This an entry I posted on the web in 1997. I thought I would republish it here. Please scroll down or visit the archive for the current post about thoughts on Poland.

A letter to Up With People people everywhere. June 1997 - Up the way.

My last visit with a real cast of Up with People was when I left for the second time in the spring of '78. The last song I heard was "up the way". It had special meaning to me then. I knew that many of the people I had worked with and come to love over the past year were going home and most if any I was not going to see again in this life. I was very emotional and have thought hundreds of times about those minutes when I said "goodbye, I will see you up the way somewhere". I wondered in a way that words can not describe how that would come to be. I had hope, and somehow I knew that I would see many, even most of my fellow cast members again.

I did have hope then. But over the years that hope faded and my contact with my friends stopped. I had a new life, with a wife and children. It was a different course, but I would return to the cast in my dreams, often, very often. You see, I was with Up with People in some way or another for 5 years. And those five years I gave of myself in ways ......UWP became a part of me that would not let go. The ideals and experiences and friends were a part of my life and a hundred other courses couldn't change that.

I joined Up with People 30 years ago in the summer of '67. My story will appear later.

Not until this thing called e-mail that plopped itself down on my desk at work came into my life did I even think it a possibility that Up the Way would be a reality. Well with the re-contact with Up with People alumni association and then seeing a cast perform the Festival at Vegas a couple of weeks ago Up the Way has a whole new meaning.

Many times while in Up with people I had a certain feeling. Can't describe it really. But this feeling came when I was giving of myself more than I thought I could. Each time I thought I could give no more and then did, it came. Sort of a peaceful, warm feeling. It made me stand a little taller, walk a little straighter. A smile came from within, and my directions seemed clearer. During these times, the body was tired, but the thoughts just kept coming. At times the ideas and thoughts and dreams came so fast it felt kinda like a dam bursting and I couldn't hold all of the water.

My son and daughter never have understood what Up with People means. Most times when I shared my thoughts, they usually didn't listen. No different than most kids I guess. But when I took them to see the Festival that was shown outdoors in the cold desert night, something reached them. Even if for just a few moments, they felt it. They felt the feeling I had felt so many, many times before.

It might have been the Sarajevo song that touched them. It touched me. The comet that was just to the left of the stage during the performance seemed to shine a little brighter during that song. I was emotional then, but the emotions that were held back for twenty years really let loose when I saw the strike crew taking down the stage. I didn't want the show to end. I remembered taking down the stage hundreds of times before. I hurt my back on the electrical cable box E-4 at South Boston High School and not a day has gone by that I'm not reminded of that box.

The show was over and I wanted to hold on to that feeling a little while longer. "When you go, there will just be a barren stage here with no life, no meaning, no lasting purpose". Tears flowed uncontrollably. But then came a peace, a hope and an assurance, that I could take that precious gift I had been given again, home with me.

Upon returning to my daily grind, doubts flourished. Clouds of negativity descended and I couldn't believe the problems that just blasted into my life. It was as if some unseen force didn't want me to have this precious gift I held tightly. I felt like I was taking a very hard test worse than any I took in my college days. I couldn't see through the dark welders glasses of life.

Then another e-mail was on my desk. An old friend from Up with People I hadn't seen in over 20 years. How can you have negative thoughts when you hear from an old friend? My grip tightened a little more around my unseen gift.

I have since decided that I want to hang on to that present. I want to keep it. I want those special feelings. I want to feel good. I want to help others. I want to live my life so I can walk a little taller and straighter. I want to feel that cool clear water that heals the blistering problems of life.

I thank you, the cast, the staff of Up with People, host's and friends, past and present. You have given me a gift without words. It has no form but it has substance. How many others have you given this gift to? How many others have felt your touch and you not noticed?

Your friend,

Michael Little