Today is June 18, 2004, my fifty-third birthday, and with those who have interest enough to read this I use the opportunity to share the persons who have most significantly shaped the course of my life. Surely I have omitted some who deserve mention, and to them I apologize in advance. This process is in its essence difficult and requires significant broad-stroke thinking and recollecting. That process is far from perfect. It is my sincere hope that after reading what follows you will have a fair framing of those persons who most significantly affected the quality and substance of my journey. I am grateful to each and every one of them. Please remember that what follows is all about me, about my recollections and choices of what to remember, and to be kind in your assessment of each of my life-contributors, for each and every one helped me find the path which has ultimately produced more than enough love and abundance for me. Thank you. Go Easy and with my love. Marty

Gene Hall   My father was very capable. He was brilliant and well educated. There are two ways I recall my father most. First, he was fun. He taught me how to play ukulele and sing. He always had the time and inclination to play catch with me, and we were confidants in pursuit of unproductive but fun activities of which my mother disapproved. By example, my father taught me how to have fun. He also taught me by example how to cheat. He was not a man with great ambitions or principles. My mother told me a story that one day in his mid-thirties, he came home and announced that he would never accomplish anything, and then he proceeded to do just that. In my adult years I tried many times to engage him in discussions on this point, to try and discover what motivated—or did not motivate—him, but he would not let me in. I have always lamented my inability to invite him to a place of sharing the meaning levels of his life. But every time I sing, play the guitar or play the clown or fool in a relationship, I am aware of my father's touch upon my life.

Louise Heckendorf   Louise was my mother. Largely because of her natural intelligence and the adversity with which she had to deal in her earlier years, my mother embraced education as a lifeline. From my earliest recollections of her, she was always reading and improving her knowledge. This remained true throughout her life. Although I resented greatly her demands that I spend sunny afternoons of my childhood reading, a casual review of my adult life shows that I am a permanent and voracious independent student. The result for me was an enduring belief in the benefits of education, both formal and independent. My mother taught me to love learning and to invest heavily in it.

Percy Heckendorf   Percy was in my life from my earliest recollections. He was a lawyer by training, a Republican active in the party, a personal friend and supporter of Earl Warren, a self-made and relatively wealthy man. He was older, too. When he was a Santa Barbara, California, lawyer, my mother worked for him as his legal secretary. He was always fond of our family and generous to my sisters and me. On our birthdays he would take us to Ott's, a local has-everything downtown store, and give us $100 (big money in the 1950s) to buy stuff. About 1960, Percy became a superior court judge, appointed to the bench by California Governor Pat Brown, a very liberal Democrat. After my mother and father's marriage ended, Percy and my mother married, and she and I went to live with Percy in his huge and elegant home on the other side of town. Percy was a prince of a man. He was widely respected, and for good reason. Percy treated me with great respect and affection. I never let myself love him, for he was not my father, and I felt disloyal to my father with any feelings of love for Percy. None the less, Percy viewed me as his successor of sorts. He taught me to think big and to, as he said, "Find a need and fill it." His personal and professional commitment to excellence and quality largely influenced my thinking about everything I did. By his personal commitment and example of honor, I grew up valuing honor, even when I struggled with meeting that threshold.

Nellie Allen   When I was in junior high school, math was the subject over which I struggled most. This was a particularly difficult time in my life, and my math classes were the worst parts of my school days. Nellie Allen was my eighth-grade math teacher. She was not much fun at all, precise to a fault, and as best I could tell she and I were from different planets. The last day of school it was traditional that the students would ask their teachers to sign their yearbooks. Through some odd sense of guilt or responsibility, I took my yearbook up to her to sign. She looked at me for a long time, considering what to write, and then she wrote: "I expect great things from you, Marty." I immediately hated her for what she wrote, for there was some sort of responsibility I attached to it. As I found myself succeeding in life, I always found myself having to give credit to this teacher I had hated. Of course, what she gave me was a very valuable gift, for which I never thanked her.

Al Hopkins   I started working at Applied Magnetics, in Goleta, California, as my first job at age seventeen. The company manufactured computer peripherals, and the job severely challenged my abilities. Prior to working at Applied Magnetics, I was a teenage artist who had absolutely no organization inclinations or skills. Al Hopkins was my first important boss, and he taught me how to organize, measure processes and performance, and how to manage people. Al had a big background in manufacturing quality engineering and quality assurance, and he proved to me the necessity to pursue excellence in everything. Al saw some potential in me, and he promoted me several times, ultimately to a position above his in the company's organization. By working for Al, I developed methods to quantify, organize and control very complicated systems and work groups. These skills would go on to serve me in virtually every working environment afterward.

Karen Hall   I first met Karen at Applied Magnetics in the mid-1970s. She was beautiful and the very best at her factory work. Our friendship endured through a marriage, a divorce and the rearing of two beautiful, delightful children. Karen loved me even when she hated what I was and did. A line from one of my songs captures much of Karen's heart: "When we could not see eye to eye, you still saw the best in me." She was always possessed of a need to identify and maintain the justice and equality in everything. That served me well, too, as eventually I came to scan the world for inequality and injustice just as Karen did. My friendship with and love for Karen was the most enduring outside my blood relatives.

Mike Welt   I met Mike in Roseburg in the late 1970s. In the early 1980s Mike and I started a new mortgage company, AIC, and moved to Eugene to open it up. Funding came from a longtime friend of Mike's who was wealthy. Mike was a golfer and had a taste for the finer things in life. Since I left Santa Barbara in the mid-1970s, I had not experienced much in the way of finer things. Mike shared with me some really nicer things and nicer activities, such as new cars, fine dining and deluxe accommodations. He enjoyed treating himself and me well, and that taught me the importance and benefits of making sure I was treating myself well, too. Our partnership at AIC has endured twenty years as of this writing, so we must have done something right. There is something to be said for self-indulgence.

Darwin Crenshaw   I met Darwin in Roseburg, Oregon, as I entered the real estate profession. He and I became close friends and business associates. In the early 1980s, at a time when my emotional and financial worlds were falling apart, Darwin was my primary confidant. My pattern was to grow close to someone, then, just as intimacy grew and as my imperfection and lack of worth became apparent, I would create a love test by taking my foot off the relationship's accelerator pedal and allow distance to grow between us. Darwin, of his own observation, recognized what I was doing and took a stand by refusing to let me go. He simply stood by me, hugging me. Darwin's loving tenacity to me showed me that his love could survive my feelings of imperfection and lack of worth. If I was enough for Darwin, just maybe I could be enough for others, and myself, too.

Jessica and Kristin Hall   Jessica Leigh and Kristin Joy are Karen's and my daughters. Jessica was born June 23, 1980, in Roseburg, Oregon. Kristin was born December 18, 1985, in Eugene, Oregon, interestingly exactly six months from mine. There is much more to be told about their influence on my life, but perhaps the most significant and immediate impacts Jessica and Kristin had upon me was realizing how important parental stewardship is and how remarkable my personal touch upon the world is. I will go into much further detail on the subjects of Jessica and Kristin under separate cover. They are way, WAY cool and justify my existence in the very most profound ways. Extra credit goes to Jessica for coining the term "defiant happiness."

Len Leritz   I met Len about 1981 in what was thought to be a time-management seminar and which turned out to be intensive small-group psychotherapy. He was a skilled writer, educator, therapist and organizational consultant. The body of his work he described in his book, No-Fault Negotiating. I recorded a CD series of Len speaking the gist of his book. Len taught me how people relate to one another and how they go about meeting their needs. I became an avid student of his No-Fault Negotiating, and I applied it beneficially in virtually every setting of my life. If there is any single thing I could recommend to someone frustrated with the impact his or her life has or the quality of his or her journey, it would be to become familiar with Len's work. Len helped me understand the human condition and how to create gentle power. Len's grandfather, whom Len adored, called Len a Gentle Lion. Indeed, Len was a Gentle Lion, and he contributed to me in profound and good ways. Len was the consummate observer of the human condition.

Michael Charles McDonald   I met Michael when I first came to Eugene, and our friendship and kinship in music production endured. Michael was very serious about precision in what he did, always taking the time to fully understand the extremely complicated tools of the trade we used in music production. Michael was always the first to volunteer to help others, and his service to the world served me well, both directly and by example. Among many other good and worthy things, Michael reinforced in me the value of service to others as a way to create love and satisfaction in our own lives.

Sheri Chessman   Sheri and I met about 1984, and our relationship transformed in many ways over the years. We were friends, lovers and about everything in-between. Sheri taught me how to just be. I had always been invested in preparation for the future and brooding over the past, and Sheri invited me to a place of just sitting back and enjoying a few moments in the present.

Timothy Drury   I met Timothy in the mid-1980s. I had come to a point of certainty that nothing would ever be done with my songs, but I was also determined to have a really good recording of one of my songs, "Good Bye Eyes," performed by a real pro. After asking around, Timothy was recommended to me for the job. We immediately hit it off personally, and through his excellent ability to listen to my performances of my own songs (I described these versions "performance impoverished") and "get" what I was trying to express, he was able to demonstrate to me that my music was worthy. This was a very big deal to me. Timothy essentially gave breath to the notion that I was a decent songwriter, and that was very important to me.

Mickey Newbury   I met Mickey Newbury in the mid-1980s in Eugene through our mutual love of songwriting. Mickey was a world-class singer and songwriter. We had a long-lasting friendship until his untimely death in 2002. Mickey taught me the value of humility and inclusiveness. He was always open to the ideas, feelings and input of others. He taught me to take pleasure and pride in the creation of art just for the sake of the art, and to be unwaveringly true to the art and to perfection in creating art. He helped me understand that the art and the process of creating the art were far larger than we are.

Sherrie Freund   In the early 1990s I read a local newspaper article about Sherrie and her plight. She was born with multiple and complicated birth defects which left her normal from the waist up but with stubby legs (she was only about three and one-half feet tall) and lots in internal problems. The world and system seemed to conspire against her, which resulted in the newspaper article describing her situation. I was moved by the article and became involved in Sherrie's life. So did Jessica and Kristin. We tried to help Sherrie as we could, and an enduring friendship resulted. Sherrie had every reason in the world to drop out, to be taken care of by others. Yet she stood up, did the tough things necessary to care for herself and her daughter. She taught my girls and me to never, EVER take for granted what we have going for us. One night the girls and I went to Sherrie's home and set her up with a computer. On the way home, I told Jessica and Kristin that I invited them to remember two things about that night. First, remember that if something really grabs at your heart, you CAN do something about it. Second, remember that we are far more fortunate than so many people walking (or limping) the planet.

Liesl Wilhardt   Liesl and I met through a dating service in the spring of 1993. Our brief but important intimate relationship continued until late fall. She was young, intelligent, beautiful and athletic. She contributed to me in two important ways. First, she invited me to a place of physical fitness. During that period I felt incredibly strong, powerful and capable. Second, through a curious set of circumstances, she invited me to attend her Christian fellowship, which brought about a spiritual awakening in me. My relationship with Liesl ended sadly, unnecessarily and painfully so, but her touch upon my life remains to this day.

Brice Bassett   Brice and his wife, Gretta, ran a weekly Christian fellowship in the living room of their Eugene home. I met them through Liesl Wilhardt when she and I were lovers. There was a terrible story I won't share in this forum about how I came to attend the fellowship. I certainly had no Christian upbringing. In fact, I had considerable cynicism about religion. What emerged from my contact with this fellowship was an enduring friendship with Brice and Gretta, two of the most loving persons I have ever known. Brice and I worked up a project called Love Thoughts and started a little company to promote their distribution. Brice created a personal invitation for me to kindle my spiritual awareness and my awareness of the power of love. He and I were kindred spirits in the spreading of defiantly loving love.

Polly Higdon   Polly was Liesl Wilhardt's mother. Although my relationship with Liesl ended poorly, my relationship with Polly endured. Polly was always rather sickly, and it developed that she had a deadly form of multiple sclerosis, which caused her to retire and leave the profession she loved so much, being a lawyer and judge. Polly gave me an excellent example of how to persevere when confronted with daunting and unpleasant challenges.

Gene Gramzow  I met Gene through my mortgage brokerage company, AIC, in Eugene, Oregon, about 1994 or so. Gene was a mortgage investor client and we did a lot of business together. He taught me two main things. First, he taught me to always do my homework in depth before committing to any course of action. His level of diligence was always very involved and took a lot of work, but the result typically was receiving the benefit of making the best deal, reducing the risks and maximizing returns. Through his own example, Gene also taught me that virtually any handicap can be overcome with hard work and diligent homework. He had every reason to have accomplished little in his life, given what he had in the way of initial resources, yet he became successful in virtually every aspect of his life and enriched the lives of many on his way.

Ralph Hill   I met Ralph through AIC, where he was an investor client. He had a very modest upbringing and then became a soldier in World War II in New Guinea. His war experiences were horrific. He shared many of them with me, as he knew I was a student of history and familiar with what transpired in New Guinea during the war years. When the war ended, Ralph returned to Portland where he became a chiropractor and land speculator. He amassed a considerable fortune, and he and his wife, Jo, shared much of it, helping those who needed help most. Ralph was toughened by the war, but his heart was always kind and generous. He taught me the value of true, quiet and consistent generosity and choosing to focus on the good in situations.

Andrea Gramzow   Andrea worked with me at AIC for about six years, starting when she was only nineteen. At a time when she was at a particularly low spot in her primary relationship, she came to me and asked me for counsel. I shared some thoughts about her situation, and then I made Len Leritz's No-Fault Negotiating cassette tapes available to her. She became a student of Len's work, applying it beneficially in her life and sharing it with others. She inspired me to edit and transfer the cassette tapes to CD. Andrea taught me that I do, indeed, make a difference in the world. The things I had shared with Andrea and had invited her to consider had created ripples of love in my world, her world and the worlds of everyone she touched. Andrea became an ambassador of love, and through her love in the world, my value on the planet somehow was amplified.

Kathy Beemer   Katz, as I liked to call her, and I met in 2001, immediately falling for each other and getting together. She accepted me just as I was and helped me believe I was enough just as I was. She also taught me much about the power of forgiveness. She had every reason to be steeped in resentment over issues relating to her early family years, and yet somehow she found the capacity to forgive. The completeness with which she forgave was very inspiring and invited forgiveness from anyone who knew Kathy and the history of her upbringing. Katz will be my last and lasting intimate relationship.