"I heard the news today, oh boy...."- John Lennon

I guess this is as good a place as any to post this. Today I got the sad, but not surprising news, that my longtime swimming coach from my hometown, had died. He beat lung cancer about ten years ago, but it apparently came back recently and he died from liver cancer. He was the first person I met who shared that he was an Agnostic, and in that and many other ways, he was a mentor and sort of a second father to me during the nine years he was my coach. He taught me to be outspoken, live with integrity and on my own terms as much as possible, and to be honest and authentic about who I was, no matter how much conformity, phoniness, and fake politeness are the mainstream in my state. He also was the first open socialist I ever met. How he managed to handle living in Ottumwa, Iowa, for almost his whole adult life, I will never know. Probably a lot of drinking and smoking pot had something to do with it.

I got a lot of good influences from him, tho in some ways he was no positive role model, in such things as fidelity in marriage and being a husband, but I won't go into that. He had the guts to be his own man and not put up with shit, or kiss ass to his superiors at the school he taught at, even confronted them from time to time about their errors. A lot to admire, esp. that he was able to teach high school and coach for over 40 years, in spite of all that. My father was a good mentor and influence too, just in different areas than my coach, in things like being ethical, honest, loyal, and always being fair with others. But like my coach, he was not a good role model in other ways, like how to parent or live with integrity, as he was one person in public and someone quite different at home. But between the two of them, I think I got all the positive and good lessons I needed about how to be a good man and a good human being in general. They are both dead now, but I am and will always be grateful to both of them for what they gave me and will remember them always.