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</xml><![endif]--><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%">Sally and I
have been a couple/together for the last seven year. This is my third partner.
Sally has a similar record. Why do we keep coming back to this partner business
is the question?</span>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%">First, I
love the story about President Obama unknowingly said into an open microphone
at the U.N. General Assembly that he quit smoking six years ago "because
I'm scared of my wife." "I hope you quit smoking," he told a
fellow attendee, according to audio played by CNN. After the man said he smokes
"sometimes," Obama said he chews Nicorette nicotine gum and that
"I haven't had a cigarette in probably six years. That' because I'm scared
of my wife."</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%">Is it fear/accountability
that keeps us together? <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>After seven years
I am still amazed by the mystery that is Sally. I don’t know about you but I
like my toilet paper to come from the bottom of the roll. I would put the
toilet paper from the bottom and the next week it was from the top…finally it
dawn on me that Sally likes it from the top…just last week we had guests coming
and Sally cleaned my bathroom (yes, we have separate bathrooms- would not you
if they took the toilet paper from the top) and after she put the toilet paper
back the way it was supposed to be from the top, she puts the trash can on the
right of the toilet..everybody knows it belongs on the left. These might come
as trivial, but there is more. Like she never opens the mail when it comes..I
mean we are talking about weeks..Dick opens it as soon as it arrives as though
there might be a surprise in it. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I do
the dishes almost the second people are finished eating while Sally likes to
allow them to marinate in the sink. Sally can take 15 minutes to write an email
and reads it over and over-she does not make mistakes..Dick writes an email and
sends without even reading it and makes many mistakes. Sally likes to show up a
few minutes late and Dick likes to be early….</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%">So I am
continually amazed at the otherness of Sally, but most important she does audit
my existence. She is not only different, but also is the mirror that reflects
my own existence. It is like waking up in the morning to a crowd watching your
every step. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%">Now, this
being afraid, being ‘audited’ is what keeps us alive and even more important
keeps us conscious and prevents us from living in illusions. It is the human
social dynamic that creates consciousness..not TV/computer screens. If I am going
to be the way, the truth and the life I need an other in my life</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%">But on the
other side of being my fear and having her toilet paper backwards, Sally is an
awesome mission machine.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I am pretty
proud of getting things accomplished, but Sally is way more intent and focused.
<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I am amazed at her ability to make
things work. She is the coordinator of a loose band of about 70 volunteers
called the Green Community Connections. We do a green living tour, run a web
site and, most impressive, a One Earth Film Fest which last year showed 40
films at 17 sites with 2,000 people in attendance. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Sally makes it work and won the Green Citizen
award of Oak Park
last year. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I have been around some awesome
people in my life time, but Sally is right up there with Slicker. When she is
in high gear little else gets done like sleep, eating, cleaning the house or
doing the dishes. Not much else can be accomplished if you have focus and are
willing to stand behind what needs to be done…</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%">Just one
more example: she has flirted with going to DC and being part of the 350.org
Grandmother’s March which would end at the White House where she might be arrested.
Since the President is showing signs of refusing to sign the accord, she has
signed up to go through training with Al Gore’s team to develop talks about
climate change. And to top it all off she just quit her job to work full time
on caring for Planet Earth.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%">Sally and I
are a mission team. We are both committed to save Planet Earth from the carbon
disease slowly killing it. Zero waste, zero energy and zero water is the only
solution. We keep each other sane in the midst of this war…but I am working on
her backward use of toilet paper…something must of happened to her in her
childhood.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%">Dick Alton,
Associate with ICA USA, Green Community Connections
and the Interfaith Green Network. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Written
from Zimbabwe,
2013, helping build a global community.</span></p>
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<![endif]--><br><br>Richard H.T. Alton 166 N. Humphrey Ave, Apt, 1N
Oak Park, IL 60302
T:1.773.344.7172
richard.alton@gmail.com
Don't let the fear of striking out hold you back
Babe Ruth </div></body>
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