Life's Close Ups

A little energetic lady, with a sparkling personality, packed full of vim and vigor, has greatly influenced me in many ways. She is my father's mother, Mrs. George E. Doench, whom everyone calls "Mom". Never once have I ever called her grandmother, for she thinks and acts fo young that it would not be a fitting name for her. Mom was within her a heart of gold, she is always willing to help the other fellow and never does anything for herself. Her ability to make friends is unbelievable, for every time she returns from a trip her address book is filled with names of interesting people she has met on the journey. 

Mom was a little lady, about 4'10'', and when I knew  her, a bit stocky in body build. She had the most beautiful long, black straight hair falling to her waist, when she let it down from the large full bun she wore on the back of her head. She had a curling iron (which was heated on the stove burners) and when she was getting dressed up, she would spit on a lock of hair and there would be  a sizzle as the curling iron met up with the damp hair. Then she would become beautiful with a fringe of curls encircling her face. She was always on the go--never stopping-- she always ran--never walked. 

She was a real doer! As I understand, she was a real leader in the cummunity besides having eight children and running a huge home. She started the P.T. A. at Hyde Park School, and went on to the other P.T.A. positions. The Eastern Star, (the female counterpart of the Masonic Order) and Plumber's Wives associations on both local and national levels took much of her time and talent. I remember Mom and Pop going on national conventions for both groups. 


Mom never spent a great deal of time on one thing. She liked to talk on the phone, but when she grew tired of the conversation or needed to do something--she would quickly say "someone is at the door" and slam the receiver down before you could say anything. She explained it was her way of bringing the conversation to a quick ending without hurting the person's feelings! Clever Mom-- she did many things I have never heard of before or after her!

Mom has always lived in a large house in East Walnut Hills, so that she is able to accommodate all of her enormous family when they come home to visit. In this house, Mom has an annual Christmas celebration every year for her entire family. Her gay an jovial spirit is cast over the whole party, which is the biggest event of the year for all of us. An immense tree ladened with multi-colored ornaments, a well padded Santa, and a kitchen filled with succulent roast turkey and dressing, make the evening a complete success. 

I never remember Mom attending church, however, she always made many references to God and the Good Lord and seemed to have a great deal of faith in God. She would send me off to Sunday School at the corner of Fairfield and Madison Road. I always enjoyed going to Sunday School there-- and I would assume that Mom and Pop belonged there. Upon returning from Sunday School, there would be a big family Sunday dinner with a roast chicken or beef roast amid plenty of gravy and mashed potatoes. Mom always said she needed to make the dinner, instead of going to church. 

As I grew older, I began to see what inner strength she had and how much I could learn from her. Whenever I had a problem, my Daddy would say to me, "Go and ask Mom what she thinks about that." Mom always had a good answer-- and the main theme was that God somehow provides and things always work out for the best. 

I am always inspired by Mom every time I talk with her about my problems or achievements. She never forgets the silver lining in the cloud and gives me a complete confidence and courage to face my dilemmas.

Delta Avenue Days

My grandfather Gustave August Hinnen (or Gaga, as I called him) was a doctor, specializing in problems of the eye, ear, nose & throat. In those days, most doctors did not have a specific area of practice. He was a prolific reader-- mostly books on animals, nature, and religion. The reason he read so many books on religion is that he was an atheist, and he wanted to prove his points about religion. He always said the Catholic Church caused the Middle Ages and set back the progress of man by hundreds of years. The house was filled to the brim with books all encased in bookcases with glass doors to keep them clean. Every book had his personal label on the front page. He loved his books and took such good care of them; however, after he died, I remember that Mother had a difficult time finding anyonewho would take them. Most were outdated--especially the medical ones. Also, in the crammed and crowded basement, he made wine and had a wine cellar, along with wood working tools, for he enjoyed making things.

Gaga, as I shall refer to him during the rest of the essay, accomplished more than most people. He was at his office every day, including Saturday mornings.His office had three rooms-- a waiting room and two patient rooms. He was a one-man band. No one else in his office to help him. He took care of billing along with treating people. The curious thing is that he treated many nuns, since he was so anti-religious. And he never charged them anything. I remember hearing them laught and talk and have the best time behind the closed door of his office. He charged very little to people--certainly not like doctors today, and did not make much money.

He gave tours at the zoo on Sunday Mornings, and gave lectures at night to clubs and organizations on animals and snakes. He was on the board of directors of the zoo and was one of the founding fathers of the Natural History Museum.Wednesday afternoons were just for the two of us. We went to the zoo, the greenhouse, the art museum, or some major event like a magic show or circus. Since Gaga was a director at the zoo, he was allowed to pet the animals and feed them. He had a black suitcase filled with candy, cookies, and various treats for the animals. They would sense he was coming and begin to howl, roar, or screech before he even got inside the dor. Each one had his special treat. He petted each and every one. Gaga had a following of people who came and walked the zoo with him on Sunday mornings as he did his rounds. Later the zoo administration decided that the animals should not get food that was unnatural to them and that Gaga's petting of the animals was not good for the people to see, for it might encourage them to try it. This, of course, was a real blow to him-- for this was the highlight of his life. He had always borrowed small animals and snakes for his lectures and I think all of this ceased at this time. When he had snakes at home, he would bring them out for me to handle. I was never very fond of them!

When Gaga was in his late sixties, he had a cataract operation on one eye and it went well and he returned to the office. Somehow, he picked up an infection from a patient and it settled in his eye. Soon the infection spread to the other eye and somehow he became blind in both eyes. This was a severe blow to him-- the avid reader and active doctor. After living in darkness for several years, he had a stroke and died at the age of seventy-four (I was twenty-one). So he was in his late fifties and early sixties when I knew him to the be very busy man that he was.

This remarkable man gave the world many contributions-- his dedication to medicine and not ever thinking of making a great deal of money healing people like doctors do today-- and his total committment to nature and animals and his desier to tell people about the zoo. He was certainly one of the most self-motivated persons I have ever known.

Testimony

I would have to say that it started, for me, around 6^th grade.  This new notion of “cool” slowly but surely made itself prevalent in this new atmosphere of middle school. Everything began to revolve around who you hung out with, what clothes you wore, which girls were interested in you, what kind of music you liked and how much could you stand out among the sea of other kids trying to quickly find their “image”.

By the time high school rolled around, popularity seemed to have grown immensely more important then it was in middle school.  I never really had a strong urge to be the most popular kid in school, but it seemed that being on varsity sports from freshman year onward certainly threw me into that crowd.  You get invited to all the “parties with the older kids”, your clothes begin to conform to the group you’re associated with (jocks, skaters, goths..etc), new girls begin to like you.  It was almost like middle school all over again, just a different atmosphere (and with booze).

Needless to say, I followed the same pattern of choosing who I associated with, chasing girls, and drinking frequently into my college career.  Nowhere else could you go kill 30 racks 5 nights a week, still make it to class, and have time for girls on the side.  By every definition of Hollywood’s “College” scene you see depicted in movies such as American Pie, Animal House, and Van Wilder, I was not only doing everything right…..I was doing it exactly right! Right?

God tries to warn people with little unpleasant nudges here and there throughout their life when He knows they’re heading down the wrong path.  Looking back I can easily count 10 clear indications of such off the top of my head.  The greatest thing is, however, that He will not give up on you.  And for people as prideful as I was….sometimes we won’t give in until He shows us how low we have sunk.  Blurred vision, alcohol radiating from my sweat, in handcuffs, with no shirt, vehicle on the tow-truck, balling my eyes out in the back of a police car was that point.

I can look back now and understand that this was all His plan from the start….it would take a massive blow to my sinfully, comfortable, irresponsible life to wake me up. Some people can accept His love easily, others need to be shown how to the hard way.  I will forever be haunted by the ghost of a person I had let myself become prior to accepting Christ into my life.  However, even though it may take ME half a lifetime to forgive myself for my actions, I know that in the eyes of Christ…I’m forgiven.

I pray that it wouldn’t take a life altering experience for whoever is reading this to come to know Christ…but then again…..It has been more beautifully life altering then I could have ever hoped for.

When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.

Jimi Hendrix

Thank you! I owe you this and whatever else you need in life.

At two o clock in the morning, after I had been hitting the bars pretty hard, I found myself looking at my steering wheel of an old broken down Chevy Blazer in a parking garage downtown wondering if I was going to risk lives just so I could get to a warm bed and knowing that without a drivers license I would go to prison if I was lucky enough to not injure anyone but rather get pulled over. Thankfully, you both were there staring at a strange kid trying to drive a car and you both paid it forward by giving that kid a ride home without asking for anything except a letter about my life, for this I am forever grateful and for that here is your letter and may thousands follow so that the rest of the world can share their life stories and pay it forward. 

Who am I is such a hard question in today’s modern world; we pride people on individuality such as women wearing meat dresses, yet there is hardly any diversity in this world thanks to pop culture and the media. As you walk down the road of life you see thousands of people doing anything they can to get as skinny as the fashion models who devote their life to looking as they do, this for the average individual leads to anorexia and bulimia and turning your back on anyone who wants to help you be who you are even if it means you aren’t wearing size quadruple zero jeans.  People growing their hair out to look exactly like teenage sex icons or people buying a thousand dollar shirt only because a musician wore it; this is what this country is turning into which is why I think it is so hard to say who a person is, all of us are a mixture of nature and nurture, where we grow up, who are friends are and what TV we are allowed to watch as children depicts who we will be when we grow into our twenties and thirties. Underneath all of this however; is a person and we are all individuals.

This is my life in a nutshell, peanut shell if you want to get technical.

I am a twenty two year old male who is Caucasian, I make average income and hope to improve upon this shortly but I have everything I need I have a roof above my head, shoes under my bed and meals when I’m hungry and need to be fed. My family consists of my mom and my dad who are for whatever reasons no longer married. Besides me they were able to bear two other children, both boys, one is Mr. America who can play any sport there is and be good at it, the other one is an amazing musician with God given talents for any instrument on the planet. With my parents being separated, I have lived all over Colorado and in Baltimore, MD and Sandy, UT. I have seen every single mainland state in the union with California being my favorite due to the Pacific Ocean and Colorado coming in a close second due to the people and laid back attitude. I have also been in three different “states” in Mexico.  I have been on an airplane, cruise ship, helicopter, horse, camel, elephant, automobile, semi truck and even rode on the back fin of a dolphin. With this traveling around and having different adventures I have seen both good and evil in this world anything from people pulling guns and carjacking to miracles happening and people giving things they couldn’t afford to give because some one needed it more than they did. With all this traveling about I have learned two different languages, American Sign Language and Spanish and have also met people from thousands of different cultures and backgrounds, each one with their own story to tell. I would love to live on every single continent including Antarctica; I also have learned that none of this traveling means anything without good friends and a good mate by your side whether that person be male or female, in my case, my girlfriend is my beacon of light on the stormy sea we call life. My goals in life, besides living on every continent, are to be able to have my boating and pilots license, to have my MBA and law degree, and to be able to speak seven different languages. Eventually my goal is to get my own bed and breakfast/ huts and settle down on the coast of my own island with a good dog and an awesome wife and relationship. Other than that I can only offer advice, for those of you younger than me I say live in the moment, life is now so let the little things be appreciated and not cause you to be upset. For those who are older than me I can only ask it for I realize I have a lot of growing up to do and my whole life with many memories left to make. And for everyone out there reading this whether you be man, woman or transgender, children or adults, black, white or multicolored the advice I have for you is lets all grab the bull by the horns and pay it forward so we can build a better and richer tomorrow. 

Sincerely,

Drew Mac