On Easter Sunday I went to my sons home to see my family. It was also the day that I got to hold my newest little great grandchild Jaden for the first time. I thought back to the times when my own kids, now in their 50’s, were babies and I used to sit and rock them to sleep, my nose nestled in their silky hair. Nothing ever smelled so clean and pure as that little baby’s hair. There isn’t anything that has ever given me the pride I had right then, being a new father, but my contentment was short lived. For I knew the babies would inevitably grow up and I worried about the trip they had yet to take in life and I knew that only for a few short years, would I have the power to protect them and influence them. It was 50 years ago and already I was troubled about the world we lived in. I found those same fears coming back to me Easter day as I held that baby boy. Want kind of a world have we made for our kids?
It should have always been our goal to make this a better world. To find cures for diseases, educate, and make those kids smarter then we would ever be and not just our kids-- but also everybody’s kids. At the same time we needed to put aside our natural greed and differences and live in peace with our fellow mankind. For it’s only in this spirit of love and cooperation that this world will survive.
About this same time 50 years ago our nation sent astronauts to the moon and I will always remember the picture they took as they circled the moon looking back at the earth. Here in the vast emptiness and darkness of space surrounded by billions of light years of nothing but rocks and cold, was this beautiful blue planet. It was warm and viable and filled with life. To those of us who believe in creation the proof was there in the pudding. The question that begged to be asked however was, why wouldn’t we want to take care of it? That question has never been answered but I know why anyway and it all has to do with human greed.
The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation is a great example of people who amassed a fortune and elected to take it and try to make this world a better place to live. They have shown dysfunctional greedy governments all over the world what can be accomplished if your heart is in the right place. There are others helping too but sadly far to few of them to counteract the greedy ones who care less about helping anyone but himself or herself.
So Jaden, I hope that someday when you are my age, you too will be sitting at a keyboard, typing out your thoughts with your great grandbaby in your lap. I hope and pray that at that time you will be much more optimistic then I am today. That your grandparents and mom and dad will have been part of a great transformation in this country and this world and you will no longer perceive the threats I see today to your great grandchildren and others. For lack of a better adage it has been said, “It’s always darkest before the dawn.” I’m not sure how much darker it can get before we come to our senses and change. Time will tell. We have been at this stage before and were never able to learn from it. I won’t be here for the transformation and I do take some blame for the past. Hopefully your generation will do better.
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