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by Stephen J. Weiland (Author)
There are maybe four billion males on our planet, about two million in the United States, four million in Illinois, and thirty thousand in Lake Forest. Then there is me - one among billions. Am I unique? No. I am a well-off, midwestern, upper middle class, third generation Caucasian. Am I a midwestern "Everyman"? Not quite, but close enough to cite myself as an example.
How many thoughts, emotions and experiences well up over a lifetime? How many have meaning or are simply random memories? How many have defined who I am today? How many demand examination and resolution? How many might provide lessons and a bit of humor. They do provide a simple, representative account of an infant becoming a man.in this country. My kids, my grandkids, my family and my friends should have interest. You might also.
I am well beyond the age of reason as I write this. I am a third generation Luxembourg American. The "Luxembourg" prefix has no bearing whatsoever on what follows, but it seems to be in vogue now to add flavor to my DNA. I am a person of white. I was born and raised in Rogers Park, Chicago, and have lived in the Chicago area all my life: that makes me a midwestern fly over guy. Seventeen years of Catholic education have given me a profound Christian set of beliefs absent ever having been wrapped on the knuckles by a didactic Nun or approached by a priest. I have two degrees from the university of Notre Dame; a BS in Engineering Science and a BA in Fine Arts. These two radically dissimilar degrees make me one of the few remaining Renaissance men. I've founded and sold three computer software companies which provided jobs for close to three hundred good souls.
I validate the Winston Churchill aphorism "If you're under thirty and not a liberal, you have no heart. If you're over thirty and not a Conservative, you have no brain." I almost joined the Peace Corps out of college. I voted for JFK and would have voted for RFK had he survived. Then I left my parent's home, read Atlas Shrugged, took a job, got married and "got a brain" well before thirty. Beware. I am a Conservative a strong conservative.
Despite that now sometimes pejorative label, I do reflect deeply on the mysteries, the complexity, the meaning of my life. Who am I? What does the future hold? Does anyone really care?
