The Kiosks of Paris

When my career-military father was first stationed at the Pentagon, our next door neighbor was a French diplomat. He and his wife soon became fast friends with my parents. They were gracious people and home was Paris. When they made their first trip back to France after moving to DC, I asked them to bring me back their favorite souvenir. Not knowing what that would be and not yet having the palette for fine french wine, I anxiously awaited their return.

A few days after they got back, Marie came over for coffee with my mom and said she had found the perfect souvenir. It was a metal cylinder covered with airline ads. On top was a sort of crown and appropriately for the time, when you pulled it open, it was a cigarette holder. The highlight was a music box inside that played "The Last Time I Saw Paris"..

I have to admit, for the kid I was and because I had never been to Paris then, I was not impressed.  I politely thanked her and then asked her what it was. "It's a kiosk, They are all over the city. It's like one of your billboards. It makes us think of home" "Great," I said, 'Thanks again."

At the time, I still didn't really get it but, today, decades later, that kiosk has a place of honor on my desk at home. It symbolizes the adventure that travel has been for me Encountering new places and people. Speaking new languages. Learning to eat escargot and tripe. The differences in culture and customs around the world have literally changed my life for the better.

Jane and I have come to love Paris. We have gotten to know the arrondissements well. We can lose ourselves in the Tuileries and Luxembourg Gardens or just lie on the grass in the mall for hours.  It's easy to fall in love with life there.

If you can't tell, I'm trying to get my mind moving in a positive direction. The tragic happenings around the world are screaming at me every time I turn on the TV or the radio. I've been in Paris this time of year. It's perfect weather for a stroll. The neighborhood shop keepers even cater a bit to the Thanksgiving urges of the ex-pats there. It's time to come out of our holes and see the sun.

As troubling as the events of the past few days have been, I know that somehow Paris and its people will survive this horror and be stronger for it. I've checked on our friends there and they are well...sad and angry but well. I can't wait to sit on the sidewalk at one of our favorite Parisian cafes in the afternoon, watch the people and traffic go by while reading the posters on the Kiosk across the street. Parisians know better than anyone that nothing is more important than living life. Vive la France.

Women

When Marty Hoey pulled me out of a crevasse on Mt. Rainier, where I had been hanging upside down for a few long hours, the fact that she was a woman had nothing to do with my elation. I was happy to be back on solid ground and it was mostly thanks to Marty. Her skill as a climber and a guide was a match for anyone. She was a great athlete and arguably the best woman climber in the country at the time..

Throughout my career, I have encountered a number of remarkable women and it was what they could do that made them remarkable It was not because they were women..

I've recently had the opportunity to spend some time with several
members of the US Soccer World Champion Women's National Team. It was quite clear to me that these were athletes of the highest caliber.  Superior abilities, great team work, focused, driven and affable, all at the same time. Carli Lloyd, Julie Johnston and Hope Solo were a true reflection of the power of women's sports today. Being around them captured the unbridled enthusiasm of teammate Megan Rapinoe, who, when you watch her play, makes you want to kick a ball so hard.

The women athletes that I've gotten to know were setting their own standards. Making a comparison to men was not a goal.  World famous sled dog racer Susan Butcher fashioned an amazing life for herself. Her dogs were at the center of it. She even fought off a rabid moose for hours to protect her dogs. For Susan, Alaska's Iditarod Race was the ultimate prize.  She took it home 4 times and proudly stood up to every man in the field.
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Solo sailor Isabelle Autissier pushed her boat to its limits, finishing some of the 'round the world legs of her races days ahead of all her rivals. She's an icon in ocean racing and when a rogue wave capsized her boat and literally tore it apart in the southern ocean, the entire fleet of racers went to her rescue before they would continue.

Whether there was a Title IX in American sports or not, women were bound to come into their own in sports. And that;s only looking at one piece of the puzzle...in school, in business, in science and in the arts, women are making their mark and doing it in style.With role models like these, how lucky can young girls be.

When we recently did a pacesetter climb of the Space Needle before the first Base2Space stair climb, two young ballerinas from Pacific Northwest Ballet pushed the only person ahead of them, who was a guy from the Seattle Sounders soccer team, to the limit. Three more flights and they would likely have passed him.

I consider myself very fortunate to have gotten to know and work with some incredible members of the "fairer sex" (I'm guessing that's a term that some guy thought up.). Whether it was Helen Thayer, who walked solo with her dog Charlie to the magnetic North Pole, or Sarah Doherty, who climbed Mt. McKinley after losing a leg at 13 to a drunk driver, there are goals to achieve and challenges to conquer that women will tackle just as forcefully as men, physiology aside..

Unfortunately, we'll never know if Marty Hoey would have been the first American woman to climb Mt. Everest, as many of us expected that she could be.  When our team went to the mountain through China for the first time in decades, Marty fell to her death in a tragic accident high up as they were heading for the summit. Years later, I worked with Stacy Allison, who achieved that honor with visions of Marty's commitment in her mind.

When tennis great Billie Jean King started her magazine called WomenSports, I was one of the first subscribers. With that inaugural subscription came a t-shirt in the mail which I have kept all these years.  On it is a soccer ball and the words "WomenSports has balls".  You can argue the metaphor but the sentiment is right and I have to admit I believe it to be true. I'm happy to say some of my best friends are women. And that's a very good thing.