[Springboard] For David

[Jack Gilles]

Dear David and Pat,
I am so deeply with you on this ultimate journey of the spirit,

I did not know David during the summer programs from Summer '72 on, so  
he did not realize what an inspiration he was for me. He did not know  
that when he stood up and spoke in front of those huge assemblies that  
he was giving me a way to be. I just knew deep in my soul that I was  
listening to someone who embodied obedience and a willingness to do  
whatever task presented itself. I appreciated that his was not a  
razzamatazz performance designed to impress and awe as many were.  
Whenever David stood up, he was accessible. He gave us himself. He  
gave us his devotion to the cause. He was David being his given  
assignment. He had an undercurrent of impassioned care that spoke to  
me and said that was all it took to be this mission. His courage  
spoke. I have drawn on that so many times when all I've had was my  
care, and the word has come back to me that it was sufficient. "Be  
your care," David's inspiration said, "and the rest will follow."  I  
thank you, David. I couldn't have risen to the call of Training  
Futures and Training, Inc. without your example. Over 2000 families  
would thank you too if they knew, but it's never been about that.

And then, through Forrest and the Men's Movement, I received another  
gift. i was privileged to watch you literally, shake with trepidation  
at this journey into the radical universe of archetypal male energy  
and do it anyway. The old way of being had dried up and the  
strangeness that was beckoning was nothing you had ever encountered.  
And you did it anyway with the same realness and lack of ego that had  
earlier inspired me. And you let the energy flow. And you let it take  
you new places. All this at a time of life when people retire, you let  
yourself be transformed. Again I called upon your example as my life  
shifted overnight into being on my own after 34 years of marriage.  
Yes, I could be something brand new, trembling and doing it anyway.

So, I'm told you started with a search for air conditioning. I don't  
think so. Not exactly. You started with a willingness to let the  
"winds blow" once you said the radical "yes." Thank you, dear man, for  
all you have given me and the legions more who circle this globe and  
carry on your mission of care.

Grace and Peace and Gratitude,
Susan Craver