Adriana maneuver the passage from immigrant through colleges (College of Marin and Smith College--Connecticut) to being the organizer and director of the Brazilian Alliance. He's been a source of strength for her through marriage and divorce. He's also the evidence that Adriana has done a great job of parenting. Hugo is very bright, very intelligent, very adventurous. As I write, he is spending a few months in Brazil before starting college.
Oh. And before I forget, Hugo has a great eye with his photography. I provided him with a camera and he has been using it with amazing results; getting to the heart of the subjects he photographs.
July
I live in an apartment complex of buildings, each of which has four units. Early in June I received the word that I would have to abandon my apartment for several days. The management found termites in the walls of one of my neighbors in the same building. They hired an extermination company to "tent" the building and gas the termites.
The apartment management provided a suite in the Embassy Suites as well as a generous stipend for meals. When I showed up at the hotel, there was a nice fruit basket in the room. I was surprised. Naturally it was all very inconvenient, but the management did a very class act in accommodating us. Seeing this two story building fully tented was astounding. When I rent a motel room, it is a small and plain place with a scarred table, bed, etc. The suite I lived in for four days was three rooms plus bath. Two TVs, a king-size bed, full bath, a table in the living room and another in the bedroom. -- how the other half lives.
September:My Cousin, Ruth
My Aunt Pearl died in April. Of all my mother's family, her youngest sister Pearl was the only person with whom I was able to keep in touch during the years since I joined the US Air Force. It's a long story, but Aunt Pearl kept the connection when no one else did. That may be partly because Pearl was also the black sheep of the family. She had a series of boy-friends and lovers until eventually she lived with one for the last 20 or so years until she retired and moved to Florida with her long-time friend Rita. Pearl taught high school in New York. I remember when she took Judo lessons for self-protection. It must have been a rough high school.Four years ago, Pearl put me in touch with several cousins. When I visited Aunt Pearl in 2006, I stopped off in Tulsa to meet Ruth. Cousin Ruth was born a few months after my last visit with her family. She and I spent just one day together, but we immediately felt the link between us.
About ten years ago, Ruth moved to Oklahoma to begin her mission work. She is an evangelist against cruelty to animals. The way Oklahomans abandoned unwanted dogs and cats, leaving unwanted litters on the side of the road or in the state parks moved her to move there. With grant funding, Ruth has constructed a network of low cost spay/neuter clinics, lobbied for better laws against cruelty and provided expertise to the police and sheriffs all over Oklahoma, even extending her work into South Dakota. She is an inspiration to many and someone I greatly admire.
And she works far too many hours, takes far too few days off and minimal vacations. I tried for three years to get her to visit the San Francisco area. Finally, in September, she came. Even in the car, from the airport to my home, she received a phone call asking for her opinions about dealing with some seventy dogs that had been confiscated by a sheriff. They wanted her, long-distance, to figure out how to house these dogs for a few days until more permanent facilities could be found.
We had two great days together, sightseeing in San Francisco, visiting wineries in Sonoma/Napa and getting to know each other better. This trip cemented our connection. I love this woman and though I wish I had not lost fifty years of knowing her, am grateful for the now.
Just A Few More Comments
I had my 5,000 mile checkup on my knees in October. The surgeon almost danced with glee as he showed me the xrays of his "handiwork". He also admonished me to wear knee armor when riding so I won't mess it up if I take a tumble. (I haven't had an accident yet but, on the motorcycle, you always wear protection, just in case.)I'm really grateful for the new knees. The muscle strength is still less than I would like, but it is so good not to have constant knee-pain. And the strength is increasing.
Tamayo and I went to Frankie's home for Christmas dinner. Frankie did a marvelous dinner. One of her guests wanted prime rib instead of turkey, she cooked it perfectly and, at my request, eliminated all the traditional carbohydrates--with the exception of Tamayo's apple pie. As a surprise, Frankie brought out a package of photographs from our days in Japan in the 1950s and '60s.
In 2002, when I returned from Mexico, I contracted with someone to bring my housewares from the home in Rosarito. He brought most of it, but at least one box was lost. That box contained about 2,000 slides and negatives, photographs that I took during my years in the Air Force in Illinois, Japan and N. Carolina. Also lost were all the pictures from my days in Japan in college and all the pictures since then, including many from the years in Brazil, Ohio, trips across the US and Mexico. I finally made peace with this loss and took it as a chance to move completely to digital photography. (Film is very damaging to the environment. The production of film begins the process. But film developing puts many very dangerous and destructive--and toxic--chemicals into our water. Of course production of digital equipment has its downside, but not nearly as much.)
However, Surprise!! Frankie found about 70 slides from the college days in Japan and had some of them printed for us. She gave me the rest of the slides that she had and I am now having those scanned so I can print up copies for Tamayo and for me. I must tell you that this is probably the best Christmas gift Frankie could possibly have given me.
Also, those pictures have reminded me how far from my youth I have come.
Ah well, I'm vain enough to think that what I've lost in looks, I've made up in wisdom--and humility.
Gratitude Is The Theme
It's been a wonderful year. I am so grateful for so many gifts, my new knees, my cousin, my daughter, all those who love me. Not the least is my sense that this nation which has lost its way may be on the track to finding itself. Never did I think that electing Obama would solve everything. It requires "boots on the ground." The opponents of justice and equity are strong. But at least we are moving in a new direction. Fast enough? No, not by a long shot. But definitely, the country, and the world, are becoming more progressive.Among the gifts I have had this year are friends who have borne with me in reading all this.
Love and Abrazos,
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