PEOPLE, PLACES AND THINGS
I flew out of the UK this month, just before Charlie and Camila got their crowns.
But, as I checked in for my flight to California, the coronation was playing out on huge screens around Heathrow Airport, so I was able to keep an eye on how British taxes are being spent.
But my exit was not a form of protest. As a matter of fact, I didn’t have a clue what was planned for the day.
I went to San Francisco to meet up with my five sisters so we could prepare for and attend a memorial for one of my brothers-in-law who passed away a year ago. It wasn’t exactly a joyous occasion, but it was a very real celebration of his life, and among other things, it gave me perspective on the pomp and ceremony I’d left behind in England.
And now that I’ve spent quality time with my family, I’m going to visit an old friend who has spent his life earning the kind of respect British royalists have for the House of Windsor. He doesn’t go by any fancy titles, and the country he lives in doesn’t have a royal family, but in my opinion, Ray Sanborn is a king.
I met him 45 years ago years ago when my wife and I took a break from our trip around the United States. We were only planning to work in Big Sur for a few months so we could save enough money to continue driving up the California coast, but seven years later we were still there.
That was partially because Big Sur is a beautiful place to live, and partially because we had very few expenses while I worked on building and maintenance projects with Ray at the rustic resort he and his wife leased. But Ray was the main reason we stayed.
He trusted me, and he treated his customers and his employees with respect. And when he wasn’t volunteering on the local ambulance crew or helping people in some other way, he taught me most of what I know about carpentry, plumbing,
and electrics.
And those skills, along with the money we saved, allowed me to buy and maintain a guesthouse in Francistown a few years after we finally left Big Sur.
Anyway, while I’ve been over here, I’ve been thinking about the different lives I’ve lived in the States, in Kenya, in Botswana and in England. And, of course, I’ve been thinking about my late brother-in-law and other friends, like Voice founder, Don Moore, who have died in recent years. That’s why I am sharing how I feel about Ray while he’s still alive.
So, hopefully, this won’t come across as a cheap poke at the ridiculous amounts of money the British government spends on maintaining the illusion that some people are born better than others and deserve respect, regardless of how they behave.
I’m just trying to stress that places and things don’t matter as much as people do, and that family names shouldn’t matter at all.
We’re all born equal, but some people, like my friend Ray, behave better than others… and they are the ones we should look up to and strive to imitate.