Giants are all around us

Living amongst giants, to me something that has been a reality for a long time, but only recently has it come to light. This being because of the fact that I have had my head in the clouds for the past ten or twelve years, so self consumed that I haven’t even recognized that indeed I am living amongst giants. I sat at the table yesterday with my grandfather(once an opening principal and later Assistant Superintendent of Santa Cruz Schools) and the love of his life, one Thelma Dalmen, a true hero in the gastronomic realm of social reform and lobbyist for health in our public schools lunch programs. She began as the Head of Food services in Santa Cruz County Schools, lobbying in Washington D.C. for healthy changes and the introduction of tofu into the schools lunch program. Sighting that it was so much healthier and less fattening , indeed it was versatile and very handy at soaking up sauces and carrying flavor. She fought and fought but unfortunately to her dismay, the bill that she was proposing had a nasty attachment to it, given by the writer for that particular lobby, along with her tofu was attached that a cold nutrition less lump of relish and ketchup sitting atop a dry hamburger and lifeless bun would fulfill the daily requirements for consumption by the young students. This was a huge disappointment and actually knowing well that this was ridiculous had to vote against her own bill,. Her laborious pursuits and constant involvement in hospitality and services eventually evoked a new idea and that idea in her own thoughts , “Why not bring hot meals to the disabled and elderly who cannot feed themselves and are not able to leave the house?, we will do it right out of the schools kitchens!” Thus the forerunner to Meals on Wheels was born. My Grandmother, as I call her now, did not receive much credit for her accomplishments, the accolades would go to some guy who came into the much needed program six years into it. “Oh well she said, I received some award, I can’t remember what it was now.” I couldn’t believe it, I have been cooking professionally for some twelve years and have always done functions for Meals on Wheels through the establishments I worked for, and here I was sitting with the person that dreamed up the idea, proposed it, developed it and saw it through!, In that moment I was living amongst a giant!
My Grandfather, Bob Soderholm, whom I mentioned before is the father of my father, a legend and giant himself. My pop, was a policeman. For 30 some odd years he served and protected the people of first Auburn and than Santa Cruz and ultimately Santa Clara where he did his ten year fighting the socially inept and wayward souls of the criminal element, as well(the worst part) those passionate lovers, whose quarrels would stagger even the bravest of men. You know the wife chasing the husband around with the carving set on Thanksgiving Day, those lovers.
All this I have written leads me to this, we all wish and strive to live and work in sanity. Surrounded by people of like minds that talk to each other pleasantly, feed each other, are not weird about closeness and are unafraid of change, even if it is not to their advantage. How is it that we pass each day, self reflection, consuming almost every thought and yet we walk through life almost completely without regard of our fellows. This is a sure sign of a world that lacks conscious. I mean, you would think that we are or should be trying to be better people, if we are reflecting on the fact that we treat other people poorly, wouldn’t we want to change that?
I am sure of it, that between my father the public servant, my mother the strong yet warm soul that has held us all together through thick and thin, my brother doing science for the greater good(a molecular biologist), my grandfather a blessed soul who at 90 years only complains of losing his eye sight(he is an intellectual who loves to read, not being able to bothers him) my grandmother the activist and lobbyist and all the other pleasant and selfless souls around me, absolutely positive, that I truly am living amongst giants.
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