It is impossible to quantify everything that Simon has taught me, but I will give it a shot.
I have always been conservative, so knowing Simon hasn't changed my worldview, but it has caused my philisophical outlook to transform from black and white into color. It is almost as if my worldview was a line drawing before I met Simon, and Simon has filled in the blanks with vivid color. Very few people have the professional or life expereince to be able to do that. No one can do it the way Simon does.
For instance: the military. My Dad was a WWII combat veteran who fought in Peleliu. My Dad was a true hero, and an absolutely brilliant man. I learned at his knee, and I worship the ground that he walked on. However, my Dad was only in the military for four years. It was an unspeakably difficult four years, but he did not and could not have the kind of perspective that comes from a lifetime spent in the military. It might be said that my Dad was the artist who helped draw my worldview, but there was so much that he didn't know, and couldn't possibly have known.
My late husband Robin obviously also had a tremendous influence on me. Robin never served in the military, and there was a great deal that he had no first hand knowledge of, but he could sniff a pretentious snob from a million miles a way, and he had zero tolerance for such people. When Simon describes many of the people at the State Department whom he had to deal with over the years, I just know that Robin would have taken one look at them and instantly hated them. But he would have been going on instinct. That may seem unfair, but in all the time I knew him, Robin's instincts were never wrong. He had an uncanny ability to suss people out without knowing much or anything about them. In the beginning, I thought that he was being unfair to people. Time and experience taught me to respect Robin's instincts, but they were, still, instincts and gut feelings that turned out to be correct, but not the same as the first hand knowledge and extensive experience of Simon. It might be said Robin's influence supported my worldview and made me a much bolder person, but as with my Dad, there was so much that he just didn't know and could not have known.
Simon has filled in the blanks for me. Simon has shown me a world that I had only seen the faintest glimmerings of. It should be stressed here: I know far more about the military and combat veterans than most Americans do. All of my uncles served, several of my cousins have served, and several of the guys I dated when I was younger were combat veterans. I am far more familiar with the military than most Americans are, but there was so much that I didn't know. I kind of had a vague feeeling that the State Dept types Simon describes were not good people, and Robin knew that for certain, but even Robin couldn't have understood how bad it really is.
Knowing Simon has brought so much clarity and light into my world. There are so many Americans who are good and decent people, but most of us have very limited life experience. We don't know what we don't know, until Simon comes along and helps us to know.
There are precious few men with the kind of life and professional experience that Simon has, and even fewer who are willing and able to write about it. Simon is an indispensible voice. He really is a genius, and I cannot begin to do him justice. Asking me to describe what I have learned from Simon is a little bit like asking someone who was color blind what it is like to see color for the first time. How can you possibly describe it? I don't think I can. I can try, but my attempts to describe it will always come up far short.
You are a profound force for goodness in this world, Simon. Please keep writing. The world needs desperately to hear what you have to say.
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