An Open Letter from Bill Henderson, February 7, 2019
Hello crowd of ancient friends!
These gathering plans are invigorating and enticing, to say the least. I am so glad you all can create the space for memories and reveling in the reminiscing in Florida.
Wishing it could be easier for me to also jump in, so many Lee High experiences blow through my mind every time I get your emails-people, traditions, funny moments, successes, dates, cars, ballgames with city rivals, etc.
Those really were great days, days of incredible naïveté and learning!
My best regards to all of you, especially as I struggle with making plans this far in advance, so many flurries of community obligations, family events, volunteering schedules.....know what I mean?
I am stunned and stunted by the number of sufferings and hardships so many of our age groups seem to have at this stage....not nice to be mentioning, I suppose, but a friend with cancer, friends with a young daughter with stage 4 cancer as a young mother, aging parents still, surgeries, crippling bouts with arthritis, sad divorces, blatant loss of faith, disappointments by faith communities, failed dreams, early dismissals from careers and jobs, diminished incomes, accidental deaths of a grandchild skiing.........very painful events for our age bunch.
Sorry to mention all that negative stuff, but let's be honest, we have lots of work yet to do of compassion and responsibilities to our families and whole communities. I mention this just to say a word of blessings and encouragement to all of you as treasured friends of the past and people of a significant age group in our nation right now.
I want to be there with you, but I guess I'd just like to look you all in the face and give you all a big hugging word of encouragement, knowing you, too, are engaging some of life's most important demands on our maturity, courage and faith. And I hope you all have been collecting plenty of all three.
We are still leaders, and our America is in bad need of plenty of what Martin Luther King called for, CHARACTER, right now.
BLESSING BE UPON YOU/US ALL THIS SEASON. I hope I can come, but we'll see.
Bill Henderson, '64 Generals
Black Mountain, North Carolina