tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91208560356177417852024-03-28T10:56:53.608-07:00OCTOBER YEARS & November tooA WRITER'S TAKE ON MAKING THE MOST OF LATE-LIFEoctoberyearshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02772770846223392811noreply@blogger.comBlogger255125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9120856035617741785.post-53299554165901906592024-03-28T10:56:00.000-07:002024-03-28T10:56:06.700-07:00IN PURSUIT OF ELDER WISDOM<p><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: x-large;">It’s funny, isn’t it……how so many of our life experiences have two sides to them……the good and the bad, the hopeful and the depressing. Just a week ago I was on these pages preaching about the need to be grateful. And here I am today dwelling on what might be considered the other side of that coin.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Near as I can tell my rather abrupt change of course was spawned by continuing thoughts of an earlier cancer diagnosis, and the resulting treatment…….thoughts that were quite different than the ones I addressed in my Attitude of Gratitude piece.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Life is that way, you know. Sometimes our fuzzy thoughts can lead us off on unexpected detours? I suppose that becomes all the more true when we stumble through our October years into November and beyond. Though we have learned our share of lessons along the way, by this stage of the game we are aware that some late-life questions require their own unique late-life answers.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">I like to think I had the necessary answers when I was in my prime, those glory years of my fifties and sixties……a time of smooth sailing and satisfying outcomes……which probably says something about my retreating memory. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">But today, in my octogenarian November years, (at least I hope it is November.) my personal reality is changing. I keep bumping into the sad realization that I can no longer do what I once could. Truth to tell, if I let myself dwell on that dour understanding it can take me places I would rather not go. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">There are days when it is hard to shake the notion that I am on a one-way street, worn out and used up, descending a long, slippery slope to an inevitable end. In those moments it feels like the positives of my life, and I have certainly had my share of those, have come and gone. Here I am, old and alone……looking ahead from that perspective, trying to imagine what awaits me. There are times when it is hard to be hopeful.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">It was with that reality in mind, still dwelling on the impact of the Big ‘C’ I mentioned last week, that I revisited my journals, turning to the pages from 2017, and what I had titled ‘Living With Dying.’ There I was drawn to a couple brief paragraphs that sent me off in a new direction.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> ********</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;"> While I wait for the doctor to determine how effective the immunology therapy has been, I want to sort through some of the options I have in mind for the future. </span></i></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>I plan to start that process with the hopeful assumption that all of us late-life folks have more resources to work with than we sometimes realize. We have spent a lifetime gaining our own hard-won </i><b><i>elder wisdom. </i></b><i>The things we have learned along the way ought not be dismissed.……especially in our ‘down and out’ moments, when we feel our potential slipping away. At times like that we must not give up on ourselves.</i></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> **********</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">So, when life weighs heavy on me, what sort of ‘elder wisdom’ do I have to draw on? Do I turn to the culture-shaping giants of times past……the revered dispensers of theological or/and philosophical wisdom? I know some folks do that. But that seems not to work for me.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Near as I can tell there is nothing mysterious or esoteric about my search for the truth. In fact, it appears that my operating version of ‘elder wisdom’ looks a lot like the common sense I have relied on to get this far in life……the kind we too often overlook when intimidation and uncertainty raise their ugly heads.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Chief among that common-sense inventory ought to be the realization that the less-than-primetime fellow I have become must remember to pace himself. That was true in the May and June of my life. It is all the more true in October and November. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Today the question has become…….what level of activity amounts to an appropriate ‘November pace’? That was part of the continuing conversation that Roma and I rehashed as a couple. Now, in her absence, it is the same dialogue I have with myself. “What is a sustainable pace for the ‘me’ I have become?”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Most of our late-life peers understand the need to slow down and create an activity level in keeping with their declining capabilities. Though we may be inclined to resist those unwelcome realities, at some point we are forced to accept what we can’t change.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Though the challenges faced and the resulting accommodations will vary from person to person, a new, less-demanding level of physical activity is likely to be required. No matter how much we love our gardening, or long to take on the pesky home improvement projects that need doing, there are some things that will not be done by us. That has become a given.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">What is not ‘given,’ however, are the particular activities each of us chooses to include in our ‘age-appropriate’ profile. I am not sure I understood the importance of that freedom to choose when I first addressed ‘the need to make the most of my remaining years.’ Since then I like to hope that I have learned a thing or two about that existential freedom.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">For instance, I have learned that I can no longer manage everything on my ‘to-do list.’ There came a time when it was necessary to selectively reduce the demands on my shrinking future. That in turn meant it was more important than ever that I concentrate on the activities I really wanted to pursue.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Of course, there will always be those things that must be done because they cannot be set aside. But no matter what we have ‘always done,’ or what others think we ought to be doing……I believe that I have earned the right to devote more of my time to the things I find most comforting, satisfying, and fulfilling. At our age time is a precious commodity. We ought to use it wisely, without apologizing or rationalizing.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Of course, how we use that time is a very personal thing. No two answers will be the same, nor should they be. Within the constraints of health, resources, and safety each of us should make our own choices.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">So what does that mean for me? How might I make the best use of my limited time? I ask your indulgence for a few moments as I offer a personal illustration or two. If my choices strike you as childish or escapism, I respectfully beg to differ. My intent is not to hide, or turn away from a less desirable destination. Instead, these are the destinations I had in mind all along.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Even in the face of health and lifestyle obstacles, which at my stage of life cannot be ignored, I claim the right to spend as much time as possible doing what really matters to me……things like helping others when I can, spending time with family and friends, and especially the care and feeding of the ‘inner me.’ </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Though I don’t have all that much in the way of worldly treasure, generally speaking I have enough. For 63 years Roma fussed over me like she did with our kids. In her absence I remain warm, well-fed, and blessed with family and health-care professionals to keep me going.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Still, there is at least one thing I would like to have more of……a larger dose of the afore-mentioned ‘elder-wisdom.’ That seems to me a worthy late-life goal……one I continue to work toward with sometimes dubious results. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">But where to look? Though my stumbling wisdom search has occasionally had me reading what I am told were the great thinkers of the ancient world, or immersing myself in learned theological doctrines……truth to tell, my intellectual/spiritual tastes seem not to run that deep. So where else might I turn for the wisdom I seek?</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Surprisingly, what I found myself drawn to, and happily so, were not the libraries of ancient wisdom, but instead the esoteric and the not-so-ancient halls of YouTube.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">You read that right. It is not a matter of calling up YouTube and watching whatever comes up. It is about using the “Search” feature at the top of the page to call up videos about virtually any subject, person, place, or event you choose. It is all there.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">That is where I find myself soaking up the contemporary wisdom of what I consider inspirational music, stimulating travel videos, and the helpful input of spiritual influencers like Dr. Brian Weiss, Wayne Dyer and other ‘modern-day thinkers.’ I will be the first to admit those choices will not fit everyone’s definition of ‘wisdom-seeking.’ Thankfully, each of us is free to do our own seeking.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Believe me, I am not being sarcastic. There are days when, in additional to my occasional visits with Roma and other friends, my personal seeking for what is real and worthy in life has me turning to <i>YouTube </i>videos, and the ‘wisdom’ they have to offer……revisiting favorite European memories and exploring destinations beyond my personal experience. Or perhaps that day’s mood will have me enjoying the melodic truth of Susan Boyle’s <i>What a Wonderful World</i>, Simon and Garfunkle’s <i>Bridge Over Troubled Waters</i>, Jim Croce’s <i>Time in a Bottle</i>, or Ian Tyson’s <i>Four Strong Winds. </i>When I feel the need to dig deeper, Wayne Dyer or Dr. Weiss are there to offer their insights. Those are some of my favorites. Your’s will be different, but you can be sure they will be found there.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Hey, I understand. I may be the only octogenarian on the block who indulges himself in such diversions. Fact is, I consider those quiet moments to be important means of ‘feeding my inner self.’ </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">For years my writing, both blogging and storytelling, were an important part of that effort. Today I am inclined to settle for a more passive form of seeking……a pleasantly packaged format that settles easily on my mind. You may call it entertainment. I have decided to accept the best of that seeking as <i>Elder-Wisdom</i>. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">With that, I feel a sudden urge to lose myself for a few minutes in the wisdom of Alan Jackson’s <i>Remember When</i>?</span></p>octoberyearshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02772770846223392811noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9120856035617741785.post-46102566536043042002024-03-22T10:09:00.000-07:002024-03-22T10:09:42.499-07:00WE NEED AN ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE<p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">It’s all in our head</span></b></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Hey, we’re not kids you know. We’re adults, some of us very mature adults. We’ve known about the facts of life for a long time…..long enough to know that those 'facts' come in more than one version.</span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">How about this fact? Simply put, we live life in our head, in our mind. It was that way as experience-seeking adolescents, learning to cope with an exciting new world. And it is still that way today, after all the miles we’ve traveled.</span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">By October and November we realize how much of our life's journey…..mental, emotional, and spiritual.…..has been played out in our mind. If that time of life describes you, you know how those mind-trips can feel…..for instance, the mornings when you wake up wondering why it is happening to you…..again.</span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">We know about those late-life speed bumps</span></b></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">The particular complaints are an individual matter, different for each of us. They might be physical. Maybe your aging body is again rebelling and you know for sure that your youthful resiliency is no longer in play. Perhaps it hurts to simply move around, especially at that early morning hour.</span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">On the other hand your problem may be mental, something as simple as struggling to remember what the coming day holds for you…..important details that were indelibly etched in your memory hours, or minutes ago, but now seem just out of reach.</span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Or what about the most aggravating stumbling blocks of all, the emotional rumblings that so often contribute to a restless night’s sleep, then remain to haunt our waking hours? They come in many forms, those nagging concerns we label as “worries.”</span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">You know the routine. Perhaps we are fretting about our family. Who knew we would still be worrying about kids and grandkids at our age? Or it could be that money, or the lack of it, is a worry. And what about our health.....those concerns comes naturally at our age, don’t they? Yet no matter what creates the anxiety, most of us know that once those distressing thoughts take hold they can be hard to shake.</span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>When the negative takes charge</b><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><b> </b></span></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">At any age, but especially in late-life, there are so many things to be anxious about, if we are so inclined. Though we may consider those concerns as warning signs, telling us that something in our life needs to change, we are rarely thankful for the ‘worry’ they create. </span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">No matter what the “problem de jour” may be, it is likely to include one distressing element.....it is probably negative, something we wish would go away and leave us alone.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">How do those ‘negatives’…..petty or not …..affect us? I suppose that depends. I happen to believe that in the course of a lifetime our experiences and natural inclination have combined to create a personal understanding of the world we inhabit.</span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">From an early age we learn to view our world through that filter…..as welcoming and friendly, dark and threatening, or somewhere in between. No matter where we are on that positive-negative continuum, we will usually act accordingly.</span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Still, though we can’t simply turn off those negative worries, who wants to stay in that depressing space when there might be a better way? Why not turn away from that, to a more positive and accepting view of the world and our place it in?</span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Can we make way for the positive?</span></b></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">We can do that, you know. It’s not easy, but even in our darkest, most depressing moments we can take time to recognize the ways we have been blessed, the reasons we have to be thankful in spite of our problems. </span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Still, when a truly distressing worry gets its hooks in us simply reciting an off-setting blessing, no matter how real it is, may not be enough to chase that hard reality away, at least not at first. </span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: xx-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">The logic of the matter is simple enough. We tell ourselves that we are supposed to be blessed. Good things are meant to happen to us. That is the way things ought to be. Why then should we be especially thankful for what is ‘supposed to be’.…..especially in the face of some worrisome problem that is most certainly not ‘supposed to be’?</span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">In spite of that fragile logic we have to carry on in the face of aging reality and concerns that are not easily dismissed. Truth is, no matter how hard it may be, seeking and living out our blessings, those positive moments that are part of every life, is a powerful way to make the most of our Becoming.</span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: xx-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Whatever path we rely on, whether religious faith, our own meditative practice, or stubborn will power, the goal of existential thankfulness seems worth the effort.</span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">How about a change in attitude</span></b></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">As you might have guessed, I have something to sell today. Perhaps like me your mother used to remind you to "Count your blessings." That seems to me another way of addressing the "existential thankfulness" I mentioned above. Hopefully that is something you can buy into.</span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: xx-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">To help make that notion more real I have given it a name. I call the mindset I want to earn for myself, and hopefully sell to you, an <i>Attitude of Gratitude</i>.</span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Of course, simply counting your blessings will not end our worries, though it can help put things in perspective. Still, I am convinced that focusing on at least some of the reasons we have to be grateful is an effective way to move beyond the negative burden of our accumulated worries. </span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Truth to tell, it was one of those affirming moments that brought me here today, putting these thoughts on paper. </span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> </span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">We know there is more than one way to draw the positive into our lives. For instance, I happen to appreciate compliments. Who doesn’t? Everyone likes them, especially when they seem sincere. Whether about my stories and blog posts, my family, or my feeble efforts to lose weight, it feels good when folks notice, and are willing to express their opinion. </span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">With that, perhaps you can imagine how blessed I felt on that special morning a few years back when this brief scene played out.</span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Hey Good Looking</span></b></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">It was nearly two years after his original diagnosis when the doctor, who had just viewed my once-cancerous bladder up close and personal, set his scope aside. He was smiling as he said, “That is a good-looking bladder you have there, with no sign of trouble.” Then, lest I get too cocky, he added, “Of course, we’ll want to continue the periodic treatments to be sure it stays that way.”</span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Look, I’m a low-key sort of guy, not the kind to brag about my bladder, kidneys, liver, pancreas, or whatever. I'm just not that kind of fellow.</span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">But let me tell you, when it comes to an ‘Attitude of Gratitude' moment the doctor’s apparently sincere compliment of my “good looking, cancer-free bladder” was about as positive as it gets, more than enough to push aside the low-grade anxiety that usually accompanies my six-month check ups. </span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Truth is, because I live life in my head, I expected that bit of Gratitude Attitude to last a while. At that moment any reasons I had to worry about anything at all would just have to wait a while</span></p>octoberyearshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02772770846223392811noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9120856035617741785.post-34899654033905972312024-03-13T13:15:00.000-07:002024-03-13T13:15:31.008-07:00PERMISSION TO RAISE A LITTLE HELL<p><span style="font-size: x-large;"> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-align: justify;">It is fair to ask what keeps me returning to these blog pages. After all, I’m the guy who sometimes tells himself that it’s time to head for the sidelines, that I’ve run out of October (and November) things to say. Yet</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-align: justify;">at least so far, it seems like every time I get in that space something like the following bit of elder wisdom has me thinking second thoughts.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> “<i>For people like me the notion that ‘old age is a time to dial it down and play it safe’ is a cop-out. Those of us who are still able to do so should be raising a bit of hell on behalf of whatever we care about.</i>”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Lest you think I am that bold, those are the words of Parker J. Palmer, from his book <b>On the Brink of Everything — Grace, Gravity & Getting Old. </b>It is a book I am pleased to recommend, and especially the implied permission it gives us late-lifers to continue with our own low-grade ‘<i>hell raising.’</i></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i> </i>Later, in those same pages Palmer adds, “<i>I may be old, but I’m still a member of this community. I have a voice and things I need to say. I want to be part of the conversation</i>.” </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">With that in mind I invite you to consider the following bit of elder-babble.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> No matter what our age, our life-journey has included its share of highs and lows, twists and turns. Drawing on our own recollections we can track our personal life path in many different ways…..in terms of our school and work history, the things we have done and not done, how successful or unsuccessful our efforts have been, or the family we have helped create. Like a wilderness explorer blazing a trail through the forest we have left all sorts of personal markers in our wake.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> For reasons I am not sure I understand I have spent time recently focusing on one of those of those life-journey trail markers……namely, the most impactful friends I have made along the way, and how they have helped me become the person I am. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> We humans have a habit of blaming someone else or something else for what goes wrong in our life, while at the same time we are apt to take full credit when things turn out right. Truth is, we too often we fail to recognize the contributions of our friends and allies……especially the ‘best friends’ we have made along our journey to today.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> The logic of it seems so sound to me, so rational. Everyone needs and wants friends. They help complete the person we are……filling in the blanks that are part of every life. That was true in childhood, in adolescence, in adulthood. It is still true even in elderhood.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> I am one of those who believe that deep friendships are not a matter of random choice. They happen because mutual needs are being met. It is also true that over the years our needs have changed, replaced by new needs that lead us to new and different friendships. Over time those close friendships, including the ones we have left behind, can act as trail-blazing markers, helping us understand the story of our own Becoming.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> At different stages of our journey different friends have helped us learn different life lessons. In a real sense we can chart important parts of our own path to Becoming by remembering the best-friends we have won and lost along the way. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">That was the story I was dwelling on this morning, the notion that revisiting my own life-changing friendships might help me better understand the person I have become. Sadly, a closer look at my own ‘friendship’ history was enough to raise more than a little hell with that logic.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> It took me about five minutes to realize the truth of it. Perhaps that ‘friend-tracking’ idea does not actually apply to me. Instead of remembering a string of best-friends, and their contributions to the ‘me’ I am, what I came up with was largely a list of acquaintances, each of them something short of a ‘best friend,’ who have crossed my path over the years. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Though I certainly appreciate all those folks, when it comes to close, life-changing friendships……beyond the family circle that has always been central in my life……I was able to count just three, or perhaps four, individuals who seemed to have played the role I am describing. For some reason I expected, or perhaps ‘hoped,’ there would be more.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> As a youngster I had ‘friends,’ lots of friends. But I was an insular kid…..I stuttered, wore glasses, and was a bit of a nerd…..not the sort to be looking for, or finding, a best friend. Not until the ninth grade did my first ‘crush,’ a sweet young thing, come close to whatever ‘best-friend’ meant to me at that time. Before that could happen we had gone our separate ways.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> It was not until my sophomore year at Salem High that I created a real ‘best-friendship.’ Jay had a car, so we could get around. For two or three years we careened through high school together, giving each other permission to be a little crazy, living out adventures I would never have tried on my own. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> And then there was the high-school girlfriend, the first girl I knew who seemed to like me just the way I was. Most of us have lived through that magical time, reveling in the attention, thankful for the affection. Until, that is, I left for college and ‘out-of-sight, out-of-mind’ won out.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Finally, in the exciting new world that was college, I would meet Roma, the one I was not willing to let out of my sight or mind. We met in our freshman year and spent 67 years together before she moved on to a better place. For literally decades her caring company continued to shape the person I was Becoming. Even today, nearly two years after her passing, she is still my Best Friend, the one I turn to most every day.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> So, returning to my original point, I believe that the close and meaningful friendships you and I have made in the course of our life journey, (no matter what their number or when they arrived on the scene), have most certainly played a role in our own Becoming. Though my personal list may be short, I know for sure that those folks have met that test. Beyond that, I seem to be learning there is still room for yet another ‘best friend’ on my journey to the end.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Which brings me to today’s suggested homework assignment, one I highly recommend. The instructions are easy-peasy. Simply turn off the TV, crank the recliner back a notch or two, and close your eyes. If you haven’t dozed off by then, take the time to make a conscious return to your past. Introduce yourself to one or another of the once-close friends who have perhaps not crossed your mind in ages.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> With that old friend perched clearly in the front of your mind, ask yourself a few questions. What did you learn from your time with him or her? How might your life have been different had he or she not shown up when they did? Take the time to retrace some of your personal history, as marked by those best-friendships.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Make that internal dialogue as real and personal as you dare. Dig as deep as your comfort zone allows. This is not about sharing your insights with anyone. It’s about <i>you </i>exploring <i>you</i>.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Though I have no illusions of it happening, if you are so inclined I invite you to share your own bit of friend-related ‘hell raising’ with the rest of us……in an appropriate, abridged form, of course.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> What do you think? Might it be time to revisit one of the 'someones' who once played an important part in your life……to perhaps mentally thank, or scold, them for their role? Most of us recognize the ways we were shaped by parents and family. I’m not sure how many of us understand the important ways our friends and friendships have played a part. I think it’s worth the effort to see where that takes you.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> If you are so inclined, you night even consider forwarding this ‘best-friend’ bit of elder-thought to the one or ones who fit that description in your life, along with your ‘thanks’ for their contribution.</span></p>octoberyearshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02772770846223392811noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9120856035617741785.post-78086695243967364022024-03-05T09:37:00.000-08:002024-03-05T09:37:49.068-08:00IS THIS WHAT DEFINES ME?<p><br /></p>
<p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b></b><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><i>Ah……the wonders of aging. Seems that some things never change. When I first posted this piece, more than five years ago, I must have believed that “Dull” and “Insecure” described the ‘me’ I knew. And if that was true then, it is even truer today.</i></span></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i></i><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">By nature I am not an overly social fellow.....most certainly not a ‘joiner.' Yet, after all these years I remain a member in good standing of both of the mentioned organizations……still striving to live up to their lofty goals.</span></i></p>
<p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i></i><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> </i><b>~~~~~~~~~~~~</b></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b></b><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>It is amazing </b>h<b>ow things can change so quickly.</b> There was a time a few years back when I was ready to fold my blogging tent. It felt like I had said everything I had to say. And who needs a blogger with nothing more to add?</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Some of you had been following these posts for years, and I had come to sense that perhaps you too were growing a bit tired of it all. At that point, more than five years ago, it seemed like a good time to call it a day.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Then, scarcely a week after having made that decision, with a single mouse click I was unexpectedly transported to a very different set of possibilities. You may know how I am, selling the virtues of following the late-life road less traveled, reaching beyond our comfort zone……at an age when ‘less traveled’ and ‘reaching out’ are not always the norm. </span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Like I said, I was rather fussy about who earned my allegiance. It had to be a fit……which is why one of my only affiliations (besides our church) has been my membership in <span style="color: #0000e9; text-decoration: underline;"><b><a href="http://www.dullmensclub.com">The Dull Men’s Club</a></b></span>.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">That’s right. A club for ‘<i>Dull Men</i>.’ Take a moment to think about that. What adjective better describes a November fellow like me.....someone who writes relational novels about his late-life peers? </span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Then, having established his ‘<i>Dull</i>’ credentials, what if that same aging storyteller found it awkward, even hard, to explain to the world why his October stories ought to be read? Could that mean he is perhaps a bit ‘<i>Insecure?</i>’ Generally speaking it felt like I was a reasonably secure guy. But when it came to talking about my stories, perhaps not so much. </span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b style="font-style: normal;">Surprise……it was about then that I learned there also is a club for Insecure Writers</b>. And I immediately signed up for that. Think of that, I was now a member of two groups…..…<i style="font-style: normal;">Dull </i>and<i style="font-style: normal;"> Insecure. </i>Was I on a roll or what? </span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Chances are over the years you have read my nagging doubts about the stories I tell, and the way I tell them. You’ve perhaps seen me grumble that no one seems to care that those stories are out there waiting to be read, even though my modest <i>Gil Stewart.com</i> website is welcoming, and my <i>Amazon Author's Page</i> offers 24 books just waiting to be discovered. </span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">So it should not be surprising to learn that this newly discovered group of creative souls, who openly discuss their questions and insecurities about something as personal as their own writing experiences, has made me feel quite at home. My first visit to the <span style="color: #0000e9; text-decoration: underline;"><b><a href="http://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com">Insecure Writers Support Group</a></b> </span>(IWSG) website convinced me I belonged there.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">True, lots of my fellow ‘<i>Insecure</i>’ club member are kids……20s, 30s, and such……and most are women, which seems to be the norm for wannabe writers. If I was younger I might find that intimidating. But it seems that I’ve outgrown that sort of concern. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">To be sure, their stories are not at all likely to be the Geriatric Adolescence tales I tell. But it has been fun to read about the many paths they have followed on their creative journeys.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><br /></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Yet no matter what their age or what they write, as I trolled through the member blogs, each of them linked in their own way to the same creative impulse that keeps pulling me along, it felt like I was eavesdropping on a family affair……the sort of clan I would like to be part of.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Truth to tell, at any age (even in late-life) unpublished or self-published writers are apt to find themselves in an insular space…..perhaps lacking the skills, resources, and/or the contacts to have their work refined and noticed. In a world where thousands of self-published stories are released every week.....<i>Amazon claims to add two thousand titles every week</i>.....it is easy to feel that even though we are creating something good, chances are no one will know about. That seems to me a likely recipe for writer insecurity.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #0000e9; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span><br /></span></p>
<p style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: x-large;"><b>IWSG’s stated purpose is very straight forward</b>……to provide a format for writers to share our creative experiences, while encouraging those who have set out on that path. The goal is to provide a forum where writers feel comfortable asking questions, offering advice, and discussing the doubts and concerns they have about their craft…….i.e. a safe haven for insecure writers, no matter what they write. </span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-align: justify;"><b>Finally, taken together it feels as though my dual memberships.....<i>Dull</i> and <i>Insecure</i>.....have helped provide the support I need, we all need, to deal with our late-life future.</b> </span></span></p>octoberyearshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02772770846223392811noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9120856035617741785.post-41910264373623643992024-02-28T11:17:00.000-08:002024-02-28T11:17:01.030-08:00WHAT.......ME WORRY?<p> </p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">Having spent the last few weeks dwelling on my own “I REMEMBER” past, it was a bit surprising to find my thoughts turning to the future…..looking ahead to a hazy, but unsettling vision of what might be.</span></i></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i></i><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">Turns out that some things don’t change much over time. When I first posted this piece in 2018 it made sense to me. Revisiting it again, I’m thinking it sounds even more sensible.</span></i></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b></b><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b></b><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Where to begin?</span></b></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Truth to tell, there are so many things that need explaining. Let me start with a ‘little’ mystery……something that needs explaining, at least for me. Such as, do the endless pharmaceutical commercials that dot the nightly newscast bother you as much as they do me? </span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: #3e003f; font-family: Times New Roman;"> They seem to follow a common formula……smiling faces of folks made well by some medicine with a phony, <span style="caret-color: rgb(62, 0, 63);">nonsensical</span> name are parading around while the fine print at the bottom of the screen recites all the ways that wonder drug may harm or maim me, all the reasons I ought not use it. Most aggravating of all, they carry on without ever telling me what ailment their medicine treats. Small wonder those ads get muted in our house.</span></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;"> So why, you might ask, have I offered that bit of whimsey as an introduction to the following sad lament? I’m not sure I know.</span></i></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i></i><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Do warts really worry?</span></b></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Did it ever happen to you? Did your mother ever look across the dining table into your eyes, with an admonition that sounded something like this? “Don’t be such a worry wart, son. It can’t be as bad as that.”</span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> A ‘worry wart?’ Now there is a term you don’t hear much anymore, at least not in my circles. But there was a time, perhaps before ‘The Power of Positive Thinking,’ when it was a not-uncommon label for those who raised their concerns, especially unpopular ones. </span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> So here is today’s question, the one I am asking you to consider…….is this Stewart fellow a worry wart? Does he have any reason to be concerned about what he sees ahead? Please read on, and tell me what you think.</span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> </span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Signs of trouble in Late-Life land</span></b></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Perhaps you have heard rumors that all is not well in today’s senior world. An endless stream of dire accounts and daunting predictions keeps reminding us how many of our October/November peers are ill prepared for retirement, or late-life in any form. </span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> The equivalent of whole forests have given their lives to produce the newspapers, magazines, and books making that point. And odds are that depressing onslaught will continue as the unsettling tide of financial reality becomes more apparent, and the fiscal noose continues to tighten.</span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> To be sure, if you are one of those caught in that tightening noose you know how real it can be, because it is happening to you. After all, our own reality is the most real of all. We understand that truth, don’t we? So what is it that awaits us around the next corner or two?</span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Who will pay the price?</span></b></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> The questions facing the next generation or two are indeed formidable. Is Social Security really a ‘forever’ program? What about Medicare? Will affordable health care be available ten, twenty, or thirty years from now? Or what about the long-term impact of student debt? Will those underemployed graduates ever get beyond that?</span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Then, as you look ahead to that future, consider this. The tightening noose facing today’s “Greatest Generation” may well look like the ‘good old days’ to a significant portion of the Greatest Generation Plus One. And if that is true, what about Greatest Generation PlusTwo……our grandchildren. After all, they are the ones who will be asked to pay the bill we have left for them.</span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">How did we get here?</span></b></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> But before we turn our attention to those we care about the most, let’s take a moment to visit some of the reasons we stand at the edge of what might be a steep and slippery slope. I would submit that a lifetime of cultural potty training, in the form of schooling, television advertising, movies, books, social media, etc., has enshrined and empowered the supposed virtues of material success, status, and the accumulation of ‘stuff and things.’ </span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Not just any ‘stuff and things,’ but the right sort of stuff......the stuff so prominently affirmed in glossy TV ads and accepted by our peers as desirable. </span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Too many of us have spent too much of our life worshipping what we called success as the primary measure of our efforts. We know how easy it is to become addicted to the ‘feel-good’ rush of the Divine Dollar Sign smiling in our direction, validating our efforts and confirming our worthiness. Of course, when the dollars and status fail to flow our way that same commitment to material rewards can be enough to lay us low.</span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> To be sure, for as long as there have been sellers and buyers, sellers have wanted to sell more, and buyers have wanted to buy more. There is nothing new about that. What is perhaps new, however, are the pervasive forces that feed the blatantly materialistic culture we have seen evolve in the course of our postwar lifetime.</span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">They learned from us</span></b></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Truth is, an era of unrivaled prosperity……in the form of growing income, burgeoning credit-card balances, easy-to-qualify mortgages, inflated home values, and generous pensions……has enabled us to dream dreams no earlier generation had ever dared to dream. In the process we have taught our our offspring, consciously or not, to dream those same dreams. </span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Unfortunately, the historically unique times that allowed so many of our dreams to come true may not be found in the world our loved ones inherit. For too many of them the world will be a harder place to grow the dreams they learned from us. In that case they may have to settle for more modest, more achievable dreams.</span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Will they be willing to settle for those ‘more achievable dreams’? I hope so, but I am not overly confident. So much depends on the path our nation, and the world, follows in the years ahead. Given today’s political climate who would pretend to know what lies ahead? </span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b></b><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">How can they be ready?</span></b></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b> </b>We were raised to believe that things are always improving, that the years ahead will be better than those we have lived through. We call that progress. It turns out, however, that progress is not a given.</span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> The best advice I can offer my own children harks back to my long-ago Boy Scout days. “Be prepared.” Create a lifestyle that has you living within your means, setting more than a ‘little something’ aside, and relying on as few ‘safety net’ resources as possible.</span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> In my humble opinion the odds of taxpayers and governments, from municipal to federal levels, continuing to fund what politicians call “entitlements” over the long haul, especially at today’s levels, is very iffy. Any future that includes substantial numbers of tomorrow’s late-life population depending on Social Security, Medicare, and other government programs is apt to produce a disappointing outcome.</span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">The case for caution</span></b></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Hopefully those of us who have already made it to October and beyond have outgrown the need for all that ‘stuff and things.’ We are likely to understand the advantages of creating a ‘cautious’ lifestyle, preparing for an uncertain future. </span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Fact is, those lessons are best learned early, when the student has time on his or her side. Still, as convinced as I am of the need for caution, I realize how much easier it is for an elder fossil like me to accept that logic……compared to a starry-eyed twenty-five year old, whose weekly mail includes half a dozen credit-card offers.</span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> In all likelihood most members of the next generation, our children, will emerge intact, if not victorious, from the challenging life-maze that awaits them. But what about their babies, our grandchildren? I fear it will be a harsher and more traumatic journey for them.</span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">They’ll have to find out for themselves</span></b></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> It seems that life’s lessons must be lived to be learned. I suppose it’s always been that way. We may wish that our hard-won elder wisdom was easily transferable to those who come behind us. But alas, there are inconvenient laws of nature at work……laws which are rarely rescinded. </span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> We can share our concerns and self-proclaimed wisdom, but it is left to those younger generations to accept it, if they will, and put it into action. Here’s hoping they can pull that off.</span></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Those of us who make up today’s October/November population will find a way to muddle through to our natural end……some quite elegantly, others on a more modest scale. Our trek to the future will not be easy, especially if at some point we are forced to travel alone, without the helpmate who has blessed our life for so long.</span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Still, as you can tell, my anxiety is stoked by what I see ahead, the challenging future that awaits the next generations, and the impact that future will have on the ones you and I care about. Those are the thoughts that have me sounding like what Mom called “a worry wart.”</span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #3e003f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> </span></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><br /></p>octoberyearshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02772770846223392811noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9120856035617741785.post-45953721271970975792024-02-20T12:11:00.000-08:002024-02-20T12:11:06.857-08:00I REMEMBER....learning a cowboy lesson<p> </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #151719; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><b></b></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: xx-large;">Here I am, remembering again……something I’ve been doing lately. And you know, it seems to me that some of my fondest memories are those of lessons learned. Today’s recollection is a prime example of that.</span></p>
<p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">So, what am I remembering today…..and what lesson did it teach me? Well, if you are my age you too will remember The Lone Ranger and Silver, Roy Rogers and Trigger, and Gene Autry and Champion. But do you remember Gil and Star?</span></p>
<p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">True story…..I was 33 years old. I had bought a ranch, 1,400 acres in the Oregon Outback. We had moved our family there, stocked it with cattle and their calves, and were preparing to drive the herd to the distant summer pasture. </span></p>
<p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">That’s right…..I had become a cowboy. But in those early days of my ranching career I was a cowboy without a horse. Truth to tell, that was okay with me, ‘cause I really didn’t like horses all that much. But a cowboy without a horse……what would The Ranger, or Roy, or Gene think of that? Clearly, it was time to add Gil and Star to that illustrious list of cowboys and their trusty mounts.</span></p>
<p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> <b>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</b></span></p>
<p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">By early March the preliminaries were over and I was about to face the reality of playing cowboy…..the calving, the round-up, the branding, and finally the long cattle drive to the high mountains.…a long, tiring day in the saddle.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">If you watched as many westerns as I did growing up you know the truth of it. Being a cowboy has always been about a man and his horse. It was time for me to meet Star. Though our story of man and mount coming together was nowhere near as romantic as those of Roy, or Gene, or the Ranger, it did reflect my new life at Poison Creek Ranch.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">But first things first. What did I know about shopping for a horse? (Actually, real cowboys would never talk about “shopping” for a horse.) Anyway, where does one go to buy a horse? How would I know what sort of horse I needed? How would I know if the price was right? Finally, how would I know when, or if, I had found the right one?</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">You see, while Trigger, Champion, and Silver were smart, well-trained movie-star horses, my Star would have to be even smarter than them. After all, Roy, Gene, and The Ranger knew how to tell their mount what to do and when to do it. My Star, on the other hand, would be absolutely on his own. His not-so-trusty rider had no idea what to do, or how to do it. It would be up to the pony. Where would I find a horse that smart?</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Chances are you’ve heard about horse traders. It seems they have gathered a rather unsavory reputation over the years, as shady con-men waiting to unload a gimpy, used-up nag on some unsuspecting tenderfoot. Well, in our case we definitely had the tenderfoot, and before we were done we would have a mostly used-up old nag. But luckily, we also had a honest horse trader who really knew his business.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">By any measure Fred Curry was a real cowboy, the latest generation of the Curry clan to ranch in the verdant Juntura Valley….a veritable garden spot in the Malhuer River drainage. When he talked about horses you could tell he knew what he was talking about. He was definitely the right fellow to help in my horse search. That process began when Fred came calling at our ranch. Once there, it didn’t take him long to gather the information he required. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">You see, except for an ill-fated group ride at a coastal tourist stable, I had never been on a horse. (Not counting the State Fair carousel.) Truth be told, I had the look of an arm-chair cowboy. Beyond that, I was not too excited about the prospect of long, cattle-drive with hours in the saddle. In a matter of minutes Fred realized that it would take some serious looking to find a suitable mount for such an unpromising rider.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">The answer he settled on was Star. It was hard to imagine another horse in all of Eastern Oregon better qualified for the job ahead. He was a well-trained gelding, docile enough for even the most inexperienced horseman to feel comfortable on his back.`</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">So how old was Star? Real cowboys consider that an important bit of information….like a car buyer wanting to know how many miles on the odometer. Since I did not know enough to ask that question, Fred volunteered his answer.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">To a knowledgable horse trader a horse’s age can be determined by checking the wear of its teeth. Though it was not an exact science, a professional can come pretty close….except, by the time a horse reaches fifteen or sixteen years old the degree of tooth wear is harder to read. At that point age determination becomes less reliable. While most potential buyers would reject such an animal, in our case Fred Curry had already decided that advanced age would be a virtue.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">In time I would learn that most Harney County cowboys liked their mounts to be young, frisky, and a little hard to handle. “Something with spunk,” was the way our neighbor, Thad Geer, put it. Perhaps it was the challenge they were looking for, being able to show everyone that they could manage that sort of animal.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Fortunately, Fred Curry had understood from the beginning that I was not in the market for a “spunky” ride. This was how he stated his case. “In his day ole Star was a real good cow pony. He still knows exactly what to do and how to do it. Thing is, he’s older now, and he doesn’t react as fast as he used to. Actually, I’m pretty sure it’s been a few years since Star saw fifteen or sixteen.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">“But there’s a plus side to that,” Fred continued. “It means he won’t give you any sudden moves. He’ll be a step or two slower than the other ponies, but you won’t get any quick jerks or unexpected stops. Fact is, ole Star is past the “sudden” stage.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">With that we led Star to the corral, and packed the saddle, blanket, and bridle that were part of the deal into the barn. At that moment it felt like the time for talking was over. It was time to be a real cowboy. After all, I now had my very own cow pony.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> <b>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</b></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">I had a ranch, some cows, and a horse. Still, simply <i>having</i> a horse was not enough to make anyone a cowboy. It would be <i>riding</i> my horse that would confirm my ‘cowboyness‘ (There’s a new word for you.) </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Truth be told, at that point I was a bit intimidated by the whole cowboy thing. Could I do it all by himself….saddling my horse without someone else around to lend a hand? To begin with, how would I even catch Star, who was roaming free in the large corral and adjoining hillside pasture? </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">If you will remember, Roy, Gene, and the Ranger had only to whistle to have their movie-star mounts racing toward them. The couple times I called him from the side of the corral it was hard to tell if Star even heard my summons, or was simply ignoring the distraction.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">So how could I ride Star for the first time if I could not coax him close enough to put a saddle on his back? Fortunately, I was not dealing with someone like myself. The other half of our transaction was a horse….a very savvy horse, who had long before learned to deal with timid, not-so-savvy humans.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> The plan, which Star allowed me to think was my own, was a simple one…. based on the horse’s already observed response to the sound of a few scoops of oats rattling in a tin bucket. That alone was enough to have him trotting toward the barn for a welcome treat. Seconds later, as he stood quietly with his nose in the bucket, it was an easy thing to slip a rope around the horse’s neck and tie the other end to the fence. Star, of course, knew the routine.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">With my mount thus secured it was easy enough to throw the saddle blanket over its back, taking care to smooth out any wrinkles, per Fred Curry’s instructions. Next came the saddle, a bulky, hard-to-handle piece of gear that would be a bit more complicated. It took two or three tries, but eventually the saddle was in place, ready to cinch up. With a hurried trip between the horse’s legs and under its belly to grab the cinch strap, it was a simple matter to feed the strap through the buckle rings and pull it tight.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">That left one last step to complete the saddling process. Fred had warned me that an old pony like Star had learned to inhale a belly full of air to expand his girth as the cinch was being tightened. Then, when the air was expelled, the constricting belt would not be uncomfortably tight. Fred’s way of outsmarting his mount was to forcefully jab a knee into the horse’s belly, causing it to exhale before a last tightening of the cinch. With that in mind, I provided my own jab at Star’s gut and pulled the strap tight.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">The saddle was in place. That left just one piece of unfinished business to be accomplished before Star and I set off on an inaugural ride to the far end of the alfalfa field. That last step would be the bridle, the rider’s steering mechanism, which had to be fitted in place.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Have you ever stopped to consider how big a horse’s head is, or how large and deep its mouth? And those teeth, even the worn and aged ones Fred spoke of, were equally large, and a bit intimidating. What if Star did not want that piece of cold metal in his mouth?</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">As before my timid concerns were for nought. It took only the sight of the bridle held before him to have Star opening his mouth, waiting for what he knew came next. As I expected the teeth were large, but once I realized there would be no resistance it took only a minute or two to have the bridle strapped firmly in place. Finally, with my trusty mount saddled and ready, I was prepared for my first Star-ride.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">And a good ride it was….over the back hill, down the road that led to the irrigation well, then back toward the barn. It was a slow ride, as I grew more comfortable with my place in the saddle. Then, on our return, as we approached the shallow creek that ran across the road things became more interesting.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">I was becoming more confident by the minute. I tugged on the reins, pulling Star to a stop, slipped down from the saddle, and reins-in-hand led him to the water for a drink. Truth be told, I was feeling rather proud of myself. I had overcome my initial anxieties, saddled the horse, and gone for an extended ride. Why wouldn’t I feel good about that?</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Minutes later it was time for the last short ride over the hill to the barn. Gathering the reins, I stepped into the stirrup and grabbed the saddle horn to pull myself into the saddle….at least that was the plan.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Instead, I was pulling the saddle horn towards me, and my foot in the stirrup was slipping under the horse. A moment later I lay flat on my back beside the creek. Though the cinch strap was still buckled, the too-loose saddle had slid under Star’s belly and was hanging there upside-down. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">You may have heard of Horse Whisperers, who claim they can talk to horses. Perhaps they can. But what about a deflated cowboy who was absolutely certain he could read his horse’s mind?</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">In the course of my sudden collapse Star had remained perfectly still. Now he stood passively, looking down into my face. Do horses grin, or chuckle under their breath? At that point I was sure I detected hints of equine laughter. As to what the motionless animal might be thinking….it must surely have been something like, “You silly, wannabe cowboy, I got you this time.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">When I had finally wrestled the saddle back in place, my not-so-subtle knee in Star’s belly was harder than before, enough to elicit an audible grunt. In the end it was one of those lessons a budding cowboy needed to learn. It must have stuck with me, because our next outings, during the days before the cattle drive, passed without incident. </span></p>octoberyearshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02772770846223392811noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9120856035617741785.post-51886586618406055302024-02-14T14:21:00.000-08:002024-02-14T14:21:33.060-08:00I REMEMBER.......dining at the castle<p><span style="font-size: x-large;"> </span></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Last week’s post……the first in this “I Remember” series……dealt with a Parisian dining dilemma. Is it mere coincidence that this second episode dwells on a very different ordeal, in a vaguely similar setting?</span></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">I am guessing that each of you realize, and have experienced, how traveling with children is apt to include unscripted distractions……ranging from humbling amusement to outright panic.</span></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">In our later years, when the two of us hit the road on our own, there were other unscripted moments worthy of remembering. But at least in our household, it was traveling as a family that seems to have produced the most memorable memories.</span></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">In any case, it is perhaps understandable that my memory file, as lame as it sometimes is, was able to dial up the following recollection…..one that included both outright panic and a bit of “after-the-fact” amusement.</span></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> <b>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</b></span></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Our Winchester Year was drawing to a close. There was, however, one last splurge on our schedule. We had decided months before that we would not complete our European adventure without seeing Ireland. Both of us had Irish roots in our family tree, and we wanted to know more about the “auld country.” It turned out to be well worth the investment of time and energy.</span></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Still, by the end of our third week in the Emerald Isle, we were about ’traveled out.’ We were scheduled to catch the Holyhead ferry back to England the next afternoon, for a last good-bye visit with our Winchester friends. </span></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">We had seen so many Irish sights…..the Ring of Kerry, the Cliffs of Mohr, and the Connemara west country, and several fabled cities. In a moment of questionable wisdom we had even kissed the Blarney Stone, all six of us. How many times over the years have we wondered about that decision?</span></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Now, after weeks of home-style bed and breakfast accommodations, we would be marking our last night in Ireland in a very different way. We had booked rooms in a honest-to-goodness castle…..the most elegant digs of our entire trip. It would be a night to remember.</span></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> <b>~~~~~~~~~~~~~</b></span></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Kilkea Castle, in the heart of County Kildare, had been around for a while……since 1180. Like many historic European estates it had become a top-drawer tourist attraction……elegant rooms, with furnishings we were afraid we might break. For those who were so incline there was an 18 hole golf course, riding stables, tennis courts, even a falconry range. It was definitely not your run of the mill B & B.</span></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">That afternoon we had checked in, been shown to our rooms, and strolled the castle grounds. By then we had come to two conclusions……it seemed that ours were the only children in residence, and though the dining room was open until 10:00, the fellow at the front desk had suggested that we might want to dine early …..say 6:00. </span></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">A quick look at the dining room, situated in what was originally the castle’s Great Room, and ringed with ancient, oversized portraits, seemed to confirm his wisdom. Rather than risk upsetting the dinner hour for the couples who would be arriving at a more continental dining tie, say seven or eight, we would eat early.</span></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Our table, in a near corner of the room, was simply elegant....with red cloth napkins, dainty, long stemmed water goblets of thin, sparkling glass, and more silverware than any of us knew how to use. Once we were seated the waiter brought our menus and explained the child-sized options, while another attendant filled our goblets with water. It was then, as we studied our meal possibilities, that things suddenly turned interesting, or more precisely……loud and chaotic.</span></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Like all our children, daughter Amy had grown up drinking from plastic water glasses. Along the way she had developed an unconscious and seemingly innocent habit of chewing on the rim of her glass. So why should we have been surprised that as she sipped at her water goblet……she bit into its edge.</span></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">What followed happened so quickly it was hard to know who screamed first. All of us heard the conspicuous sound of breaking glass, and Amy’s surprised shriek. In an instant we were on our feet, bending over her…..trying to calm her and learn if she was cut or had possibly swallowed any glass. A second later our waiter was on the scene, apologizing profusely, without knowing what he was apologizing for…..looking as though he feared an international incident. </span></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Finally, as Amy’s tears of shocked surprise subsided, something like a reasoned calm was restored. Fortunately she was fine.…..still frightened, but without a cut or injury of any kind.</span></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Once things settled down we placed our orders and had our meal…..while drinking our water very carefully. I doubt that any of us remembered what we had for dinner. By then, having created such a fuss we were anxious to be back in our room. </span></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">More than once in the course of that evening Gil paused to wonder if Amy’s mishap had been a sign. Perhaps the fates were telling us that we were meant to be the “cheese and crackers, lunch in the car” sort of family we normally were. Was that something we had learned in the course of our European adventure?</span></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> <b>~~~~~~~~~~~~</b></span></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b></b><br /></span></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Those days in Ireland had been filled with delicious sights, enough to bring us back to the Emerald Isle a few more times. Yet, when it comes to ’times remembered,’ Amy’s ‘shattering’ adventure, deep in the heart of the most posh surroundings we could imagine, was certainly one of our most memorable moments.</span></p><div><br /></div>octoberyearshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02772770846223392811noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9120856035617741785.post-78626088550360489142024-02-07T15:37:00.000-08:002024-02-09T09:36:18.568-08:00I REMEMBER......A DINNER IN PARIS<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;"> <b> I REMEMBER.......A DINNER IN PARIS</b></span></p><p><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Hey, it’s okay, you know. I happen to be in a remembering mode, in a remembering time of life. With that comes the luxury of revisiting, and reliving, some of the special moments I have experienced……moments I remember. In particular, I have recently been remembering some of our family travels, and the recollections we brought home with us.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">You know that feeling, don’t you? All of us, no matter what our age, like to remember. Of course, we realize that we ought not live in that space permanently, but it is a nice place to visit from time to time. For me, this is one of those times.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">So, what do you remember about your life and travels…..the places you have been, the things you have seen, the things you have done, and the people you have met? For my own selfish satisfaction I have decided to gather some of the “memorable moments” I have encountered along the way into a series of posts I am calling “I REMEMBER…..” </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Everyone of us has our own “I Remember” candidates. So what qualifies for that title? In the course of your life and mine there have been times when things went exactly as planned, without a single hitch. Were those the times you remember? Or were the remembered occasions apt to be the surprising, sometimes uncomfortable moments when you bumped into something unexpected …..something you were not ready to face, but had to deal with</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">If you are like me the times you are most likely to remember will be the ones that took an unexpected turn…..while adding a surprising bit of spice to what might have otherwise been an ordinary event. Our family’s dinner in Paris was such a ‘spicy’ time. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">There were eight of us….our young family and Roma’s parents….who had joined us for a two-week excursion from our Winchester, England home to take in some of the sights of Holland, Germany, and France. There had been so much to see and do……though in truth the ice and cold of that European winter had made it less than an ideal time to play ‘tourist.’</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> <b> ~~~~~~~~~~~</b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">By mid-afternoon, the freezing Parisian weather had overcome our enthusiastic sight-seeing. After a warming lunch at a sidewalk vending booth, we had returned to our rooms to thaw out. Though we had certainly not experienced a storybook “Springtime in Paris” tour of the city and its sights, it seemed we had done as much as we could….to the point of trying to see The City of Lights through the fog from the second deck of the Eiffel Tower. At least we had beat the crowds.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">We would be returning home the next morning, and had agreed there was just one last item on our Paris “to-do” list. We could not leave that fabled city without having a real French dinner. After all, what could be more memorable than an authentic Parisian dinner….bathed in the intimate ambiance of a quiet, candlelit dining room. Or maybe not.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">The young man at the hotel front desk offered his personal recommendation without hesitation. The restaurant he had in mind was a short walk up the street, which sounded better than an expensive taxi ride. He assured me that the prices were reasonable and the meals would be very good. Best of all, everything about it would be authentically French. As it turned out, he was right on every count ....especially the “authentically French” part.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">How authentic? Well, we stepped inside the restaurant, which had all the ambiance of a narrow quonset hut filled with tables and bench seats....the kind of place where diners were expected to follow the European custom of sharing their long table with others. The signage and menus were in French, with no hint of an English translation. Once the waiter who greeted us realized we could not understand him, he simply smiled broadly and motioned us across the room.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">The eight of us were seated on both sides at the end of a long table. Though we were a bit put-off by the presence of the other folks seated beside us, we tried for a smile in their direction, then turned to the menus the waiter had set before us.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">There we were, in the middle of a strange city, sitting among strangers, trying to read a menu full of strange words we could not comprehend. (Unfortunately, the menu was not illustrated.) Roma was straining to recall her long-ago French class, searching for familiar words and coming up short. There was only one thing to do. We must make our best guess, check the price to be sure in was not too exorbitant, and point it out to the waiting waiter.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Truth to tell, however, that was not the “only” thing we could do. Pointing to a line of foreign words on a menu, without knowing what she was ordering, was not something Roma’s mother, Grandma Janet, was prepared to settle for. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Ordering a foreign meal in a foreign country was far beyond her comfort zone. She wanted to know exactly what those strange words meant, and she was not about to order until she knew what she was expected to eat.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Everyone else had ordered, and still Janet was repeating her questions. “What is this? What does it mean?” She must have known how bad it looked, but she would not settle for anything less than a full translation.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Our waiter was getting stressed. He shook his head and rolled his eyes....clearly out of his own comfort zone, with no idea of what to do next. In words he did not comprehend, the American lady kept saying the same thing over and over, each time a little louder than before. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">While he looked around the room, wondering what to do, the seven of us were wishing we could crawl under the table. The whole affair had turned into a disaster, and none of us knew what to do about it.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">In the end what we did was absolutely nothing. Clearly, Janet’s efforts to get an answer by talking slower and louder were not working. By then her emphatic questions could be heard throughout the restaurant. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Then, at the far end of the room, a man stood and started toward us. A moment later he and Janet were talking softly in English as they studied the menu together. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Finally, with no ceremony at all, the fellow told the waiter what she had settled on, nodded to her, and returned to his table. Meanwhile, Janet was grinning sheepishly....sorry for the fuss she had created, but glad to know what she was having for dinner.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">By the time we traipsed back to our room that evening what we had for dinner was probably forgotten....some of us never knew in the first place. But for every one of us, the lasting memory of our Parisian night on the town would be the awkward standoff that had been defused by a kind and understanding Frenchman..</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> <b>~~~~~~~~~~</b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b></b><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">How ironic was that? Our introduction to the wonders of Paris, the city of lights, would be best remembered as the scene of an embarrassing, but thoroughly memorable offering of French cuisine, though only one of us knew exactly what she had for dinner.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">For better or worse, those are the kind of travel adventures I tend to remember. I’ll bet you have some of your own to revisit. And why shouldn’t you? No matter what our age, we never outgrow the wonder of remembering.</span></p><div><br /></div><p></p><p style="text-align: right;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: xx-large; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: right;"><br /></p><p></p>octoberyearshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02772770846223392811noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9120856035617741785.post-76902271549866532922024-01-31T11:30:00.000-08:002024-01-31T11:30:41.162-08:00BACK TO OUR OWN FUTURE<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg70GG9Q4IGusFlFbJs_S1wejy88nN9URCCs9P-FAXPE43w8wJOjtLvaSa7fHDLzSubBWbJsIv_3z6vQpOsveUaTWvx45aQUzSapozBziOEoIS7pGyVNHhGm0R3Kog9fyqLKrq1xKeQknqYPEIy7NGhCRoBNRa2itgVqpYEMCsBpLButwchWEs-j7h_rKE/s205/2-1.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3xzg3wAJUpVd7r2CirRuk1tsoKmOh3LGLEOXw1jgkM48DBvGo1pJ32Aia0ioQci-7wMY-BqBcfHrmOq3H8JBpALZ7JRszUXE7tjjlbxGQBtEwMfiseJRIvO8lsc96hlzfb7HQPFb94xIMOQiGjYqZMZI7PFBWYxbC8CIVDp8QpX0yibThf7qd3dGTEK8/s205/2-1.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="205" data-original-width="160" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3xzg3wAJUpVd7r2CirRuk1tsoKmOh3LGLEOXw1jgkM48DBvGo1pJ32Aia0ioQci-7wMY-BqBcfHrmOq3H8JBpALZ7JRszUXE7tjjlbxGQBtEwMfiseJRIvO8lsc96hlzfb7HQPFb94xIMOQiGjYqZMZI7PFBWYxbC8CIVDp8QpX0yibThf7qd3dGTEK8/s1600/2-1.jpeg" width="160" /></a></div>
<p style="color: #323232; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b> BACK TO OUR OWN FUTURE</b></span></p><p style="color: #323232; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #323232; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Perhaps like you, Roma and I saw the Mona Lisa hanging there in its place of honor in the Louvre Museum in Paris. Our modest world travels had included a pilgrimage to what some accept as the world’s most perfect painting. We had been there and done that. So what did we have to show for it?</span></p>
<p style="color: #323232; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Truth to tell, our personal rendezvous with Leonardo’s masterpiece was a rather hurried moment, played out in a shoulder to shoulder crowd….all of whom were straining to capture a glimpse of the prize.</span></p>
<p style="color: #323232; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">As I recall, in my artistically-illiterate eyes Mona was a bit smaller than I expected. True, she did seem to be smiling at me….though Roma was just as certain she was the target of the lady’s attention.</span></p>
<p style="color: #323232; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">I suppose there were a few visitors in that tourist-laden crowd who had come to seriously study the subtle, yet apparently powerful elements of that masterpiece. Would they be able to do that in those circumstances? I don’t know.</span></p>
<p style="color: #323232; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">I am, however, quite certain that most of us Mona Lisa gawkers were on hand because we had been told we ought to be there. After all, it was so famous….something we would probably never see again. Then, having seen it, we could check that box and move on to the next “big thing.”</span></p>
<p style="color: #323232; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> <b> ~~~~~~~~~~~</b></span></p>
<p style="color: #323232; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Bear with me for a moment as I revisit that time, a highlight of our continental travels…..or more accurately, my memories of that brief moment in a long life.</span></p>
<p style="color: #323232; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">It was a sunny September morning. I remember standing in line waiting for the doors to open. (They were late opening that morning.) All around us everyone was upbeat and eager to begin their great art adventure….the world-renown Louvre. We had studied our Rick Steve’s map of the sprawling building….planning our route through the dozens of galleries to see what we had been told were the best sights.</span></p>
<p style="color: #323232; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">And then, in a matter hours, it was over. Having seen what we wanted to see, our investment of time, anticipation, and attention had produced our own very personal return…..a collage of recollections we hoped would last a lifetime.</span></p>
<p style="color: #323232; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">That, it seems to me, is the reality of the wanderlust and travel urges I have never outgrown. Truth is, the places, people, and things we had seen along the way were invariably fleeting experiences. Rather than the sights and sounds themselves….as memorable as they were….the lasting fruits of our travels depended on the memories, photos, souvenirs, and friendships we gathered along the way….the reminders we brought home with us, to be revisited at anytime in the future. Bottom line…..the most successful travel experiences are a mental exercise….as good and lasting as our memory allows.</span></p>
<p style="color: #323232; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Be it the Mona Lisa, the Eiffel Tower, a dreamy Rue Cler dinner, or the Yorkshire dales, with vistas that take your breath away….in every case the moment itself was transitory. Yet though we may never return there again in person, the impact of those experiences will last a lifetime.</span></p>
<p style="color: #323232; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> <b> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</b></span></p>
<p style="color: #323232; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">So why do we travel? What do we hope to gain or achieve? What is it we bring home from those travels? And what do they mean…..the memories and mementos of our time abroad?</span></p>
<p style="color: #323232; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">More to the point, why at my age, would I even consider another round of extended travel…..the eight or ten week adventures that worked so well for Roma and I as younger travelers? What would I hope to gain this time? Is there something new to be learned, a reason to go again?</span></p>
<p style="color: #323232; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">I still have those moments, you know….when I can visualize doing that again, driving the backroads, doing my age-appropriate “wild and crazy” things, and visiting again with well-remembered friends. Yet, that hazy vision is quickly coupled with so many reasons why those once-appealing possibilities would not be such a good idea at this stage of the game.</span></p>
<p style="color: #323232; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Some of the possible deterrents are practical matters…..sitting quietly through a ten-hour transcontinental flight is probably beyond me. The notion of a new and different bed every few nights has lost its appeal. Extended walking tours are out of the question. </span></p>
<p style="color: #323232; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Beyond those physical limitations are the more subtle reasons. Anymore, there are not that many things I want to DO. Instead, I have grown more interested in observing what goes on around me, soaking up the feel and mood of a place and its people. Those mental souvenirs, along with reminding photos, are what I would hope to bring home with me.</span></p>
<p style="color: #323232; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Is that enough to fan even the most modest dreams of traveling again…..especially alone, without my trusty partner-in-crime? A review of the pros and cons seems to weigh against that.</span></p>
<p style="color: #323232; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Instead, why not return to our earlier travels, both with family, or just the two of us….as documented by the albums, notebooks, photos, and mementos we have from those times. Why not use my energy to milk the feelings and memories of remembered times, as seen through my now-older eyes, and filtered through my now-older mind.</span></p>
<p style="color: #323232; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Seems to me that approach would allow me to side-step the limitations of the “me” I have become, while allowing that "me" to view our old travels on a new screen, complete with new, more mature insights.</span></p>
<p style="color: #323232; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</b></span></p>
<p style="color: #323232; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Here’s the deal…..life, whether good or bad, is lived in our minds. That was true at twenty-five or thirty. It is even more true at eighty-seven. The travel I have always loved and looked forward to, no matter what the destination, was a mind game….to be lived and relived in our consciousness…..as thoughts, memories, and daydreams.</span></p>
<p style="color: #323232; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">If that is so…..why should I subject my aging body, so ill-equipped for the rigors of modern-day travel…..demanding flights, strenuous excursions, constantly changing accommodations, etc, to such an ordeal?</span></p>
<p style="color: #323232; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Why not simply send my mind and my consciousness, on the “trip of my dreams”? With generous assists from our photo library, notebooks, self-published stories, YouTube, Google, and other internet resources I can capture the good things I hope to experience from the comfort of my easy chair, while saving the wear and tear on my aging body, not to mention my bank account.</span></p>
<p style="color: #323232; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Why shouldn’t we, any of us, return to our own fruitful past…. fleshing it out if necessary….to create the mind-dwelling future we dream of?</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: #323232; font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36px;"><span> </span>With that in mind I am presently wrestling with thoughts of posting a few of our personal travel escapades on these pages…..ones that illustrate my propensity for unplanned, unexpected adventures in the ‘old world.’ If I can follow through with that idea you should see the first episode in a week or two.</span> </span></p>octoberyearshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02772770846223392811noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9120856035617741785.post-732769126894811582024-01-08T10:33:00.000-08:002024-01-08T11:10:56.954-08:00The Results......in living color<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB4MSG6aGCgj65E197PzYlPhJQsCxDaPy8QHYQwDhXSixtOQgEcZdsZJA08TxS_FczfJM7w79miOr4_dLtrIec0yKry1T_DRBldfgVOJOC0_S_MQ6lQdqPFKXHbf9DlWjdWkF_Bp-6cc1PhxCRgQHQA_Q3n0KYMql4yZGQP5YV76Iy8Bl287qt8UztzWU/s1611/Gil's%20Pic.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1611" data-original-width="1390" height="106" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB4MSG6aGCgj65E197PzYlPhJQsCxDaPy8QHYQwDhXSixtOQgEcZdsZJA08TxS_FczfJM7w79miOr4_dLtrIec0yKry1T_DRBldfgVOJOC0_S_MQ6lQdqPFKXHbf9DlWjdWkF_Bp-6cc1PhxCRgQHQA_Q3n0KYMql4yZGQP5YV76Iy8Bl287qt8UztzWU/w91-h106/Gil's%20Pic.jpg" width="91" /></span></a></div><br /> <p></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"> THE RESULTS…in living color</span></b></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i></i><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">If you are like me, there are moments when you find yourself looking back on earlier times. Of course, we tell ourselves we cannot live in that past, yet at the same time it can be hard to ignore the stash of recollections we have stored in the dark corners of our mind……at least some of which we do not <i>want</i> to leave behind.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Since this site has always been titled a “<i>writer’s blog</i>’……and since I get to be that “<i>writer”……..</i>today’s post will shine a blatantly self-indulgent light on what I choose to remember as the last great adventure of my personal trek through old age.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">When I retired in 1998, (Lordy, that was twenty-five years ago!) I welcomed the notion of “free time,” though I had no idea what I would do with the unclaimed hours, weeks, and months I had been gifted. Early on, Roma and I spent a few months revisiting England and the continent ……long enough to realize that we had neither the taste nor the resources to make that a lifestyle. So what other choices did we have?</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">One of my earliest posts on these pages……a piece I labeled “<i>Nearly Flunking Retirement,</i>” described my ordeal. For half a dozen years I flailed around, keeping semi-busy with interim works assignments, and one hobby or distraction after another……all the while growing more depressed with what was supposed to be our Golden Years.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">I have told that story before, how I stumbled onto a manuscript I had written more that thirty years before, and filed away in a closet. As I reread that story it was like turning on a light. Why not use my time to tell a story? Perhaps I could still do that. For some reason, sixty-nine seemed like a good age to give it a try. So with that, the adventure began.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Today, however, is not the time nor place to relive that adventure…..with its good and the bad moments. Instead, I have chosen to stretch my self-indulgence claim to the limit, with a totally self-centered display of how late-life has blessed me.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">I am not here to explain what that means. I simply want to show the world…….at least my little corner of the world…….what can happen when it gives a clueless old fellow a pen and blank sheet of paper. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">I invite you to take a moment to click on <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B00BHJQ2JQ/allbooks?ingress=0&visitId=95dcd7ab-53cb-4373-8056-534606c6e0d8&ref_=ap_rdr">THIS LINK</a> </i>to see the visual, living-color results of turning an aging storyteller loose on the world. The site is called an <i>Amazon Author’s Page. </i>It lists all twenty-four of my books in both paperback and ebook formats, including a pair of family adventures that Roma and I wrote together. Truth to tell, I am ready to brag a bit.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Finally, if you are inclined to pass this post on to a friend, I would certainly appreciate that. This is, after all, the extent of my advertising efforts.</span></p>octoberyearshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02772770846223392811noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9120856035617741785.post-61473404806367975522023-12-27T11:36:00.000-08:002023-12-27T11:36:30.002-08:00THE SILENT GENERATION<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhflw9ENwVAXrJZth5euJOBJRTEc7prhx2szqB54HsnI15CoAUjmFezSjyXPYHEiLx0Xbig_Bbp73U6Ivfr3tvRXYKlI1fHrsUMOihv7FhfzTDATGZx3uOVPInBZkd7QyqfikZVQ1COZgxTpJdixulYqscm7bS5bmFLO7lvh_s5ZYnVFY3OWwD1WLC7eFQ/s205/2-1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="205" data-original-width="160" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhflw9ENwVAXrJZth5euJOBJRTEc7prhx2szqB54HsnI15CoAUjmFezSjyXPYHEiLx0Xbig_Bbp73U6Ivfr3tvRXYKlI1fHrsUMOihv7FhfzTDATGZx3uOVPInBZkd7QyqfikZVQ1COZgxTpJdixulYqscm7bS5bmFLO7lvh_s5ZYnVFY3OWwD1WLC7eFQ/s1600/2-1.jpeg" width="160" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p><br /></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Have you ever wondered what it is that makes the old folks, I mean the ‘really old’ folks, the way they are?</span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Though you may have created theories of your own, it seems to me the following outline is a ‘spot on’ depiction of their history…..and the special time they, my generation, have been blessed to experience.</span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">I’m pretty sure that October/November/December folks will see themselves here. Hopefully our children and grandchildren will take a few minutes to digest the reality that made us old timers the way we are, and why we sometimes struggle to make sense of today’s world.</span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Today’s post is not at all new for those of us who lived through the times it describes….those brief years of ‘normal’ sandwiched between two existential storms. Hopefully you younger folks, (that is most of you,) will take a few minutes to read about what makes Grandpa and Grandma the way they are.</span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">What follows is a no-nonsense picture of the times we grew up calling ‘normal,’ though in fact they were so much more than that. That was true when I first posted this piece in 2017. It is still true today.</span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Thanks to Joyce Carlson Oliver, a long-ago classmate of mine, for helping us remember.</span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> THE SILENT GENERATION</span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><br /></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Born in the depression years of the 1930s and early 1940s, we were the smallest number of children born since the early 1900s. We are The Silent Generation---remnants of a very special time.</span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">We were the last generation to climb out of the depression. We can remember the winds of war, the impact of a world war that rattled the structure of our daily lives for years.</span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">We are the last to remember ration books for everything from gas to sugar to shoes to stoves. We saved tin foil and poured fat into tin cans to save and reuse. We hand mixed ‘white stuff’ with ‘yellow stuff’ to make fake butter, aka ‘margarine.’</span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><br /></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">We saw cars up on blocks because tires weren’t available. We can remember milk being delivered to our house early in the morning and placed in the ‘milk box’ on the porch. (A friend’s mother delivered milk in a horse drawn cart.) We sometimes fed the horse.</span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">We are the last to have heard Roosevelt’s radio assurances and to see gold stars in the front windows of our grieving neighbors.....the sign of a loved one lost in war. </span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">We can also remember the parades on August 15, 1945, VJ (Victory in Japan) Day.</span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">We saw the ‘boys’ come home from the war, build their Cape Cod style houses….pouring the cellar, putting on a tar-paper roof, and living there until they could afford the time and money to finish building it.</span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">We were the last generation to spend our childhood without television. Instead, we imagined what we heard on the radio.</span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">As we all like to brag about, with no TV we spent our childhood ‘playing outside until the street lights came on.’ We did play outside, and we made play on our own. There was no little league. There was no city playground for kids. </span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">The lack of television in our early years meant, for most of us, that we had little real understanding of what the world was like.</span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><br /></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><br /></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Our Saturday afternoons at the movies included a brief newsreel of the war, sandwiched between westerns and cartoons.</span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Telephones were one to a house, hung on the wall, with lines we shared with our neighbors.</span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Computers were called calculators. They only added and subtracted and were hand cranked. Typewriters were driven by pounding fingers, 'throwing' the carriage, and changing the ribbon. The ‘internet’ and “Google’ were words that did not exist.</span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">In time the GI Bill gave returning veterans the means to get an education and spurred colleges to grow. VA loans fanned a housing boom. Pent up demand, coupled with new installment-payment plans, put factories to work. New highways would bring jobs and mobility. The veterans joined civic clubs and became active in politics.</span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">In the late 40s and early 50s the country seemed to enjoy the embrace of a busy, but quiet order, as it gave birth to the new middle class. (Who became known as the ‘Baby Boomer.s’)</span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster;">The radio networks expanded from three stations to thousands. The telephone become an <span style="caret-color: rgb(65, 65, 65);">even more</span> common method of communication and ‘Fax Machines’ sent hard copies around the world.</span></span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><br /></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><br /></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Our parents, suddenly free from the confines of the depression and the war, were exploring opportunities they had never imagined before. While we were busy playing by ourselves until the street lights came on, they were busy discovering the post-war world.</span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Most of us youngsters had no life plan, but with the unexpected virtue of ignorance and an economic rising tide we simply stepped out into the world and started to learn what it was all about.</span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">We entered a world of overflowing plenty and opportunity ….. a world where we were welcomed.</span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Based on our naive belief that there was more where this came from, and secure in our future, we shaped our lives as we went.</span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Of course, just as today, not all Americans shared in that experience. Depression-era poverty was deep rooted. Polio was still a crippler. The Korean War was a dark presage in the early 50s, and by mid-decade school children were ducking under their school desks.</span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Russia built the ‘Iron Curtain,’ and China became ‘Red China.’ Eisenhower sent the first ‘advisors’ to Viet Nam, and years later Johnson invented a war there. Castro set up camp in Cuba and Khrushchev came to power.</span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><br /></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">We were the last generation to experience an interlude when there were no existential threats to our homeland.</span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">We came of age in the 40s and early 50s. The war was over and the cold war, terrorism, the civil rights movement, technological upheavals, ‘global warming,’ and perpetual economic insecurity had yet to haunt our lives. </span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Only our generation can remember both a horror of apocalyptic war and a time when our world was secure and full of bright promise and plenty. We have lived through both.</span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">We grew up at the best possible time, a time when the world was getting better, not worse.</span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">We are the ‘Silent Generation’ - ‘The Last Ones.’</span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: Chalkduster; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">More than 99.9% of us are either retired or deceased, and feel privileged to have ‘lived in the best of times.’</span></p>octoberyearshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02772770846223392811noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9120856035617741785.post-91344210988576492312023-12-15T12:08:00.000-08:002023-12-15T12:08:31.072-08:00THE BEGINNING AND THE END<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVfYuQmdOQvfp4bU1tPDuzHVkxatbZGHa6vY6GciaxdYadJ0GQfVMtCTCZu2dimX_X4HhzTUY4CCv4TvtIxdOL8zxeoirensLw_WQDvLdanz-7l7tqhH8c_5vGgvGuUWR1rmC_RTIYEFd2UwphoEAMV0lmef3L7fqkocrV9rP__kbDsPmcOgroGnHHv98/s2000/Yr%20to%20Rem-JPEG.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2000" data-original-width="1333" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVfYuQmdOQvfp4bU1tPDuzHVkxatbZGHa6vY6GciaxdYadJ0GQfVMtCTCZu2dimX_X4HhzTUY4CCv4TvtIxdOL8zxeoirensLw_WQDvLdanz-7l7tqhH8c_5vGgvGuUWR1rmC_RTIYEFd2UwphoEAMV0lmef3L7fqkocrV9rP__kbDsPmcOgroGnHHv98/w213-h291/Yr%20to%20Rem-JPEG.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Have you ever been in that space……when your reading tastes have transported you to a ‘remembering’ time.....when you are not looking for new ways to tickle your pysche……but instead have set out to revisit good times that still have a hold on you?</span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">For me there were no better times than the family adventure Roma and I wrote about in the book we called <b>A Year to Remember</b>……that time spent in Winchester, England, where we had gone so I could write a novel.</span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">A few days ago I took that paperback off the self to confirm a bit of forgotten information. By this morning I had reread, and relived, the entire story.</span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">It was that bit of unplanned impulse that has me wanting to share the mood it had created. But how? This blog does not deal in book-length posts. So instead I settled for this……a sketchy beginning to our story that morphs into an equally sketchy conclusion……with room in-between for a year’s worth of remembered adventures.</span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">With that……IN THE BEGINNING.......Chapter One of <b>A Year to Remember.</b></span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span> <span> <span> <span> <span> <span> <span> <span> <span> <span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>**********<br /></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">You have heard of, perhaps even seen, the famous inscription on the Statute of Liberty….the one that implores the world to send us “your huddled masses.”</span></i></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></i></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">Sadly, in today’s world of immigration squabbles we are not as universally welcoming as those words might indicate. Yet it remains a noble statement of intent, worthy of our admiration. For many of us the mental image of those “huddled masses” arriving at our shores remains as powerful as ever.</span></i></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></i></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">True, in 1972 England still had its immigration welcome mat out for members of its once-great Commonwealth. But on that August morning our forlorn troop of traveling Yanks, which so closely resembled a “huddled mass,” was apparently a more serious test for the starched and stern Custom Agents who greeted us at London's Heathrow Airport.</span></i></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></i></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">To be sure, we were a uniformly disheveled bunch….rumpled, tired, and grumpy, some even barefoot….thoroughly intimidated by the chaos of what claimed to be the busiest airport in the world.</span></i></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></i></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman";">In the coldly-efficient eyes of the clerk standing behind </i><span style="color: #141414; font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(20, 20, 20);"><i>the</i></span></span><i style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Customs counter we must have looked like a trans-Atlantic reincarnation of Jed Clampett’s hillbilly clan….resembling “displaced persons” more than tourists.</i></span></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></i></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">To further complicate things, it took only a few seconds to realize that the fast-moving “Tourist Arrival” lines would not accommodate the likes of us. We claimed to be “Long Stay” candidates. Though the British Consulate in Portland had mentioned that distinction, they had not explained how it would impact our encounter with the “Customs people.” We were about to find out.</span></i></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></i></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">The first Long-Stay clerk we talked to never did seem to grasp what we were about, or why Gil was standing there in the dimly-lit room wearing his very-dark sunglasses, the only unbroken pair he had. </span></i></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></i></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">In the clerk’s eyes the six of us must have looked for all the world like Third World refugees, asking for permission to stay in his country for an “extended period” of time. As near as he could tell we had no jobs, no idea of where we would live, nothing but a desire to locate somewhere in England.</span></i></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></i></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">To illustrate our good intentions we showed the clerk the Application for Indefinite Stay permit provided to us by the Portland consulate. Moments later things were further complicated when Gil explained that we planned to stay for twelve months. That had the poor fellow scratching his head, trying to make sense of our request to use an Indefinite Stay permit to cover such a well-defined, very-definite period of time. </span></i></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></i></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">There was nothing for the poor fellow to do but to retreat to the back office for a discussion with the higher-ups. Fortunately for us his supervisor was an older fellow, perhaps used to dealing with young and foolish Yanks. </span></i></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></i></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">When he stepped out to join the conversation he calmly began by explaining that an Indefinite Stay permit would not allow any of us to hold a job. </span></i><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">How did we intent to support ourselves? There would be six mouths to feed, with absolutely no expectation of help from the English welfare system. He emphasized that fact more than once. </span></i></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></i></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">At that point Gil produced our Cashier’s Check, at substantial amount that confirmed we could fund our stay. Thankfully the Consulate had warned us to be prepared for that necessity. </span></i></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></i></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">With our passports and Cashier’s Check in hand….the most precious of our possessions….the supervisor returned to his office. For the next ten or fifteen minutes we would be waiting….the six of us, the last remaining travelers in the Long-Stay service area. </span></i></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></i></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">We sat huddled in a corner, wondering if the ever-efficient English bureaucracy would allow us to stay in their country, or put us on a plane back to New York. There we waited....tired, hungry, and out of sorts….growing more impatient by the minute.</span></i></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></i></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">Finally, wonder of wonders. When the pair of Customs officers, the clerk and his supervisor, returned the older man was actually smiling. Perhaps against his better judgment we had simply worn down his resistance. </span></i></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></i></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">Stepping to the counter he stamped our three passports with an authorization for a ninety-day stay, then gave us a form to complete once we had a permanent residence….requesting permission for a longer stay. By then we were too relieved to argue with his semi-suitable offer.</span></i></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i></i><br /></span></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> ***********</span></i></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Without realizing how fortunate we were, we had won the right to find a home somewhere in England……though we had no idea where……and settle into a year of sometimes unbelievable highs and lows.</span></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: #141414; font-family: Times New Roman;">How would you do that? How would you create your own Year to Remember. Where would you even start?</span></span></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Then, a year later it was time to be going home. There were bound to be highs and lows involved in that process too……but it had to be done. With that, on to……THE END.</span></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> ************<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">After three weeks in Ireland we were on the ferry back to Fishguard....returning for a last visit to Winchester. More importantly it would be the first step toward “going home,” returning to where our travels had begun. We had seen so much, done so much, and made so many friends. Now all that was coming to an end. </span></i></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></i></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">We had circled Scotland, and traveled England....south to north, east and west, and back again. We had spent a few days getting a sense of Wales. Now, after three weeks spent seeing part, not all, of Ireland it was time to be leaving </span></i></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></i></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">There would be two last nights at a Harestock B & B....savoring again the ancient downtown heart of Winchester and saying our goodbyes. It was hard to leave those good friends. Thankfully the fates would allow us to see them on our return trips to England. Later, when the Morgans emigrated to Calgary, Canada they would come to visit us in Oregon.</span></i></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></i></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">Meanwhile, there was a last bit of business to take care of. For those who believe in signs, or perhaps hexes, the first miles in our Ford Estate Wagon might have been a hint of ongoing troubles. Yet once the necessary repairs had been made, months before in Aberfeldy, Scotland, it had never again let us down. </span></i></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></i></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">Through Scotland, England, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Wales, and Ireland our trusty wagon had done everything we asked of it. In the end, when the car dealer John Berry recommended gave us half of what we had paid for it ten months earlier, we took his money, boarded the train for Heathrow Airport and our flight to Washington, DC.</span></i></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></i></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">Brother Roger met us at Dulles Airport, driving our Chevy Suburban, the only car he had that would carry all of us and our luggage. Back at his Malvern, Pennsylvania home we were surprised to find that Gil’s parents, Morse and Dorothy, had flown east to make our return a family gathering.</span></i></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></i></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">They had rented a large house just off the beach in Atlantic City. There, the whole crew....Roger’s family of four, the six of us, and our parents would gather for a three-day family reunion. </span></i></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></i></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">Within an hour or two of reaching Roger’s home we were in need of a few items from the local supermarket. No problem. It was just down the road. Gil would drive to the store. His father offered to join him.</span></i></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></i></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">Minutes later, when the two of them started off down the street to the store, they were suddenly caught up in a startling “welcome home” moment. Morse’s excited yell must have been heard a block or two away....when Gil pulled the Suburban out of the driveway and started off down the left side of the street, heading straight toward the on-coming traffic. Apparently, learning to drive on the right side of the road would take some practice.</span></i></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></i></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">Having Gil’s parents on hand provided another unexpected advantage. We were fresh off the plane, and Amy’s distinctive British accent was still intact, heard by one and all. That would not be the case by the time we reached Oregon. By then her accent was nowhere to be heard. It had vanished in a matter of days. Today, more than fifty years after the fact, we must play the cassette tapes we had sent home from England to recapture the sound of our “English” Amy.</span></i></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></i></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">Finally it was time to be on the road one last time. Ten days later, after a long cross-country drive in a vehicle that had room for the kids to stretch out, we were back in Oregon, visiting again with family and glad to be home. </span></i></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></i></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i>Oh yes....regarding that other piece of unfinished business....Gil’s novel, the one that had sent us half-way around the world for him to write. After sitting for forty years in a manilla envelope on a closet shelf, </i><b><i>Forever Starts Now</i></b><i> finally appeared on Amazon in paperback and Kindle formats on June 20, 2014. As it turned out, seeing the world, making new friends, and learning about our family’s roots had all been accomplished quicker than putting his story into print..</i></span></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i></i><br /></span></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> ************</span></i></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i></i><br /></span></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">As you can tell, this bit of self-indulgence has been a matter of following good memories where they lead us. Don’t be afraid to follow your own. I recommend it.</span></p>octoberyearshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02772770846223392811noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9120856035617741785.post-50599397654399740702023-12-04T13:43:00.000-08:002023-12-04T13:43:22.587-08:00ONE OF THOSE HINTS<p><span style="font-size: x-large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiHVnrqamTy0K3hWzKdA5_lm8bLoXoLTdXoBJagkatL-yl-6Adxmz8sJwqSuKMOKMODaaNL6gIddTshyphenhyphen5yuo57eGjBwcVWPIpOOsOmWxc4dVenW4Y-et6PHRnZPFf5UBTd3qctNir5ftssMAQQZ8pWLLpriXEVYSB2hnZ3FzPDbZrQguaQZpRiwEL0JcU/s205/2-1.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="205" data-original-width="160" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiHVnrqamTy0K3hWzKdA5_lm8bLoXoLTdXoBJagkatL-yl-6Adxmz8sJwqSuKMOKMODaaNL6gIddTshyphenhyphen5yuo57eGjBwcVWPIpOOsOmWxc4dVenW4Y-et6PHRnZPFf5UBTd3qctNir5ftssMAQQZ8pWLLpriXEVYSB2hnZ3FzPDbZrQguaQZpRiwEL0JcU/s1600/2-1.jpeg" width="160" /></a></span></div><p></p><p><b style="background-color: #f4f5f5; color: #0e1112; font-family: "Helvetica Neue";"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">I realize that most folks may not share my personal belief in life after life. But for those who have learned that truth the following letter, posted on Facebook by Emma McCarty, may sound both familiar and comforting. I for one, took it very personally.</span></i></b></p><p><b style="background-color: #f4f5f5; color: #0e1112; font-family: "Helvetica Neue";"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></i></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Hi there. This is your late loved-one speaking. (You can fill in the name of the one speaking to you.) I don’t have long, so listen up, because I have a lot I want to tell you. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">First off, I get it. I understand.……..Ever since I left this world you have missed me, and I know you’re bracing for the upcoming holidays without me. No matter what anyone says, those festivities are going to be really tough. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">In fact, let’s be honest, this festive season will probably suck pondwater. But then, Thanksgiving and Christmas are tough holidays for a lot of people. You are definitely not alone. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">You see, the misconception about the holidays is that they are one big party. That’s what every song on the radio claims. Each television commercial you see shows happy families clad in gaudy Old Navy sweaters, carving up poultry, smiling their perfect Hollywood teeth at the camera. But that’s not exactly reality. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">The reality is, fifty-eight percent of Americans admit to feeling severely depressed and anxious during November and December. Fact is, many folks will cry throughout the “most wonderful time of the year.” </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Well, guess what? Nobody is crying up here in heaven. This place is unreal. There is, literally, too much beauty to take in. Way too much. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">For starters—get this—time doesn’t even exist anymore. Which I’m still getting used to.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Right now, for all I know, the calendar year down on Earth could be 1728, 4045, 1991, or 12 BC. It really wouldn’t matter up here. This is a realm where there is no ticking clock, no schedule. Up here there is only this present moment. This. Here. Now. That’s all there has ever been. And there is real comfort in knowing that. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span>I know this all seems hard to grasp, but if you were here you would get it.</span><span> </span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Also, for the first time I’m pain free. I feel like a teenager again in my body. You probably don’t realize how long I’ve lived with pain because I never talked about it, I kept my problems to myself because I was your loved one, and you needed me to be brave. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">But pain is a devious thing. It creeps up on even the strongest person, little by little, bit by bit. Until pretty soon, pain becomes a central feature of life. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Sometimes my pain would get so bad it was all I thought about. No, I’m not saying that my life was miserable—far from it. I loved being on earth. It’s just that simply waking up each morning was getting exhausting. But, you know what? Not anymore. In this new place, I am wholly and thoroughly happy. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">But enough about me. I don’t have room to describe all the terrific things I’m experiencing, and you don’t need to hear them. Right now, you’re grieving, and what you need is a hug. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Which is why I’m writing to you. This is my hug to you. Because you’ve lost sight of me. And in fact, you’ve lost sight of several important things lately. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: #060606; font-family: Helvetica Neue;">Death has a way of blinding us. It reorganizes the way you think. It changes you. You will never be the same after you lose someone. It messes with your inner physiology. It reorganizes your neurons. But through it all there is one teensy little thing you’re apt to forget: </span><b style="color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">I am still around.</b><span style="color: #060606; font-family: Helvetica Neue;"> <b>I <span style="caret-color: rgb(6, 6, 6);">haven't</span> gone away.</b></span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Yes, you read that correctly, I’m right here with you. No, you can’t see me. No, you can’t reach out and hold me. But did you know that one of the things I’m allowed to do as a heavenly being is hang out with you? </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">It’s true. I’m never far away. I’m in the room with you now, along with a big cloud of ancestors, saints, and witnesses. I’m shooting the breeze alongside you, watching you live your life, watching you raise your kids, watching your private moments of sorrow. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Here, in this new realm, I am in the perfect position to help you learn things. Which is what I vow to spend the rest of your earthly life doing, teaching you little lessons, lending you a hand when you least expect it, while desperately trying to make you smile. Actually, I’ve already been doing this stuff, you just haven’t realized it. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">What, you don’t believe me? Well, wake up, pal. You know that tingle you get in your spine whenever you think of me? That’s me. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">You know how, just yesterday, you had a beautiful memory when you were driving and it made you cry so hard that it actually felt good and you began to laugh through tears? Also me.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">You know how sometimes when you’re all alone, preoccupied with something else, suddenly you get this faint feeling that someone is standing in the room with you? Hello? It's me.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">You’re not alone on this earth. You never were. You never will be. So during this holiday season, when cheerful families are getting together and making merry, and taking shots of eggnog, I’ll be clinging to your shoulder, helping you muddle through somehow. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">I’ll be making your spinal column tingle a lot, and I’ll be sending plenty of signs. Each of these signs—every single one—is code for “I love you.” So start paying attention to those hints. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Because this was ONE OF THEM.</span></p><div><br /></div>octoberyearshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02772770846223392811noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9120856035617741785.post-54892917173491416632023-10-25T11:50:00.000-07:002023-10-25T11:50:04.111-07:00The Story Only You Can Tell<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGdlP0AFwCi8PlU38BCySX7o4nTyW6GQpiFCP9THdSXuBjiKwhijNM2VIkxsUcOKjmQIWOsrqObMUHmNaqvCZwDlVXDE302-Jj7M2pDFR_WAe4ctCWQgb0cQ1eHxM9V36vFbb-VjagTrOhX0TIqsPYgTinKljcSDAFdrbLz08dWX_LN0DNS832WUaw7yM/s205/2-1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="205" data-original-width="160" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGdlP0AFwCi8PlU38BCySX7o4nTyW6GQpiFCP9THdSXuBjiKwhijNM2VIkxsUcOKjmQIWOsrqObMUHmNaqvCZwDlVXDE302-Jj7M2pDFR_WAe4ctCWQgb0cQ1eHxM9V36vFbb-VjagTrOhX0TIqsPYgTinKljcSDAFdrbLz08dWX_LN0DNS832WUaw7yM/s1600/2-1.jpeg" width="160" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>A while back I suggested that everyone, especially October/November folks, ought to consider writing their own personal memoir. After all, you have lived a full life. Chances are you have time on your hands and stories to tell. Seems to me those are the necessary ingredients for the most personal late-life project I can imagine…..one that only you can create.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>So, what kind of response did I receive about what I considered a viable idea? Most replies sounded like……“I couldn’t do that. Why would I want to? I’m not a writer. Besides, who wants to read about my life?”</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Those are all valid replies, but perhaps they are the right answers to the wrong questions. More to the point, they seem to miss what I have come to accept as the most important virtue of creating one’s own memoir. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>What if the first and most important question to be asked is…. “What would<i> I</i> gain from writing my own memoir?”….What would<i> I </i>learn about myself if I took the time to study the most eventful pieces of my life, from beginning to now. Have I ever stopped to think about how those ‘pieces’ fit together to create the ‘me’ I have become?</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Allow me to digress for a moment. I have mentioned before that I have walked that ‘memoir path’……378 pages of serious digging into my life through 2020. On the very first page of that story I said, “I want to know more about the ‘me’ I have become.” When I had finally completed that search I had the resulting book self-published, and ordered five copies, one for myself and each of our children. There will be no reason for any more copies. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Based on that experience I learned that the process of reviewing my life…… the highs and the lows, one step at a time……while trying to understand what each step meant to me, was an empowering adventure. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Most of us think of a memoir as something to be read by others……the few who may care enough to read our story. I am asking you to consider ‘<i>your story</i>’ as something by you, for you……..an opportunity for you to visit, and revisit, your life, one step at a time. Whether or not you ever ‘write’ that story, you may find that the time spent reviewing and reliving those ‘steps,’ outlining your own memoir, is the most productive part of the process.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>With that in mind I have decided on what feels like an October Bold approach. What follows is Chapter One of the memoir I call<b><i> In Retrospect…. My bumpy road to growing up, </i></b>which explains my memoir logic about as well as I know how.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> <span> <span> <span> </span></span></span></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> </span> <b>CHAPTER ONE</b></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">“An unexamined life is not worth living.”</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><i>Socrates</i></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> </span></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Chalkduster; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span>“Only as we look back at the course our footprints have traced do we fully understand how we have read life’s inkblot.”</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> <i>Huston Smith</i></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i></i><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i></i><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> <span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">WHY TELL THIS STORY?</span></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Chalkduster; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span>There are, of course, dozens of reasons to explore one’s life, and dozens of ways to approach that process. Beyond those matters of motivation and technique lies the most fundamental question of all. <i>Why do I feel called to tell my story?</i></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>As I set out on this journey I have at least three reasons in mind. Chances are I will find others along the way. For now, however, I will be seeking to answer these questions. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>1) Why did I choose not to concentrate on the opportunities I was gifted as a young man? </span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>2) Why did I instead settle for my own ‘road less traveled.’ Making my way to a more satisfying destination? </span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>3) And, how was I lucky enough to win the lady who would put up with all my foolishness, while providing a helping hand in my search?</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>I want to know more about what made me the ‘me’ I have become. In the process I will be retelling and perhaps even reliving bits of my life in hopes of gaining insight. To be sure, this will be the most personal writing I have ever attempted. And most importantly, I am doing it to satisfy myself, no one else.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>At eighty-three it is high time to face this life of mine head on and see where my thoughts take me. Hopefully I can confirm that satisfaction and fulfillment are not prizes to be found in the world of ‘things,’ but are instead products of soul-deep expectations we cultivate in the course of a lifetime.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>I won’t pretend to address every detail of my long life. Instead I want to gather the recollections that stand out to me, whether or not their importance is obvious to a casual reader. It is that hopeful gathering of long-dormant memories and emotions that draws me toward telling my story. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> </span></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>I know there are intuitions and aspirations, anxieties and injuries that inhabit the inner ‘me,’ like ghosts of times past. I want to know more about those invisible specters. What should they mean to me? How are they connected to the person I have become? How do those long-ago episodes, perhaps insignificant at the time, relate to the answers I am still seeking at this advanced stage of life?</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Have you ever wondered how seemingly-minor, often-momentary events are able to create such lasting subconscious associations? You and I live daily with hopes and anxieties that confirm the significance of long-past events. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Are those yearnings and apprehensions real? Are they the basis of a fruitful life? Or simply illusions, unsafe to lean on in the heat of life-stressing situations?And where do all those questions come from? </span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>More to the point, why is my octogenarian mind still seeking those answers? Surely, by this time of life I should have learned to live with my accumulated doubts and uncertainty. Why haven’t I created more satisfying answers by now? Seems that most people my age have managed that.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>In the course of a lifetime all of us construct explanations that we rely on to create our ways of coping. Some of that logic may be shaky, barely able to hide the dysfunction it is meant to address. Some of it is more productive. I would like to know more about the ‘answers’ I have fashioned on my life journey. Which ones created real resolution? Which ones simply shielded me from the reality of unwelcome questions?</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>My search for personal answers, the strongest motivation of this exploration, may not make sense to anyone else. The drama and emotion of my seeking may be real only to me. Chances are an outsider will consider my questioning asides strange at best, occasionally humorous, and perhaps at times the work of a deranged mind.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>For the most part my life answers have been adequate. They have allowed me to deal with the situations at hand, if not always well. Some questions that required an answer in an earlier time have ceased to be an issue for me. And, of course, there have been times when my answers were simply wrong and unproductive. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Like you I have spent a lifetime trying to create satisfactory responses to life’s challenges. In the process I have reached the supposed calm and quiet of retirement……yet there are questions that still remain.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Will this telling of my story, help me find those answers? How can I know that at the beginning? Ask me again when we reach the end. In the meantime why not join me on the bumpy road to my Becoming.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> <span> <span> <span> </span></span></span></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>There you have it, dear reader. Whether or not you ever create a memoir, I happen to think that the process of thinking through the chapters that make up your life is a worthwhile exercise. I invite you to consider that challenge.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></p><div><br /></div>octoberyearshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02772770846223392811noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9120856035617741785.post-3521244867066242862023-10-11T16:20:00.002-07:002023-10-11T16:20:59.397-07:00DO YOU REMEMBER?<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi362cQJ60xzyhqvBDjXvcBi58jr_eZnCY86uB9vNpMHjY5eOHocSQ6Ff72huy1lmwjWkuxF1Kehk_0Dtj_vjx_sfTc4QVuj0anIc-zWUovq0jmOgFITv0VUXQCe5mYGDQzE38y1Jg7OozyXJ9BhTsnnS8E2v7i5WDz6Y8IgM5nqDo1tlhdUYKsWfNq55I/s205/2-1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="205" data-original-width="160" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi362cQJ60xzyhqvBDjXvcBi58jr_eZnCY86uB9vNpMHjY5eOHocSQ6Ff72huy1lmwjWkuxF1Kehk_0Dtj_vjx_sfTc4QVuj0anIc-zWUovq0jmOgFITv0VUXQCe5mYGDQzE38y1Jg7OozyXJ9BhTsnnS8E2v7i5WDz6Y8IgM5nqDo1tlhdUYKsWfNq55I/s1600/2-1.jpeg" width="160" /></a></div> <p></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 27px;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></b></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 27px;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></b></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 27px;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></b></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 27px;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></b></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 27px;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></b></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px;"><span> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: x-large; font-weight: bold;"> Do you remember?</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 27px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b></b><br /></span></p><p style="color: #010101; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">Wow! Can you believe it? There I was, nearly eighty-six years old. That has the ring of November, doesn’t it? Which makes it easier to admit that I can no longer do some of the things I did in the “old days.” </span></i></b></p><p style="color: #010101; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #010101; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>But never fear, there are some things I can do better than ever….for instance, ‘remembering.’ Though I am prone to forget where I left the keys, and our offspring occasionally kid me about “living in the past,” the truth is, like my October peers, I do remember a great deal about the life I have lived. </span></p><p style="color: #010101; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #010101; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Consider the obvious. We have so much more past behind us than we have future before us. In that case why not take a moment from time to time to recall and revisit that past, and the ways it has impacted the persons we have become. </span></p><p style="color: #010101; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #010101; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>For instance, a while back, in an informal email census of my high-school class, I have heard from several long ago friends. Truth to tell, claiming those folks as “friends” is stretching things a bit. We were in school at the same time, sixty-some years ago, and were more like acquaintances than friends. </span></p><p style="color: #010101; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #010101; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Though we haven’t seen each other in years, there was a time when we walked the same hallways and greeted each other in passing….or did not. Through no choice of our own we had been thrown together in a common place and time. Some of us had reveled in those common experiences. Others simply endured them. Either way, in the process we cultivated a common mythology, some of which we have shaped and molded over the years to suit our own needs.</span></p><p style="color: #010101; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #010101; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Fact is, after so many years I enjoyed the chance to reconnect with those folks in a casual email contact. Actually, I recommend it. You ought to give it a try. But be aware, even the most superficial of visits is apt to trigger some serious remembering….a return to places and events you may not have visited in a very long time. </span></p><p style="color: #010101; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #010101; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Most of the resulting recollections will probably be of a general nature….pleasant musings about what we like to recall as an unfettered, less-structured time of life….creating a mood we may choose to linger in for a while. Occasionally those remembered moments may become more detailed and specific, complete with faces and names. Either way there can be no doubting the power of serious, heart-felt remembering.</span></p><p style="color: #010101; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #010101; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Remembering, of course, is a very individual activity. Two or more persons, reliving a shared experience, are bound to remember their times together differently. After all, our recollections are shaped by our own uniquely personal filters. Yet no matter what we remember, a single constant remains….we are dealing with the past. Remembering is about looking back, and assigning our own values to what we experienced. The future, on the other hand, is a great unknown. At best it is a blank page of undetermined possibilities….answers we hope will arrive on time, but may not arrive at all. </span></p><p style="color: #010101; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #010101; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>That is the dichotomy we live with, at eight or eighty….remembering our past, while trying to decipher the future. Having spent most of nine decades creating my own answers….some right, some wrong….I realize there is more, much more, for me to remember about the past than there is for me to look forward to in an ever-shrinking future.</span></p><p style="color: #010101; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #010101; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>So why not accept the truth of it? Connecting with caring “friends” in even the most casual way….with no need to impress or “one-up” each other….is one of the most therapeutic perks of late life. With that in mind I give thanks for pleasant memories of pleasant times spent with pleasant people. (Even those times when one or the other of us was not so pleasant) </span></p><p style="color: #010101; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #010101; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>And a special thanks to the recent string of memory-makers who, for reasons of their own, stepped forward to offer their personal feelings about the highs and lows of October and November life. </span></p><p style="color: #010101; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #010101; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Their sharing and caring was enough to fuel my own remembering. I realize that was not their intention, but that’s the way it works. Though it may be unhealthy to dwell too long on our remembering, in the end everyone of us is a part of someone else’s memories.</span></p>octoberyearshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02772770846223392811noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9120856035617741785.post-54784550307417286892023-09-26T12:24:00.000-07:002023-09-26T12:24:10.779-07:00OCTOBER DREAMIN'.......DON'T STOP NOW<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7gQhr31cREpp9CaMxJ132P5POJwHK2wbPFuad_8zwQ6RfzZMXXm0qX_Wi6BebBYD7Q8fKQsGdTxsKFGnAgvQodzxmg4rs0YyCYjhgZL-1wgqXPsymn1PDNT18o6w7kmeVuZcwbNI3Rrypyt7aN-qNvByy415yVgxpAiWITcG3bxxAwyEwYx52eeeZFEw/s205/2-1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="205" data-original-width="160" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7gQhr31cREpp9CaMxJ132P5POJwHK2wbPFuad_8zwQ6RfzZMXXm0qX_Wi6BebBYD7Q8fKQsGdTxsKFGnAgvQodzxmg4rs0YyCYjhgZL-1wgqXPsymn1PDNT18o6w7kmeVuZcwbNI3Rrypyt7aN-qNvByy415yVgxpAiWITcG3bxxAwyEwYx52eeeZFEw/s1600/2-1.jpeg" width="160" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>October dreaming'....don't stop now</b></span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: #535353;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span>Hey, it’s okay. It is allowed. If you have given up on some grand idea, perhaps it is time to try again. Go ahead and dream your dreams. It’s good for you and fun too.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Recently, as I was roughing out my <b><i>Family Matters</i></b> story, I found myself deep in the “dreaming” business. The story I was creating followed three generations of the Padgett family as they struggled to find the elusive place where their individual, sometimes conflicting visions of the future could be blended into a common dream. It was clear from the beginning that not everyone would get everything they wanted. In the course of their seeking there was bound to be discord and the need for compromise. Sounds a lot like real life, doesn’t it?</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>For two hundred seventy pages the frustrated Padgett grandparents, the family’s late-life element, deals with radically differing visions of what retirement ought to be, while their daughter tries her best to save a relationship torn apart by another set of conflicting dreams. Meanwhile the granddaughter, longing for a return to the laissez-faire freedom of her Los Angeles roots, struggles to imagine a future for herself in small-town Tanner. At every turn it seems that someone’s dream is in danger of being stepped on.</span></p><p style="color: #535353; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>I call them “dreams”….those enticing hints of the future we long to have for ourselves. It seems to me that if we nurture them properly and allow them to play out, those idealized visions can help us be the person we want to be and live the life we want to live. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span> </span>I suppose most folks understand how important dreams are. In the beginning, when we first set out to find our place in the world, what else did we have but dreams? But now the question is….is there a place for dreaming in late-life, when it sometimes feels like we are used up and out of possibilities? If someone is taking a poll on the subject, put me down as a loud “Yes.”</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Like you perhaps, I have had a few ill-defined “want to’s” bouncing around in my head for as long as I can remember. But it was only a few years ago, during what I like to think of as the September of my life, that I found the nerve and motivation to double down on my personal “dream thing”...telling stories about my Tanner friends and their October dreams.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Each of us grows up with a uniquely personal vision of what-can-be for us. Sometimes that vision is hazy, hard to make out. At other times it is as clear as daylight. And even as we shape and reshape those images they are also shaping us. We are both the cause and the result of our dreams. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>After all, we have spent a lifetime painting our own personal mind-picture of the person we are. Though we rarely allow anyone else to see the whole of that intimate portrait our dreams, the ones that remind us of “who we want to be,” are constantly at work on that mental canvas…. redrawing, refining, and clarifying the “me” we view through the lens of our personal dreams.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We October types have been involved in that process long enough to realize that integrating the idealized images which our dreams produce with the untidy facts of real life can be difficult at any age. Perhaps you remember how hard that was as a teenager. I do. How could I have ever entertained those silly pie-in-the-sky fantasies….of doing the things I dreamed of doing, of becoming this or that, of some special “her” liking the likes of me? You might think I would have learned my lesson back then. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Yet here I am, late in life, still playing those silly mind games….telling my stories and dreaming those October dreams. And I’m pretty sure that I’m not the only one trying to live out my “want-to” dreams. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span> <span> </span></span>In the face of October reality the “why” we keep dreaming may be found in loneliness, boredom, isolation, and frustration….or perhaps it is disappointment with our earlier efforts. Whatever the reason, most of us are inclined to wander back to that familiar mind space from time to time….telling ourselves that we ought to know better….yet still seeking the undeniable comfort of our dreams.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Of course, along the way there will be detours and disappointments, times when we step back to ask ourselves why we have not become the person we had hoped to be. Yet in the face of those shortcomings we keep dreaming….because we must. That was true in our formative years, in adulthood, and now in late-life. As always we are a work-in-progress….constantly bumping heads with reality, even as we continue to lean on what I call dreams. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>In <b><i>Family Matters</i></b> the Padgett family is forced to face their dreams....the ones that are pulling them in very different directions. (That happens sometimes, doesn’t it?) In the course of their journey there will be moments when the common ground they seek appears to be out of reach. But they are first and foremost a family. Their individual dreams require a recognition of that “familyness,” even when it means reshaping their own motivating visions. For them, just as it is for you and me, it will all be about the often frustrating blend of family, dreams, and compromise. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #535353; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><br /></p>octoberyearshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02772770846223392811noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9120856035617741785.post-39149268030260465392023-08-22T11:25:00.000-07:002023-08-22T11:25:15.820-07:00A GIFT ONLY YOU CAN GIVE<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjITQucePCeJRJzuWr3Xl3uTteNetCbzW91RZlgGBB28R_yk8-Tb74GVig6-F_aOgk6EPSeHCsc-kTNttmj0hO6hKrNR2haoEZoYdW_g2K7UGamrjgFAOHSBq15uvAILVKsHqLuidWdp1O2vQDHYbx_mtQflNSHIZZ_17e_4kbHcOR7uENXR783ozlr5Ko/s205/2-1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="205" data-original-width="160" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjITQucePCeJRJzuWr3Xl3uTteNetCbzW91RZlgGBB28R_yk8-Tb74GVig6-F_aOgk6EPSeHCsc-kTNttmj0hO6hKrNR2haoEZoYdW_g2K7UGamrjgFAOHSBq15uvAILVKsHqLuidWdp1O2vQDHYbx_mtQflNSHIZZ_17e_4kbHcOR7uENXR783ozlr5Ko/s1600/2-1.jpeg" width="160" /></a></div><br /> <b style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; text-align: justify;"> </b><b style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> </span></b><p></p><p><b style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span> </span>A GIFT ONLY WE CAN GIVE</span></b></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><b><i>(This bit of fluff first appeared on these pages several years ago. Now, even deeper into Elderhood, it seems more appropriate than ever.)</i></b></span></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Sure, I do fuss a lot about our late-life challenge to keep Becoming more than we are. I believe there are ways we can continue to grow, even improve, at our age. Still, I must admit there are times when I wonder how an old fossil like me can pull that off....when it feels like those doubts have the upper hand.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Then, of course, there are times when I come face to face with the sad reality of how much I can no longer do……..those moments when my mind’s ‘want to’ is trumped by my body’s “can’t do.” In those sometimes depressing instances it is hard to believe there is still any meaningful <i>Becoming</i> left in me.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>So how do we carry on as late-lifer ‘<i>Becomers</i>’ when the clock and calendar seem to be working against us? Among the many possibilities is one that only we, you and I, each of us on our own, can make happen. Fact is, no matter how age has slowed us down we will continue to create and refine our personal legacy. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Take a moment to consider the notion of “legacy.” The formal definition speaks of “<i>Something transmitted by or received from a predecessor</i>.” On a personal level we are talking about our life, the way we live, and how that affects those whose lives we touch. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Passing on our unique, very personal life experiences and the lessons we have learned, is something no one else can do for us. As elder members of our personal sphere of influence we are always in the process of creating and refining that legacy……the lasting impressions and lessons we bequeath to those whose lives we impact. Whether by words, writing, or loving example our personal legacy is a gift only we can give.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>I mentioned in an earlier post a book I was reading…….William H Thomas’ “<i>What Are Old People For</i>?” One of his most important answers to that title question reads as follows….“The first task of elderhood is the creation of a legacy that can serve others and be handed down to those who have yet to be born.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Barry Barkan, founder of the Live Oak Community, puts it this way….“An elder is a person whose work is to gather wisdom from long-life experience and formulate it into a legacy for future generations.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>I would submit that each of us, in our own way, is capable of doing exactly that every day of our elder life. Certainly no one else can do that for us. A lifetime of words, deeds, and attitudes…..of choices made….has shaped the nature of our legacy and continues to do so to this day.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span>For better or worse, our presence in the lives of family and close friends has and will continue to have an impact. There is no way to avoid leaving our stamp, however modest, on every life we touch. A lifetime of choices made has created the wake that marks our life journey, shaping our individual Becoming and the legacy we pass on to our inheritors. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We live in a world that is too often seems unwilling to accept that we October/November souls have anything left to offer. Perhaps we sometimes nurse those same questions. Yet we ought not doubt the fact that our life’s example…..the legacy we are still creating, has an impact……while serving as an indelible sign of our own continued Becoming.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><br /></p>octoberyearshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02772770846223392811noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9120856035617741785.post-65665840528097213272023-08-02T11:59:00.000-07:002023-08-02T11:59:14.048-07:00A FUTURE? ....... AT MY AGE?<p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-Wp1h0Vm3w2ER7EOvGgsGNkw1x1WgiDx1EexNSXUBRrLJtijtT8GQ-fdxAh3EVttn0gGk3vlChyPAcwzUiz2BCzgzgRXJtlGmkx3mrQ82uaZVQBvxhrU1w___0Pqc5v0A75zBvZCPkwGMTgx5IY-P9mUbPAz9aNdw8KIy-uoX6uaoxaSjl4y4uwQpyYE/s205/2-1.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="205" data-original-width="160" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-Wp1h0Vm3w2ER7EOvGgsGNkw1x1WgiDx1EexNSXUBRrLJtijtT8GQ-fdxAh3EVttn0gGk3vlChyPAcwzUiz2BCzgzgRXJtlGmkx3mrQ82uaZVQBvxhrU1w___0Pqc5v0A75zBvZCPkwGMTgx5IY-P9mUbPAz9aNdw8KIy-uoX6uaoxaSjl4y4uwQpyYE/w156-h200/2-1.jpeg" width="156" /></a></div><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"> </span></b><p></p><p><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span> <span> A FUTURE</span></span>? -- AT MY AGE?</span></b></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">From one July to the next……what a year it has been. In the last few days I have noted the first anniversary of Her passing, and remembered what would have been our 63rd anniversary. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">It is that remembering which has me thinking thoughts I wouldn’t normally share in such a public way. Yet a part of me wants to shout about it from the highest hill.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">You see, She’s been gone a year now, and there is still an empty space inside me. There always will be. Yet She had been so insistent that I must “Carry on.” Those were Her firm instructions. But what did they mean? How can I do that?</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">I realize that I won’t replace Her love, or my love for Her. What we had won’t change. For more than 67 years we experienced what seems to me the complete cycle of love.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">As youngsters we knew the excitement of passionate, romantic love. In time we fulfilled our naturally mandated role in continuing the species. As adults we launched our children on their own life adventures. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Along the way I learned my own life lessons ……that material success and status do not produce the satisfaction they promise. Though I may have been a slow learner, I believe that in time I became a more authentic husband and father.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best of all, we grew old together, helping each other along the way……each of us supporting the other as we shaped the interests that kept us alive and involved.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">And then came the time, as it does in any enduring relationship, when one of us moved on to the next plateau, and the other was left to make his way.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">In Her absence I still manage to visit with Her most every day. (Some habits are hard to break.) At the same time I wonder how I can know for sure that we are still connecting. Am I actually reaching Her? Is there any way She can reach me when I need Her?</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Lately, in my blogging I have mentioned that I want to use my remaining days or years, this time I have alone, in the best way possible. How can I know what those ways are? What do I owe Her……..and myself?</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: #060606; font-family: Helvetica Neue;">In this new world of mine I <span style="caret-color: rgb(6, 6, 6);">have no</span> interest in replacing what was……that life of young love, raising a family, becoming the adults we were, having a career. Like anyone my age all that is part of my past.</span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">You see, I have reached a new place in life, considering a new future that many of us older folks face……dealing with the challenges of late-life, especially the day after day routine of life lived alone. The question has become, how will I deal with this new place?</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Well…….WHAT IF?</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">WHAT IF I was thinking about a future that includes someone to share these last miles with me, someone I care about, who cares about me……perhaps someone who is facing her own late-life challenges.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">For 67 years that soulmate of mine was my lover and Best Friend. But it seems that my priorities have changed. Years ago, in the final pages of the story I titled<b><i> Best Friends and Promises, </i></b>Aaron Peck found himself admitting, “At this stage of life I need a Best Friend more than I need a lover.” How prophetic is that? Here I am, living out my own fiction.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">So what about the “someone” I have in mind, that ‘Best Friend’ I want in my life? What if we decide that the two of us don’t have to be together all the time? We certainly don’t need to live together. I, for one, am not ready or able to be a caretaker, any more than I can expect someone to take care of me</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">But I do believe that being in that Best Friend relationship with a special someone works for me. Is it enough that our connection is nurtured and sustained by emails, phone calls, and occasional visits?</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">I believe it is. Time will tell.</span></p><div><br /></div>octoberyearshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02772770846223392811noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9120856035617741785.post-7324470351687849042023-06-21T10:09:00.000-07:002023-06-21T10:09:40.205-07:00ARE WE ADDICTED TO EXISTENTIAL ANESTHESIA?<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAFJvcKqDjMLOKH1Cm4ybqum6CAbhMgd97XNeyV1pETHbnnBryijKmJIHXXuFlky1xyeQztK-t1bYKjYAcCz7F7iW76amEre-UyUr-LuWEtfPXEsCK5G773ony1pBE7y0uqMQ6p4h-9bVkKKcYc0ZS6F_YnobEtXxwHtkSyxkTCHcN7wZ7AAHZAJfF9F8/s205/2-1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="205" data-original-width="160" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAFJvcKqDjMLOKH1Cm4ybqum6CAbhMgd97XNeyV1pETHbnnBryijKmJIHXXuFlky1xyeQztK-t1bYKjYAcCz7F7iW76amEre-UyUr-LuWEtfPXEsCK5G773ony1pBE7y0uqMQ6p4h-9bVkKKcYc0ZS6F_YnobEtXxwHtkSyxkTCHcN7wZ7AAHZAJfF9F8/s1600/2-1.jpeg" width="160" /></a></div><p></p><p><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"> <span> </span></span></b></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span> </span>ARE WE ADDICTED TO <span>E</span>XISTENTIAL ANESTHESIA?</span></b></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></b></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b> </b> (Originally posted 7/23/2017)</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b></b><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 45px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">I call it ‘Elder Wisdom.’ The kids and grandkids are apt to describe it as “Gramps has gone off the rails again.” </span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: 45px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 45px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">I suppose the truth lies somewhere between. Still, when my sometimes-suspect mind pauses to consider the matter it finds an ever-growing mountain of evidence to support my logic. The concerns that I first addressed in an earlier post, back when Oregon was preparing to legalize marijuana, were real then and even more real today.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: 45px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 45px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">“But why?” I wonder. What had me so upset about what I considered, (and still do) a cultural dilemma? After all, I am not a social critic. I write about late-life relationships. What prompted my emotional detour? Whatever it was, I have yet to outgrow it. With that, I offer<b><i> Existential Anesthesia Redux.</i></b></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: 45px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 45px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>***********</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: 45px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 45px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">I suppose I am a bit worked up, trying to find the logic in the wave of illogical claims. Whatever the reason it is enough to turn today’s BLOG into a RANT. I suppose it has been building up for a while and finally spilled over.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: 45px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 45px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">You see, a while back my beloved Tanner, along with the rest of Oregon, became a legal marijuana zone…..as willed by a vote of the folks who populate my mythical city, in the heart of a very real Willamette Valley. With that vote they became part of a rapidly spreading social experiment…..one that offers our population the freedom to indulge themselves with impunity. As you might suspect, I have some October (& November) reservations about the wisdom of that so-called “progress.”</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: 45px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 45px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Let’s begin with the obvious…..ours is already the most medicated culture in history. A large part that medication is perfectly legal…..for instance, the opioid epidemic that threatens our nation…..the toxic result of human need coming face to face with highly effective corporate lobbyists who spend hundreds of millions to convince us, and a cadre of well-funded lawmakers, that we need what they are selling. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: 45px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 45px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Disclaimer #1 - I will be the first to admit that when I seek the relief and healing of today’s medicines I am thankful to have them available. Like a lot of you, there have been times when I owed my life to their effectiveness. Yet I realize that even as they heal me, they are also instrumental in creating and funding a delivery system designed to insure huge profits for both vendors and providers…..while leaving our </span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">citizens to pay by far the highest health-care costs in the world, for what are often less than the best results.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 45px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Yet beyond those legal and socially acceptable forms of medicinal intervention our society, indeed the whole world, is awash in a sea of chemical “coping” agents……from booze, to narcotics, to pot, and a whole array of manufactured “designer” drugs. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: 45px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 45px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Our citizens are increasingly addicted to pharmaceutical aids, both legal and illegal. All around us lives are being ruined and families destroyed. Our streets are filled with the homeless survivors. At the same time governments rely more and more on the tax revenues generated by the sale of those products. And all the while a thriving underground economy is equally addicted to the profits that our ‘coping’ produces. Bottom line……more than ever before our “land of the free and the brave” is addicted to its addictions.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: 45px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 45px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">And now we find ourselves living in a world that includes yet another round of ‘socially accepted’ means of coping. Marijuana, long relegated to the shadow-side of the conversation, has been liberated. Now, firmly established in the light of day, it is available to one and all …..young and old. As I mentioned above, tipping the scales in the sometimes contentious debate leading to its legalization was pot’s undisputed ability to be a productive source of coveted tax revenue.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: 45px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 45px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Disclaimer #2 - Before I dig deeper into my state’s “progressive” expansion of pot’s availability, let me take a moment to limit the scope of my objections. Like many states Oregon already had a modest medical-marijuana program in place. Though not everyone agrees with that, I accept the evidence of the drug’s medicinal capabilities and have no problem with it being available in that form, given proper regulation and oversight.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: 45px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 45px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Rather, it is the brave new world of universal marijuana acceptance that has me concerned about what lies ahead…..the new world of ‘recreational’ pot. Though that new reality has yet to make its way into any of my Tanner stories, rest assured that it has more than a few of us October and November types wondering what good or bad, help or harm, will come from this new state of affairs. At least one old fossil I know feels the need to have his say about that.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: 45px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 45px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">To be clear, I don’t pretend to speak for anyone else. I may be the only one who harbors unsettling visions of where our chemically-sated society is heading. Of course, mankind’s efforts to escape the harsh realities of life are nothing new. Those tendencies are surely as old as the species. Everyone of us has moments when he or she wants to avoid hurtful circumstances. There was a time when scotch-on-the-rocks was my favored retreat. Fortunately, somewhere along the way I learned that whatever I was running from would still be there in the morning.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: 45px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 45px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">But I worry that in today’s increasingly chaotic world….with its ever-growing availability of more effective, even lethal, ways of avoiding life as it is….more of us are relying on those means of escape......those ways to dull the pain. I am so concerned about that trend that I have given it a name. I call our societal attempts to escape reality <b>Existential Anesthesia or EA</b>.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: 45px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 45px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Of course, with true late-life logic I tell myself that if anyone needs Existential Anesthesia to face their circumstances, it would be we October and November types…..the ones worn down by decades of dealing with real life. That makes sense, doesn’t it?</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: 45px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 45px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">But instead it seems that more and more of our young people are succumbing to EA in one or more of its often enticing forms. And they are apparently doing that at an ever-younger age. At the very time of life we hope they are curious, alert, and clear minded…..ready to prepare for the daunting challenges that await them…..it seems that too many youngsters, overwhelmed by those possibilities, are turning to EA…. seeking an emotional retreat that is likely to be a dead end. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: 45px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 45px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Still, the advocates of that brave new world tell us we must accept the reality of a ‘new way’…..one that makes pot available to everyone. They tout its “decriminalization,” a change that will allow future generations to avoid the legal residue of youthful indiscretions. And I’ll admit, those arguments ring true. Yet how many lives, young and not-so-young, will be impacted by the freshly reinforced message that we have the right to indulge ourselves in potentially harmful, but perfectly legal ways? How many of us will learn to cope by retreating into a TCH haze?</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: 45px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 45px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">They tell us that escape, in a socially acceptable manner, is fine ….even therapeutic. They say it can be a wonderful stress reliever. Yet in the end how often does that form of retreat actually resolve the ills that drive our urge to hide and escape?</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: 45px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 45px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">The fact is, however, in the end this is not an argument I am going to win. The forces behind the acceptance of marijuana as a valid form of EA are growing stronger. They will eventually have their way. I may not agree, and will sometimes give thanks that I won’t be around to see how it ends. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: 45px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 45px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">But then I will pause to remember that my children and grandchildren will be there, dealing with that outcome. It seems that I must pray for their well being and accept what I cannot change. Unless, of course, I choose to pour myself a tall scotch-on-the-rocks and try to forget it.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: 45px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 45px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>***********</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: 45px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 45px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Postscript…….Oh my, if only Existential Anesthesia was simply a matter of marijuana. Looking back, when I first offered my thoughts on what I considered a cultural misstep, legal pot was more or less my main concern.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: 45px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 45px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">But today’s cultural landscape has become literally unrecognizable to many of us. Our city sidewalks are cluttered with ragged tents and purloined shopping carts. Used needles are everywhere. Oregonians are overdosing at a rate never seen before. To the earlier list of anesthetic aids we can now add vaping, oxycodone, and the most lethal of all, highly addictive fentanyl…..and too, to stretch the metaphor just a bit, there is our individual and national addiction to the wonders of Debt, which they tell us will solve all our problems.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: 45px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 45px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Seems that I remember reading somewhere….”the land of the free and the home of the brave is addicted to its addictions.”</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: 45px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 45px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">So what do you think? I’m guessing that you have an opinion on these matters. I’d like to hear what you have to say. If you would like to “Comment” feel free to choose “Anonymous” to avoid exposing your personal details. If you are inclined to share this post I hope you will. Let me know what you think about this.</span></p>octoberyearshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02772770846223392811noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9120856035617741785.post-27748470507035418782023-06-14T10:13:00.000-07:002023-06-14T10:13:21.818-07:00AFTER ALL......SHE'S FAMILY<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdA5CAUa2EhI4nS1iFuADIlzfNZH3wrUsDir2_oogIJZsefAPHFy_BjZ9cgYawQFnaPksPWe7ZT3r2QS_KUmrlQHN93OR82i9DpdlNSh7KfIwrBtvqJ6c6zkqOC1RPlzS13EPzXdDvGZv2SLywiXAwj86nlYY_u20PorPQiaLpLF1ICetC-XVN4tqp/s205/2-1.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div><p></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; text-indent: -36px;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdA5CAUa2EhI4nS1iFuADIlzfNZH3wrUsDir2_oogIJZsefAPHFy_BjZ9cgYawQFnaPksPWe7ZT3r2QS_KUmrlQHN93OR82i9DpdlNSh7KfIwrBtvqJ6c6zkqOC1RPlzS13EPzXdDvGZv2SLywiXAwj86nlYY_u20PorPQiaLpLF1ICetC-XVN4tqp/s205/2-1.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="205" data-original-width="160" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdA5CAUa2EhI4nS1iFuADIlzfNZH3wrUsDir2_oogIJZsefAPHFy_BjZ9cgYawQFnaPksPWe7ZT3r2QS_KUmrlQHN93OR82i9DpdlNSh7KfIwrBtvqJ6c6zkqOC1RPlzS13EPzXdDvGZv2SLywiXAwj86nlYY_u20PorPQiaLpLF1ICetC-XVN4tqp/s1600/2-1.jpeg" width="160" /></a><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; text-indent: -36px;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span> <span> <span> <span> <span> <span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; text-indent: -36px;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; text-indent: -36px;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; text-indent: -36px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; text-indent: -36px;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span> <span> </span> AFTER ALL, SHE'S FAMILY</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: -36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: -36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: -36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: -36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; text-indent: -36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></b>Let’s begin with the obvious. I am an old school kind of guy……heavy on the “old.” It’s the way I was raised. The first home I remember was literally a log cabin in the country, complete with a ‘one-holer’ outhouse in the back yard. We had a couple goats, some chickens, and a dog …….but no cats. Truth is, I have never been what you would call a ‘cat’ person.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: -36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; text-indent: -36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Later on, when Roma and I were raising our own family, it seemed that then too we favored dogs over cats……perhaps because the two did not always coexist well.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: -36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; text-indent: -36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>It was rather late in the game, when dogs were not allowed in our digs, that Roma turned to feline companionship. As was her way, she showered her love on a series of cats, until they became part of the family.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: -36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; text-indent: -36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>But like I said, “I’m an old school guy.” Though her cats and I usually managed to coexist…..they didn’t have much to do with me, and vice-versa. That worked just fine for an old school guy like me.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: -36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; text-indent: -36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>And then our youngest son, Tug, moved in with us. From the beginning that was a blessing in most every way. So how could I hold it against him when he too decided that he wanted a cat…..</span><span style="font-size: x-large;">making us a two cat family.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: -36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; text-indent: -36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>And that’s what we have been for several years now……a two-cat family. Roma’s ‘Nutmeg’ and Tug’s ‘Polly,’ became part of the family, though both of them basically ignored me most of the time. As far as they know it is <i>their </i>household. Since Roma left us, Nutmeg will occasionally sit on my lap, but that is about it. But then, that’s okay….. after all, I am old school.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: -36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; text-indent: -36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>And then there are moments like the evening last week when Tug, who pays attention to such things, noticed that for the last few days Nutmeg seemed to be off her feed, and noticeably unenergetic. She was simply not her old self.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: -36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; text-indent: -36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>I had to agree. But after all, she is an old girl, so I suppose I can relate to such things. My own advice was simple enough. “Let’s keep an eye on her and see if she gets better.” Though Tug was not totally comfortable with that, he agreed……at least until the next morning.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: -36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; text-indent: -36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>You see, the old girl was still not eating, not moving around like her old self. It was time to find out why……to take the next step. As you might expect, the ‘next step’ would involve a visit to the vet. The ‘emergency appointment’ was made for that morning. Since Tug was at work, I would be the one escorting Nutmeg to the doctor.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: -36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; text-indent: -36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Long story short, I spent at least ten minutes with the doctor……long enough to offer my very unprofessional diagnosis……”She’s not eating and doesn’t show much energy.” Though the vet found no obvious problem, his nurse took a blood sample to be sent to the lab. The results were due back in a few days.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: -36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; text-indent: -36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Once back home Nutmeg still turned up her nose at the food she normally attacks with gusto, and soon settled down on the same window ledge she had favored the last few days. Though I haven’t seen much change, I am confident she has received the most competent medical attention available in our small-town world.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: -36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; text-indent: -36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>How ‘competent’ you ask? Well, though she was still not her old self, I was convince that the clinic’s attention to our apparently distressed friend was so caring, thorough, and efficient that I signed the credit card receipt for $316, an amount Tug and I had agreed to split, without a moment’s hesitation.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: -36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; text-indent: -36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>I will admit, however, at that moment the ‘old school’ in me was making itself heard a bit. “Three hundred dollars spent on an aging cat?” It was saying. “What are you thinking?”</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: -36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; text-indent: -36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Yet, as I carried ‘Nutty’ back to the car, I was coming face to face to the truth of it. It was not such a lot to pay……three hundred of today’s inflated, devalued dollars……to help Nutmeg carry on. Why wouldn’t I do that……After all, she’s family.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; text-indent: -36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; text-indent: -36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span> <span> <span> <span> <span> <span> <span> ******************</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; text-indent: -36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; text-indent: -36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span> <span> <span> <span> Postcript.......the vet called back a couple days later to tell us the lab work was 'normal.' So what was it that had us so concerned? He had an answer for that....."Could be she was just going through one of those 'spells' animals sometimes have." </span></span></span></span><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; text-indent: -36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Times New Roman;"> Three hundred dollars to deal with a 'spell'? Are you.........? Never mind, the old girl is family, and she's feeling better. What else matters?</span><br /></span></p>octoberyearshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02772770846223392811noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9120856035617741785.post-6613411473748394882023-06-07T10:47:00.000-07:002023-06-07T10:47:33.297-07:00WE NEED A REASON TO KEEP GOING<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnhAQQAB-79eEBEMabEzC6aR-UNgv0gGz3kivnEijN9t5gxY6XHehQubHGmkfJgjdBslwbd6T9pd5llUp2Zi8oAqtcC0n8-5m7396mQhIFqpLWsuPPkoyqnsox8XrkMGwpXpAkykHzjdE6kZtrFBfP3GPRHKLw2yFTtQN6PmWjZRQjwbIcXaCGUysT/s205/2-1.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="205" data-original-width="160" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnhAQQAB-79eEBEMabEzC6aR-UNgv0gGz3kivnEijN9t5gxY6XHehQubHGmkfJgjdBslwbd6T9pd5llUp2Zi8oAqtcC0n8-5m7396mQhIFqpLWsuPPkoyqnsox8XrkMGwpXpAkykHzjdE6kZtrFBfP3GPRHKLw2yFTtQN6PmWjZRQjwbIcXaCGUysT/s1600/2-1.jpeg" width="160" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">WE NEED A REASON TO KEEP GOING</span></b></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b> </b><i> (Originally posted 12/2017)</i><b> </b></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"> <span> <span> </span></span></span></b><i><span style="font-size: x-large;"> <span> </span></span></i></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i></i><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>I suppose there is some comfort in knowing that it is not normally a late-life thing….falling victim to the latest fad, jumping in headfirst before knowing how deep the water is. </i></span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>After all, how many of us old-timers are ready to make a significant change in our life’s journey? Not many, I'm guessing. Yet, on the other hand, perhaps there is a case to be made for being a little bolder. How can we nurture the thriving and Becoming I so often rant about….the path I believe we are called to pursue....if we refuse to move beyond the same old rut?</i></span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>I won’t pretend to speak for you….not in light of my own suspect history. For any of us, climbing out of our comfortable, well-worn rut to move toward something new is apt to be a daunting mental/emotional journey….moving from the known to the unknown, or at least the less-well-known. </i></span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-style: italic; white-space: pre;"> </span><i style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman";">As sometimes happens in my November storytelling world, an evolving storyline is apt to have me pausing to revisit and examine some “taken-for-granted” part of my own late-life routine. That process became all the more personal when the story I am presently assembling focused on an October fellow who is sunk deep in his own </i><span style="color: #16191f; font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(22, 25, 31);"><i>existential</i></span></span><i style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> rut.</i></span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The new friend I have imagined into being, I call him Neal Fanning, is a semi-disabled, apartment-bound widower who has reluctantly resigned himself to a confining, home-based lifestyle. His most basic of Basic Cable packages allows him a mind-dulling routine of TV game shows, dated situation comedy reruns, and evenings spent nodding off in the middle of old movies he has seen too many times before. For all practical purposes that routine has become his life.</i></span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Of course, scattered throughout those endless hours of uninspired detachment are the quiet moments that overtake all of us from time to time….when bittersweet recollections of times past float to the front of our mind.</i></span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 27px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i> </i></span></span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Remembered bits of childhood, some of them sentimental, some traumatic, may capture our attention. Or the unsettling highs and lows of long-ago school days may hold court. For Neal those reveries will usually include endearing, but somewhat-hurtful memories of special times spent with his recently-departed wife of forty-some years.</i></span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i> Having spent months adapting to his spartan lifestyle he has come to accept the latest, and apparently final stage of his long life as the only future in sight, the best he can expect.</i></span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>But what he has not foreseen are the insistent efforts of his daughters, who are determined to steer their father toward a more fulfilling future….. setting out to expand his isolated life by exploiting capabilities he had never considered. </i></span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Of course he will grumble each step of the way, railing against the possibilities ‘the girls’ are trying to sell him. After all, what can they possibly offer that would move him beyond his well-worn rut? Let’s see if I can explain?</i></span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 27px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> *************</span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 27px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Perhaps like you, I grew up in front of a television set, weaned on dramas, comedies, and variety shows that reflected the 1950s world I knew. Sadly, in today’s 2017 universe…..with its too-violent dramas, phony fantasy, too-graphic relational tales, and unhumorous comedies….there is little left for someone like me to watch. Beyond my nightly news fix, Rachel Madow, and a good ballgame or documentary it too-often feels like I have been left behind.</span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Then, about the time I had resigned myself to that mundane existence, out of step with today’s cultural tastes, I came face to face with a most disruptive change….a technological firestorm that seemed to rewrite the rules and change the landscape.</span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Could you and I have imagined such a thing in our well-remembered glory years? Just think about the timid, perhaps overwhelmed teenager you might have been back then. Could you have made your way in the intimidating new world of Twitter and Tweet, Gmail, and Facebook? Could we have handled today’s internet? </span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Of course, that was then. This is now. Here we are, a tick or two past our prime….living, if not thriving, in that brave new internet world. If you are at all like me you have set up shop on the fringes of that on-line techno-world, holding on by your finger tips.</span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> For a long time my internet involvement was limited to Gmail, Facebook, this blog, and The Daily Mail. Those had become the elements of my after-breakfast routine, before I moved on to the day’s more mundane activities….until, that is, I started looking around for more 'online candy.' The more I looked, the more I found, and the more I realized how much the internet, aka ‘the web,’ has to offer.</span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 27px; text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> In the course of late-life conversations I have met more than a few peers for whom the internet is at best a foreign idea, and at worst a threat they would rather avoid. You probably know folks like that. You might be one of them. It is not my place to say those concerns are wrong. But I do feel the need to explain, even briefly, what I think they are missing. At least I will try.</span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 27px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> ************</span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 27px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> First of all, long story short, my fictional friend Neal will use the internet possibilities his daughters are selling to expand his life. That is the story I want to tell….how so many of us October/November folks can use those tools to broaden our own horizons. More to the point, if you have been told, or have told yourself, that you can’t do that, that it is too late to change your spots …..YOU ARE WRONG. Again, allow me to explain.</span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> They tell us that younger generations no longer rely on newspapers to stay current on the issues of the day. But I’m guessing that many of us October/November types have never outgrown our reliance on a morning newspaper with our breakfast coffee. What many of us don’t realize is that if you are a ‘newspaper person’ the internet is definitely for you. </span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> By now most every major newspaper in the world has an online, often English-language edition. It has never been easier to follow international events, in a format you can read, often presented from a very different perspective than our home-town press. As an avowed Anglophile one of my personal favorites is the site that lists websites for virtually every newspaper in England.</span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Or maybe you are the social sort….perhaps the kind who fostered pen-pal friendships as a youngster. Rest assured that virtually every country has online senior pen-pal sites, making it easy to meet and visit with international friends….October types like us. </span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 27px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Today, following a few common-sense rules, (Do not disclose personal information, succumb to romantic overtures, or send money.) it is still possible to create satisfying and lasting international friendships. I know, because I still visit with English friends most every week.</span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 27px; text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Or you might be a senior who would rather use the internet for your personal entertainment. It is hard to overstate the range of entertainment and educational videos that await your viewing. There are literally thousands of videos featuring your favorite performers and their music from years gone by, along with classic stand-up routines and the situation comedies you remember from your own glory days.</span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> And finally there is the ultimate retirement staple….late-life travel. In both photographic and video formats the internet offers an incredible selection of travel material to whet your appetite. Most every country is represented….each with their own enticing photo essays and comprehensive video presentations, documenting the virtues of travel to and within their country. </span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Whatever your imagined destination, no matter what you hope to see or do, you can be sure that someone has been there, camera in hand, to illustrate the possibilities from every angle. Their efforts have literally taken 'armchair travel' to a whole new level.</span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> And how do you find all those treasures? If you don't know by now, you should certainly learn. It may be ’Google.' It may be ‘YouTube’. Or one of many other 'search engine' options.</span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> You call up the website, type any question you want answered, ("Where can I find old music videos?") and bingo, your screen will be filled with hundreds, if not thousands of answers. That works for any question you can imagine.</span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> So, it will be some of those possibilities, along with many more, which will finally win Neal’s attention….and hopefully allow him to move beyond his numbing retirement experience. And in the end, when the time comes for a break from those online diversions, his ‘most-favorite-of-all’ internet destination….<b><i>Sixteen Exciting Solitaire Games….</i></b>will remain just a click away.</span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 27px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> **********</span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> <i> Finally, as I am prone to do, I will end with one more bit of context for the ‘Neal’ story I am telling. It was a few years ago when an upsetting cancer diagnosis had me seeking a late-life purpose, a reason to keep going.</i></span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><i><br /></i></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 24px; font-style: italic;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> I would never claim to speak for the Divine. But it felt as though my continued meanderings through today’s tangled, but satisfying late-life landscape…. trying my best to shine a light, dim as it may be, on opportunities and challenges that </i><span style="color: #16191f; font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(22, 25, 31);"><i>might</i></span></span><i style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> await us…. was as close as I could come to a valid reason to keep plowing ahead. </i></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i> Too often we allow ourselves to approach these years with dread, when we ought to be focused on the possibilities and potential. That’s what I would like to do. Hopefully, my friend Neal, and the story I imagine for him, will lend a hand in that effort.</i></span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span> <span> <span> <span> <span> <span> *********</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br /></i></p><p style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><i><br /></i></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: x-large;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span> </span>Postscript ...... By late 2017, when I first posted this piece, I had roughed out 10 or 12 chapters of </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: #16191f; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: x-large;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(22, 25, 31);">Neal's story.....doing my best to tell of his sad circumstances, while relating some of his daughters' efforts to bring him into the new, slightly foreign online world.</span></span></i></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #16191f; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: x-large;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(22, 25, 31);"><i><br /></i></span></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #16191f; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: x-large;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(22, 25, 31);"><i> Sad to say, it was then my storytelling ran out of inspiration. Truth to tell, I simply did not know where his story was leading. I had yet to imagine a convincing way to use what the girls' had set in motion.</i></span></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #16191f; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: x-large;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(22, 25, 31);"><i><br /></i></span></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #16191f; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: x-large;"><i> And so it would remain until early 2023, when in a most unexpected way Neal's path forward, which ironically looked a lot like my own path, began to take shape. Once that course was settled the story I titled </i><b style="font-style: italic;">A Geriatric Adolescence </b><i>seemed to complete itself. By April Amazon's self-publishing arm had sent me the copy that now resides on my bookshelf.</i><br /></span></p>octoberyearshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02772770846223392811noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9120856035617741785.post-3539540018804578932023-05-31T09:56:00.000-07:002023-05-31T09:56:04.237-07:00LET'S PRETEND<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheNuuzzbN-n_bAX5lqk-D73iBxPXu9w5P7eZrsac8nd1wdYd0jFQ8Fp1R7LA3B-si6NseGQVwZiqrq5B5QLs2nFDs4ZYHrYplGkZH_P-c42PIsrHLHY24uFEKJiB6i9vVkKjCHa0sFPV1sCDp84peO0JOVNmxSKb2wTRxf0pbYaBrIDn9qQcWo7J6T/s205/2-1.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="205" data-original-width="160" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheNuuzzbN-n_bAX5lqk-D73iBxPXu9w5P7eZrsac8nd1wdYd0jFQ8Fp1R7LA3B-si6NseGQVwZiqrq5B5QLs2nFDs4ZYHrYplGkZH_P-c42PIsrHLHY24uFEKJiB6i9vVkKjCHa0sFPV1sCDp84peO0JOVNmxSKb2wTRxf0pbYaBrIDn9qQcWo7J6T/s1600/2-1.jpeg" width="160" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 27px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><b>Let’s Pretend</b></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 27px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><b> </b></span>(Originally posted 2/2017)</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 27px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i></i><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 27px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i></i><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 27px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 27px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 27px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">So, what does a fellow do when his world seems to have gone empty, and he is left to dwell on his own thoughts. When the future seems filled with dubious possibilities perhaps it is time to return to the past……..revisiting the times we have left in our wake. Would that be enough to have me acting my age?</span></i></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 27px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i></i><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 27px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">Ah, the wonders of late-life. Who would believe that an eighty-six year-old mind could still be hiding those eighty year-old memories? More to the point, how could that eighty-six year-old mind still manage to locate those well-hidden recollections?</span></i></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-indent: 27px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 27px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">Those were the questions today’s reposting of a 2017 October Years blog had me asking. I’ll bet you have been in that space too……trying to fathom how ancient memories of once incidental events still have the power to set you thinking.</span></i></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 27px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i></i><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 27px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">Truth to tell, it was a bit humbling to realize the impact the following bit of remembering still produces.</span></i></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 27px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i></i><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 27px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>***********</span></i></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-indent: 27px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 27px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">It’s okay, you know. After all, I am used to it by now….showing my November age like this. The more I do it, the easier it becomes, even when I am reliving a slightly unorthodox memory.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 27px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 27px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">For instance, let’s take a moment to consider something as mundane as <i>Saturday morning</i>. I’m guessing that most of us like Saturdays, don’t we? Especially if it is not a work day. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 27px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 27px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">But I must admit that I am not talking about just any Saturday morning. I happen to have some particular ones in mind….from a time when Saturday morning was something especially special. I invite you to join me for a moment as I return to some of those well-remembered, all-time favorite Saturday mornings….circa 1945, 1946, or 1947.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-indent: 27px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 27px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">What is that? You say you cannot ‘return’ to 1945, because it had come and gone before your arrival on the scene. Darn, I am sorry to hear that, because that means you missed some really good Saturday mornings. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 27px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 27px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Take this, for example. As I recall it was ten o’clock, mid-morning, when the living room radio greeted us with a loud and enthusiastic.........”It’s Big John and Sparky! And<i> There’s No School Today!</i>” Man, after all these years I can still hear that happy call to action as clear as anything. I’ll bet you would have loved it too.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 27px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 27px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Or how about <i>Chandu, the Magician</i>? I think that was nine o’clock, or maybe nine-thirty. True, he was a semi-creepy fellow, at least the way I saw him in my mind. But he always had a trick up his sleeve. And in the end he was on our side. What I remember most of all was the spooky organ music that played in the background.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 27px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 27px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Earlier that morning, at eight-thirty, we had tuned in to <i>Smilin’ Ed and the Buster Brown Gang</i>. Actually, it seems like I ought to remember more about that half hour than just the excited introduction.....with Tige, the Buster Brown dog, barking like he was happy to see us. At the time I don’t suppose I even realized there were other programs airing at that hour, or if there were why anyone would bother to listen to them. By then Tige’s happy-yapping had me hooked.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 27px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 27px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">It was, as you can tell, a different time. Later, many of us would learn to consider Saturday a ‘sleep-in’ day. But not so in those post-war radio days, at least not in our home. Mom had to get us up early enough on Saturday to have breakfast finished before eight o’clock. Though getting us up and about on a school probably took some doing….Saturday mornings were different. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 27px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 27px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">After all, brother Roger and I needed to be parked in front of the old hardwood Zenith radio by eight o’clock for <i>Let’s Pretend</i>, the storytime program that always started our radio Saturday. (Why was it we had to ‘watch’ the radio?)</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 27px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 27px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">So, you might be wondering….what the heck does that have to do with anything. What was there about my childhood Saturday mornings that warrants all that? Let’s see if I can explain.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 27px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 27px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Have you ever stopped to wonder why some obscure thought or memory, one you had not considered for decades, suddenly pops into your head? Was there an existential purpose at work, or was it purely accidental? Whatever the reason, those are the questions I am asking myself on this morning. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 27px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 27px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">You see, as I have mentioned before on these pages, I have spent my October Years writing stories….fictional stories. By definition that means I have made them up, created them out of thin air…..and a dose of dubious brain matter.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 27px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 27px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Yet not until a few days ago, for reasons I still don’t understand, did it dawn on me that I was actually in the “What if?” business. That is, after all, one way to describe fiction, isn’t it? </span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 27px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 27px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">The writer, any writer, begins with a question…. ’What if an alien force is threatening the earth?’….’What if zombies are about to invade?’ ….’What if the killer is about to get away?’…. ’What if an eighty-year-old guy falls for Lady Gaga’ Thing is, no matter what the question, the answer will be told in the form of a story.…a fictional story.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-indent: 27px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 27px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">That is what writers of fiction do. They provide their personal answers a series of “What if?” questions. That’s what I try to do. Except, my stories are not about world annihilation, zombie invasions, Donald Trump’s truth-telling skills, or the hard-to-define allure of Lady Gaga. Instead, I tell ‘What if?’ stories about late-life folks facing their own October….and/or November.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 27px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 27px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">It was those thoughts, those questions, that had brought me to an awkward pause…..wondering how I would introduce my latest story, <b><i>Closing the Circle</i></b>. I had stumbled around a bit before the possibility dawned on me. In a very personal way it felt as though I was closing my own circle….from <i>Let’s Pretend</i> to <i>What if</i>? </span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 27px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br />
The more I though about it, the more my sometimes muddled mind saw the irony of what I was up to. Having learned to pretend as a child, here I was spending my October Years creating “What if?” Tales, i.e. “pretend” answers to ‘pretend’ questions. In a very real way I was right back where I had started.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 27px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 27px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">So what about <b><i>Closing the Circle</i></b>, you ask? (At least I hope your do.) What if a young man, adopted at birth, sets out to find his birth parents? What sort of story might I create to answer that ‘What if?’ question? Then, to further complicate matters, what if the birth parents he finally finds are still nursing their own deep regrets about having separated before his birth, leaving each of them to wonder what might have been had they stayed together.?</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 27px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 27px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Of course, there are as many answers to those questions as there are persons who choose to answer them. I happen to like the answer I “pretended” into being. And at the same time, when I was done it felt a bit like closing my own circle….from ‘pretending’ to ‘what if?’ and back.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 27px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 27px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> <b>~~~~~~~~~~~~~</b></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-indent: 27px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b></b><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 27px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Following that same line of remembering I invite, actually I urge, those of you who remember those long-ago radio days to use the “Comment” section below to offer your own examples of radio favorites. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-indent: 27px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-indent: 27px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><i></i><br /></p>octoberyearshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02772770846223392811noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9120856035617741785.post-62071669859826187362023-05-24T10:24:00.000-07:002023-05-24T10:24:17.253-07:00THE L AST ONES<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpF7J_Scqrsm1uCwz5tm_pHnkgQWUYVeFxfNGl8Jpo6a8_rSWI3H45IOinSRZtd4QchaOB9nmZ_8voq3RhL57lXNog_n8WWbsAId69oYAQyDD6bBvqu15fDbautcd7AD3yd40Srs5WNPhlO5bwZJUa5xJklxTPvB-svlnLFtV9u62AhIbXGomyVuhK/s205/2-1.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="205" data-original-width="160" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpF7J_Scqrsm1uCwz5tm_pHnkgQWUYVeFxfNGl8Jpo6a8_rSWI3H45IOinSRZtd4QchaOB9nmZ_8voq3RhL57lXNog_n8WWbsAId69oYAQyDD6bBvqu15fDbautcd7AD3yd40Srs5WNPhlO5bwZJUa5xJklxTPvB-svlnLFtV9u62AhIbXGomyVuhK/s1600/2-1.jpeg" width="160" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; text-indent: -36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> <span> </span></span><b>THE LAST ONES</b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; text-indent: -36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> </b> (Originally posted 6/2016)</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; min-height: 20px; text-indent: -36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b></b><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; min-height: 20px; text-indent: -36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; min-height: 20px; text-indent: -36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; min-height: 20px; text-indent: -36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; min-height: 20px; text-indent: -36px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Truth be told, most of we October/November folks have lived a charmed life. Though it hasn't always felt that way, fact is we have had a lot going for us. The following piece…. <b>The Last Ones</b>, makes that point very forcefully.</span></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 24px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">The essay was forwarded to me by my late friend, Don Zeh. Sadly, I don't have an author's name to credit. In any case, if you are an October or November type, chances are you will recognize the world you grew up in….the one your grandchildren can scarcely imagine. I'd be interested in hearing what you think of it.</span></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><b><i> '</i></b></span><b><i>THE LAST ONES</i></b><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><b><i>,’ </i></b></span></span></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><i></i></b><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">Children of the 30s & 40s…….A Short Memoir</span></i></b></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i></i><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">Those of us born in the 1930s and early 40s have existed as a very special age cohort. We are the "Last Ones." </span></i></b></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><i></i></b><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">We are the last to climb out of the depression, who can remember the winds of war and the war itself, when fathers and uncles went off to combat. We are the last to remember ration books for everything from sugar to shoes to stoves. We saved tin foil and poured fat into tin cans. We saw cars up on blocks because tires weren't available. My own mother delivered milk in a horse drawn cart.</span></i></b></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><i></i></b><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">We were the last to have heard Roosevelt's radio assurances and to see gold stars in the front windows of our grieving neighbors. We can also remember the noisy parades on August 15, 1945…..VJ Day.</span></i></b></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><i></i></b><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">We saw the 'boys' come home from the war to build their Cape Cod style houses, pouring the </i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue;"><i>concrete</i></span><i style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";"> cellar, tar papering the flat roof, and living there until they could afford the time and money to finish their new home.</i></span></b></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><i></i></b><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">We were the last to have spent our childhood without television. Instead we imagined what we heard on the radio. As we all like to brag about, with no TV, we spent our childhood "playing outside until the street lights came on." Indeed, we did play outside, and we did play on our own. There was no little league to pamper us.</span></i></b></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><i></i></b><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">The lack of television in our early years meant that most of us had little real understanding of what the world was like. On Saturday afternoons, if we went to the movies, we saw newsreels of the war and the holocaust sandwiched between westerns and cartoons. In our mind newspapers and magazines were written for adults. We were the last who had to find out for ourselves.</span></i></b></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><i></i></b><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">As we grew up, the country was exploding with growth. The G.I. Bill gave returning veterans the means to get an education, spurring colleges to grow. VA mortgage loans fanned a housing boom. Pent up demand, coupled with new installment payment plans, put factories to work. New highways brought additional jobs and mobility. The veterans joined civic clubs and became active in politics. </span></i></b></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><i></i></b><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><i><span style="font-size: x-large;"> In the late 40s and early 50's the country we called home seemed to lie in the embrace of a brisk but quiet order…..an environment that fostered its new middle class. Our parents understandably became absorbed with their own new lives. They were free from the confines of the depression and the war. They threw themselves into exploring opportunities their younger selves had never imagined.</span></i></b></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><i></i></b><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">As youngsters we were not neglected, nor were we swallowed up in what would become today's all-consuming family focus. We were glad to play by ourselves 'until the street lights came on.' After all, we were busy discovering our own new, post-war world.</span></i></b></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><i></i></b><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">Most of us had no conscious life plan, but with the unexpected virtue of ignorance and a rising economic tide, we simply moved on, ready to find our place. We entered a world overflowing with plenty and opportunity….a world where we were welcomed. Based on our naïve belief that there would always be more where that came from, we shaped our life as we moved ahead. Through it all, we enjoyed an unquestioned luxury….we felt secure in our future. </span></i></b></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><i></i></b><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">But of course, just as today, not all Americans shared that vision of a secure future. Pockets of deep-rooted Depression poverty remained. Polio was still a crippler. The Korean War was a dark presage in the early 50s and by mid-decade school children were ducking under desks. China became Red China. Eisenhower sent the first 'advisors' to Vietnam. Castro set up camp in Cuba and Khrushchev came to power.</span></i></b></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i></i><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">We were the last to have experienced an interlude when there were no existential threats to our homeland. We came of age in the late 40s and early 50s. The war was over and the cold war, terrorism, climate change, technological upheaval and perpetual economic insecurity had yet to arrive on the scene ….haunting modern life with insistent uneasiness.</span></i></b></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><i></i></b><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">Only we October/November survivors can remember both a time of apocalyptic war and a time when our world was secure and full of bright promise and plenty. We were the fortunate ones who experienced both.</span></i></b></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><i></i></b><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">We grew up at the best possible time, a time when the world was getting better not worse.</span></i></b></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><i></i></b><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">We are the 'Last Ones.'</span></i></b></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><i></i></b><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">If you are one of those "Last Ones" you might consider forwarding this to others who have shared that time and place……or the younger ones who need to know about that time.</span></p><p style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><img alt="pastedGraphic.png" src="blob:https://www.blogger.com/29ce19c8-8288-45ae-836d-3e824c0b14be" /></span></p><div><br /></div>octoberyearshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02772770846223392811noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9120856035617741785.post-40234583354149123152023-05-17T09:26:00.000-07:002023-05-17T09:26:56.399-07:00THEY ARE PEOPLE STORIES<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipdp1hCpqvsABZJhptzSRCCAYfQDoI7VVI7ENKWvlq-p5R96MEZQ3xOuxh6dfXgsyil_igTWe8ZT2rqPrFb804ILL-i8WlRBJjoKYcRxGGbkugOt1q45JErMMLZxM7oRlffha91T-oDHYErq8JEN_s5ihLW3EI3_lfRDdHqsFMlFkKFCT8hQyIqKUB/s205/2-1.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="205" data-original-width="160" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipdp1hCpqvsABZJhptzSRCCAYfQDoI7VVI7ENKWvlq-p5R96MEZQ3xOuxh6dfXgsyil_igTWe8ZT2rqPrFb804ILL-i8WlRBJjoKYcRxGGbkugOt1q45JErMMLZxM7oRlffha91T-oDHYErq8JEN_s5ihLW3EI3_lfRDdHqsFMlFkKFCT8hQyIqKUB/s1600/2-1.jpeg" width="160" /></a></div><p></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></b></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></b></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">They are people stories that include action, not action stories that include people</span></b></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> (Originally posted 12/2014)</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span> </span>There had been a new review of one of my stories, part of an Amazon Writer’s Contest……and with it came another round of “reviewer angst.” I was hoping that if a so-called expert’s blunt opinion of my story didn’t bring me down, it was bound to make me stronger. Isn’t that what they say? I</span></i></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">Actually, in the end I am not sure I was stronger for the experience, but with Suzie’s not-so-subtle prodding I was finally able to settle on an answer that worked for me.</span></i></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span> </span>I must admit, however, it took a few days to process her judgement, and create my own response …..which I posted in the following blog, stating my reply to her professional judgement. </span></i></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;"> </span></i></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> <span> <span> <span> </span></span></span>***********************</span></i></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">By now, having turned seventy-eight, after telling my stories for nearly ten years, you might think that I’ve learned quite a bit about storytelling. Perhaps so. But there is also so much I have yet to learn. I still have a long way to go. A few weeks ago I was reminded once again of that sad truth.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Actually, though it had me squirming a bit at the time, I was glad, in an uneasy sort of way, to have the lady’s input. They say she knows her stuff. After all, she makes her living rendering her ‘expert’ opinions….working for an agency that represents writers, trying to sell their stories to publishers. She (I’ll call her Suzie) understood what her publishing clients want. And what they want….whether the story is a whodunit, a dark and sinister vampire saga, or a steamy romance….is fast-moving action, the kind that grabs the reader on page one and never lets up.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Pretty hard to argue with that, eh? And I didn’t try, at least not until Suzie, who had been assigned to critique my <b><i>Second Chances </i></b>story for the Amazon.com contest, rendered her verdict…. explaining in so many words that the first chapter was a “painfully slow” start to the book. About then I could tell she was not the sort to mince words.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Should I have let her judgment upset me, even a little bit? Probably not. Did it? Yeah, it did, at least “a little bit”….maybe more. Actually, the first time I read her appraisal it felt as though our conversation was over before it had begun. It was later that day, when I reread Suzie’s blunt critique, that I began to sense why she and I were not seeing eye to eye about something I take very personally. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">I began by asking myself where I had gone so wrong. How had I missed the mark by so much? By then I realized that, regardless of Suzie’s opinion, I was telling the story I wanted to tell the way I want to tell it. Granted, a better writer could do that better. But this was my story. It said what I wanted to say, the way I wanted to say it. More than that, b</span><span style="font-size: x-large;">y then</span><span style="font-size: xx-large;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-large;">I was sensing the truth of it......why Suzie and I were not on the same page. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">You see, in the books that Suzie represents (I’ll call them “action” stories) the characters are there to keep things moving at the desired pace….acting and reacting in ways that move the storyline along. It seems to me that is their role in the scheme of things….to provide the action, piece together the clues, stand up to the bad guys, and take chances…. all in the name of advancing the plot. At every turn the players are there to serve the story.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Small wonder that Suzie struggled with my unorthodox tale. The folks I write about are October seekers….seniors looking to overcome the challenges of late-life. But just because they are rarely expected to save the world from nuclear disaster, don’t be misled. Their stories do include an abundance of age-appropriate action. They too will take chances, stand up to bad guys, and have their adventures.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">But instead of serving some predetermined story line, my reason for telling the story is always about the characters I have imagined into being......my interpretation of how they deal with their October challenges. My purpose is to know those people better….to understand, and convey to the reader, what they are facing and how they cope. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Their adventures….in the form of conflict, disappointment, and wrong turns….are meant to depict their personal trials….their uncomfortable choices and daunting decisions….rather than simply keep the story moving ahead. As one of those “Octobers folks,” it is their reactions and responses that interest me.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">By the time I had worked my way through that line of reasoning I realized that I had answered my own question. It wasn’t Suzie’s answer, but it works for me. I was ready to admit that if the characters’ main role in a story is to keep the plot moving toward some intended outcome, then my October tales simply don’t pass muster. One of my friends, who usually reads mysteries….page turners she can’t put down….claims she found <b><i>Second Chances</i></b> intriguing because it felt so real-to-life.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">So if the purpose of my stories is to follow a group of my peers, folks to whom I can relate, to learn more about how they deal with the trials and traumas of a particular time of life….what I call the October Years….then I’m satisfied with my result. In the process I try my best to cover both the “people” and the “action” parts of the story. That’s what the best writers want to do. But for me the emphasis will remain on the “people.”</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">A while back I offered a post titled <b><i>He Writes What</i></b>? I ended that piece by admitting that I was “staking my claim in the tiniest slice of the writer’s market.” After all, I am telling relational stories about October persons who are playing out what I call their “Geriatric Adolescence.” Often as not they have come to the game with two strikes against them, and a life-view that is scarcely imaginable to younger readers. Not exactly mainstream, eh?</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Yet, though that is still my goal, I also sense something else at work. You see, Suzie was right about <b><i>Second Chances</i></b>. The story does begin slowly….though I might debate her “painfully” description. In any case, the story starts that way because instead of teasing the reader with tantalizing hints of a crime, a conflict, or a romantic conquest, </span><span style="font-size: x-large;">I use those first pages to introduce the players and their situations….to set the scene for the very personal stories I will be following for two books and seven hundred pages. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">More precisely, I used the first chapters to prepare my imagined friends for a pivotal fiftieth high-school reunion. I was not ready to move on to their adventures until I (and the reader) knew more about them and what they were dealing with.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">So here I am, an admitted amateur, still writing relational stories about old folks. They are indeed “people” oriented stories. I suppose that means the “tiniest sliver of the market” will keep getting smaller. If I wasn’t having so much fun doing what I do I might be tempted to try a different approach. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">But as long as those special October people keep taking me to places I would rarely visit on my own, I’ll keep doing what I do, and try to do it better.</span></p>octoberyearshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02772770846223392811noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9120856035617741785.post-91712657400760444652023-05-10T10:28:00.000-07:002023-05-10T10:28:08.435-07:00THERE IS NO GETTING AWAY FROM IT<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX1umDZfke5AgkRaHcxWGY6X2YZ-a6lW_Ib7IbX4Q7pVVkKaBAGgLxFUI5CI5sMPOpkumYtFr6Hb87RCOUOd6b35VjkpEN016WWgnkNcUPqAw1szviLDXopy6YxHJVir7wBJ9nojo8NucGYjwtzxUO4nvl9D-wQ-sKr8YV3m6KsXUFG68iMovWDCmi/s205/2-1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="205" data-original-width="160" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX1umDZfke5AgkRaHcxWGY6X2YZ-a6lW_Ib7IbX4Q7pVVkKaBAGgLxFUI5CI5sMPOpkumYtFr6Hb87RCOUOd6b35VjkpEN016WWgnkNcUPqAw1szviLDXopy6YxHJVir7wBJ9nojo8NucGYjwtzxUO4nvl9D-wQ-sKr8YV3m6KsXUFG68iMovWDCmi/s1600/2-1.jpeg" width="160" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Chalkduster; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 23px; text-align: center;"><b style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></b></p><p style="font-family: Chalkduster; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 23px; text-align: center;"><b style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></b></p><p style="font-family: Chalkduster; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 23px; text-align: center;"><b style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">THERE IS NO GETTING AWAY FROM IT</span></b></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b> (</b>Originally Posted 9/2009)</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 1px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">When this piece was first posted in 2009 I was seventy-four years old, twelve years retired, and five years into my storytelling odyssey. By then even vacations seemed to offer little escape from my writing. Reading this again, all these years later, I can see, hidden between the lines, hints of what kept me pursuing my obsession, and where it was taking me. </span></i></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 1px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i>And too there were signs of where it was </i><b><i>not</i></b><i> taking me. From the beginning I was telling the stories I wanted to tell, the ones that kept bubbling to the surface. That much I could control. It was, after all, the part that provided the satisfaction I was seeking…..the part that accounts for the twenty-two books that now sit on my bookshelf. </i></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 1px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">On the other hand, whether anyone wanted to read those stories, or buy them, has always been their choice to make…..something beyond my control. Something I don’t fret about. (At least not too much.) </span></i></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 1px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">So it was in the summer of 2009 when Roma and I took a vacation break. What follows are my thoughts from that week at the beach.</span></i></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>********************</span></i></p>
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<p style="color: #414141; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Vacation time. The idea was a relaxing get away…..time to think about something other than the normal stuff that fills our everyday lives. It has been a welcome break, just the two of us. Morning fog may hide the surf when we look out from our balcony, yet most afternoons have been just right for long walks on the hard sand next to the breakers. All in all it has been everything a vacation should be.</span></p>
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<p style="color: #414141; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">So why then have I been so easily drawn back to everyday thoughts, the ones I had planned to leave behind for a while? Fact is, of course, there is no way to leave the so-called ‘ordinary’ behind. The mind matter we pack around is too much a part of us to be set aside for even a day or a week.</span></p>
<p style="color: #414141; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="color: #414141; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">I don’t know about you, but there are times I wish the mind-full of thoughts and recollections I drag along behind me wasn’t so heavy. If only it was more logical, or in some cases, more worthy? There are parts of it I would like to erase altogether, though I suppose those are the very things I am meant to remember, to learn from, and hopefully avoid the next time.</span></p>
<p style="color: #414141; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="color: #414141; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">However, that reservoir of experience has also become a source of raw material…..uniquely personal elements to be sprinkled throughout my stories. How often have I sifted through that overburden of life impressions, looking for bits that illustrate a particular idea or make a necessary point…..looking for possibilities that fit together, like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. </span></p>
<p style="color: #414141; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="color: #414141; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Sometimes it is one of those long-forgotten snippets, perhaps one of those I wish I could forget, that bubbles to the surface, ready to serve my story in some unexpected way. </span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Turns out that can happen even when I am on vacation, surrounded by so many attractive diversions…..<i>Her</i> good company, hours of uncharted mind wandering, or a good book. (Interesting how Nuala O’Faolain allowed the embodiment of a long ago dream to find a home in her story.) </span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Thankfully, though there’s no computer on hand, I do have a couple yellow writing pads on hand. For a couple days now I have been filling those pages with words that offer the promise of a new story. </span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">As always, it’s a casual, almost haphazard process…..following an idea where it leads me, hurrying along, trying to keep up with my thoughts. At that point it is not a matter of finding the exact words or perfect metaphors. The purpose is to capture the flow of the story as it arrives, knowing that whole paragraphs, sometimes whole scenes, will eventually be discarded or reworked beyond recognition.</span></p>
<p style="color: #414141; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="color: #414141; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">At least for me, that first draft is a time for absorbing the feel of what the story is becoming. Sometimes the ideas come so fast that good ones, at least I think they were, will escape before I put them on paper. </span></p>
<p style="color: #414141; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="color: #414141; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">And it is easy to get sidetracked. If I pause to tweak a sentence before moving on, by the time I return to the story line I may have lost the stream of consciousness, the progression of ideas that I hoped would be my story. At other times I will try to hold a thought that just interrupted the sentence or paragraph I’m finishing. I will promise to return to it in a few seconds. By then, of course, it is gone, lost forever.</span></p>
<p style="color: #414141; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="color: #414141; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Finally, it all comes down to the one question that matters most. Is there really a worthwhile story lurking in all those pages of scribbled notes? How many weeks, one time months, have I spent stalking an idea that eventually led nowhere…..a story that seemed to have no reason to be told?</span></p>
<p style="color: #414141; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="color: #414141; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">I take all those bumps in the road as signs that after five years I remain a late-life beginner…..having my fun, stretching my mind, getting my kicks by stringing words and ideas together on paper. Then, taking advantage of today’s incredible technology, I will create a paperback or ebook, hoping that some curious minds in the reading world will find meaning and enjoyment in those words. </span></p>
<p style="color: #414141; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="color: #414141; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">It seems to me a fascinating concept. I launch my stories into the cyberspace of an Amazon Author’s Page, never knowing whom, if anyone, will read them. Still, even at the cost of a disrupted vacation, I count myself fortunate for the chance to do what I find so satisfying.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: #414141; font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-align: justify;">Anyway, if you’re reading this you can tell that I’ve had too much vacation time on my hands, and/or I have cleaned it up enough to post once I get back to a computer.</span><span style="color: #414141; font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-align: justify;"> </span> </span></p>octoberyearshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02772770846223392811noreply@blogger.com0