Reasons

I thought to title this page, “Reasons,” due to the fact of my brothers past. Being the youngest of my family I was born in 1948. That made me eight and ten years younger than my siblings and, most likely, an accident. Whoops! Stands to reason as childhood for me was not wonderful. I’m not complaining as I made do with what I had to work with. If anything, that difficulty allowed me to mature faster than many of my fellow travelers in that era.

It also gave me a perspective of understanding how frail human kind is, how imperfect. Understanding this imperfection allowed room for forgiveness of those who affected me negatively. Forgiveness is like shedding weight, you walk a little quicker, feel a little better, and see things more clearly. It tends to garner feelings of compassion for those who are angry or sullen or both.

Forgive and forget is not realistic. If you forget it can happen again and that is not a good thing. Forgetting results in, over and over and this is not what you want in life. One mistake is enough, right? This also allowed me to keep a clear mind as I went through grammar and high school. It didn’t make me an “elite” among my classmates but neither did it force problems upon me. I actually got through my teen years with stability with no baggage to carry into adult life. Then came Vietnam and all bets were off.

I received my draft notice at eighteen as I had taken a semester off of college to try and figure out what it was I wanted to aim at. My grades were good but where I wanted to go was not determined. I had a penchant for biology but wasn’t certain so I figured I could work for the county fire department, as I had for two summers up until then, and get a better compass point for where I wanted to go. It wasn’t three months and I got my draft notice. So, I enlisted in the U.S Navy which kind of took choices away from me.

That war was pasted all over TV and I had many trepidation’s as to my survival. It turned out that I made it through with nothing more than a partially wrecked lumbar spine so I figured I was fortunate compared to hundreds of thousands of others. What I did in the Navy required a high security clearance so I had that to get through also. The FBI investigated me and I didn’t know that until some neighbors asked me if I was in some kind of trouble as the FBI had stopped by their homes to ask about me. Who I was and what they knew of my behavior. A lot of that had to do with drugs which I had stayed far away from. This was in 1968 when drugs, LSD, were popular among my age group. I never tried any mind bending drugs. Why? I asked myself and could not come up with a good reason.

Now you know a bit about me so I will continue to write of what I think about all matter of politics, life and America. I will do so at this rather ripe old age I have somehow achieved, seventy-seven. There is no good reason for me to have gotten here whatsoever. Bullets missed and car wrecks didn’t happen nor did any kind of disease take me away. I know I am fortunate as I have watched hundreds of people die around me since 1968. I got here by being mindful and I am not certain why I say mindful but it is the only term I can equate to living through what I lived through, virtually unscathed. I do hope that you enjoy my morgue humor and rather odd way of looking at life. As with all things, I guess we shall see in good time. Time. How much is left for you and I?