{"id":1020,"date":"2014-05-01T15:56:51","date_gmt":"2014-05-01T22:56:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/calirose.com\/blog\/?p=1020"},"modified":"2014-05-01T15:56:51","modified_gmt":"2014-05-01T22:56:51","slug":"pass-it-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/pass-it-on\/","title":{"rendered":"PASS IT ON"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Lucky me. I get to run in a lot of different circles. The desk calendar that hangs behind my computer is a patchwork of colors and circles and arrows and Post-Its. In three different sizes. Gasp\u2026<\/p>\n

One recent Tuesday I aim my car south because my calendar says \u201cScholarship Reception.\u201d This is one \u201ccircle\u201d that is brand new for me. I land at The Japanese Garden on the campus of California State University, Long Beach. For years my father-in-law Jack was a vice-president there and my mother-in-law Connie immersed herself in everything CSULB. She attended the basketball games, theater productions and helped co-found \u201cWomen in Philanthropy\u201d which offers scholarships to deserving students. The staff, the students, the community of people who work together to make Cal State Long Beach such a warm and collaborative institution, all of this was the centerpiece of their lives. Connie passed away a few years ago and we lost Jack last winter.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>So this year their long-time presence and contributions are being honored with a special scholarship in Connie\u2019s name. \u00a0I am here to represent the family. The family I married into. Connie was the \u201cgood mother\u201d to me, but I didn\u2019t realize it,\u00a0like in my belly<\/em>, until she was gone. Why does that happen? That so much of our real connection with each other is obscured in the petty details of the moment that it seems we can only grasp the truth in retrospect? What a great big bummer that is\u2026<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
From left to right: Susan (Connie’s dear friend), Jeanette and “Shorty” (me).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Folks gather under the tent, perch at the round tables where I meet some of Connie\u2019s friends and Jack\u2019s colleagues. I munch on the spring rolls and marvel at the whole gestalt of it all. A very lovely woman, Jeanette, who will earn her degree in Management Information Systems this year, is Connie\u2019s Memorial Scholarship winner. She works in the \u201creal world\u201d while attending college and values the education she is receiving because nothing has come easy for her. I get to witness the power of \u201clegacy\u201d before my very eyes. If Connie was here, she’d be all aglow.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s interesting, the way we talk about \u201cgifts.\u201d As if a gift is a thing. A commodity. Like someone has a \u201cgift\u201d to write a poem or a song or paint a picture that makes you feel\u00a0something<\/em>. To grow a garden or a good kid or a new business. To bring out the best in others or to cook a perfect souffl\u00e9, to discover a new planet or medicine that cures the awful disease.<\/p>\n

Of course what \u201cwe do\u201d is important, but \u201cwhat we are\u201d is the true gift. I keep these wise words of author Natalie Goldberg at the ready, not far from my crazy calendar:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u201cWhether we know it or not, we transmit the presence of everyone we have ever known, as though by being in each other\u2019s presence we exchange our cells, pass on some of our life force, and then we go on carrying that other person in our body, not unlike springtime when certain plants in fields we walk through attach their seeds in the form of small burrs to our socks, our pants, our caps, as if to say, \u201cGo on, take us with you, carry us to root in another place.\u201d This is how we survive long after we are dead. This is why it is important who we become, because we pass it on.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Lucky me. I get to run in a lot of different circles. The desk calendar that hangs behind my computer is a patchwork of colors and circles and arrows and Post-Its. In three different sizes. Gasp\u2026 One recent Tuesday I aim my car south because my calendar says \u201cScholarship Reception.\u201d This is one \u201ccircle\u201d that is brand new for me. I land at The Japanese Garden on the campus of California State University, Long Beach. For years my father-in-law Jack … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":"","_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[40,82,83,84,85],"class_list":["post-1020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogentry","tag-family","tag-gift","tag-legacy","tag-scholarship","tag-scholarships"],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":2,"label":"blog entry"}],"post_tag":[{"value":40,"label":"family"},{"value":82,"label":"gift"},{"value":83,"label":"legacy"},{"value":84,"label":"scholarship"},{"value":85,"label":"scholarships"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":{"display_name":"Cali Rose","author_link":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/author\/crbauthor\/"},"comment_info":6,"category_info":[{"term_id":2,"name":"blog entry","slug":"blogentry","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":2,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":138,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":2,"category_count":138,"category_description":"","cat_name":"blog entry","category_nicename":"blogentry","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":[{"term_id":40,"name":"family","slug":"family","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":40,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":2,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":82,"name":"gift","slug":"gift","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":82,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":83,"name":"legacy","slug":"legacy","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":83,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":84,"name":"scholarship","slug":"scholarship","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":84,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":85,"name":"scholarships","slug":"scholarships","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":85,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1020\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}