A Time To...
Ronald Louis Peterson
Reviewers’ Comments about A TIME TO…
“The best, most original book I have read in years. A TIME TO... is captivating right from the beginning. The author’s use of words draws readers directly into the story and captivates their interest by making them feel as if they were there... Overall A TIME TO... is well written, relatable and well thought out. I would highly recommend it.” — Michelle Danko, Faith Filled Family Magazine
“A GREAT new spiritual book! I have had very little time for discretionary reading these days, so when I not only read a book, but call it a page turner, that ought to say something. That is precisely what I would call A TIME TO... The message is one that ought to resonate with every man, woman, and child.” — Rutherford Cardinal Johnson, Anglo-Catholic News Service
“Thousands of deaths make it easy to not see individual stories within those thousands — A TIME TO... A Baby Boomer’s Spiritual Adventures — is a novel powered by a memoir as Ronald Louis Peterson tells the story of an individual who embraced the second half of the twentieth century and found spirituality and life through it all, before facing the tragedy of 9/11. A TIME TO... is a thoughtful read.” — Able Greenspan, Midwest Book Review
“If you enjoy exploring issues of trust, faith and hope, A TIME TO... will provide you with many hours of reading pleasure… In the end, the purpose of even the most difficult events of the protagonist’s life becomes clear, as he chooses to respond with faith rather than bitterness, and compassion rather than revenge. I enjoyed reading this book, and my soft heart was melted to tears more than once.” — Shaeri Richards, Dancing with your Dragon author
“A TIME TO... is not a book merely to entertain. It is a book that could provide a healing venue for those who lost loved ones on September 11 and the days afterward. Al Masterson represents all the victims of this tragedy… I highly recommend this book to readers who enjoy a well-written novel intertwined with historical facts.” — Tannia E. Ortiz-Lopés (catholicfiction.net) and publisher of https://timewithtannia.tripod.com
“A ‘Must Read’ for Peace Corps Volunteers, Past and Present. Al’s Peace Corps experiences in Ethiopia evoke particular memories and life lessons learned for this former Peace Corps volunteer… the old but true adage that material things don’t equal happiness; that we need to give back; that life isn’t always fair; that we should always try to look at the “big picture”; that taking risks can cause the discovery of unknown talents; that smiles can equal an “international currency”; that it is so important to “listen to your soul”; and many more. — Barbara Henkin, Peace Corps Volunteer (Jamaica, 1969 - 71)
“A TIME TO... is quite the pleasant surprise. Not your typical 9/11 tale, this story takes you on a personal journey to rediscover the best qualities of humanity — a great juxtaposition to see how one of the darkest tragedies in history can serve as the backdrop for some of the most beautiful examples of what makes life worth living. A great read.” — Lauren Staniszewski
A TIME TO...
A Baby Boomer’s Spiritual Adventures
A Novel by
Ronald Louis Peterson
Copyright © 2008 Ronald Louis Peterson
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4524-3127-7
https://www.ronaldlouispeterson.blogspot.com
Table of Contents
Reviews
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter 1 - A New Day
Chapter 2 - Ode to the City
Chapter 3 - News, News, News
Chapter 4 - A Dream ... A Cartoon ... and God
Chapter 5 - Why Risk It?
Chapter 6 - One Small World
Chapter 7 - The Bag Lady
Chapter 8 - Not Just Another Day
Chapter 9 - An Historic News Day
Chapter 10 - A Journey through Hell Interrupted
Chapter 11 - Childhood Memories
Chapter 12 - School Bullies
Chapter 13 - Magical Dad
Chapter 14 - Dad to the Rescue
Chapter 15 - Parent-Teacher Conference
Chapter 16 - The Dysfunctional Teacher
Chapter 17 - The Good Teacher
Chapter 18 - Mature Spirits
Chapter 19 - Ahhh, Coney Island
Chapter 20 - Spook-A-Rama
Chapter 21 - The Fortune Teller
Chapter 22 - Imagination
Chapter 23 - A Special Gift
Chapter 24 - A Missing Father
Chapter 25 - The Awkward Years
Chapter 26 - Follow the Leader
Chapter 27 - The Peacemaker
Chapter 28 - Dying to Live
Chapter 29 - The Hell Gate Treasure
Chapter 30 - Man, What a Body!
Chapter 31 - A Big Misunderstanding
Chapter 32 - The Road to Manhood
Chapter 33 - Bumping Into an Old Foe
Chapter 34 - Aiding the Enemy
Chapter 35 - Blood, Good Numbers, and Valuable Coins
Chapter 36 - Betting Against Yourself
Chapter 37 - Betting on the Big Game
Chapter 38 - The Game Within a Game
Chapter 39 - True Friends to the End
Chapter 40 - Losing Faith
Chapter 41 - A Concerned Son
Chapter 42 - Another Place ... Another Time
Chapter 43 - So Many Questions
Chapter 44 - Searching for Answers
Chapter 45 - The Wise One Speaks
Chapter 46 - A Lack of Faith
Chapter 47 - The Cost of Living
Chapter 48 - Political Turmoil
Chapter 49 - The Shoeshine Boy
Chapter 50 - Cross-Cultural Training
Chapter 51 - Food for Thought
Chapter 52 - Metaphors Galore
Chapter 53 - The Greater Challenge
Chapter 54 - Self-Discovery
Chapter 55 - Shadows and Light
Chapter 56 - Special Bread
Chapter 57 - Money Isn’t Everything
Chapter 58 - Leveling the Playing Field
Chapter 59 - First Day on the Job
Chapter 60 - A Mysterious Request
Chapter 61 - Mistaken Identity
Chapter 62 - Trick or Treat
Chapter 63 - God’s Voice of Love
Chapter 64 - New Beginnings
Chapter 65 - A Ghost of a Chance
Chapter 66 - News Flash
Chapter 67 - The Crooked Chiropractor
Chapter 68 - Realigning the Chiropractor
Chapter 69 - One Good Turn Deserves …
Chapter 70 - Marathon: Going the Distance
Chapter 71 - Tic Toc ... Tic Toc
Chapter 72 - Twisting the Truth
Chapter 73 - Revealing the Truth
Chapter 74 - Making Peace with Himself
Chapter 75 - Truths and Lies
Chapter 76 - Good-bye Dairy Land
Chapter 77 - Hello Top-Twenty
Chapter 78 - The Name of the Game
Chapter 79 - Packaging
Chapter 80 - The Road of Good Intentions
Chapter 81 - Pick Up! It’s The Cosmos on Line 5
Chapter 82 - Psychic Powers
Chapter 83 - Psychic Journey
Chapter 84 - What’s Wrong with This Picture?
Chapter 85 - In The Name Of ...
Chapter 86 - God? No Way!
Chapter 87 - Watch Your Back!
Chapter 88 - Taking a New Road
Chapter 89 - Al Finds Himself at the Zoo
Chapter 90 - Spinning For Fun and Profit
Chapter 91 - Public Relations at Work
Chapter 92 - Memory Enhancement
Chapter 93 - One Mystery Solved
Chapter 94 - From One Mystery to Another
Chapter 95 - Love
Survives
Chapter 96 - Faith Survives
Chapter 97 - Hope Survives
Chapter 98 - Answered Prayer
Chapter 99 - Together Again
Chapter 100 - Deciphering the Truth
Chapter 101 - Charity Survives
Epilogue
Dedication
I know that for some 9/11 was a turning point in their lives; but, for others, it was just another day.
This story is dedicated to those who, like me, were deeply touched by the events that took place on that beautiful fall morning—especially families and friends who lost loved ones and those who have called New York City home at some time in their lives. As a New Yorker by birth— who has since lived in other cities, states and countries—it will remain a day that forever changed the way I look at life in general and my life in particular.
May the rest of your days be at least a little brighter in some way after reading A TIME TO….
Ronald Louis Peterson
Prologue
Like the lives of people everywhere in the world, the life of Al Masterson, a fifty-year-old risk manager in New York City, unfolded day by day to the rhythms of the people, places, and circumstances around him. He was good at adapting to whatever came up, but at times he found himself wondering, “Who am I really?” Even at fifty, to his amazement, he still wondered if his destiny and his reality were in sync. This was one of those days.
It’s been a difficult question to answer because he had only vague ideas about his special or unique gifts. Sure, there were times when he had insights, but they didn’t last because something came up to challenge them and he lost his sense of self once again. In spite of the setbacks, he was confident that one day all the right circumstances would arise and then he would live the rest of his life in complete harmony with himself and everyone else in the world. Until then, he just maintained, as he was doing with his shaky employment situation.
CHAPTER 1
A New Day
Al awoke at 5:30 a.m. on September 11, 2001, to the Byrd’s song Turn! Turn! Turn! playing on his CD alarm clock.
“To everything— turn, turn, turn. There is a season— turn, turn, turn; and a time to every purpose under heaven. A time to be born, a time to die …”
He liked the song for its strong, driving rhythm, its rich harmonies, and, most of all, its lyrics for their depiction of life as a series of events and emotions that define us at any given moment— each balanced with its opposite: “A time to be born, a time to die.” They were comforting because they told him that if he was suffering, something good would follow: “Turn, turn, turn.” They were disconcerting because they reminded him that the good times don’t last: “Turn, turn, turn.”
So as he dressed and got ready to begin work on this day, he wondered if it would be the day that he’d lose his job, like the sixty others at his company who had been terminated in downsizing moves over the past few months. While there was no indication that his job was on the line, he remembered what those who had lost their jobs had told him as they cleared their desks, “Didn’t see this coming.”
“Honey, just think … by this time tomorrow we’ll still be sleeping in a hotel overlooking a beautiful beach in Mexico,” said Helen, his wife, spiritual advisor and confidante, as he kissed her good-bye. When the world closed in on him and attacked his spirit, she was there to reconnect him with the One who could do something about it.
“Yes. Just need to get through today,” he replied with the same anticipation that she had expressed in her voice. “I need to tie up a few lose ends at the office,” he added, not wanting to ruin the thought for her with his job loss concerns.
CHAPTER 2
Ode to the City
There was no way to really describe New York City and do it justice. It had too much history squeezed into its three-hundred-plus years. Lots of cities were older, but few had evolved at its pace. Its metabolism was off the charts. Living life in the fast lane, that was NYC. Take any aspect of life. NYC sped it up. It was as if time-lapse photography condensed the life-cycle of just about everything and everyone in the city. Institutions like Wall Street and Broadway, which measured the nation’s business and cultural developments, were cases in point.
The ebbs and flows of business were documented minute-by-minute with the flailing arms, hands, and fingers of traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. The marquees on Broadway theaters lived weeks, maybe months, before being replaced by the next show, the next hit. The same could be said to one degree or another of most institutions in NYC, and by default, those served by them. In this world, people had to make a special effort to stop and reflect on what they were doing and why.
CHAPTER 3
News, News, News
“Go figure,” “Yeah, right,” and “No-ooooo!” were Al’s commentaries to himself after quickly scanning the USA Today headlines as he walked past the newsstand at the Newark, New Jersey, PATH train station that would take him to his office in the World Trade Center.
“Thank God for slow news days,” Al mumbled to himself as he trotted to catch his train.
As Al boarded his commuter train, Ann Weir, a thirty-five-yearold teacher from Astoria, Queens, found a seat on her subway train as it pulled out of the elevated Grand Avenue BMT station. She was on her way to a job interview at an investment firm’s World Trade Center office.
Ann was a good teacher but was ready for a new challenge that didn’t include weak administrators, unaccountable parents, and disruptive students. Ann wanted a job that tapped her sharp, disciplined mind, opened doors to a whole new world, and raised the ceiling on her earning potential.
She had followed in the footsteps of her mother, who had been a public school teacher in Queens for thirty-three years. The dynamics of a public school teacher’s job had changed for the worse in recent years. Her mom’s teaching experience had been much different during her tenure. The environment in Ann’s school district, especially in the last few years, had deteriorated. The focus was less on teaching and learning, and more on dealing with wider social issues. Ann wasn’t a sociologist; she was a teacher. So, while it was a difficult decision because she enjoyed the interaction with bright young minds, Ann had jumped at the opportunity presented in the online ad that had read, “Wanted—Teachers Looking for a Better Job. You’ve got great communication skills. Why not put them to work for a global financial services company that will double or triple your salary?”
As Ann’s train approached the Queens Plaza station, at the foot of the 59th–Street Bridge that linked Queens to Manhattan, she looked across the East River to the renowned skyline and smiled.
“Why are you smiling?” asked the elderly, casually-dressed woman sitting next to Ann. “I don’t mean to be rude. I’m just curious.”
“I didn’t realize I was smiling,” replied Ann. “I guess I’m happy about the possibility of taking my life in a whole new direction. I’ve got a job interview with a big company this morning.”
“That explains it. What do you do?”
“Well, I’m a high school teacher, but the job interview is for a position as an investment counselor.” Ann’s faced glowed warmly, like a candle on a birthday cake.
“A teacher?” the woman pondered. “I had some real good ones and some real bad ones. Both kinds had an impact on my life. The good ones were those who brought out the best in me, saw things in me that I didn’t see myself, encouraged me to build on my strengths, and nurtured my curiosity.” She smiled and nodded at Ann.
“And the bad ones?” Ann chuckled.
“Ah, the bad ones? I’d rather not think about them, because they did just the opposite,” the woman said, twisting her face as if in pain. “The one that I remember most is Mrs. O’Malley. ‘Forget about sciences,’ she told me over and over. ‘No reason for you, or any female student, to take science courses in college since you’ll never get a job where you’ll use them,’ she had advised me.”
The woman’s face then lit up as she told Ann, “I recently retired from Kraft Foods where I was a senior nutritionist. I guess O’Malley was wrong. It’s strange for me to say this, but maybe I should thank her because proving her wrong helped me push myself harder when things weren’t going too well in college and when I was looking for a job.”
“My mom was a great teacher. She loved her students and they loved her …” She paused a moment to reflect and then added, “She did all the things you just mentioned that define a good teacher … and more.”
“She’s not teaching anymore?”
“No. She took early retirement ten years ago. She didn’t want to retire, but they gave her an offer she couldn’t refuse, if you know what I mean. Her school had to cut its budget and thought the best way to do that was to replace her with a young, inexperienced teacher at half her salary.”
“That’s a shame. I wonder if the powers that be will ever stop thinking of us all as just interchangeable parts.”
“Well, my mom’s definitely not an interchangeable part in the classroom. I could tell you stories that you wouldn’t believe. In her first year as a teacher, there was a boy who was having all kinds of problems and …”
Just then, their train pulled into the Lexington Avenue station in Manhattan.
“Oh, this is my stop.” The woman got up from her seat next to Ann and looked down at her. “I’m on my way for a morning walk around Central Park. Good luck with your interview.”
“Thanks. Enjoy your walk.” Ann smiled and watched the train doors close behind the woman.
It was a beautiful day for a walk. The sun had just risen and the forecast called for a clear day with mild temperatures in the sixties.
CHAPTER 4
A Dream ... A Cartoon ... and God
At St. Peter’s Catholic Church on the lower east side of Manhattan, in the shadows of the World Trade Center’s imposing twin towers, a NYC fire department chaplain contemplated the dream he had had the night before.
He struggled to find meaning in it since the situation he had found himself in was so out of character. After all, when was the last time I cleaned my living quarters? He wondered. I have had a housekeeper for as long as I can remember.
