Monday, October 6, 2014...Life goes on

Life goes on.

Recently a long ago friend of mine died. He was a classmate of mine and he remains in my memory as the young athlete/scholar that we was. Several of my classmates have passed on in the last few years and they still remain vivid memories in my mind. A portion of who that person was live on in my memory. If you think about it, aren't we keeping those people alive with our memories? I would like to think so. I know that I remember my father so well that sometimes I expect him to be around the house ready to give me his counsel. Often my dreams include folks who have been gone a long time, but still remain in my mind. Someday, when our whole generation has passed along, we will be forgotten and there will be no memory of us – just names on a page. I suppose that's why I write a bit about what I'm thinking – just in case someone may read it someday and realize just who I was and what I thought. I wish I had some of the thoughts from earlier relatives expressed on paper so that I would know who they were and what they thought. We are here such a short time (in retrospect). The world goes on and life proceeds.

I'm not sure that I left this Earth a better place than it was when I was born. Collectively, we have made a mess of our home and it really is time to clean up the mess. When we were young we assumed that we had plenty of time to correct any mistakes we made. Looking back on life, it's obvious that we should have made corrections along the way when they were small instead of waiting until they became tremendous. It appears that Climate Change will affect the whole human race within the next few decades. I hope that man can adapt.

I have noticed that mankind has taken a path that leads away from the general welfare of humanity and towards the accumulation of wealth and power by just a few. I had thought that those days, like the 1890s and the robber barons, were through but the rich and powerful are trying their best to wrest control of everything away from the people of the Earth. I suppose it will take a catastrophe or a revolution to restart society on the correct path. Of course, I won't be there to witness, but I'm hopeful that it will happen. During my lifetime, I have seen many changes – many innovations – many changes in attitude. We seem to be drifting away from caring about the employee, or the customer, or the student, or the hungry, or the homeless. It's sad to see that change.

This has been a year for health issues in my family.  I ended up with kidney failure and now exist because of daily dialysis.  My daughters are both fighting Fibromyalgia, which can be very painful.  My brother just had a complete hip replacement - he had been in much pain and could hardly walk.  My sister was hit by their car while trying to hook up their camping trailer - she broke her back in several places and her leg and has some serious contusions and remains in the hospital looking forward to months of rehabilitation.  Hopefully we will all get better and have a much better year in 2015.  It doesn't hurt to hope.  You adjust your life to the new situations as they occur and life goes on.