It’s my birthday in a few hours. I have spent sixty seven years on this earth. I have seen much. I lost my father at the age of eight and watched my mother devolve into extreme mental illness when I was twenty years old. I have lost a number of good friends and many relatives. I have seen a President assassinated and a hero shot down. I have watched friends coming back from Vietnam maimed or in coffins. I witnessed the end of segregation and the inauguration of the first black President. My children have grown and blessed me with seven grandchildren who have unfortunately lived in a world more uncertain than the one I knew when I was a kid. I have had a happy marriage and a wonderful career that allowed me to have a very meaningful life and to meet some of the finest people that I have ever known. While I have seen much evil, I like to believe that the vast majority of the world’s people are truly good. I suppose that I am a cockeyed optimist even after all these years. I prefer being that way rather then thinking that my glass is half empty.
Someone that I know who is married to a Holocaust victim recently told me that her spouse often urges her to look forward rather than back. I suspect that anyone who has undergone such a terrible experience has to find hope on the road ahead because dwelling on what has already happened leads to nowhere. I think about many things and sometimes worry just a bit, especially when I see discord among the people that I love. I just can’t find it in myself to be self-righteous or judgmental. I have made too many mistakes on my own to believe that I have all the answers. Besides, I have a knack for seeing the positive in virtually everyone with the exception of those who are undeniably evil. Luckily my encounters with such people have been few but I have spotted them immediately when they have been around. Continue reading “Birthday Thoughts”
Imagine accepting a job that requires a grueling and extensive training program in which you must learn to set aside your individuality and learn to work with a strong and unwavering team. Your boss may send you to any locale where you are needed and you have little or no say in that decision. Your hours are long, beginning whenever your services are needed and ending only when the designated tasks are done. You must respect authority and accept commands without question. You wear a company uniform day in and day out. In fact, your appearance is purposely bland so that you do not stand out from your peers. You often find yourself in highly dangerous situations which demand split second decisions. Your stress level is high. Your efforts may or may not be fully understood or appreciated by your friends and family. You have agreed to become a member of the military. 
This is going to be a very big day for Mike. Tonight he and I will join a group of his peers to celebrate the fiftieth reunion of the Class of 1965 at St. Thomas High School. Next year it will be my turn. As I sit here this morning I find myself wondering where the time went. When I first met Mike he had only been out of high school for just under two years. We were both attending a birthday party for my cousin who was also a graduate of St. Thomas. There were other St. Thomas alums at the celebration that night as well. Most of them lived on the near north side of Houston and had been friends for many years. All of them loved their alma mater, especially Mike. 
When I was eight years old my favorite stories were fairytales and I really and truly believed that they were real. My beliefs were reinforced when I attended my first wedding. My eldest cousin, Leonard, was marrying a beautiful young woman named, Jeanne. The two of them seemed as close to being a prince and princess as any couple that I had ever seen. 
All It Takes Is A Little Love 