What I Said When I Retired

On the occasion of my retirement celebration . . . May 31, 2008, I made a few closing remarks concluding an amazing evening where over 30 former students, colleagues, choir members and dignitaries honored me with performances and presentations.  


Most of the thoughts below came to me while riding my bike over the weeks leading up to my retirement celebration.  I was commuting to work on my bike three days a week on the average so I had lots of time to think as I rode along the "Twelve Miles Of Terror" 
as I lovingly called it.


So this is a little long, but hey, it was a pretty significant 36 year career!  If you prefer, check out the "up close and personal" video version of me delivering these remarks at my retirement celebration.  (Click on the Celebration Concerts button on our website below
Go to Celebration Concert I  
Scroll down to Closing Remarks and Thanks)


 http://www.bollesartsinternational.com/

"I know you've all got to pee.  But there are a just a couple of things I wanted to share before we all 'go'. 


It’s not about me.

After all that’s been said and done tonight that may seem incongruous, but I know it’s not about me.   How about that front page article in today’s paper?   http://legacy.signonsandiego.com/news/education/20080531-9999-1m31ron.html
I saw that article and I said, “How cool is this!  Two old teachers have pushed murder, mayhem, politics and high gas prices off the front page!”  

But its not about me.  I’m here this evening to tell you the truth.  Its one of those moments where I'm thinking . . .  “What’s the worst thing they can do to me?  Fire me?”

The truth is . . . everything I’ve accomplished has been through the grace of God.  His hand on me, leading me, guiding me.  Giving me a dose of wisdom or insight at just the right moment.  Putting amazing opportunities in my path, surrounding me with the most amazing people.  It's been God at work in my life and I give him the glory.

This afternoon is a case in point.  Despite our best laid plans, a bunch of coaches and players got in here this morning and rearranged everything for a practice.  Our sound cables were a tangle of spaghetti over there.  Bleachers had been pulled out, stage pushed in, etc.  Rowena, Bev and several of our new ASB kids along with our ever present saint of a custodian, Rick, rolled up their sleeves and got to work.  I made a few phone calls, and John, Chuck, and Kevin dropped what they were doing and came down to help get us back on track.

So it’s not about me.  It never has been.  You see, the truth be told, I’m really not a very talented guy.  The only explanation that I have is my career has totally been a God-Thing.  

The people who performed tonight and thousands of others who weren’t able to join us this evening, they came into my rehearsals with enormous talent.  Talent this big (my arms wide apart). The role I played in their development was this big (thumb and forefinger an inch apart).   A little nudge here.  A little encouragement.  A little nurturing.  "What if you tried it this way?" 

Over the years all Reina and I have tried to do is create a safe place for performers of all ages to stretch and grow.  A place where they could develop their artistry and explore their craft.   And that’s what we want to continue to do through the Bolles Arts Foundation that we are launching this evening.  We want to create opportunity where there is none.  Provide hope where hope is not found.  We want to encourage people to catch that glimpse of heaven that we’ve seen.  We really do believe that the arts are a bridge between heaven and earth.  Its through the arts that we are able to see what heaven is like. 

I think we should do this more often.  Not the retirement part, but maybe once a year we have a celebration like this.   A place where some of you might come back and perform yet again.  I can see some of you 10 years from now saying, “I’ve performed at all 10 of the Bolles Arts Foundation Galas!”  And mixed in with your performances, are the performances of young people who are just starting out, who have been given a leg up through the foundation. 

If you’ve caught that vision, that passion that we have for this new venture, feel free to contribute in any way that you can.  Come see us tonight up front here.  If you can’t help us financially, maybe there’s a connection you have with a company or a corporation, maybe you know somebody at Exxon – they’ve GOT to have a LOT OF MONEY right now!

I’ve learned and relearned so many things over the past 6 months.  Its been an emotional roller coaster for me.  I actually did cry when I dropped off my retirement papers at the District Office.   I expect a lot of people don’t cry when they turn in their retirement papers.  Maybe tears of joy.   But, you know, I feel sorry for those people.  Somehow they didn’t end up having the amazing career I’ve had. 

The people I’ve worked with, students, other teachers, counselors, Principals, Parents – have all been so wonderful to me.  My bosses have trusted me, believed in me, and made things work for me.  I owe all of you so much more than I could ever repay.  Together we created wonderful things for the kids and the community.

I’ve learned again, that what I think is important and what students think is important are sometimes very different things.   The article in today’s paper was the result of two months of interviews and numerous contacts made with former students by Chris Moran, the writer for the Union / Tribune.  Sometimes he would forward something that someone had said. 

One of our performers this evening had sent him a complete verbatim version of the “Ron & Reina Rap”   This was a little message Reina and I created one afternoon on our phone answering machine.  This was back in the pre-iPod era and the best entertainment we could come up with was playing with our phone answering machines. 

This is Reina
And this is Ron
We'd be talkin' to ya
But we're gone!

Leave your name and number 
We'll call you back
And maybe baby thenWe can rap!

You see when Chris would ask me about what I remembered, what I treasured, I was talking about the Mozart piece we did in the Kennedy Center for the Arts in Washington D.C., and the extraordinary, exotic, historic trip to China that we made, and the performance at the Montreaux Jazz Festival, and singing an original composition that one of our members arranged for us in the Sydney Opera House.  I had forgotten about the Ron & Reina Rap.  But I guess that really was important, too.

Its like a couple of weeks ago I was walking down these halls with Javier Velasco.  Javier and I go way back.  He was in the 7^th grade in 1972 in my first year of teaching at Castle Park Jr. High.   Today he’s known all over San Diego as the co-director of San Diego Ballet, and he’s been hailed numerous times as one of the finest choreographers in San Diego. 

So we’re walking down the hall and suddenly he bursts out into song.  He’s singing the “Castle Park Song” I had taught him over 36 years ago.  Now this isn’t a school song, or a fight song, it’s a silly little ditty that I made up to promote the choir at the school. 

God didn’t give me a whole lot of creativity, but he did give me an extra dose of being a good copycat, so I used the Mickey Mouse Song for the melody.  Now what makes that song work is this beautiful marriage of the letters in M-I-C-   K-E-Y    M-O-U-S E   with the melody.  Castle Park doesn’t have the same number of letters so I had to adjust it a bit . . .

“We’re the ones who sing the songs with happiness and glee”

C-A-S–  T-L-E    SPACE   P-A-R-K

Castle Park,  Castle Park”

The significance is that 36 years later, the head of San Diego Ballet is singing that song back to me like it was yesterday that he learned it.  And even greater significance . . . The next year my choirs were twice as big.  You see the kids had gone up and down the halls singing that song, annoying their teachers while drumming up business for the choir.  And I knew in my heart of hearts that all these new kids had joined the choir because they wanted to sing high caliber quality choral literature like “The Castle Park Song”  Of course it is also significant that Javier went on to a career in dance and not singing!

That thing about seeming like it was just yesterday, that feeling has come back time and time again over the past few months as I’ve gotten in touch with performers who I haven’t seen in 10, 20 , 30, or more.  And when we would talk, it was like we had just seen each other last week.  You see the time we spent together was so intense, we were so purpose-driven, it was so rich in quality that the  relationships were forged in love.  Love and respect. 

Which brings me to the people who deserve my heartfelt thanks tonight. 

The Principals I’ve worked for

The Planning Committee

The Emcees

The Performers

Our Technicians on Sound & Lighting

Our CVHS ASB Students and Dance Students from CVMS

And saving the best for last, my wonderful family.  They say that behind every great man is a woman.  In my case it took three women:  My daughters Gina and Heather, and my wife, Reina.  Now I could tell you about their support and understanding and the freedom they’ve given me, but that’s just so many familiar cliche words.  I could tell you how Reina has been the most wonderful wife, friend, companion, and helpmate a man could want.

Perhaps its best to show you what I mean with a glimpse of life at home.   Sometimes my life gets to spinning so wildly out of control that it just gets crazy and I find myself doing something like mowing the lawn at 9:00 at night.    Reina will look out the window and without saying a word, she’ll go into the garage and get a light and clip it on a ladder and bring it out to the yard so that I can see what I’m doing.  (Then she goes back in the house and watches TV!)  But the important thing is that the next morning the yard doesn’t look stupid. 

And that’s what she’s done for the past 30 years of my life.  She’s provided the light so that I didn’t look stupid.  You see once again, it all comes down to the people God has put around me.

Thank You, Reina, for being the light in my life.

Thank you all . . ."