UNITED BY REALITY

This morning's FB feed alerted me to the realization that I've lived in 7 different decades, 2 centuries and 2 millennia.   Sometimes my brain gets twisted in the briars and brambles of self-pity, sobbing the sorrows of one day being yanked from existence.  One must rather keep praying appreciative prayers for the time granted, recognizing the millions who aren't as lucky.

 Spent yesterday watching the Black Swan murder trial on FB Court TV.  One of my personal interests is critiquing both the prosecuting attorney(s) and defense attorney(s).  In this case, after two days, I'm not particularly impressed with either.  But, I've learned to wait until the trial is completely over before passing judgments.  Strategy sometimes surprises a person like the mystery book that reveals the killer on the last page.   

Looking back across the span of my years, I feel that I was born in an extremely interesting era.  Starting out in a home with no running water and now living at Venny in a unit with two bathrooms, I might easily think of myself as a person blessed beyond merit.  All the amenities offered at Venny constitute a simple transition into the years that are supposed to be gilded in gold.  Oh, there are aspects of aging that are gilded in gold, like having the time to do as one pleases.  But, having to watch one's physical abilities decline is gilded in black, not gold.  No one feels sorry for us, but instead frown down upon us and the maladies we must endure.  Our culture simply doesn't recognize the aging process as part of each and every life.  One thing I remember my parents teaching me is respect for elders.  From little on, I was able to realize that older people have what young people don't have.......insightful experience.  They themselves have faced life experiences and know how to get through them.  It's as though the elderly person faced a jungle of twisted trees, branches, briars and brambles....and successfully made it through to the other side.  The young person faces that same forest, with nary a clue how to make it through.  That's insightful experience.

I know I rattle on about gratitude, and maybe I write about it so I keep reassuring myself and encouraging myself to appreciate every single minute of every single day.  We're living in a time when we need to appreciate one another.  If one person has a wealth of academic education and the next guy has a wealth of life experience, each one needs to focus on the lessons and accumulated strengths.  I've been personally looked down on from the heights of academic arrogance, yet I have in my back pocket the experience of surviving family tragedies and other heartbreaks that no institution of learning could have prepared me to endure.  

Without getting political, because I'm a fence-sitter, we, as a free nation must find some way to get along and recognize that we're all in this together and not a single one of us is going to leave this world on a higher plane than any other person.  Dying will be the same for the rich as it is for the poor, the educated and the non-educated.  Only humans create categories and labels, elevating some and downgrading others.  Every life is a struggle, despite how hard people try to hide their private mountains.  I've never been impressed with Hollywood, the world of the rich and famous.  They're simply a bunch of actors.....acting in ways that can make the normal person feel inadequate.  The face on a beauty magazine is as fake as a $6 bill.  The Barbie Doll figure is a man-made creation, certainly not a divine creation.  

I spend considerable time on YT traveling the world, places like the remote villages of Nepal, the Iranian nomadic lifestyle, and the African tribes that live in the jungles hidden from the mainstream.  Their survival skills would put any of the rest of us to shame.  Because of their insightful experience.  Why can't we blessed Americans realize and respect our differences.  The current rhetoric, of media and of each other, can be called barbaric.  We were taught not to hurt one another, yet as advanced as our civilization is, we're to the point of killing each other.  Killing total strangers for no reason at all, or for reasons that only a deranged mind can deem to be acceptable.  

Living through the decades has gifted me with the insight and fortitude that age alone can provide.  In my own estimation, I've received double-dips and triple-dips.  There's not one scintilla of reason for me to complain about anything.  Oh, I do complain from time to time, but my complaints have no real substance.  When compared to those living in oppressed cultures, my heart breaks.  We who live in freedom are becoming complacent, and I fear this complacency is what will be the death of our freedoms.  

There's one aspect of life that I have zero tolerance for.  And, that's the business of one person feeling superior to another.  This may sound pretty brash, but if we took a billionaire, a homeless person, a person with a doctorate degree and a person with a GED, a high achiever and a low achiever.....asked each of them to remove all of their clothing, their make-up, and fancy hairstyles..... asked them to line up against a wall.....how would it be possible to distinguish one person from another?  The bodies of the rich are created the same as the bodies of the poor.  There are overweight billionaires and gorgeously handsome low-achievers.   Why does one person have the right to elevate themselves and claim to have all the right answers and condemn those with opposing opinions?  That's a recipe for disaster, if you ask me.     

Today's rant reinforces my value system, and I pray every day for our nation.  The richest country on earth has homeless people.  How is that possible?  America's grain belt has huge grain bins stored with excess corn, while there are people on the planet starving to their death.  It makes no sense.  

Before closing, let me share an instance that happened at Venny yesterday.  The boyfriend bought groceries two days ago, came home and couldn't find a package of hot dog buns that he bought.  The next day he went down to the car to see if they might have fallen out of the grocery sack.  When he got to the garage door, sitting on a stool was the package of hot dog buns.  Where else does such honesty exist in 2024?  One day there was a $1 bill pinned to the common bulletin board.  Someone had found it laying somewhere at Venny.  That's the kind of world I want to live in, and I'm blessed to be living here.  

C'mon, Americans, let's be kinder to one another.  If each one of us made the effort to do one small kindness to another human being each day, just think of the massive waves of goodness that could sweep our beautiful planet Earth?

A couple things to remember:  (1) The same blood runs through every person on the planet.  And, (2) there's a universal language among all people on the planet, and that is laughter.  A laugh is a laugh in every culture on the planet.  Gosh, all 8 billion of us DO have 2 things in common.....blood and laughter.  That's a start.