LETTER written by lucy greenberg a dear friend

To all my friends and family:

I feel both privileged and humbled to be writing to you on behalf of my dear friend, Bob Paulson and this extraordinary book he wrote with the eyes of an advanced ALS "survivor" and the heart of a giant.

My family had the good fortune of meeting Bob, his wife Maureen, and their 3 sons, when their youngest started kindergarten with Ned in 1987. The relationship rapidly transmuted from play date exchanges to one of mutually shared joys, challenges and celebrations. We grew to a gang of 8 parents, all of whom had boys in the class of '00; and that group quickly coalesced as the days rolled into months and years. The Paulson boys are among the kindest, brightest and most musically talented I've had the pleasure to know.

And then there is Bob.
His background as a child in a large family living on and working the land in a small rural Kansas setting was diametrically opposed to the rest of us, who shared a more suburban, NY area childhood. As it turned out, his varied experience served to make him all the more intriguing. Farm boy... part-time musician and actor...nuclear engineer and ultimately intellectual property attorney. We felt almost provincial in comparison!! But it is Bob's music that ultimately set in stone relationships that became the bedrock of our existences.

A highlight of the year was the Paulson Christmas party where he held the room with his piano and his enormously amassed range of songs. We gathered around that piano; we listened, we sang along, and the world was in perfect harmony. When one of their boys joined in with their chosen musical instruments, it was icing on the festively decorated cake! There were Christmas parties going on all over NY; in offices, restaurants, and party spaces, but none were as pure and joyful as those memorable evenings. For one magical night a year, a lot of Jewish NY'ers were transformed into revelers of the first order. And when Bob and Maureen joined our family Bar and Bat Mitzvahs, they sang the loudest and danced the "hora" with gusto!

A most tender and memorable gathering occurred around the Bat Mitzvah celebration, in Israel, of Dani Goldstein. We were beyond fortunate to be included in her Torah readings, with The Dead Sea as the background, in a 10 day journey as V.I.P. tourists in that most beautiful and remarkable country. Bob was just beginning to show some muscle weakness in his legs preventing him from the archaeological digs and trip to Masada, but he soldiered on whenever possible. No one could have imagined what was to come. In hindsight, it feels as though that trip and the months that followed were, unbeknownst to us; a seminal moment in our glory days.

Bob was soon diagnosed with ALS and the insidious disease took hold with no mercy. As his conditioned worsened, it became necessary for Maureen and Jake (the older 2 boys already away at school) to help in every aspect of his life. They accompanied him to work, wheelchair in tow, for years; until work was no longer viable .Maureen, to this day, gives Bob his very life; she is a woman beyond compare. From the smallest trivial tasks of grooming and eating, to his continued socializing in restaurants and theatres, their days are long and arduous, but never does one hear a complaint. Never. And we are so blessed by their determination, to continue, for lo these many years, an unbroken chain of social intimacy.

We've lost our Christmas extravaganza but life has gone on as we have all adjusted to Bob's increasing limitations. This man's mental and physical endurance are unmatched. Bob considers himself blessed by family and friends and the circuitous twists and turns of a life well lived. For the rest of us comes the greatest blessing of all. He, along with his family's resolve, has inspired us in ways we could never have imagined.

I now reach out to you, my friends and family, to get to know the man and his story in a book you are unlikely to read the equal of. Much of the proceeds of "Not In Kansas Anymore" will go toward the enormous expenses involved in keeping Bob at home, a decision that some may have questioned but all have come to regard with admiration and validation. I urge you to partake of this book so that you can come to know this man among men that we have been privileged to.

LETTER TO PAUL

Hi Paul,

Thank you very much for your kind notes. I hadn't realized that intelligence skips generations --sort of like twins, huh?
Anyway, I like your father's sense of humor. I reviewed the website; if tough, he had an engaging smile that hid it very well.

My game was tennis, although not quite to the level of a scratch golfer.

I see that your father's sister also was afflicted with ALS. So sad for your family -- I assume that means they inherited the disease from their parents, each being a carrier of the defective gene. But maybe not. I learned just a few years ago that my parents were second cousins; however, I'm the last of seven children and none of my siblings has had the disease. As Dr. Lewis Rowland of Columbia -Pres once said to me, "stop blaming your parents ". We all grew up on a farm in the middle of Kansas and drank the same well water as our cows. As one of my brothers likes to say, our mere survival is a , alone, a miracle!

I, too, have now lost my voice and, except for the computer (which I only use at home), also communicate by means of a letterboard, which is so frustrating. If not for the computer, I think I would lose my sanity. And now, the researchers are starting to put "chips" in the head, which somehow can run the computer by the brain's thought processes. That may be a little more than one needs!

My wife, Maureen, and your mother sound like kindred spirits so I'm sure we will meet in the near future. Thanks again for sharing your experiences with me.

Best regards, Bob.

SOLUTIONS TO DUST STORM

Hi Frank,

Thanks for the extra input for the conditions contributing to the dust storms of the '30s. The development of machinery enabling the planting of greater acreage is certainly a significant element leading to the dust storms. And, of course, wheat was the leading cash crop, so most open fields were planted in wheat.

Prior to the development of the tractor and combines to harvest the wheat crop, its hard to imagine how much back -breaking work was involved in bringing the crop to market. My mother often talked about the mules my grandfather used to pull the plows, disks, and harrows, then the ripe wheat was first cut and tied into bundles by a machine called a binder; the bundles were then stacked into separate little tepee-shaped "shocks " in the field and, finally, the bundles were fed into a
"thrasher" which separated the wheat kernels from the stalks. There were "thrashing crews" of up to 15-18 men who followed the harvest season, moving north from Texas to the Dakotas, to pick up the wheat bundles and feed them into the thrasher. My mother's job was to bring lunch to the field, then afternoon coffee and, finally, supper at the end of the day for the entire crew.

At about the time of my high school years and continuing pretty much to the present time, the state governments began to limit the acreage that could be planted in wheat, encouraging farmers to either let the extra land lay fallow and/or plant in other crops such as sweet clover, which actually is a wonderful plant, providing great food for cattle and also returning nitrogen to the soil. Planting wheat in the same acreage year after year does deplete the soil of certain nutrients, such as nitrogen, which can be replenished with commercial fertilizer or by planting other crops , or simply permitting the land to lay fallow for one or more seasons. These restrictions had the two-fold purpose of holding down the possibility of dust storms, propping up the price of the wheat and re-enriching the soil.

Today, there is a new problem looming, caused by the desparate push to create ethanol for auto fuel : farmers are planting every available acreage in corn, which is now a higher cash crop than wheat. While corn formerly was primarily a food crop for cattle and pork, now farmers must pay a unrealisticly high price to feed farm animals corn supplements, causing a ripple effect in food prices for beef, pork and poultry prices at the grocery store. At the same time, the decrease in the wheat available also will cause wheat prices to rise, and less wheat available to ship to starving populations around the world.Its a sad day when food for animals and the human population is diverted to auto fuel.

Enough pontificating. Best to you. Bob.

Response to book

Dear Bob:

I just finished reading your book. Congratulations! You have written an engaging story of your rural past and your urban success. You are a great testimony to the perseverance needed to overcome huge obstacles in life. This book encourages everyone who reads it to never give up.

I am so honored to know you all these years. You have inspired my life.

Praying for you always.
Sincerely, Pastor John and Irene Smucker

A lovely and treasured letter I received

Your book arrived in the mail yesterday, and I stopped everything to read it right through, nonstop -- couldn't help but. I've read through any number of books in one sitting of course, but only one other comes to mind in which I definitely should have been doing something else, as was the case here, and that was Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby," so you're in good company.

The book was wonderful and I hope it will be a best-seller. Modest in tone, but wonderfully vivid and uplifting, and wonderful stories that reflect your personality so well, I chuckled many, many times, remembering all the similar good laughs we had during our high school years. I hadn't realized you were so close to your brothers all those years, nor that you had had to work so hard on the farm. You've really had a most interesting life, and, I liked the emphasis on good luck, which Liz and I have also appreciated over the years -- but it was a great way to start the book, setting the tone for the book and reinforcing it throughout.

I remember how thorough you were in learning the material in the one rigorous course we had in high school -- biology. So, the intensity you brought to your profession in patent law was but a continuation of that resolve. We actually had to study in that class and you were a master. Also, I was pleased that you mentioned Jaderborg, our English teacher, who made a huge difference in our lives. Many of his significant passages still reverberate in my mind and the wisdom they conveyed have been unforgotten.

I liked the three quotes you used at the beginning of each section, particularly the Einstein quote. It's been a hard lesson for me, because I've always felt I could do anything, and that's been the cause of alot of disappointment and depression. But it's so true; once you realize you're limitations, life can open up and you can get a perspective on what's important, and can accept other people much better as well.  The other quotes were very apt too -- you meet life where it is, and that's what you choose.

Congratulations again on a beautiful book, and on getting it reviewed in The New York Times -- no small thing! We hope to buy lots of copies and give them to friends as gifts -- and so proud to have been part of your life and can claim you as a lifetime friend. I wish everyone in our class could write such a memoir -- everyone has an interesting story I expect -- though your life has really been exceptional. Liz is reading the book now; it's spawned so many conversations, and we again are so thankful for all the good luck we've enjoyed -- an important attitude to carry into old age (so many are embittered).

Loren