The guy wearing what can only be described as one of the best hats of all time is my friend, Ken. This is a picture he sent me the other day from his trip to Antarctica. Here he is making time with the Russian crew members on his boat. I met Ken and his wife on my first trip to South Africa. After we located the perfect spot for our group's daily post-work happy hour (beers were like 50 cents), I knew we'd be fast friends. He's the kind of person people like to be around. Soon after we returned, his wife, Audrey, lost a fight with cancer. Since this time, Ken has set an example for me as far as what retirement can be.
I'll often get letters from Ken from exotic places. One minute he's in Zambia, doing work with Heifer International, then he's in some remote part of the Amazon, passing a peace-pipe with a native tribe. He's always somewhere new: Papua-New Guinea, Cambodia, and apparently Antarctica. This is what I want to do someday. I want to see as much of this world as I can. I don't care if it's primitive, poverty-stricken, war-torn. It doesn't matter. I'd go anywhere if someone gave me a plane ticket.
Believe it or not, Ken is actually a retired Lutheran pastor. I know I dump on organized religion a lot, but I've learned from experience that not all religious people are gay-hating bible-thumpers. A lot of them are pretty cool.
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