Introducing My Friend Don
As you may
have noted it has been my habit to introduce my various friends to one another.
In general I find my friends to be the most amazing people.
Very often they display almost miraculous powers in one form or another.
Usually when they meet and get to know one another they enjoy each other
and get along fine, although there have been exceptions.
Keeping in this spirit, I thought I would send you along a series of
photographs I took of my friend Don Hertzstein. One
day I hope you two will meet in person, but I thought these photographs would
make a nice introduction to Don.
Don is a
reputable criminal defense attorney who puts in long hours at work almost every
day. From what he tells me, he
works every day in a very combative role where outcomes are never sure.
I can tell he is under a lot of stress defending people who are charged
with the society's worst offenses. After
such a stressful day most people would come home, turn on the TV, have a bite to
eat, and then off to bed.
But three nights a week Don can be found at 8 PM in a small hanger at a local airport undertaking one of the most amazing projects I have ever seen. For the past three years Don has been building his own aircraft.
Thousands of
hours and thousands upon thousands of dollars have gone into the building
project thus far. Don brings
formidable skills to the project. He
is a licensed pilot with an instrument rating, one home-built aircraft already
under his belt, and an extensive background in engineering.
Even with his formidable powers, this particular project is challenging
Don at every level of his experience.
When I
arrive Don is about to prepare his supper there in the hanger.
Its the usual, a cup of prepackaged soup.
I ask him how he can eat such junk.
Don just smiles and says he's satisfied with the soup.
He says, "Oh, I like it".
He sticks the soup in the microwave oven for a couple of minutes and then
sits down to have his meal with his creation at his side.
When he's through, Don once again sets to work. Tonight Don is fitting a wing panel into place. It is a process of cutting small amounts away from the panel so that it fits perfectly in place, and then sanding it smooth. Getting the panel in place is hard work and it may take Don several attempts before the panel fits as he wants it to. This is definitely a labor of love.
Pausing in
his work for a moment, Don tells me that his partner, Mike is suffering
from cancer and that he wants to finish the project as soon as possible
so that his friend has a chance to fly the airplane should Mike not win his
battle with the illness. That’s
one of the reasons he’s pushing himself so hard.
He hopes to test fly the aircraft sometime this coming summer.
I leave
the hanger that night marveling at Don's spirit. He's got a great heart and a great mind and like many great
minds before him, he works alone, creating his dreams in the middle of the night.