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Trying to keep it all in perspective
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Location: Blogs Sly Comments |
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| Posted by: Emory Schley |
2/17/2007 12:42 PM |
Whenever I get to feeling kind of blue and despondent, I try to think back to a time when I had real problems – so I can appreciate how well off I am today in comparison. I’ve got a lot of memories to think back on, too, one of the advantages I guess, of having piled up so many years behind me.
One of my more excruciating experiences was algebra class in high school. I cannot begin to tell you how much I detested algebra. I was actually pretty good at arithmetic – y’know, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division – but when I got to that point in school where they started substituting letters of the alphabet for numbers and then asked me to identify a number represented by some obscure letter, somehow whatever small amount of confidence I had in my mathematical ability began to erode.
Another excruciating adventure I had was Basic Training at Fort Jackson, S.C. back in 1960. Forced marches while loaded down like a pack mule, struggling through knee-deep mud, crawling through barbed wire as live machine gun bullets whizzed inches overhead, 16- to 20-hour days, listening to a sergeant screaming obscenities into your face and having to tolerate it, walking into a gas chamber and having to take off your gas mask and inhale the tear gas – and lots of other stuff I didn’t particularly care for, are all things that make life today seem much easier in comparison.
Later, there were the “joys” of parenting, as the kids grew into teens with their own unique set of problems to contend with while spreading the “joy” around the family. Some of the worst moments I’ve ever experienced were as a parent. Not fun, and that’s for sure.
Then, much later, an ailing mother with Alzheimer’s who half the time couldn’t recognize her own relatives or recall who they were, added multiple levels of stress to some already pretty tired shoulders. But that problem has pretty much resolved itself now and Life seems pretty sweet, at least for the time being.
Hmmmm. . . income tax time is coming up soon, though. . .
Y’know, maybe things AREN’T so great after all!
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Global Warming |
By Dick Rohde on
2/17/2007 8:32 AM |
| Dear Emory - This morning my thermometer read 20ºF. When I went out for the paper, my body registered about 10º below that. However, it prompted a great thought that I would like to share with you. Thank heavens that we are experiencing GLOBAL WARMING. Can you imagine just how cold we would be without it? |
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