From: "Lee Thorn -- Jhai" <lee@jhai.org>
Subject: Lee Thorn -- Jhai Message - Party plus Next
Date: May 10th 2012

Dear family, friends and colleagues,

I hope this finds you and your families well.

A quick reminder for those in the San Francisco area or who can come here:

My Retirement Party and a Celebration of Jhai’s New, Young Leadership TIME: Sunday, 6pm, May 20
PLACE: St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church, 500 De Haro, SF, CA 94107 DETAIL: Refreshments and some food provided, you are welcome to bring more

I am in the mood of actually slowing down. I cannot express well how tired I have been intermittently over the last several weeks. Perhaps the fact that I will be 69 next month has something to do with it. ;D But it also has to do with my resisting of letting go.

I finally – just these last couple of weeks - like letting go of things. Yesterday, for example, I was able to drop my idea for independent living info-exchange on methods among people with physical disabilities AND people with mental and emotional disabilities. According to Zona Roberts, Ed Roberts’ 92 year old mom (Ed was my best friend before he died) this apparently is already being done quite effectively in a University of California, Berkeley program I remember from years ago. If you are a big picture guy like me, you get plenty of ideas. One of the great pleasures of idea folks is to find that someone else is already doing what you’d like to do. Steve Cisler told me years ago how to do due diligence. Due diligence is not just about information gathering. It is also about letting go. I’m actually …finally … liking letting go.

I went to vet meeting last night. I pitched our event on 20th. Good response. One thing about being a war veteran with PTSD is that you like to be around other war veterans. I do anyway. Especially these guys, many of which I have known since the height of Vietnam Veterans against the War days, some 40 years ago.

As I was writing this, I just got a call from a guy in Paris. His interest is leadership which is what I taught at USF graduate business school in the 90s. He's finishing a book on it. I told him at nearly 69 I am grumpier than in the past. What I did not tell him is that I also feel less smart with less memory and less energy. I do feel my EXPERIENCE is useful, however, especially in terms of increased ability to see PATTERNS.

Right now I want to root out some of my own patterns that keep me from having enough fun. These last two years have included some of my greatest joys, for example, the birth of my grandson, Simon, the increasing health and great work of my son, John, and the times son Brendan stopped the show in the SF School of the Arts performances of ‘The Producers’. My wife, Bernie, and I have had some talks, too, lately that were among the most loving, strong, tough and most useful I have ever experienced.

This last couple of years has also included lots of self-imposed pain. I lived in a world of stress because I was not letting go of Jhai quickly enough. I was holding on. I saw Jhai as Lee and that was a big mistake. Thankfully the new Chairman, Eli Nieburger, has great patience and is direct. He told me when I was being a jerk. What I got out of this has included increasing awareness about how so much of what goes wrong around me has to do with me: my perspective, my own foibles, and my old patterns of living that do not serve me or anyone around me anymore. You know Sartre once said he had no interest in psychology. He was, however, interested in how he could improve his own biography. Well, that is what I am interested in. How do I improve my own biography by my own lights in a way that makes me better at being of service, better at loving and better at being a dad, husband and friend?

That and FUN.

The one in our family who seems to have the most fun is Brendan, the musician, singer and actor. When he rehearses a song here at home I can feel his joy and can see his hard work motivated by that joy. I think he takes his life one day at a time as ART. That is what I am hoping to do in retirement. Take life as art consciously. Wouldn’t that be fun? I’ve spent a huge amount of time in my life feeling stressed. Severe and complicated post traumatic stress disorder, you know. Yada, yada. Well, now, I want more fun, more art, and more hanging out with folks talking pure s—t.

And to start I’d like you to come to our party. I think it is going to be great. Lots of friends and colleagues. We’ll try to demystify what Jhai has done and is doing. You can see the first JhaiPC set up and get a few words from friends in Africa. We’ll have good food, some music and good cheer. Please come, if you can:

Sunday, May 20, 6pm at St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church, 500 De Haro, SF 94107 … be there or be square ;D

Yours, in Peace,

Lee

Lee Thorn
Consultant
921 France Ave., San Francisco, CA 94112 +1 415 420 2870 … lee@jhai.org

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