Happy New Year

[Dien Rice]

Originally Posted by Pappy

Bathing is good. Higher power is good. Thanking God for His blessings... Good. I'm just not sure if we have a better quality of life than the 'good old' days...

A quick contemporary history lesson for me...

I lived on a 9 acre piece of land. Very nice house, on the salt water here in Charleston SC. Had a fresh water pond and salt water to fish in, and plenty of wildlife to hunt. My wife suggest that we move closer to our 2 daughters and their families. I thought "yeah" that's great. So we move closer to them.

I love the new house, its closer to my daughters.
I hate the new house, its closer to my daughters.

You just don't know until you live in the shoes that you haven't worn.

I'd like the cowboy days... But who knows...

Hi Pappy,

Well, you're right... Some things can be better! Especially some things regarding nature...

I love beaches - there's something about the surf I really love, the sound of it, and the salty ocean air. However, every year, beaches get more and more crowded... I'm not there for the people, but for the ocean itself!

However, when I think about it, these things (and other problems I have) are really quite "small" problems if you look at it on a "world scale". How many people in the world have terrible problems, who would "dream" of having my problems?

Several years ago, I was driving and switching stations on the radio. I heard a radio news program about a young girl in South Africa. Her mother had died of AIDS. Also, the other children shunned her, because - although she didn't have AIDS herself - the fact her mother had died of AIDS made her an "outcast" among the other children. She was both an orphan and an outcast.

(I just looked it up - apparently around 12% of the population of South Africa has AIDS, believe it or not.)

I hope and pray that she will get over these terrible problems, and may God give her a good life. These problems were not of her own creation. But then, I think about situations like that, and realize that my own problems are extremely tiny in comparison, and I'm grateful for the many blessings I do have in my life.

(Sorry, I realized I changed the topic! Your point still stands, of course, that not everything is better now compared to the past...)

Best wishes!

Dien