Love Like Les

So much's been said
    of this well lived-out life
what I add here today
    ... seems only a trife

But better to speak
    of these truths
While we're able

By honoring HIS Humility
    we may increase its value!



a Yogi - an Artist
a Snowboarder (quite RAD)
    Head shakes at the memories of the mad skills of this Lad

a Coach - a Trainer
an Author - a Sk8r
    ... a GEEK

a Traveler - a Guide
    ... and a friend
Damn list'll get longer had you waited a week!!!



My Friendship with Les
    was True from the Start

... most impressive to me
from that Day One
 Weren't business deals or achievements won

... but His Presence and The Process of His Servant Heart

- its so rare when you meet someone who
- genuinely connects to the passion in you
- who's stoke lights even higher that fire anew
- when HIS Belief in YOUR Dream lifts The Hope in US too!



To each of us Les is either
- a Cousin
- a Nephew
- a Husband - Father
- a Son also GRAND!
.... so let's all live in tribute to this profound stand:

When You Love Like Les - It Is Really MORE





06/24/1983 to 06/14/2014

Ralph Steinlein Tribute

What is true in this life
- yes, we are promised strife...

Witness to - his brief - walk on earth
- to these words - today - lets each give birth
Like lyrics to sing
- to Ralph - my brother
- now running heavens wing

First, Props to His Parents:
Oom Hans much more than a dad
- my first coach
- a life mentor
- mad skills that man had!!!
And Tante Doreen, a loving mother of four
- graciously welcomed my presence
- with each knock at her door
   
Ralph was more than a brother
- or cousin
- or a teammate playing his role

Practice weekdays
Then Quakes games
on Saturday night

Stopping and scoring
(both girls,
 and some goals)
He always had my back in a fight

I introduce Ralph
- to his bride number one
- and Jana gave us Matthew
- their first born son 

Soon our lives came unwound
- for no fault
- or known cost
So how sweet to reclaim
- a friendship once lost
- to take up again
- where last we'd left off

Not only TalkNsoccer
- we compared, just - how - tough
- to raise sons' n daughters'

We stopped allowing miles
- to stand in the way
- and amidst trials
TOGETHER we'd face
- all that God threw at us

It is - now - His will
- for us NOT
- to just get by

Remember lessons taught?
Or are you still asking why?

Because character
- isn't forged by strife
Your formed by what's caught
- during challenges in life 


So to The Timberwolves and us Lions
- in your pack or our den
- claim victory when
- we compete EVERY TIME
- to honor the memory
of Coach Steinlein

Now let's head back
- and step out on the pitch
Where
- sweat
- spit
- dirt... and tears
- are all in the mix
And send balls heaven bound
... where Ralph roams the sticks 

i know not of
 my earthly father's mind
or why his faith life
 had worn blind
heart broken by years of strife
 he knew not The Way - The Truth - The Life

a village named Depok
  journey began
weaving three continents
 across which he spanned

fifth of nine kids
 amidst 2nd world war
fire fights - unspoken battles
 violence de jour

prison camp survivor
 living hell on earth
savaged by warriors
 devalued human worth

by 19 - a dad to three
 fugitive in Freisland
an Indonesian escapee
 
here a new love
 thought he had found
two families and now four children
 young lives came unwound 

geographic relocation
  opposed two distant shores
sons and daughters now separate
 through healing - restored

Hoboken, yup, Jersey
 Mitch_Again next - he'd not stop
settled down in west oakland
 wasn't much yet a lot!

a trained electrician, thanks Dutch PT and T
 doggedly earn a hi-tech Double E
in oTown shipyards
 earn'n dollahs - scrubbing floors
language barriers he'd break down
 ambition held back never more

lifting cable, back broken
 slowed by pain - surgeons knife
in EPA a belly grows
  in '62 - i'm alive

American Dream on Susan Way
  1226 targeted acquire
suburban bliss - so it seemed
 achieved a long held desire

a New Year Baby
  dad served as the consummate host
upwardly mobile design engineer
 outward expressions?  a frequent toast!
Lincoln Conti with back doors suicide - so he'd boast
mink coats and live band parties
 impressed we least the most
 
unmet needs and wounds unhealed
 toll began from him to take
a BRAND NEW house in Orchard City
 start fresh AGAIN were forced to make


dad finally tipped his hand
 summer's end of 72
introduced us two youngest sons
  of daughters he'd long knew

he loved us all that summer whence
 his heart shown nearly full bloom
A decade later his eldest son commenced
 from LA to our living room

Fenian Drive unlike HIS rainbows
  a promise never delivered
but you reconciled each one of us
 a courageous act by a true father figure

twenty plus two years since we last saw eye to eye
 i pray palms turned to heavens sky
my entire family you'll meet 
 
kids, grand - great - and greater
 born unto and through you
  itself a miraculous feat


And that each one of us
 fruit of the vine
HEAR the WORD and SEE the LIGHT
 written down behind each line
Let each of us worship fully
 our Father God devine


Dedicated to:

Willem Edward Jonathans 

01.01.29 Depok Indonesia to 05.24.89 Malaga, Portugal