Tales of Power And Songs of Sadness
Fifty Years of Fortitude, And One Great Leap of Faith

     I have always loved writing, and while I have a number of pieces I've written over the years that I will eventually add to the mix of this book, I have to honor the projects "patron saint" first and foremost, my brother Jim Lange.  It is also appropriate that this commemorative speech, "To The Eye Of An Owl, From The Heart Of A Brother," written for him four years after his death, was the final speech in the final class I had to take to earn my Associates of Applied Science Degree in Computer Information Systems from Front Range Community College in Fort Collins CO. 

    Jim had strongly encouraged me to study computers before he died. While I received an A on this speech, I got my first B in two and a half years at FRCC, undermining my 4.0 GPA.  Sorry Jim, I wanted to hand you a degree stamped 4.0, but it's life not school that matters most, and the real world is  where I struggle when it comes to computers, but I love this web-authoring stuff, does it show?

   The next piece of prose was written to honor my parents fiftieth wedding anniversary, I chose the title "The Tale Of Fifty Roses" from a special time with my mother the day before. I love you mom and dad.

   The next selection is a bit bumpy and touchy. I started the paper one night in Salem Oregon when my sister was in the state hospital there, and I rented an apartment for a month so I could try to help her. I finished it two years later, in 1977, for a creative writing assignment for one of Professor Ward's poetry and writing classes. His comment at the bottom of my paper, "Flying Inside The Cuckoo's Nest," was, "This is the best thing I've read in years." Steve, I hope this web site, and this web authoring business, live up to some of the expectations we had of me. Survival has been a struggle, and at times, a living hell, as of late! I made my own bed, and I had to sleep in it. And Mick, always my friend and soul sister, thank you for standing between a loaded pistol and my brains that day in Oasis Oregon. I AM indebted to you forever!! I've worked over this paper again, trying hard to have it showcase your incredible strength and endurance against all odds. I will always love you, and thank you for that special St. Assisi prayer card this winter, I keep it on my keyboard, always in front of me as I struggle with computer programming or burn the midnight oil, working on this site!

   With some trepidation, I've included my, "Statement of Goals," I wrote as part of my designing my own Bachelors Degree via the University Studies Department at North Dakota State University; (ever hear of Fargo.) When I read it twenty some years later it feels naive and fanciful, but as I have said, life has been a struggle to the max, leaving me second quessing myself a thousand times. Yet, since I am now a webmaster and web designer, it turns out that it was a forward looking degree after all. I have a universal background, so that I can reach out and understand, where diverse people, businesses and organizations are coming from. And once again, Steve Ward, thanks (note: Steve was also my advisor,) for the faith in me and for telling me that, in your eves, my degree was the first real degree to come out of NDSU since the Land Grant College graduated to being a full fledged university. You felt I was the first person to unify both aspects of the campus, the Agricultural Science core, and it's Liberal Arts wrapper. I always felt I needed some more in-depth schooling to make the degree useful. You felt I needed some kind of communication courses, now I have both! Now I intend to enjoy the rest of my life!!

   There is one more project I would like to see up on the Internet under this site, but it is too big for me right now. As part of the Agricultural Science side of my degree, I wrote a paper, that started as a two credit independent study project on Organic Farming, but over five years turned into a book length theses, (110 typed pages). It's typed, but it's not digital, i.e., on a computer disk. So, if anyone who has a high quality scanner that can read type, wants to take on this project, let me know. These kind of things should be on the Internet, and it represents a side of me that the rest of this site doesn't touch.

Gary Lange © copyright