<em>"If I don't make it to the big leagues, if I never win a Grammy, I'm gonna be just fine, 'cause I know exactly who I am."</em>

I am the sum of all my parts.

We all are.

[caption id="attachment_492" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Sum of all my parts"]<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Texas-070.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-492" title="Texas 070" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Texas-070-300x199.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="199" /></a>[/caption]

I am the result of grandparents who loved me, of a mother and father who loved me enough to raise me right (even if I didn't always see it) and a brother and three sisters who have grown into extremely impressive adults.

I have learned from close friends, and I have been blessed to have several friendships that could be considered lifelong. I have friends who, as the late <a title="Let Time Go Lightly" href="http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/h/harry_chapin/let_time_go_lightly.html" target="_self">Harry Chapin</a> put it so eloquently, "can see where you are and they know where you've been."

I have a wife who has been God's greatest gift to me, and I have two children who are honestly so wonderful I fear they may not be from this planet. I have a granddaughter who is showing signs of being every bit as alien, and both of my children have managed to marry terrific spouses.

But it isn't just the good people and the good experiences that have made me the person I am. Every failed relationship, every error I have made, has contributed, and it is only now, after I have finally been able to let go of all those disappointments, that I truly understand the benefits even of heartbreak.

<!--more-->I have worked for good bosses and bad ones. I have had good jobs and bad jobs.

And all of them have meant something to me. As the Jessica Andrews song from about 10 years ago quoted at the beginning says, I know exactly who I am.

God's gift to me two weeks ago tomorrow -- the gift that changed me forever -- has been that understanding. I now longer mourn my failures and my weaknesses; I accept what has happened and work to improve myself.

And I have accepted what I <em>can</em> do as well.

One person at a time, one act at a time, I will do what I can to heal the world.

That's who I am, who I was meant to be.

The sum of all my parts.