He Who has the Last Word

A little weird getting something from Ray – yes?  If anyone could send an email posthumously it would be him.  Alas, it is me, his youngest daughter, Sarah Harris, writing this on his behalf. 

So long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye 

525,600  minutes 

How do you measure… measure a year?

It has been so many minutes and moments since we said goodbye to our dad – grandpa, friend – uncle – curmudgeon – and visionary.  As we sat down to write a blog in honor of those 525,600 opportunities to think about what he would have said, done, chuckled about, we thought it fitting to plant an enjoyable ear worm for all of us – he loved his musicals (reader’s choice to spend the day with Rent or Sound of Music playing over and over in your mind)!  

So, sit back, hum a tune, and enjoy some of our ramblings in the spirit of Ray.

Your Vision

At the Celebration of Life for Ray last July, we asked everyone to place a post-it-note or two on a board answering the question of ‘how you will help Ray’s love for the City continue in his earthly absence’?  It was our expectation that we would synthesize all the ideas into major themes and report back here.  We were pleased that so many of you took us to heart and posted your ideas.  We were also pleased that they were very specific to your family, work, and community – they were actionable!  

The specificity of responses suggested you all really gave it thought and identified ways you can make an impact – no one just ‘phoned it in’.  This gave us great joy and also great heartburn as we tried to find the themes without dumbing everything down.  So, instead of posting the themes here, we will instead ask you to do a quick self-assessment: how are you doing with your impact?  Done?  If so, maybe your goals weren’t “Ray” enough!  Not done?  Congratulations on aspiring to an Impossible Dream just the way he would have instructed! Keep chasing your windmills!

Ray’s [unfinished] list of to-dos 

As we cleaned out Dad’s office, we were amazed to find a complete ‘Blog’ file of ideas (not amazed at his organizational skills – those were legendary – rather we were awestruck by a man who was self-described as ‘only 95 years old’ still having so many ideas).  His remaining ideas were incredible (and almost all legible…..).  Beyond the list, his file also had clippings of words, quotes, and images that were inspiring to him – if you had ever been in his office, you likely saw his bulletin board with these very tokens that demonstrated how his mind was never idle, even while reading a magazine or newspaper.

While we can guess at what he would have written about some of these ideas – for others we are clueless.  Here is just a sampling:  

• Plymouth – 800
• Garst Drive
• No Naps
• 2 years old
• Enthusiasm ergs
• Hospice – Rabbi Z
• St. Francis
• Play dead – 50  
• Green Peppers
• 6000 Calories
• Lose weight -111
• Take up wrestling
• Mountain oysters
• Feet v stop
• Choosing Stanford
• Falling – Lambo [Lamborghini]
• Sholom – Villa
• Post office
• Safety in numbers
• Perception of decision makers
• Nicollet Mall – Loring Park
• Loring Greenway
• Winter city perception
• Greenway Association
• Leadership – not ROI
• Riverwalk > Greenway
• Not ROI – returns to community
• Skyways to street level
• River – Post Office – Orchestra Hall – Loring Park
• Walker Art Center _ sculpture 
• Private-public-partnership
• Downtown report
• Challenge what you think
• Friday night dinners
• Jewish
• Favorite art – stairway to heaven 
• Earth’s eras and periods

Feel free to share your thoughts about what he might have written about any or all of these – send us a note or write it in the comments.  There is no doubt that everyone thinking about what he thought about would please him to no end!

The final blog

Almost daily, Dad and I would talk about his current in-process blog post.  For the last year of his life, it was ‘The Man of the Moon’.  Uncharacteristically, he was struggling to get it ‘right’.  It’s “not ready” was a common refrain.  He shared several versions with me along the way.  Often, he would set it aside to complete another blog that flowed easily.  I always thought it strange that he couldn’t complete the blog as he was such a good writer and never in doubt about what he wanted to say (can I get an ‘Amen’!).  

As we prepared to publish this piece in the blog, I was torn – as a Prince aficionado, I was not happy when music that was long hidden in Prince’s vault – pieces that Prince thought were ‘not ready’ – were released by his family.  And now, we find ourselves in the same position.  We have decided to share his final thoughts with people he cared about because it represents a lot of his energy in the last year – even though we know that he thought it was ‘not ready’.

For what it is worth, as I re-read his draft – posthumously, I realize that he probably knew – consciously or subconsciously – that ‘not ready’ meant this would only make sense when he was, in fact, looking down on earth.  

The Man on the Moon – A True American Fable (the ‘Not Ready’ Version)

In our universe, for many eons, the man in the moon has looked down upon all of the world and specifically America. He continues to do so!

I am the man on the moon. I’m the omnipresent authority about America, its history, its present status, and its future. From my vantage point, I monitor the positive accomplishments as well as the negative trends that affect this great country. After all, I am going around in circles endlessly and might as well provide a commentary of my observations.

First of all, let me tell you about me: 

• I am not made of green cheese!
• It is only a fable that a cow jumped over the moon. It never happened!
• It’s lonely up here! Nobody around – just a lot of garbage and trash floating by.
• I did have an alien visitor named John Glenn only for a short time. He promised he and his friends would return.
  

Enough about me! Let’s talk about America. Although I’ve been going around much longer, I do remember when someone had the unmitigated gall to name the entire western hemisphere after himself – America! His name was Amerigo Vespacci.
I was watching when Lewis and Clark made their historic trek westward across lands already occupied (and not just by roaming buffalo). America was untamed, natural, and with a limitless future.

The creation of the east coast to west coast railroad connection opened up America. Then Wilbur and Orville opened up the skies. I could see and hear cities growing. About then, horses were no longer an adequate means of transportation for many Americans. “We need faster horses”. And Henry Ford responded with a faster horse – the model T Ford. The birth of the automobile changed the lifestyle of every American. Soon, the Eisenhower interstate highway system connected all of America. From my point of view, the American experiment seemed to be working successfully. Of all the countries that I watch over, America has been the most gifted, physically, and its people have unexcelled potential.

Wait a minute, or a year, or an eon! Occasionally, I find myself covering up the sun’s light, causing an eclipse! That is my way of attracting attention. Perhaps an eclipse is needed now, why? I just took off my rose-colored glasses, and America has lost some of its luster and is encountering some expanding challenges that need immediate attention. Looking down over America, I can see the Colorado river is no longer full of surging water. Drought is evident in many parts of the country. Water shortages are obvious, except on some lush green golf courses!

Warmer weather is melting glaciers, and raising coastal water levels, threatening coastal cities, and developments nearby. Smog is so thick over some cities that I cannot see them – I can only smell them!

Fire is ravaging large areas of western America while hurricanes and tornadoes are cutting a wide swathe through the Midwest and the east. What can be done to reduce the problem or is it too late?

I can see that all of these natural disasters are increasing in frequency and ferocity! Climate changes are happening, before my very eyes; what is causing the change – not just in America, but also the entire world? Benign neglect is part of the problem, and certainly natural causes are part of the problem. What could be the point of crying about which or how many of the changes are caused by human actions and which are a result of changes in and around our planet. Tempest Fuget! (time flies) a cry by members of the former Roman empire. Nero is fiddling while Rome is burning. Is it too late? Immediate action on all fronts is the appropriate answer. Quite obviously environmental changes are affecting all Americans and the changing physical environment.

Before we create complicated solutions to the climate change challenge, we must consider the approach that some earthlings are recommending: the ‘do nothing approach’ just ‘go with the flow’! So what if it gets hotter than hell! Hotter than hell-I’ve never been there!

Lately I’ve been hearing some loud rumblings emanating from across the American continent. These rumblings are getting louder and more frequent and more angry. Many of these rumblings – or more properly termed grumblings – called protests, instigated by self-proclaimed blue people and self-proclaimed red people who are together called partisans. As the overseer of planet Earth, I began to investigate these people. To fully understand the legitimacy and magnitude of the problem and determine whether, as one of my earthlings once proclaimed, they are simply “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing”. The red sometimes call themselves conservatives, and the blue sometimes call themselves progressives, but in total all of them are partisans and contrarians disagreeing with each other about almost everything.

***

I don’t know what Dad would have written next – but I am absolutely sure it would have been big ideas to solve these challenges – with action at its core.  He had already inspired and funded the Minneapolis Foundation to start a broad movement around the water crisis (now resting with Conservation Minnesota). What would he have demanded we do around climate change? Partisanship?  And. for the man who proudly lived in the city, sent all of his kids to public schools, and proclaimed that the only thing he never built was ‘a glass ceiling’, how would he have added to his urgent observations if he had lived to see the policy-sanctioned ‘othering’ that is undermining years of progress and destroying our community?  I can tell you with certainty that the Man on the Moon is rooting for us to take the baton and solve these issues!

Parting is such sweet sorrow

We will keep Dad’s blog live for a little while longer and then we will draw it to a close.  To ensure that his inspiration and motivation will not be lost, we will turn the entire blog into a PDF.  When the PDF is available we will post it on the blog for your downloading pleasure – stay tuned for that final email ‘from Ray’. 

Thanks to everyone over the years who helped Dad to think big thoughts, do big things, or have big debates. You all could have turned away and instead you revved him up! He (and we) appreciate/d you all.