Peter Alessi, 60, joining the Peace Corps to go to Eastern Europe
But Peter Alessi, 60, practices what he preaches.
---- A father, a grandfather, a friend to many and a Big Brother, too (he has spent Sunday afternoons for the last seven years mentoring a little brother), his life is full. "Logically, my life is perfect," he says.
So why has he joined the Peace Corps? Why on Feb. 29 is he giving up retirement, his Cape Cod home, his family and his friends to go work for 27 months somewhere ("It doesn't matter where") in Eastern Europe?
"It's a leap year, and I'm leaping into the abyss," he jokes, eager to leap, unafraid of the unknown, the timing not random to him, but another sign that what he is doing is what he SHOULDbe doing.
"All along the way, the universe has been making this easy for me," he says.
Two years ago he met a woman who was just back from the Peace Corps. He says he knew then. "I had this feeling. It was an intuition, a knowing that everything I was doing was robotic and that I was supposed to be doing more."
He phoned an 800 number for the Peace Corps and asked to be sent a packet. When it arrived, he was overwhelmed. "There were so many forms." Without asking, a friend appeared. "An angel. My friend Jean. She spent four hours helping me with the paperwork."
Next came the health forms. Again, he felt over his head. He called another friend, who knew a doctor who led him through a maze of tests and forms. "At every point where I've been ready to turn around, I've always had help. There has always been an angel waiting for me."
His family was "shocked, happy and proud."
"They said, `There's plenty to do here.' But my calling isn't here anymore. I told them if you hang onto everything, there's no room for the next thing. And a thing you might like won't have room to get in."
Alessi insists his family and kids will be fine. "Sal? Derrik? The people at the hospital? They'll be all right, too. I'm needed somewhere else. I know I need to do more."
Alessi has never been to Europe. "I've never been out of the country, except once on a vacation to Aruba." He calls this life change "a chance to break old patterns." He says, "We're here to explore."
"The problem is we strive for comfort but the reality is we learn when we're agitated. Change or crisis, or what we perceive as a crisis, springs us into action and makes us grow."
He's looking forward to growing.
"I'll be teaching small-business administration. I don't know where. And I don't know what to bring. But I'm not worried. Jesus said, `Everyone is my brother' and he meant it. Everyone is a brother or sister. It's my time to put this into action."
Talk back to Beverly Beckham at bevbeckham@aol.com.
