1951

Outside the window of the room where I'm writing this column a maple tree blazes in the morning sun. Two weeks ago its leaves were dark green; two weeks from now its branches will be bare. Such reminders of the constancy of change are much a part of life. And this brings me to my point: many of us, perhaps most, have effected significant changes or decisions in our lives, or we are about to; and because class doings are well covered in the newsletter, I wish to initiate "The Great 1951 Epistolary Debate on Values: The View from 60 or Thereabouts." Here are some topics: The Value of Retiring and Devoting Oneself to The Value of Not Retiring and of Continuing to Work; The Value of Changing Careers at Age 50-60; The Value of

I am offering each of you a chance to communicate some hard-won understanding of the world as you have experienced it, expressible in a brief paragraph. A few of you have sent letters of this kind already, so what I'm inviting is a broader and more varied response from all of you. Getting such thoughts down on paper is a rewarding experience in itself, especially now that so many of our lives are ablaze with color after years of effort and commitment. If you find that writing a paragraph in a letter is more frustration than you need right now, then just jot a few sentences-or even humorous one-liners-on one of Batch's greencards; I'll see to it that he gets them to me. I'm hoping for a good response during the months leading up to our 40th Reunion in June 1991.

Duke Winsor, that is, Father Winsor, Anglican priest, formerly of St. Columba's parish in Middletown, R. I., will be surprised to find that he is kicking off this debate on values, for not he but his father Ed '24 sent me a clipping with the following headline: "Rev. Winsor Ready to Plot New Course." The literal truth of the matter is that Duke and his wife, Jean, will be spending far more time than usual on Retreat no, not in some spiritual hideaway at a monastery in the mountains, but rather on their 30-foot Bristol sloop. It seems that after a fulfilling life as an air force chaplain and as rector at St. Columba's, Duke has decided to give more time to his passion for sailing. Tile article quotes Duke as saying, "It's a tremendous privilege to be allowed to be at the heart of many families' lives and to know them well and to share their laughter and tears and all the rest of it. I'm going to miss that." Still the Winsors clearly know what they want to do in their retirement: "It's our strong belief that if we do this now, when I'm 60 and she's 58, we'll be able to do it for a long time when we still have considerable vigor and skill. If you put it off till 65, the chances are you won't do it. To do what we want to do, we really feel that now is the time to seize the chance."

And so last September Duke and Jean Winsor set out on a three-to-five-year voy- age, "from Newfoundland to the Caribbean, perhaps Venezuela and Brazil." But apparently you can take the priest out of the parish without taking the parish out of the priest, for Duke went on to say, "I have a goal to do some work in the Caribbean, where there's a shortage of Anglican priests."

We wish Duke and Jean bon voyage, and we hope to hear more about the continuing saga of the seafaring Winsors. Fake care, be good to yourselves, and keep in touch.

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