Noah

Hey y’all, There we all were at the X7th Corps and Way College Reunion in Las Vegas. Wow!! What a great time. We even exceeded my extraordinary expectations. Wood Allen says, “Ninety percent of success is in showing up.” My posting is as months late. No story or excuses. First, let me echo all the other raves following the first X7th Corps 25th reunion. Valerie Knowles is a consummate hostess. We had the most elegant accommodations at the Monte Carlo Resort Hotel right in the middle of "the strip" at extraordinarily reasonable rates. Valerie is a super shopper and Convention Liaison. Gee, I wonder where she(and all of us)learned those skills so well. [tee hee hee] Since I arrived in town a few days early, I really did check out the other hotels, their prices, and relative accommodations. I am amazed that she could get us such a wonderful room rate in such a marvelous hotel. The attitude of the employees at Monte Carlo stands out. They seem more open and friendlier than the Bellagio, MGM Grand, or New York New York. They may be better educated or are more upscale than the Flamingo or Tropicana. While in Vegas I strolled through [comparison sniffed] a whole bunch of casinos. IMHO the Monte Carlo’s casino was far friendlier and a lot spiritually cleaner than most others. So, we had almost the best high-end accommodations at amazingly low rates. ;-)) Valerie booked a big block of rooms and anticipated about 300 of us. But then she got flack. People filled her ear with their stories and excuses. Some may have stayed away because they said they wanted the event to be centered on Bible teachings. Others may have stayed away because they were afraid that they would be subjected to more of the same. Others felt bad because they had not built a colossal spiritual ministry with the tools that we all had been given. Some now have spouses who were not in the Corps. So, they may have projected that they would feel uncomfortable since they don’t know anyone. Hey, not to worry! We had several of those and they all enjoyed themselves too. I came because I wanted to teach the Bible. Not much chance for that. It is the people who came. We had a riot! I can’t remember when I laughed so much or so hard about some of the silliest spiritual things. We had a common expectation of no dogmatic Bible thumping. We gave each other lots of space to be who we really are. Oh, that’s getting awfully close to loving each other. So, if you are not the man or woman that you know you could be, or that you want to be, then you fit right in with all the rest of us. At one point on our trip down the Colorado River in a pontoon boat, Valerie and I think David Lowe or Sharon Palmer Wiles’ husband, Andy, climbed a sand dune that overlooked where we were swimming to take pictures. From that vantage, you can see the sky, the mountains beyond the foothills and the Colorado River below all in one magnificent picture. I still can’t wait to see how these photos turned out. For your sakes, I hope they are OK. You all will want to come next year. I promise. Well, after taking her pictures Valerie started walking down the sand dune wearing her flip-flops. Did we mention that the temperature was a hot 115 or 117 degrees that day? It is a soothing dry heat. Well, you can bet that the sand on that dune was cooking. So, as she came down the dune, her momentum got her going faster and faster. So, she began taking bigger and bigger steps. To compensate, she started running even faster and faster. Soon she ran right out of her flip-flops and was taking gigantic steps barefoot on that hot sand. Soon she was half-running, half-leaping like in a “hop, skip, and jump” event toward the water below. But she still had her Instamatic camera tucked in the pocket of her shorts. David Lowe or Andy Wiles up above started yelling, “Your camera! Your camera!” But it was too little, too late, and much too hot. Nothing was going to stop her now from hitting that water to cool off her burning feet. Splaaaaashhhh! When her camera finally finished drying out, people at the camera store simply gave her a new camera and developed the contents of her old one before throwing it away. Valerie’s X7th Corps reunion has something for everyone. Bring your kids. OK, so they are teen-agers now. So what? They’ll love Vegas too! David Lowe’s kids sure did. Dave Petit invited us over for wine and cheese and to sit around his new pool. There, we read the 7th Corps roll call. I sure hope that 200-300 more people can be there next year. The hilarious and precious stories we told about each special person as their names were read should have been tape-recorded for posterity. [Valerie, please let’s remember that for next year. Maybe we could get a microphone that sits on the middle of a conference room table for large group teleconferencing so everyone in the much larger group can be heard.] “Everything that happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.” There won’t be a video of our antics, So, if you don’t come, you will miss all the tears of uproarious laughter! Valerie now has many ideas on how to better accommodate all of 300 to 500 for dinner on the boats on Lake Meade and the upper view of Hoover Dam. Next year we will do the river trip again, (but not on a Monday) so we can get a much closer view of the very impressive lower side of Hoover Dam. We had such a blast catching up with old friends. We especially missed Paul Palante, to whom Valerie gives credit for the original idea of the 25th reunion. Paul was the principal cheerleader to spur Valerie on to pull this one off. Yet, Paul needed emergency surgery for his eyesight. He could not find his way through an airport to come [all puns intended]. We all agreed that this year was really the pilot weekend to work out any bugs in logistics in bringing a group of 300 to 500 (including spouses, significant others, kids, etc.) to Vegas for five days. Can you picture moving 60 to 100 rental cars in and out of the same parking deck at the same time? How about busses to and from Lake Meade? Does anyone know any songs we can sing? [Ha ha] Some may have stayed away this year because they did not have big stories to tell of their great successes. Some may have never married. So what? We love YOU and do not care one whit about your resume. We wisely do not compare you or ourselves with others, but rather we compare ourselves with our former selves. We are all improving. We just loved one another in an entirely different context. I think we found that “our hearts are [still] knit together in love,” even after all these years. I think that is the most important thing. Here I am an invited guest and good friend of so many of the 7th Corps. I was 6th Corps turned Special Corps II, (Family Corps 2) and then Family Corps 6. Yet, even I was accepted as one of the family because I am part of the family. So, y’all come now. As soon as Valerie posts the next date and details, I’ll be one of the first in line to register. Why? This is an entirely open culture. It is not a closed corporation. Everyone seemed to agree that the open culture worked fabulously. There are no Thought Police at the 7th Corps 26th Reunion. There were no “innies” there. But if any were there, I bet we would have made them feel welcome too. This is a celebration of our lives and how we shared them together. We delight in one another as God delights in us. With all of our idiosyncrasies, we still have so much in common. Yeah, we have different hairlines and waistlines. Some of us are grayer, or balder, or better looking. Some of us are supporting our parents as we put our children through college. I love each and every one of you in the 7th Corps and the college division, too. Many of the friends of the 7th corps at GS had joked early on about crashing this party. I sure wish you had. I truly believe you would wish you had too if you had any idea of the great time and warm camaraderie we enjoyed and you missed. Yeah, Valerie saw to it that we were treated so elegantly, with respect and dignity. I was having such a great time. I had to look around and see that it was the same great folks, only in a different context and era. But really, it is all about the people. This next year Valarie and Paul promise to have a website that is more accessible and interactive than the other one was. Let me insert thanks to Valerie, Paul, and all the people who helped to pull this test pilot off. Next year will be even better. That’s the plan. So, make your plans early to attend. Plan your summer, your family vacation, your business trips around the real X7th Corps 26th Reunion. Your humble servant, Awaiting his return and the date of our gathering together (in Vegas????) [hohoho], Noah. [an old man with one real good idea that could only have come from guess who?]