Life @ 60, Dean Thomas Parisian

 

It’s been a good run.  A mere 60 trips around the sun and only 782 full moons.  I’ve watched snow clouds whip across the summit of Mt. McKinley in mid-summer.  I gave the eulogy at my Mothers funeral.  I viewed the magnificent Ware Collection of Glass Flowers at Harvard University.  I watched 2 healthy sons come into the world.  I saw the pristine beauty of New Zealand.  I waded into the “crowd” on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.  I hunted elk in the Big Horn Mountains above Yellow Tail Dam with Robert Yellow Tail, the first conservative Native American.  I hunted dinosaur fossils in the Badlands. I met my wife in Cancun, Mexico.   I stood at Michael Milkens X-shaped trading desk in the Beverly Hills office of Drexel Burnham Lambert.  I have shot 10-point bucks in their beds. I was accepted into 5 law schools. I went to 4 Super Bowls. I ate in the lobster houses of Baja, Mexico. I know the thrill of Space Mountain.  I looked down from the Eiffel Tower.  I caught fish in Canada till my arms ached.  I walked the Salomon Brothers trading floor in 7 World Trade before 9/11.  I have seen the treasures of King Tut.  I know the biggest components of net worth are great health and the ability to function. I asked my wife to marry me at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge. I made long ocean swims in the cold.  I looked down from a helicopter over Yankee Stadium. I learned that if it is a problem about money it is not really a problem.  I felt the heat and humidity in Tahiti. I still want to be the winning jockey on the winning horse in the Kentucky Derby.  I was in the Swiss Banks in Geneva.  I have seen the Crown Jewels. I watched schools of tuna in a feeding frenzy.  I watched 3 space missions blast off.  I sipped scotch at the Ritz in Paris. I looked the Mona Lisa in the eye.  I floated in the Dead Sea. I walked the most beautiful beaches in the world. I have eaten shrimp the size of lobsters and octopus the size of shrimp in Australia.  I rode bucking horses in rodeo’s.  I know the best hugs come from your own children. I am still pained by the massacre at Wounded Knee.  I saw aurora borealis so bright I thought I was seeing heaven from earth.  I have heard the primordial howling of coyotes across many sunsets. I partied in the original Hotel California.  I have seen death in many forms.  I sailed from Catalina Island to San Diego.  I earned a college degree. I partied at the Roxy.  I learned I chose excellent parents. I admired Mt. Blanc from Café di Midi”.  I trapped hundreds of fox.   I shot antelope at 600 yards and missed coyotes at 8 steps. I have been in planes that have landed on ice, on water, on snow and in cow pastures. I have ridden a motorcycle across much of the American West.  I identified hundreds of different birds.  I saw the artistry and beauty of World Cup soccer.   I have been lost in the Louvre. I prayed at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem.  I watched the Challenger explode live on TV.  I have had more fun than any man should have. I have broken bones. I have been to the diamond cutters in Amsterdam.  I grew up in the poorest county in America and lived in LaJolla.  I marched as a cadet at the United States Military Academy at West Point.  I know leverage works both ways in the stock market. I lost my best friend to a lightning strike. I have trapped coal black coyotes.  I danced in European discos and Native American pow-wows.  I miss my grandparents more every year. I took my Mom to Mazatlan.  I saw the Mid-night sun in Alaska! I saw two million birds in one flock.  I learned that success has nothing to do with money and everything to do with how you feel about yourself. I never smoked a nicotine cigarette. I had the privilege to coach youth football.  I have felt the roar of rushing Minnesota rivers in the spring while hunting beaver. I danced in Studio 54 and at Danceteria. I know the beauty of Diamond Head. I know the laughter of friends and the spite of enemies. I know the power of big surf.  I trapped coyotes in Montana’s Bob Marshall Wilderness. I changed at least 5,000 diapers for my sons.  I looked into the crater of Mt. Saint Helen’s.  I have been to two Olympic Games. I still dream big dreams. I know the gurgle of the Mississippi River headwaters. I know Native American racism. I ran 5k’s, 10k’s, 10 mile races and, half-marathons.  I have owned my share of winning stocks.  I always questioned my dentist. I know the beauty of white-capped waves on the Sea of Gallillee.  I fined a large brokerage firm $1,000,000.  I remember the Minnesota Blizzard of 1975.  My sailboat was nearly capsized by migrating whales.  I have watched my sons eat sushi with chopsticks and shoot their first deer and elk.  I love eating breakfast at Harry’s in LaJolla.  I lunched often at Harry’s on Wall Street.  I was on the flight deck of the USS Kitty Hawk during F-14 flight operations. I looked down on Chamonix from the French Alps.  I have become a better trader every year. I know that a house is not a home without family. I know the best music came out of the 80’s.  I felt the warmth and life ebb from my father’s body as he went into the next world and it was good.  I have seen the brilliance of the Taj Mahal and tried to fathom the ghastly mass of humanity and pollution percolating in India.  I have felt the power of young lions in my hands and looked a tiger straight in the eye. And, I know the real party is in Heaven!

Lastly I married the most beautiful woman in America.  What an amazing woman I met that night in Cancun and she agreed to partner on this life adventure.  Wife, partner, friend, mother of the two finest sons any man could ask for; the love of my life, here’s to many more!