I started off the day reconnecting with an old friend I met in Russia when travelling with Patch Adams. He was a journalist working for CBS and I invited him out with the clowns at that time. We had a great conversation about nature, life, politics and the planet. There are so many great people out there doing their bit and wondering about what will be the outcome of life on earth. My feeling is that peace will come but not until we go through some upheaval, all real change comes from upheaval, that seems to be what gets our attention. Otherwise business as usual is our operating paradigm.

My dear friend Belle Anne gave me a lift to the San Diego Sailing Club where I met with Valerie who invited me. Great people in the Rotary Club, I particularly saw the shine in Denise’s eyes the Rotary President, a very special lady. They had a joke-a-thon and it was very funny listening to all the jokes. I spoke briefly about my work and enjoyed the lunch and ambience.

I interviewed Frank a former naval intelligence officer and Rotarian. I thought he would be great to speak to about peace through service and through his broad experience what his views were about peace. We came down to problem solving and neutrality when working out conflict or indeed wars. It was a great conversation, very clear and I felt we really touched on some core issues. We spent nearly an hour together. His wife came and took him to his appointment and I was dropped off near the coffee bean coffee shop. I set up my computer and waited for Valerie to come.

We had some lovely apple pie and I enjoyed the lively conversation with her. she is originally from London but lived in Los Angeles and had an interesting life. I learned she had been an air hostess and loved it. She was a free spirit yet did marry quite a few times. I could see she is an attractive lady and was interested to learn she had qualifications in the arts, in particularly clothing design. I could see she had style and we had a really nice connection.

She took me to the Quartet movie made by the BBC. I was interested to discover many in the film were former stars of the BBC Orchestra and Philamonic in London. They were great muscians. The film was set in a nursing home where these former musical stars were retired. They did little concerts and slowly you got to know the characters. It was about relationships and love. In the end the great stars reunited in a Quartet and sang with the most exquisite voices. It was lovely for me to hear classical as I am not into it but I appreciate the talent and skill in operatic voices. One of my friends has an operatic voice and worked as a secretary. She is a great talent in many ways and an outstanding person. Valerie and I loved the film and then went to an Italian restaurant. It was a lovely way to spend my last night. We discussed homelessness, trafficking in this part of the world, women’s issues, governance, and the importance of speaking up and being heard. Women and men do have different ways of seeing and feeling at I feel compassion must come to the table not as an emotional statement but as a human statement as we are a shared humanity. We feel life very deeply and tune into the emotional reality, a person starving on the street is virtually impossible to walk past. Both Valerie and I agreed on that and we didn’t wish to see that as normal. We would like to see the homeless sorted out. I certainly got the impression something can be done as they will put in red donation boxes to help the homeless. The Council here in San Diego has a larger burden as many homeless people turn up as it is too cold where they live with snow and they probably could die or become sick. So they come to San Diego as it is a warmer climate.

This morning I went through my clothes and have made a pile. I want to donate to the homeless and contribute as I realise it is a serious problem. Something like a 1,000 a night looking for shelter. I prefer to err on the side of compassion rather than tote the tales of homeless people making lots of money out of begging. That is not to say there are not organised situations happening, I did hear about homeless people being exploited by syndicates which is probably why the red donation boxes are coming out. However, the problem has to be faced and accommodation made available. In Australia much of the government housing stock has been sold so there is a housing shortage. Poeple are nervous to invite strangers into their homes even though they have spare rooms. I feel it is the size of cities that is the problem as people don’t know each other. Valerie said there are communities here so perhaps they can get together to help each other. If people get together research the issue, interview homeless people, get to the root of the problem, any problem can be solved.

Valerie had issues with the corrupton and greed and saw that as a significant problem. Apparently a former mayor here is being indicted on crimes of theft of around $1 billion which was gambled away. She apparently was an addict. We both shook our heads imagining 1 billion dollars.

We finished our dinner and Valerie had to go to work. She dropped me off home and we kissed on the cheeks and said goodbye. Another wonderful person coming into my life.

I deeply feel blessed. Well tomorrow I am off to Los Angeles and then back to Australia in no time.

It was a wonderful day.