MESSAGE AFTER THE FOURTH

                                                     

When the flu pandemic hit in 1918 there was no waiting it out for a vaccine and no miracle drugs to fight it. You either got it or you didn’t and you either survived it or you didn’t. People however recognized they were being infected from other people and did what they could to avoid getting it and that included, wearing a mask and being quarantined.

Most of the deaths in America occurred in the second of three waves of the disease when people let down their guard down at the end of the first wave and they weren’t quarantined. There was a war going on and our troops carried the disease to other cities in Europe. It then mutated and they brought it back home. There were lessons for us now to be learned from this pandemic, about spreading disease, but apparently either that was too far in the past to bother reading about it or we already know about the lessons and just chose to do our own thing. Those today who refuse to participate in wearing masks, washing hands and distancing themselves from others, are throwing the rest of us under the bus and they don’t care. Their social lives and their image come first. That’s the reality of living in this country right now. 

I am a realist. I deal with the truth and not some pie in the sky hope or rumors that seem to spring up everywhere. I get my information from the writings of scientists and medical people who are in the know and although I’m not always sure the media spins the unvarnished truth, that’s who I have to rely on for getting that information, so it’s not infallible. At any rate I have much more faith in the media then I do in our own government. I have listened to people from both parties and they have politicized this epidemic to fit their campaigns. They don’t care about the truth unless it benefits the party.

If there is one flaw about the United States and its style of governing that sticks out, it is the over confidence that we will overcome whatever befalls us. In the past that has largely been true and it has led to a burying of the truth and a reluctance to talk about or even acknowledge where we went wrong. It comes at us most often in a unrepentive smugness that says we got away with another one. This time however it is a multiprong attack on our way of life that may be tough to recover from. The pandemic has caused us great concern beyond the illness that accompanies it. It has stifled the economy, alienated us from other world countries and caused political turmoil here and around the world. All of this at a time when racial and health care problems that have been kicked down the road for way to long, have boiled to the surface. Couple this with a huge void of leadership from the Whitehouse and we have a perfect storm.

There are counties that so far have weathered the pandemic storm. Their people, far more cooperative then ours, did what was asked of them and it paid off. But that way of life is a bridge to far for our greedy self-centered way of life, so now we suffer. We can let this be the beginning of the end of our country or we can wake up and recognize our failings. It won’t be cured by the present administration or even a new one. It will be cured when we the people resolve to take our country back and do what is right for each other and for our country. Now I ask you to power up your devices and listen to Kate Smiths rendition, of “God Bless America.”

HONESTY

                                                         

Of all of the virtues we can posses, the one that leads my list, is honesty. It is also the one I think has suffered the most in today’s modern world and I have often wondered what went so terribly wrong. When did it become acceptable to out and out lie, and even if you got caught, to never apologize or make amends? I once talked to the spouse of a politician and I told her the thing that was most distasteful for me in today’s political world was the dishonesty that seems to prevail and especially at election time. She seemed to be offended and told me her husband was not dishonest. I believed her, but thought how difficult it must be for him to have to work and associate with so many that are not honest. I hope it never changes him. I really do.

We will never clean up politics until we get this important value back-- and yes--it does go far beyond politics. It’s become a new way of life for far to many people in society. For you see the loss of honesty, means the loss of trust and without trust we cannot coexist or work together. Think of Bernie Madoff, Tom Petters, and Denny Hecker to name a few. Think of the lawyers who said their clients did nothing wrong and the egg they should have had on their face after their client confessed anyway. But there is no shame in this world anymore, It’s just business as usual. We have laws to punish the guilty when they are caught, but we don’t seem to have a moral code anymore that discourages it from happening in the first place, or happening again. We seem to not be appalled by their actions and just go on with our lives. We seem to be a world of aiders and abettors.

My father never had anything that could be called materialistic. He never accomplished anything that will go down in history. He was born and died a poor man financially, but a rich man in honesty and integrity and that was his legacy. In my world he stood head and shoulders above the men I mentioned above. He once sent me a small plaque that talked about our family name and I’m not going to quote it, except for the last few lines. It went something like this. “It was clean the day you took it and a worthy name to bear. When he got from his father there was no dishonor there. So make sure you guard it wisely, for after all is said and done. You’ll be glad the name is spotless, when you give it to your son.” He didn’t just give me his name he gave me a fervent wish from him to keep it clean. I have since given it to my son. I hope he keeps it clean and passes it on.

I have members in my fathers family that broke that trust with dad. I can only hope they are ashamed and clean up their act. It’s never to late for that. I have on the other hand so many friends and family that are honest and forthright. I trust them impeccably and give thanks for their friendship and love. I hope their example is the one we all learn and carry on.

THE LAKE PLACE

                                                          

I guess the cabin seed was always in my mind. I was an up-north boy at heart, living in the big city with a huge void in my life. “We don’t need two places to take of,” she said but always my whining got to her and finally we went to look at property. It was 1984 and the two oldest kids were in college. The youngest was fifteen. Somehow the name Crosslake was fixated in my mind so that’s where we went to look. It became apparent to me in a hurry, that we weren’t the only one’s looking and cheap property, was not a synonym for a lake place near Crosslake.

We settled for one of the smaller lakes off the beaten path and then one day the relator called and said something had just come on the market so we rushed up north. It was a house trailer on a nice lot and the look she gave me was---"I don’t think so.” I had brought my ice auger as it was February and one of her mandates was it had to have sand out front. I drilled and then reached down into the icy water and pulled up a handful of sand. We signed on the dotted line.

A month or so later we came and signed the final papers and got the keys. I was going to be funny and carry her over the threshold but I didn’t have to lift her up as she jumped into my arms when an army of mice scurried out, from under the furniture. We both slept in the car that night. The next day we burned most of the furniture, patched every hole we could find and drove the critters out. But she had quit fighting me, it was now, for her-- a challenge.

Long story short, we used the trailer seasonally for a few years and then made plans for a house. I sent her to the house planer and said, “You plan it.” I wanted nothing to do with it, my love was outside the doors. And she did and she loved it and so did I. It took five years to finish it as we were on a pay as you go plan. Five years of every weekend, vacation and holiday working on the house. Then we retired and moved in. Just in time for the grandkids.

I think the next ten years were the happiest ones of my life. Christmases, Thanksgiving, 4^th of July’s and Memorial days with the grandkids. Deer hunting across the road and snowmobiling. Then the grandkids got older and found new friends and got in sports and the visits became less and less. We bought a motor home and traveled in the winter. Then one day, eleven years after we moved in, she got sick and died and nothing was ever the same again. I spent some time in a self-imposed pity party and then one day I found a new love. We have traveled and gone places I never dreamed of going and are having so much fun together. We share a home in the winter in Arizona but in the summer we both go back to our own lake homes. I’m sure her story before meeting me, is much like mine.

My neighbors grew old and moved away. My new neighbors are wonderful people but my kids are ten years older than they are. Because of the virus this year I am kind of sequestered. My health is okay but it wouldn’t take much to turn it around. This afternoon I sat on the deck and listened to the neighbor kids playing in the water. I love the sound of kids having fun. The speed boats and the wave runners. But somehow my mind keeps drifting back to a time and a place when it was my own grandkids laughing and playing on the shoreline. A time that has come and sadly gone. A time that today, makes me go into my office and write things this.

RIVER OF DOUBT

                                                          

I just finished reading a book called, “THE RIVER OF DOUBT.” The story took place in the jungles of the Amazon, when an expedition led by Theodore Roosevelt, a former President of the United States, tried to navigate the river from close to its source, to where it emptied into the Amazon. No one had ever done it before so there were no maps and to be truthful, they had no idea how long the journey was going to be. It was 1914 so once they had set their canoes adrift, they were no more communications with anyone and no chance of rescue. Their water crafts were crudely made dugout canoes. Malaria and dysentery were widespread amongst the crew of twenty some. It wasn’t a matter of if you were going to get sick but how bad you were going to get sick. The jungle Indians who lived along the river would most likely kill you if they saw you. The heat, humidity and constant rain made conditions deplorable. In short, they had no directions and no chance of help if things got bad,

I have often thought about life’s journey in the context of a meandering river. We have little idea where we are going and what we are going to meet along the way. Like Roosevelt and his men, once we set foot on the journey there is no going back, no do-overs. We don’t know what is ahead and we have to make a lot of it up as we go. We do have one advantage and that is the good examples that have been put out there for us to learn by. That is if we want to listen to them. This journey has been taken before by countless millions of people and they have told their stories time and again. We also have the advantage of a huge support group that will share that knowledge again and again, in case we weren’t paying attention. The longer time goes on the more information is available. In short, we have a multitude of directions.

Great cooks have recipes that they refer to in their cooking. Oh, they may tweak things as they go along but for the most part, they don’t want to ruin what has already been acclaimed to be, good and to the satisfaction of their followers. Change, for the sake of change is not the way they operate. They simply follow the directions that have been time tested true and accepted and reap the accolades.

It makes one wonder, as everyday we set about destroying the world we live in, why is there this rush to get rid of this place. Everyday plant and animal species that called the earth home disappear forever. Yes, because we are here, and in the numbers we are, some of this will happen no matter what we do. But much of it could be slowed down or prevented by mitigating the sources. That same jungle that Roosevelt traveled through is fast disappearing and with it the indigenous tribes that lived there. Within a few decades it probably won’t be fit for any human life to live in anyway.

We have a government that is driven by money. They spend billions in donations to get elected and then they spend billions in return to repay the favors. It matters little who it is or what they stand for. It’s the nature of the game and the only ones who can change it are the people who participate in it. It is a recipe for disaster.