Swimming Upstream

Any clue why I cannot get into the title bar? I see other friends on Blogger have been able to post titles to theirs over the last couple of days – why is it just giving me a problem?

The picture above is from the walk this morning. This Red Tailed Hawk was just sitting on the dead tree that we pass going up the hill every week. I think I have a pic of this tree by iteself from a couple of weeks ago that I posted. Anyway, the walk was great again. Almost 100 people this time! We picked up the pace a little and I still felt fine – none of the knee twinge that had kind of scared me the first week. Liquid diet is going well. I even made it through the Board dinner tonight without too much issue. Spinach ravioli was one course. The main was jumbo shrimp and a petite filet cooked medium rare so it was very tender and easy to cut into very tiny portions. I did OK and did not starve!

Ok, the reason for the title that I could not properly post. I felt tonight as if I am swimming upstream – and yet, I like it. Amongst many of the executives and board members at the University are a great many proudly Catholic Republicans. At the table where I was seated were many Republicans though not all Catholic. It came up because the gentleman to my left who is a former Board member (wife is now VP of Development so to prevent a conflict of interest situation, he stepped down), is apparently considering a run for Congress. Mrs Navy was seated to my right and given that she has no problems asking blunt questions of anyone she immediately asked which party. When he said Republican she made a point of sweeping her hand around the table and saying “Oh, everyone here is too, because what else would you be? Oh, yeah. She isn’t!” (pointing to me of course). Now, I fully expected that from her since I’ve known her for 21 years, so I laughed and said that if we were all the same life would be very boring indeed wouldn’t it? This gentelman was very charming and quite funny and we were having some great conversations throughout the dinner. He jokingly said they could “reform” me and I said quite pointedly, “No, I am *already* reformed.” But I also told him that I liked his reason for running (son trying to take over for dad in the district and he is strongly against nepotism in politics) and that I would be interested to know if he did choose to run. It’s not in my district anyway, but I really did like this guy. And I love his wife. Anyway, the point though is that not only did this topic come up at the table, but it even came up during the presentation after the dinner. Many of us were invited this year because we are “old timers”. Employees who have been with the University for 18+ years – which is how long the President had been with us. He is now stepping down (remaining as Chancellor to the entire System though) and this was a dinner to honor his acheivements. It was well deserved, no doubt. But – his Catholic Republicanism was mentioned a few times. And I felt – well – like a salmon swimming upstream! Out of place. Different. And I realized – that is my whole life really! I was out of place growing up because I was the only one in the neighborhood not going to the local public school. I was out of place at the school because I was an only child. I was out of place in general due to my parents’ rather off-beat religion. I was out of place in high school due to being horribly sheltered. I was out of place early on at NU because I was the only one my age with a child. Then I was out of place because I was divorced. Twice. It is quite easy to feel out of place where I live and work obviously given my political beliefs – heck, I am out of place when I am with my parents on that topic! However, while a few of those examples were things I did not control and could not change, many reasons for my feeling out of place were my own. I follow my heart. Learn from my life experiences, and determine my own path. I am frequently swimming upstream. But I like it. I don’t mind at all being the only one to carry a certain torch in a crowd. The only one to be turning left while everyone else turns right 🙂 In fact, I really love it.