My Father's Shoes: Life Stories and Other Memories

This book was initially written as a gift to my father. I wanted to share certain memories with him that were meaningful and lasting. I wanted him to know, from my perspective, just how important he was in my life. He never really understood the profound impact that he had on the lives of other people –especially his family. Because of that humility, or perhaps in honor of it, I wanted to him know that he truly made a difference in this world.

As others read the manuscript they seemed to recognize something of themselves in these stories. A memory. A passage. An incident. A feeling. As they did I became more comfortable with sharing these vignettes of family life.

In the end this book is really more about me than my father. But, even more than that, it is about appreciating every circumstance in life however mundane or unremarkable it may seem at the time. These seemingly discrete and unrelated moments actually define who you are, what you become and what matters most in life. At least they did for me.

My father always used to say, senza memoria vita non esiste, which in Italian means, ‘without memory life does not exist.’ These are my memories and this is my inheritance.

Raymond F. Vennare
While dedicating a significant and successful portion of his life and career to business, entrepreneurship and science, Raymond’s essential orientation is humanistic. He is exquisitely aware of the inter-relatedness of all things.

This ability to intrinsically see and understand how disciplines overlap and coincide is Raymond’s distinctive gift. He is at home in the intersections of business, culture, art and science, and uses interconnectedness as a catalyst for finding novel ways to forge bonds across disciplines and solve human problems.

Raymond has always been driven to express his way of seeing the commonalities of the world. This is reflected in the lifelong diversity and range of his pursuits; through his work as an academically trained art historian, ethicist and businessman and as a multi-disciplinary artist — painter, writer, musician, and commentator.

His current artistic offering is a richly textured memoir, My Father’s Shoes, which he is also adapting for stage and audio performance. This vibrant anthology celebrates the capacity of one person to make a lasting difference in the lives of others.

With humorous reflection, clanking dishes, wafting aromas, and loving tenderness, it vividly reminds us how we ultimately transfer our human energy trough the stories and memories we create and leave behind.

There isn’t one ounce of fat in Vennare’s writing. Every story is a journey, every sentence a complete thought. This book is not just a good read … this is Benediction.
—Frank Ferraro, Filmmaker and Playwright

I feel like I know these people, and I care about them and the vivid way they lived. Vennare’s courage in the act of remembering his father’s life, and revealing his own, is an invitation to all of us to find a way to pass on the stories and memories we hold most dear.
—Karen Kern, Writer

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