Today's Featured Biography

Lee London

Worked in manufacturing and industrial engineering for 35 years for General Telephone & Electronics, J.I.Case Company, Harris R.F. Communications, Xerox, Bausch & Lomb, and ENI Power Systems.

From 1974 - 1976 in lieu of shooting young foreign nationals and perhaps getting shot myself, I chose to work as a mental health aide at Tinley Park MHC as a residential treatment counselor. I worked with troubled adolescent males 13 - 18 years of age. Most came from the South Side and southern suburbs. Before I burned out, I feel that I provided significant help and support to those fine young gentlemen.After two years of intense involvement with this work, I sank into a deep clinical depression.

I travelled to Rochester to start anew in engineering. Quite a challenge, as my world had been turned upside down!

Here in Rochester, I have recovered and have prospered. I include my "Holy Days 2010" letter below in the way of further information as to my current situation.

Holy Days: December 2010

There certainly is a lot going on spiritually during this time of year! Therefore, my title is intended to cover Christmas, Chanukah, Ramadan, Eid al-Fitr, Kwanzaa, Rohatsu, Guru Gobind Singh's Birthday, Solstice Night, Feast of Santa Lucia, Shab-e Yalda, the three-day holiday Pongal including Bhogipong, Suhrapongal, and Muttupongal. If I’ve left any important ones out, I’d appreciate an update for my next “Holy Day” letter.

Things are well in Rochester as the first snows gently blanket the Wal-Mart parking lots. Little furry and feathered creatures have used whatever materials they have at paw or talon to make their cozy nests for the cold weather.

Our Mayor, Bob Duffy is leaving his post at the end of the year to join Governor Elect Andrew Cuomo in Albany as Lieutenant Governor. I will stay behind in Rochester to hold the fort and to keep the city on the Straight and Narrow. I will tend to my little section of Rochester on Probert Street from East to University Avenues. Since I live right across from the East Avenue Wegman’s, I’m sure I’ll eat better than 90% of the world’s population.

My health remains good. I’m sure this is mostly due to my wise choice of parental genes. I’ve had surgeries for (3) hernias, gall bladder, pylonidal cyst, and a Radical Nephrectomy. My abdomen looks like a tennis ball from all the incisions scars. In the 1800’s, I’d probably be dead by now. On the other side of the coin, in the 22nd Century, I’d probably live to be 200!

With the help of the kind folks at the Rochester Zen Center, Rochester General Hospital, and various pharmaceutical firms, I’ve learned to manage the depression that has dogged me since 1976. After forty some years of smoking, I managed to escape from the grip of this powerful addiction in 2005. My alcohol and drug abuse ceased in the late 1980s thanks to my Loved Ones and caring friends in 12 Step Programs. My involvement in a 12 Step Program continues. I’m currently working the 11th and 12th Steps in the Program. These are as follows:

•Step 11 - Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood God, praying only for knowledge of God's will for us and the power to carry that out
•Step 12 - Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs

To date, I’ve been unable to secure a woman who will agree to put up with a fellow like me on a long-term and intimate basis. Nevertheless, as I approach my 67th birthday, I find that young women seem to find me charming and less threatening than I was when I had more hair and my testosterone levels were higher , Further, I seem to consistently do well with small domestic animals and children of all ages.

Through this letter I want to celebrate this especially wondrous season with you. I’m a very happy man because you’re a part of my life. My life is better by virtue of you being in it. Who I am is, in part that which you have given me. Your example, help, wisdom, and warmth have and continue to sustain me on my serpentine path through this marvelous life!

So, during these Holy Days and always, I wish you peace, love, contentment, and connection with the creativity and love that surround us. I close with a quote from Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi, an oft-quoted 13th-century Persian poet, Sunni Islamic jurist, theologian and mystic:

My task is not to seek for love,
but merely to seek and find
All the barriers within myself
That I have built against it.

Lee

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