Last week every time I turned around I heard another horrific story about death, dying, and on the verge of dying. It reached the point that I was afraid to start a conversation with anyone! It was horrible!
At a holiday party on Saturday everyone was asked to state something they were thankful for. I didn’t have to think for a moment, I’m thankful my family is healthy!! And, I’m praying we all stay that way!!
When you think about it, it’s pretty amazing what a human body and spirit can endure. Not only endure, but come back from. How, as a specie, we seem to be predisposed to overlook, overcome, and move past the most awful things and grow. This isn’t the first time I’ve made this observation, but it still catches at times and humbles me.
As most of you know my son was severely wounded while deployed in Iraq. He lost his left leg and nearly died. At the time, his wounds and rehabilitation was all consuming, but now I hardly ever think about it and I’m always a little surprised when someone asks me how my son is doing. I have to stop a second to remember what they are talking about. He’s great, at least when he isn’t ticking me off.
One of the stories I heard recently was about a family where the wife (44) died unexpectedly, then the husband (44) died of cancer, the cat died of cancer, and father died of a heart attach, all within one week. The mother is left behind and grief stricken as you can imagine, but at some point in the future she and the rest of the family will move past all this, as inconceivable as that seems to them now.
I caught a part of a show over the weekend about the trade in sex slave in the U.S. Not my usual sort of viewing, but as I listened to this one young woman talk about her experiences and the absolute horror and terror she lived through day after day, I kept thinking how can she still be sane, and how does someone get over that? How does she go on to live a normal life? Yet there she was doing just that.
When I worked in North Portland, I met an older gentleman who was always so pleasant and cheerful. You would have thought he had lived a charmed life, and I think he would have told you that he had. I found out later that he was a survivor of the Bataan Death March, the only member of his military team to survive. None of it showed on him.
As humans we are amazing creatures. I wonder what it is in us that allows us to not only survive such awful events, but to grow beyond them. Without this ability I’m sure humans would be long since extinct by now.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Stuff, littler stuff, and needing your stuff
Well, Thanksgiving is almost here and for the most part my workload on the job is slowing down a bit. Of course the work required at home is picking up. I guess I shouldn’t complain. My daughter, Kristin, called today to say the movers will be there to pick up their stuff tomorrow. I can’t imagine having to pack-up everything you own and trusting it in the hands of total strangers. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve moved, a lot! But, I never left my stuff with strangers. I’d be a nervous wreck.
Not only are total stranger moving them, but they will not see their stuff for over a month! They will be visiting relatives for the next 30 days. Once they finally land in the same state as their stuff, they will still need to find housing before their stuff can be delivered. I would suffer so much separation anxiety that I wouldn’t be able to enjoy myself.
I remember when I was young, in my teens; I used to daydream about how great it would be to travel the world with a backpack and a bed roll. That so does not sound appealing now! My daydream now is to travel the world by being molecularly transported to locations around the world with my house, shop and garage. Because, I just might need something and it would be so much handier to have everything there. Not to mention I could sleep in my own bed, with my own pillows every night. I’d have my car and all the things I know so well. Not to mention a bathroom handy.
I like that commercial on TV where the girl jumps out of her big jacked-up truck, hits the lock on her keychain, and then hits another button and the whole thing folds itself up until it will fit in her little tiny purse. That is brilliant!! You don’t have to worry about paying for parking, someone hitting it, or it being stolen. And, if you’re at the mall, you don’t have to walk back a mile to get to it, its right there in your purse when you’re ready to go. We need scientists and engineers working on this kind of technology. You know something really useful to everyone!!
Parent of whiney, crying babies could maybe do the same thing, especially when they bring them on plains!!
Not only are total stranger moving them, but they will not see their stuff for over a month! They will be visiting relatives for the next 30 days. Once they finally land in the same state as their stuff, they will still need to find housing before their stuff can be delivered. I would suffer so much separation anxiety that I wouldn’t be able to enjoy myself.
I remember when I was young, in my teens; I used to daydream about how great it would be to travel the world with a backpack and a bed roll. That so does not sound appealing now! My daydream now is to travel the world by being molecularly transported to locations around the world with my house, shop and garage. Because, I just might need something and it would be so much handier to have everything there. Not to mention I could sleep in my own bed, with my own pillows every night. I’d have my car and all the things I know so well. Not to mention a bathroom handy.
I like that commercial on TV where the girl jumps out of her big jacked-up truck, hits the lock on her keychain, and then hits another button and the whole thing folds itself up until it will fit in her little tiny purse. That is brilliant!! You don’t have to worry about paying for parking, someone hitting it, or it being stolen. And, if you’re at the mall, you don’t have to walk back a mile to get to it, its right there in your purse when you’re ready to go. We need scientists and engineers working on this kind of technology. You know something really useful to everyone!!
Parent of whiney, crying babies could maybe do the same thing, especially when they bring them on plains!!
Friday, November 13, 2009
Leafing along in the Northwest
I haven’t written in awhile, and that was brought home to me at a gathering on Wednesday evening where a few people mentioned my lapse. So I’ve decided to take keyboard in hand and log an entry in the ole blog.
Trees have been my life lately, at work and off work. At work I talk to citizens about which tree they want planted in the stormwater facility on their street, whether they want a tree in the facility, how and why we are trimming the trees in their neighborhood, why we are cutting trees, and how lateral sewer connections affect their tree roots. I should be a frick’in arborist! Yesterday afternoon we had our quarterly get together offsite, to do brainstorming. Guess what one of the topics was…that’s right, TREES. To be specific, how to get more people to plant street trees.
At home my interaction with trees is less stressful, it involves watching leaves change color, and observing how they tumble and dance around in the wind. I love fall in the northwest! The color is inspiring, and uplifting to the spirits. There are a few downsides to them though. For one, there is the raking, and two, the slipping and falling when they get wet and begin to decompose. With the amount of rain we get this time of year leaves can be problematic, but I love them anyway.
Speaking of weather, we have officially entered the rainy season, which means we will experience precipitation in one form or another pretty much every day from now until June. This situation is the main reason more sunglasses are sold in the northwest than in any other part of the country. We are all so light deprived that the smallest amount of sun will blind us.
This weather is also the reason that almost everyone keeps multiple pairs of shoes under their desk at work. I personally have a pair of closed clogs, a pair of open clogs, a pair of lace-up leather shoes, and two pairs of boots. You never know what you will need to get through a day. In fact, I need to go shoe shopping for some new commuter shoes that will keep me from tripping on all the leaves. So I’ll leaf you now to embark on other duties. (I know, it’s a real groaner!)
Trees have been my life lately, at work and off work. At work I talk to citizens about which tree they want planted in the stormwater facility on their street, whether they want a tree in the facility, how and why we are trimming the trees in their neighborhood, why we are cutting trees, and how lateral sewer connections affect their tree roots. I should be a frick’in arborist! Yesterday afternoon we had our quarterly get together offsite, to do brainstorming. Guess what one of the topics was…that’s right, TREES. To be specific, how to get more people to plant street trees.
At home my interaction with trees is less stressful, it involves watching leaves change color, and observing how they tumble and dance around in the wind. I love fall in the northwest! The color is inspiring, and uplifting to the spirits. There are a few downsides to them though. For one, there is the raking, and two, the slipping and falling when they get wet and begin to decompose. With the amount of rain we get this time of year leaves can be problematic, but I love them anyway.
Speaking of weather, we have officially entered the rainy season, which means we will experience precipitation in one form or another pretty much every day from now until June. This situation is the main reason more sunglasses are sold in the northwest than in any other part of the country. We are all so light deprived that the smallest amount of sun will blind us.
This weather is also the reason that almost everyone keeps multiple pairs of shoes under their desk at work. I personally have a pair of closed clogs, a pair of open clogs, a pair of lace-up leather shoes, and two pairs of boots. You never know what you will need to get through a day. In fact, I need to go shoe shopping for some new commuter shoes that will keep me from tripping on all the leaves. So I’ll leaf you now to embark on other duties. (I know, it’s a real groaner!)
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