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KIM PRINCE MEMORIAL GATHERING
What does one say to capture the essence of someone as complex and
multidimensional as Kim Prince? He was a man of many moods and
many faces. He was both very out front and very hidden, so we all
know some part of him but none of us knew all of him. Part of the
purpose of this memorial gathering is to share our particular
pieces of the puzzle so we can all have a more complete portrait
of the man.
I first met Kim on the tennis court in the semi-finals of the Club
singles tournament in the early 70’s.He beat me easily and
demonstrated impressive tennis skills and athletic grace in his
movement. I found him to be somewhat arrogant but an interesting
and attractive human being. Over time the bond between us grew as
we shared our love of the game as well as our combat experience in
two different wars. When he ended up dating two of my daughters
and spending much time in our home, the bond grew even deeper. I
came to love Kim as a dear friend because he made me feel good
about myself. He was curious and enjoyed my company. I felt
included, affirmed, and valued as part of his life. I know that
many of you had a similar experience of being with him and he was
that way with people of all ages and conditions. He loved good
food, good wine, good talk, good stories . I miss his presence in
this community at the foot of his beloved Monadnock more than I
can say. I know many of you do too.
The tragedy of his life with its ever increasing pain and the
yearning to be whole and strong again was his refusal to make
peace with the limitation that fate had laid upon him. He sought
through surgery a transformation it could not provide. So finally
he was determined to live life on his own terms or not at all.
Consciously or unconsciously Kim fostered a heroic image of
himself, often through exaggeration and half-truths. He did not
need to do that for me to love him as he really was, in his flawed
but unique humanity. Many of you felt the same way and I suspect
we all feel a certain sadness that he wasn’t able to fully grasp
that about himself.
So here we are at the foot of his beloved mountain to do honor to
his memory and share our stories with each other of the Kim we
knew and loved. Before I close my own sharing, I want to read a
poem which Kim sent to me in the Fall of 1992. To my mind it
captures so much of his spirit, his view of life, and his struggle
with the fates that wounded him:
IT BREAKS A HEART….
When gentle green of
summers come and gone
Gives way to brittle brown and red instead,
And comes Fall’s cool and smoky wind
A harbinger of winter’s dread ahead,
The sting of seasons past tugs an aching heart
And tells a man how long he had his start…
So little time from
boys to men and then begone,
When every year the blowing leaves so sadly sing their song
Of passing noble moments too sweet to savor long,
Perhaps a love that blushed before it passed along…
One season’s sign, this
Fall, of the brief and frenzied race
To rush before cruel time so surely slows our pace,
When just yesterday, it seems, a carefree blink ago
We joined a boundless summer lark so easy in the flow…
Smooth sculpted boys so
free, sinews full of length
Without a pause to ponder awesome youthful strength
Give way to brittle twigs and bones impossible to stall,
Oh God, it breaks a heart this season of the Fall…
And then before we
learn to sing a tender summer song
Yesterday is gone with burning leaves so best to move along,
It rushes by, our bloom, in a single day of Fall
From here to there from bright to bare and then that’s all…
A graying mottled sky
behind a forest’s slash of yellowed red
Casts deep the shadows on even sturdy souls with dread,
How could we spare ourselves the brightly shortened day?
Just once a callow breath to please rejoin the fray…
Trees leaving all our
dreams and leaves behind
Tell every man that nature’s way is hardly kind,
So bittersweet this splendid colored call,
Oh God, it breaks a heart this season of the Fall…
Oh God, it breaks a heart this season of the Fall.
Having once been a preacher, I cannot close my words about Kim
without reading a few lines from the Psalms. Kim was not
conventionally religious but he was spiritual in his own way and
had a real sense of the sacred, especially in the beauty and
majesty of the natural world. Hear these words from the 121st
Psalm:
I will lift up my eyes
to the hills.
From whence does my help come?
My help comes from the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth….
He will not let your foot be moved,
He who keeps you will not slumber…
The Lord will keep your going out and
your coming in from this time forth
and for evermore.
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