A New Englander Gone West with Alan Sessler (2020)

Pages: 114, Printing: Amazon Kindle Direct, Editing: Marjorie Toensing

A Fortunate Man

This year, 2020, marks my eighty-eighth birthday. By the grace of God, a loving wife, and the wisdom, experience, and skills of a cadre of Mayo Clinic physicians and surgeons, I am still here today. As I look back on my life, I see a pathway of good fortune for which I am extremely grateful. I have been fortunate indeed. I see more clearly now how one thing has led to another and an-other. I also see, given my tendency for distraction, that my tracks have not been in a straight line. I am thankful for the richness of experiences I have lived.
A colleague once referred to me as having “a platinum CV.” I never thought of myself that way. Rather, I thought of myself like the graduate school candidate I once heard described as “average with a bad haircut.” That fits me much better. I made a few decisions that were probably right, sitting or standing in the right place at the right time.
I felt an urge to sum up my life experiences in a book that my family and descendants might have a measure of curiosity in, a book that would help them know me, their ancestors, and my values and what I have done to live them. I would not say that this book contains my life philosophies; rather, it holds my insights and observations. Instead of a detailed biography, I chose to write about inflection points and decisions that were made that changed my life’s course and direction. It is hard to tell which favorable outcomes were inten-tional and which were good luck. Our decision to move to Charter House in 2007 is one of the more recent, major inflection points. Others include my childhood years in Boston (a time my parents were making decisions in my best interest, such as enrolling me in the Boston Latin School); summers at Pin-ewood Camps in Maine (from age seven to twenty-one); college, medical school, and internship; meeting and marrying Martha Anne Smith; U.S. Navy duty; my medical career; raising our three children; and, finally, my lifelong commitment to being useful and of service. I would I like my readers to take several things from this book:

1. The first is to stay out of jail (I say, tongue in cheek). Those who play by the rules, persist, and accomplish worthwhile things can live meaningful lives.
2. Invest your time and energies in some directed purpose.
3. My eighth-grade history teacher, Mr. Godfrey, said, “Gentleman, culture is everything.” I would paraphrase that to be “education is everything.” Edu-cation makes such a difference in this world. Education is how you prepare yourself to be useful and of service. (See #2.)
4. We must improve, perfect, and perpetuate institutions within a society so that they endure. Institutions must link themselves to education to survive. (See #3.)
5. The public library is one of our greatest institutions. All are welcome there—from the homeless to those with plenty. Libraries are incredibly val-uable resources for communities. From times of antiquity, great cities have maintained great libraries.
6. Investing in people to prepare them to do meaningful activities can be as satisfying as doing the activities yourself. That is why I spent so much time developing Mayo’s anesthesiology program and staff.
7. Relationships are essential. Half the problems in the world are related to the people in it.
8. Work collaboratively with others. Find and persuade talented people to join in on worthwhile endeavors. Be patient. Things need time to mature and ripen.
9. I believe in meritocracy. People are always trying to divide us—racially, economically, politically, etc. Theodore H. White, in writing about the Bos-ton Latin School, said of its meritocracy: “It accepted students without dis-crimination, and it flunked them—Irish, Italians, Jewish, Protestant, black—with equal lack of discrimination.”
10. I am not a competitive person. I was not particularly interested in keeping score or accumulating. I would rather think of how well the average is and look to see that there is enough for everyone.

My hope is that those who read my book will be encouraged to be of service to humankind. One size does not fit all. But everyone doing some small things can make all the difference in the world.