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Mountain Views News Saturday, November 14, 2020
PORTRAIT OF OUR NEIGHBORS by Stuart Tolchin
JONATHAN KELLEY
Jonathan Kelley is a
neighbor I had only
spoken with a few
times and never at
length. He is even
older than I am, about
80 I think, and when
he suggested that I try
out this kick scooter
that had changed
his life I said okay.
I almost fell and it
scared both of us and
my wife half to death.
Since that
time I have hardly
spoken to him at all
perhaps out of mutual
embarrassment but
he did seem like
an interesting guy
to interview. We
chatted a bit and set
up an interview for
last night. Before he
got here I looked him
up on the web and
got the surprise of my
life. You should look
him up too. This old
guy, who I thought
was just another
colorful Sierra Madre
character with long
white flowing hair,
a beard and a kick
scooter has quite an amazing background. Ready-- besides being a working actor with a younger
actress wife, he is a writer, a musician, a linguist, tutor, culinary expert and among other things is
a graduate of Phillips Exeter, Princeton University, and Harvard Medical School. He completed
a full career as a board certified anesthesiologist and has actually written a book called Counting
Backwards from 100 (get it –that’s what anesthesiologists do!)
Becoming aware of his credentials I became hesitant. I didn’t want to embarrass him by
asking what it was like to be rich and privileged and accomplished. Instead I brought the electric
piano that my granddaughter plays with and he played some rags and some boogie-woogie and it
was great. I felt very privileged to have my own concert and relaxed. I asked him every question
I could think of and he was very direct and open. His father was a busy urologist who really never
spent much time with him and applied no parental pressure but Jonathan yearned for his father’s
always absent recognition. He spent lots of time with his mother who was artistic and had
written a number of short stories. So he did what was expected for people of his class and went
to Princeton and screwed around. He really wanted to be a musician but was deaf in one ear and
doubted that he would ever be good enough to make it as a professional. After majoring in the
study of Latin America at Princeton, he spent a year in Cali, Columbia, gaining a life changing
and lasting appreciation of Hispanic culture.
Now more focused and mature, he returned to Boston to pursue a career echoing that
of his physician father. He credits his father’s indifference as instrumental in his eventual success.
I suggested that there are many, many people who never received much recognition or notice
from their father but who never were admitted to Harvard Medical School. He granted that it
helped that he had a lot of options. His greatest satisfactions come from interactions with people
of all types and classes. Once when riding his kick scooter along the path off the San Gabriel
River he realized he was dehydrated and had brought along no water. (After all he’s a doctor.)
He really thought he was in trouble and finally stopped at a homeless camp along the river where
he obtained needed water which may have saved his life. This incident had a great impact on
him and he stays in touch with homeless people and feels ”that we are all brothers from different
mothers.” He is a wonderful neighbor to know and reminds me that the Covid can be as helpful
as an inattentive father. Without the Covid restrictions I would not have begun this series of
articles about our neighbors.
Check out his website: jonathankelley.net.
Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com
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