Who You Are -- Page 3

And on to the next set of 10 names -- people who have taken the time and care to Comment on this blog.

#21 -- JoAnn. JoAnn was, until very recently, a member of my Meadville School class. She is a wonderfully feisty person with a great deal of experience in nurtrition, the healing arts, and personal/spiritual exploration and development. She's recently opened up her own personal fitness training studio in Pittsburgh, which I had the pleasure of visiting recently. The facility is beautiful and well supplied with top-notch training equipment. It's hard to imagine a better facility or a more competent trainer. And, if you live in or near Pittsburgh, you really should at least check out the website: http://www.hydrationfitness.com/ Bon Chance, mon amie!

#22 -- John Seay. John is the husband of my wonderful sister -- and the two of them live in Baltimore. John is also a cancer survivor, several years past his intensive therapy. He's shared with me numerous valuable insights into what the intermediate- and long-term survival from cancer look like and feel like. John is also a first-rate singer/songwriter with numerous awards for his compositions. (But I don't know if he's ever written a song about his illness and recovery. Hmmm... I'll have to ask him sometime.)

#23 -- Karen/Kaz. (She's posted using both names.) Karen is Australian. Very Australian. And a superb dino hunter. She works at a museum Down Under, but finds time most every summer to visit her friends -- and she has a lot of friends! -- in North America. The most recent summer that Deb and I were dino hunting in Alberta, our field group found a superb dino skull embedded in a rock ledge that was really tricky to navigate. We pulled most of the skull free from the rock (which was hours of work), but found to our major disappointment that the occipital condyle (the "ball joint" at the base of the skull) was missing. Karen dove head-first into the narrow crack in the ledge where the skull had been and disappeared completely. Several minutes later (anxious minutes for some of us), she reappeared holding the condyle! Did I mention that Karen was very Australian? Good on yer, mate!

#24 -- Kathy D. Kathy is a member of our Quaker Meeting and the technical guru for West Chester Friends Meeting. Yes, it is unusual to have a female tech guru, but Kathy does this job beautifully, cheerfully, patiently, and with great attention to detail. When you watch how carefully and completely Kathy instructs the faculty, staff, and kids at the school, you just stand in awe. Kathy gave me the courage to create a blog in the first place. And she used the word "Twitter" with me 10 months before I heard anyone else use it. The School is extremely fortunate to have Kathy. The Quaker Meeting is extremely fortunate to have Kathy. Come to think of it, the world is extremely fortunate to have Kathy.

#25 -- Laurie. Laurie is also a Chester County Quaker with deep Quaker roots. She is one of those wonderful people who sees where something needs to be done, and either does it herself or finds the means to get it done some other way. Laurie interviewed me to become a member of the West Chester Friends School Board, and after the interview I found that I understood not only what would be required of me if I became a member, but that I had a much clearer understanding of my motivation for joining. Laurie rotated off the board several months after I joined, and I had lost contact with her. So I was delighted to have her Comment on the blog.

#26 -- Leslie & John. Leslie and John are members of our Quaker Meeting, and each of them -- in their unique way -- has found a series of roles to fill that help the School, the Meeting, and our community at large to survive and prosper. Leslie is currently the Clerk of our School Board, and brings energy, humor, and a strong sense of real-world problem-solving to our work. Individually and as a couple, they are delightful, helpful, and a joy to be around.

#27 -- Lisa L. It's hard to know where to start in talking about Lisa -- and even harder to know where to stop. She's a very dear personal friend and one of the most literate, eloquent and downright funny people we've ever known. She has taken a very strong personal interest in my illness and its treatment, and has done extensive research in my behalf as to whether I've been given the best possible chance of survival. This summer, when all I felt ready to do was crawl back into bed and sleep, Lisa was on-line looking for alternative treatments and other medical resources. Lisa has been a true "Friend in Need."

#28 -- Marcele. Marcele was a classmate of mine at the Meadville school, and also someone who recently left the program. As with others mentioned above, she left for perfectly sound reasons. And as with others, she will be sorely missed. Marcele is a wonderfully sweet young lady who brought a most welcome softness to our classwork.

#29 -- Maria Gabelberger. Maria is a member of our Quaker Meeting and is someone who is dedicated to a variety of social causes. She is also a psychological counselor, an ex-Marine, and an Akido expert. Oh, and a mommy of three small, highly energetic kids. (If this makes you feel like an underachiever, join the crowd!)

#30 -- Marie at DPP. The "DPP" stands for "Dinosaur Provincial Park," which is where Deb and I spend time hunting dinos in the summer. While Deb and I have the opportunity to spend a week or two in this fascinating place every year (except this last one), Marie spends considerable time there throughout the year as an employee of the museum that sponsors our fieldwork. There is a grandeur and solemnity of the Badlands that comprise the Park, and it takes someone with special gifts to appreciate this. And Marie is one of those people.

If you're interested in getting in touch with any of these folks, please drop me an e-mail at GotaJugl@msn.com and I will forward your message on to the appropriate party.

The next 10 Commenters will be described shortly... Stay tuned!