When Ron and I first met I was 20 and he was 8. His father was a jack-of-all-trades at the college I was attending in California. Ron was a sports addict and I played on the basketball team so we got to know each other rather early on. Over the years we kept in touch off and on. Ron was a standout all-around athlete and played minor league baseball for several years in the Baltimore Oriels organization. I visited him and his folks frequently after graduation.
Ron eventually got tired of minor league ball and went to graduate school at the University of Arizona for a degree in art. However, his real yearning was to make movies, so he looked at some scripts to see how they were done. Ron wrote “The Best of Times” starring Robin Williams and Kurt Russell, “Under Fire” starring Nick Nolte and Gene Hackman, before he was able to direct his own film called “Bull Durham”, which was and remains a huge success. Since Ron had been a professional ball player he knew the game from the inside out and this is what made the film a huge success. I actually got to have Ron as a guest at the college where I was teaching.
Because we were friends with Ron my wife Mari and I were able to visit Ron in Hollywood several times to watch him work. We even got to be at the kick -off party for his next film, “Tin Cup”, as well as meet Kevin Costner and Don Johnson the films leading actors. Ron and Kevin got along perfectly with each other. In fact it turned out that Kevin had been a standout high school ball player and had been very eager to do “Bull Durham”. Mari and I also got to visit several actual shootings of “Tin Cup.” By then Ron was 50 and I was 62.
As the years rolled by Ron made many more successful films, such as “Blaze”, “White Men Can’t Jump”, and “Cobb”. It was his experience as a college basketball player that made “White men Can’t Jump” such a great success. Eventually Ron married Lolita Davidovich, the star of his film “Blaze”, and they now have two young adult children. His son is playing catcher on his college baseball team and his daughter is a superb singer. They live in Southern California.
One of the most interesting characteristics of Ron’s films is their literary flavor. Everyone remembers that in “Bull Durham” Annie Savoy was a Junior College literature teacher near Durham, NC and frequently offered insights into the verse of great writers. This should not be surprising since Ron was a literature major as an undergraduate. One of the more interesting characteristics of Ron’s writing is his penchant for clever and poignant turns of the phrase.
Ron has three highly creative brothers, all of whom live and work in Santa Barbara, CA. David owns his own metal working company. Steve is a high school English teacher and writes and records his own guitar music, and Jeff is a highly successful architect. All but Ron live in the “compound” in the foothills where they grew up. I have always considered the Shelton family my “second family” and remain so very grateful for them.

Back in 1981 I spent a week in the Macedonia area just north of Greece. I first visited the palace of King Philip of ancient Macedonia. King Philip was the father of Alexander the Great. He rivaled the City of Athens for power in the days of the great philosophers of Greece around 400-300 BCE. In Thessalonica I visited Philip’s palace and the museum containing relics of his kingdom. There were indications of Alexander himself everywhere to be seen and admired.
Alexander was, in my estimation, one of the “Great Wonders of the Ancient World.” Not only was he tutored by Aristotle, but there is little evidence that he learned much from the great thinker. Later he virtually conquered the known world south and east of Greece. The stories of his courage and wise leadership are legion. Moreover, he made many efforts to indwell the various cultures and peoples he had conquered. Amazingly, he accomplished all this while he was yet a young man and died in his 30s.
Then I found my way to the top of near bye Mount Olympus. After that I set out for the top of the famous Greek mountain. The surrounding fog lifted just about the time I arrived at the summit. The view was beyond belief. The entire country of Greece seemed to lay before me. I called out for Zeus, bur he never answered. I found out later that in Greek his name is pronounced “Zeves”, so next time I’ll get it right.
I ran most of the way down back to town, which took most of the day, and explored the city shops during the evening. The next morning I went and signed up for a four day visit to famous Mount Athos. It’s a peninsula on which there are many ancient yet active monasteries, no towns, and no women. Unlike most tourists I decided to spend all four days at one monastery so as to be able to indwell its life more fully. Most of these monasteries were founded in the late middle ages.
The monks, only one of whom spoke English, seemed delighted that I wanted to work rather than just be a “tourist”. So the first day after our silent meal I washed dishes and pots all day. The next day I watered the gardens with a long hose stuck into the nearby stream. The third and fourth days I worked with a the only English-speaking Monk making large vats of soap from animal fat.
I very much enjoyed talking with him about their life on this mountain. I asked him if they study and he said: “There is no need to study – just work and pray.” We arose every night at 12 for an hour of prayer and liturgy – the rest of the time silence ruled. I did find some time to read the book I had brought: The Orthodox Church by Timothy Ware. I must say I ate and slept very well those 4 quiet days and nights.
Kazantzakis writes, in his autobiography Report to Greco, of his several week trip through Mt. Athos. He has some hilarious stories to tell about the strange monks for whom he seems to have had little respect. All in all my journey was a very pleasant and inspiring one. From Mt. Athos I returned to Athens and began my own book titled Kazantzakis’ Philosophical and Theological Thought