Moscow High School... Class of 1964, John Green

		John Green Mailing Address: 12885 S Union Hall Road Canby, OR 97013 Phone: 503 263-1769
John Green MD drjohn@canby.com

Spouse: Debra Green MD

Kids:
     Sinikka (30),
     Ellu (26),
     Lukas (22),
     Rosi (ll),
     Elan (8)

Plus 2 llamas (Niles and Randy), 2 dogs (Lupi and Sam) and some chickens (numbers vary according to coyotes, hawks, coons and whatever else happens to be in the area)

Life here is really full--seems a little too much most of the time. I'm trying to learn to say no to the outside and yes to the inside more often. Debra and I are both practicing, she half time and I full time. We've been actively involved in holistic and integrative medicine for most of our careers, and it's been a wonderful journey, learning and growing and working with so many special people. The past 5 years I've restricted my practice to autistic spectrum people, and have evaluated over 600 autistic children. As there are so few of us actively involved in the care of these kids, I get to see people from all over the place, including a number of other countries. It's challenging, but so rich, as many of them are getting much better with treatment focused on nutrition, detoxification, allergies, and life changes. At the same time, those who don't get much better require me to search my soul for acceptance of their suffering, while also continuing to look for ways to help.

Elan, Rosi, John and Debra

All four of us have gotten very involved with playing stringed instruments; the boys play cello and the girls play violin, and the piano has languished. Elan and I go to lessons together, and he sits and reads while I have my lesson. It's been a great thing to share with this boy who has in some ways been difficult for me to get really close to (or perhaps I've been difficult for him to get close to). I think the passion I bring to my medical work is in part a searching for, caring for and loving the little boy in myself who perhaps didn't get enough attention in early years. So it's good to deeply share the love of music with these two children.

Sinikka and Ellu

Sinikka is completing her ER residency next year, and it is significant to me that she chose to go into medicine after being dragged to the hospital to make rounds with me (or wait in the waiting room with mom and sis) in the evenings for years, and even working in my rather clinic as receptionist for a few months. She majored in English in college, but about the time she was supposed to graduate, she told me that she might as well do something worthwhile and practical. After two more years of undergraduate pre-med work, she then went on to medicine and has done extremely well.

Ellu is in graduate school in public health at Emory in Atlanta, and continues to nurse the inclination to go to medical school. She's been living with Sinikka for several years, and has been surrounded with doctors, including having a pretty committed relationship with a medical resident who is in love with medicine.

Lukas and me.

Lukas has finally gotten serious about growing up after being sent to prison for drug related crimes. He's such a special, sensitive man, and it seems he needed some really tough love to help him mature and take responsibility for his life. Deb and I and Leena (my first wife) couldn't get him off drugs. He's been in for almost 3 years, and has at least ll more (sentencing is very harsh in Oregon). In these three years, he's shown so much growth--getting a job, starting college, caring for his body, and being really considerate and appreciative of us. I'm truly grateful to the dept of corrections for what he's learned since being incarcerated (not through their teaching, but through the incredibly strict discipline which has helped him to thrive).

I learned about Janet's death from my brother Dan, who found the web site before me, and called to tell me so that I wouldn't find out casually perusing the site. It was very hard to hear; she was such a vital, health minded person. Though I broke up with her, she was always a very special person to me. I last saw her at the 20th reunion, and danced with her and told her I'd always love her. As we all move closer to the other side, it somehow seems easier to accept that we'll be crossing over before long (and time passes so much more quickly now). I'm not heading there yet, if I have anything to say about it, especially with two more kids to get growed up and one to get out of prison and on his feet. But I suppose we don't have too much to say about when we go; rather how we live and how we surrender when it's time.

I recently read a beautiful poem about death by AR Ammons (titled: An Improvisation for Angular Momentum). It ends with "Perhaps the death mother like the birth mother/ does not desert us but comes to tend/ and produce us, to make room for us/ and bear us tenderly, considerately,/ through the gates, to see us through,/ to ease our pains, quell our cries,/ to hover over and nestle us, to deliver us/ into the greatest, most enduring peace,/ all the way past the bother of recollection,/ beyond the finework of frailty,/ the mishmash house of the coming and going,/ creation's fringed,/ the eddies and curlicues."

I am eager to see all of you, and hope that some of you, like Pat Pope and Bob Ford, whom I don't remember seeing since graduation, will also show up. I wish you all the best of health and fulfillment until (and after) then.

John