[Dialogue] The Directory

[Richard Alton]

Dear Colleagues, my birth month has passed but I keep witnessing. It is
hard to stop once you get in the flow.

I was in Santa Fe, late December, working with Louise Singleton on Africa
Climate Change when she mentioned that her name was not listed under New
Mexico in The Directory. Looked at her Directory and sure enough she was
not listed under the State of New Mexico or Colorado or North Carolina, but
was listed under Singleton inside the Directory. So, who gets listed under
a state? Big mystery? There are eight names listed for New Mexico: Epley;
Frazier; Gilbert; Karpoff; MacKay; Packard; Rippel and Wilson.


Looked up Wilson-- we have some great Wilsons in the Directory, but only
John N ‘Bud’ Wilson lives in New Mexico: born 27 Sept, 1925 (yes, he is
either 97 or 98); Youth Work; Sangre de Cristo Youth Ranch; El Prado
NM…now, I think I remember this Bud as we had a late Indian lady named
Shakuntala who use to help at this ranch. So googled Bud: It turns out the
ranch is now partnering with an organization called Localogy which has
Bud’s story on their front web page. Bud grew up running a farm as a young
man, then flew planes with the Navy, went to school and for fifty years Dr.
Wilson practiced open heart surgery with practices in the US and India. Bud
poured in his money developing this ranch for youth-- all free-- he wanted
all youth to lead a life as blessed as his.


Now, I still don’t know why Bud has his name in the Directory, but I did
talk to the ranch manager and he said Bud has had some health difficulties,
but has made his way through them.
 Am sure others know more about Bud?


Now I was intrigued about these names under the State of New Mexico: Know
Packards, but they were visiting their son in Mexico City and then could
not get out of Dallas. Two of the names listed under New Mexico, I could
not find inside: Gilbert and MacKay. There was a Frazier listed in New
Mexico – a Suzie Frazier in San Juan Pueblo, listed as a facilitator but
the two numbers listed were disconnected. The Karpoff’s number did not
work; Elsie Rippel did not answer her phone, but Walt Epley did answer the
phone and we chatted about what he knew about his New Mexico colleagues--
not much-- in the middle of the conversation Walt stopped- “you are that
Richard who does the Last Chapter?” Walt is very sharp.


I also realized that Kaze Gadway, my old Kenya Human Development Training
School (1979?) partner, who lives in Albuquerque should be listed under New
Mexico as well as Louise Singleton.


I did feed this to Michael Tippett, our Directory manager. Hey, the next
time you take a trip bring your Directory with you and give some people a
call. It is great to start by googling their name to see what comes up. Bud
had a story and Kaze has some great videos about her life. Just start by
saying, “Am visiting here and saw you are in the Directory. If you have
time, I would like to hear your story of why you are in the Directory? I
mean we are family."


This is better and easier than the Wiegels showing up at your front door
wanting to make a video of your life story. But this all reminds me when I
was first around the Institute in San Francisco, Saturdays were set aside
for RS-1 recruitment, and this was serious recruitment. I mean we would do
cold calling from the phone book or just show up at a recent RS-1
graduate’s house to ask, “If we could just take a moment of their time, to
do some reflection about the course.”  This usually ended up with them
agreeing to invite their friends to a course.


Keep that Directory close at hand… and make sure your information is up to
date.

Dick



-- 
Richard H. T. Alton
ICA Global Fund
Methodist Eco-Sustainability T/F
T: 773.344.7172
richard.alton at gmail.com
Make Plain the Vision, Habakkuh 2:2
Won't you be my neighbor?
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