Re: Thanks, Supportive Spices & SOs

[Fabien Vais <phantoms -at- ACCENT -dot- NET>]

Dan,

I want to thank you for sharing these thoughts with us. They show beyond any
doubt that you are not only a highly regarded professional, but also (and
perhaps especially) what a beautiful and sensitive human being you are.

Again, thank you and may our paths meet some day.

Fabien Vais
phantoms -at- accent -dot- net

At 07:14 PM 7/23/97 -0700, Dan Brinegar wrote:
>Since I wrote my "Significance" essay in 1993 about a war-hero and a
>3-year-old (the one who's now 7 and may someday walk on Mars or be a great
>multimedia storyteller...), I've been blessed to have two very supportive,
>enthusiastically encouraging, and not-gonna-let-me-feel-sorry-for-myself
>people in my life.
>
>Here's to Dad and Cathleen!
>
>While I was flailing about, working on cars and tanks and traveling the
>world seeking adventure and excitement and the other really wild things
>which a Jedi does not crave, you could say that my Dad and I didn't always
>get along that well (and it would be an understatement)...  then one day, I
>came home with five "F's" in Freshman English: Dad picked up on my
>frustration and despair, and said "Come to an STC meeting and see how
>professionals *really* communicate."  With that, I found a whole new
>direction for my passion.... A couple of years later, I had an opportunity
>to work with him on the same project, and for the first time, we were on
>the same side on all the issues in my life -- whatta difference! Working my
>first grown-up techwhirling job with him made it feel as if I'd already
>been working there 26 years....
>
>He's a pretty cool guy, y'know? You could not have convinced me a few years
>earlier that someone at a conference would say to me "I'm so glad I met
>your Father and heard his presentation today: he's a true Visionary." Y
>'know what? I was astonishingly proud at that moment.
>
>Dad took time off from work, and then retired a little early when he needed
>to take care of my terminally ill mother: he devoted every bit of himself
>to her, and when she passed a week before their 36th Wedding Anniversary,
>he was a rock when Jim and I needed him. Now he takes care of *his* Mother,
>still helps me out in ways both mea$urable and immeasurable, and stands as
>an example of those retired active middle-aged people who would have been
>old 30 years ago but are jumping out of airplanes and mentoring new
>generations today.
>
>Cathleen is my Bestest Good Friend and the Most Powerful Woman in the
>Universe: over the course of six years, we've been thru several boyfriends
>and girlfriends, one wife, two fiancee's and near-financial ruin and we're
>still available when one of us needs to share our deepest, darkest secrets.
>Still there to encourage the other.  Cathleen is the person for whom I'd
>gladly spend the rest of my life sitting at the foot of her bed talking
>about Carl Sagan and the significance of helices from DNA to the Bubbles in
>the Universe or nothing at all.
>
>She was the first stranger in years to walk up and tell me how smart I was
>(on the very day "oh-God-I'm-not-a-soldier-anymore" was htting me the
>hardest), to encourage me to follow my passions,  explore my horizons,
>stretch my comfort zones; and introduced me to spiritual depths I'd only
>read about before. She let me spill my guts with perfect comfort, complete
>honesty, without fear of judgement. She went from being someone who was
>convinced she'd never produce anything more technical than a shopping list
>and being just-a-mommy to teaching up-to-six computer graphics courses a
>semester and reinforcing my belief that mommies are just really neat.
>
>She's there to help me celebrate a new job by dancing around the house
>singing Peter Gabriel's
> _Big Time_; the one who most strongly encourages me to finish those books
>I've been meaning to write; the only person I know of who could walk up to
>a publisher and say "Danny's writing a book, and we'd like you to publish
>it," and actually keep the publisher in the same room and talking to us.
>The one who tells everyone we meet what a genius I am <double-blush>.
>
>Thank God Friends are Forever.
>
>I may never be able to pay them back for all the money, help, and
>encouragement they've given me, so I guess I'll have to keep working,
>evangelising, celebrating, and sharing the fruits of the blessings I've
>recieved.
>
>Without Dad and Cathleen, my life would be unrecognizable as my own, and I
>can't imagine it being any other way. So here's to 'em, again.
>
>
>>Even though I pay my own way in this household
>>in the main, .... I can never repay
>>my husband enough for the emotional and sometimes
>>technical expertise.
>>Mostly he just let me do my 'thing.'
>>
>>So if you have any supportive others in your
>>lives. Let's give 'em credit for helping us.
>>
>>Again, thanks to all. Great bunch.
>
>Speaking of Great Bunches; in the last six years I've also got to tip my
>hat to TECHWR-L: without it, I wouldnt have been around to hear about new
>trends, wouldn't have followed some techwriter/tools-weenie's advice about
>HTML and the Web,  or gotten attaboys and constructive criticisms from
>more-experienced TCs, and I wouldn't have had a place to vent, rant, and
>celebrate life in this context of what it means to be a techwriter...
>thanks everybody!
>
>dan'l
>
>-------------------------------------------------------------
>Dan Brinegar   Information Developer/Research Droid/Mac Guy
>http://www.vr2link.com

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