Rocky Mountain Dharma Center tee shirt, classic Saab, my favorite moccasins, a Japan Red Sun bandana, patched jeans, great body language, lovely lush Pennsylvania.

My Grandpa Bernie would have been 105 years old tomorrow. Big love to you and your legacy, all of it.

My Grandpa Bernie would have been 105 years old this morning. Big love to you and your legacy, all of it. He was Jewish, worked as a journalist restoring free presses across Europe following the defeat of the Nazis. He was an entrepreneur importing yoghurt and such wild unheardofs in the 60s from his office in the Empire State Building, an organic farmer back in the 70s with patents to his name, his wife a beautiful watercolorist whose book about her and their life I still treasure. I grew up occasionally playing in the woods and fields around their home in Pennsylvania. I got to see a fair amount of them in later years outside of Tucson, when I went to Mexico (barely, Nogales) for the first time, first time outside of the US or Canada.

He was tough, rough sometimes on others, gruff, sharp, charming, smart, a kind grandpa to me always, and helped me from some real lonely-making couch-sleeping change-counting poverty into being able to start what would eventually become Elephant (so many others helped here and there, too, including my Grandma Carol).

I remember him being so warm, when I was cold, walking through a grocery, and he said, “I’m like an oven.” I was little so that statement fascinated me.

I remember an old found toy truck from his property on their mantle.

I remember the rarely-blooming cactus in Arizona on a visit, there. I remember him taking me out of the house for a secret ice cream adventure, shhhh.

I remember talking to him, in depth, about the war, only once, he didn’t talk much about it if at all with me otherwise. I think it was after we saw a movie about WWII.

I remember his love for cameras, travel, photography. I remember the tough legacy he left for my dear Aunty, Father, Uncle. And Grandma Carol. I remember his real, mature, sophisticated love with Grandma Joan, they were so hip and interesting, curious, mindful.

May we honor our lineage, that we honor future generations, equally, in taking responsibility for our ethics, today.

Love to you Grandpa Bernie.