Being educated means learning how to change

Carl Rogers says, “The good life is a process, not a state of being. It is a direction, not a destination.“

I was ten years old in 1946 when I saw, for the first time a naval officer at our front door being greeted by my mother. Ed was dressed in his dress uniform of a Lieutenant J.G and just back from duty in the South Pacific where he served as a supply officer on a destroyer escort. He was at our home in Ohio to pick up my sister, Gloria, to escort her to choir practice at the church where his sister, Olga, was the choir director. Gloria was in her room getting ready when he arrived. My eyes were as big as saucers seeing a naval officer up close like that. I was watching all this unfold as Ed waited patiently with my mother in our front entrance. All of a sudden, my mother came up the stairs, halfway and called to Gloria that she should come down right away, or she, my mother, was going to go out with him in her place. I did not understand what was taking place, but I knew it was something special. I watched from the top of the stairs hoping that my sister would hurry up.

When Ed found out, during choir practice, that Gloria was only 15, he told her that they should try this in about three or four years. My sister was headstrong and knew what she wanted. Four years later, they were married and I had the best brother-in-law in the world.

He told me about being in the battle of Iwo Jima, and Okinawa where his ship was hit by a Kamikaze plane that forced his ship to be towed to a repair center for repairs. I loved him. He came into my life at just the right time. I learned so much from Eddie. He influenced me in many ways.

He personified what Carl

Rogers said, “The only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn and change.”

— Joseph La Camera, Boulder