Happy 40th Birthday Message from Dad

Dear Greg,
When it was suggested that some poetry would be a nice birthday gift for you, I immediately had some flash-backs of discussions with you and your Pine View friends about poetry. Most memorable was Brandon Hatch’s astonishment that a father actually talked about poetry.
With the storms you have had recently, I’ve recited to myself many times Robert Frost’s Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. And in a Pine View concert Wednesday, Norm’s choir sang it. There are illustrations of the horse pulling a buggy or a sleigh. One of my first thoughts of your recent storms was, “I hope Greg has sense enough not to do without horse, buggy or sleigh and try taking the tour on his bike!”
There are two other Frost poems with lines which I especially associate with you. The other is “the road less traveled.” From early in your life you’ve taken “alternate routes” so to speak. One was when you expressed a desire to change your legal name and add “Carter” as a middle name. When you got a dog it wasn’t a normal “dog town” dog but an oriental shih tzu. In band, boys normally play brass instruments needing lots of air, you went keyboard percussion. In high school sports, the glory was in football and basketball but you went to the wrestling team. The team that has the smallest cheering section and requires more work than any other sport.
And from my high school experience I couldn’t believe it was normal for a handsome guy to spend that much time in the music department – orchestra, band, and chorus. That just didn’t happen in my circle of friends.
Speaking of friends – your circle of friends is a much larger circle than mine was and a group much more diverse in makeup but cohesive and non-judgmental. That is truly a road less traveled by in so much of society today. A’s to you and all of your friends.
Now the other Frost lines I associate with you are at the end of “Two Tramps in Mud Time.”
“My object in living is to unite My avocation and vocation.”
That is good and in a real way got you and Liz together in the School of Music. I do disagree with Frost in the rest of that verse for he says that the uniting of vocation and avocation is needed for everything to fit into place. I remember that immediately after graduating with music degrees you and Liz went on to separate vocations. But love of music was not shelved nor lost and is an avocation which enriches the lives of all with whom you share.
And now Business, Law, Music, and Family seem to be fitting together very well. I’m sure if this was not the case, William would have called and reported!
Happy Birthday and God Bless You!
Love, Dad