Lessons in Livingston

I’m not one of those, “it was meant to be” people. I’m pretty sure Derek Jeter is going to get 3,000 hits because he spent a lot of time in the batting cage. It wasn’t kismet. Yo Yo Ma is probably as good as he is on the cello because of practice. Jimmy Connors’ backhand didn’t just happen. However, sometimes life does throw you a curveball and you do have to wonder about the great people in your life and how you met them. Let me explain.
    
I’m out in Montana on my second annual western vacation. Many of you responded to my column last year entitled “Yee Ha”. My friends know I’m not exactly an outdoorsman. I don’t fish; hey, the stuff is readily available in the market. I don’t hunt. The only horses I ever cared about I bet on at Saratoga, some are still running. The last time I stared at a snow capped mountain with a stream running next to it was when I was helping my daughter with a jigsaw puzzle.

I’m here with my friend Ed Tuccio at, of all things a bison convention. Seminars on treating worms, tracking bison DNA…what fun stuff. So why am I putting myself through this fish out of water experience?

The Stillmans.
     
You see Ed introduced me to great people last year: John and Diane Stillman. They own a ranch in Livingston. The Stillmans could not be nicer people. The fact is, between meeting them last year and this trip, I only know these folks about five days, but let me say these are the kind of people you hug the first day you meet them. These are smart, fun, giving, intelligent and caring individuals that within a few hours of meeting, you can truly call friends.
     
Oh, don’t get me wrong there is plenty different between me, John and Diane. They hike. I exercise like a veal calf. John can talk fishing and John Deere tractors. I know the Yankees and CSPAN. Diane, decides at a moment’s notice to whip up fresh pies. I think Entemann’s.    Then we sit by a fire or listen to the call of the Yellowstone River. We talk politics and life. We laugh, we talk till we are exhausted and then sleep, and then, breakfast, and then do it all over again.
     
The Stillmans have dogs and cattle and watch birds and raise wheat. Their life is so different from mine but I marvel at what great people they are. I watch their life and see nothing but good. There is a certain joy to a life well lead. I don’t know how we meet the people we meet in life, I guess in the end it is all just random. I do think back though about the people I have met, those that came and those that went and I think of what Tennyson wrote “I am a part of all that I have met”. We all are, it’s the recipe of life, we are all a pinch and a dash of this experience or that friendship.
 
For me? I’ll get on a plane this weekend. I’ll curse the long ride to the airport, in my own charming way. I’ll wait for “wheels up” when the plane leaves the ground. I’ll be happy to be heading east where people are grumpy and driven and rude. Hey, for me that’s home. Then, I’ll think about how blessed I am to have met people like John and Diane Stillman and Ed Tuccio and I’m sure I’ll nod to the Beatles…in my life I love them all.