A Life Well Lived

In February of this year I got a call from Nan sea Metts telling me that a book was now available: Stories for My Friends by Robert L. Metts. Bob had passed away the previous year and he left a gift of this book. It’s well worth reading, chronicling a life well lived.

Bob was a classmate of mine at San Lorenzo High School. After high school I went off to college and lost track of many of my high school friends. That was 1968. Then in 2004 I got a phone call from Bob and we reconnected. I was astounded to learn what he had accomplished in the years that had gone by.

In the mid 1970s Bob had become somewhat of a legend on the Stanislaus river with his good friend and rafting partner Dennis Fantin. You have to understand that Bob was crippled from polio. He could not row. Dennis was blind. Somehow the two of them learned to work as a team to guide a raft down a raging whitewater river. You have to read the book to get a sense of how they worked as a team. Once you get into the stories you won’t be able to put the book down.

I bought a copy of the book shortly after Nan sea called me. I read a few pages and put in on the coffee table. Before I could get back to it my wife picked it up and read it. She passed ot to my son, who then passed it on to his father-in-law who was also a river rat on the Stanislaus River in the mid-70.

Not wanting to wait for the book to come back to me, I ordered a second copy to read on my Kindle.

From his rafting adventures Bob went on to become a professor of economics, and he helped develop policies and programs to assist disabled people all over the world. His travels took him to Viet Nam, Yemen, Indonesia, Lebanon, Switzerland, Chile, Kenya and Russia.

Bob also liked a party. He was known to host parties at his house, a log cabin that he and Nan sea built in Chilcoot. Parties would go on for days with musicians jamming and everyone eating delicious food.

One quote from the book that strikes me is the mantra one of the river guides gave Bob: “Focus on the channels, not the rocks.” Good advice for any life journey.

Get the book. It’s a great read and a source of inspiration.