Memorial Gathering at Good Neighbor Park

 

Thank you to the Department of Parks, Recreation and Marina at The City of Long Beach's for today's Memorial Gathering at Good Neighbor Park. I had the honor of remembering Gerardo in the company of many wonderful people, including how Gerardo's life was a master class on how to disarm the most tense situations through storytelling and also how he was all about valuing the cumulation of small steps toward the right direction. Poco a poco. Evolution. Not revolution.

Thank you in particular to the current Director of PRN in Long Beach, Brent Dennis who with his team made this day happen.

Thank you to a few of my trusted girlfriends for being there. And Also Valerie Davis (Gerardo's former work colleague) for being there.

Thank you for Hurley and his dog for sharing about the impact that Gerardo had not just as a manager but a leader. He distinguished that many can manage people but few can lead people.

I was able to share a passage from one of Gerardo's favorite authors: Antoine de Saint Exupery:

It was a lovely memorial and I am grateful. Thank you.

The memorial tree lives in Good Neighbor Park in Long Beach, off of Studebaker and Barrios, in case you ever want to visit it and have a moment of reflection.

The tree is young and doesn't yet cast a large shadow. And as Antoine de Saint Exupery reminds us in his work Wind, Sand and Stars:

"Old friends cannot be created out of hand. Nothing can match the treasure of common memories, of trials endured together, of quarrels and reconciliations and generous emotions. It is idle, having planted an acorn in the morning, to expect that afternoon to sit in the shade of the oak."