09-28-2009

I ran across this quote recently and
was sorta taken aback by what it said:
"Children begin by loving their parents.
After a time they judge them. Rarely, if
ever, do they forgive them."
- Oscar Wilde
I tried to relate this quote to my
parents and then to my two children. I
cannot, ever, remember judging my
parents, but after reading the quote and
thinking about it for a bit I suppose I
did (without expounding on the reasons).
I also think it would be fair to say
that my children have judged their
parents. Since we are divorced their
judgment, in all probability, is that we
failed as husband & wife (a given) and,
maybe, even as parents (I hope they
don't). I must say that I do believe
there is a lot of truth in the quote and
that when the child's forgiveness comes
I suspect it would be after their
parents passing. True forgiveness for
the intentional infliction of distress
is hard to accomplish. There is only
one person in my life that I have been
unable to forgive. It was business
related and the intention was deliberate
and prolonged. Somehow, I know that
when I arrive at the entrance to Heaven,
Saint Peter's first question will be:
"Why did you not forgive XXXXX". My
only hope is that I will be judged by
the entirety of my life and not the
inability to forgive one person for
their transgressions.

Age robs us of height. I have a good
friend who complains that when he goes
for his yearly physical he always loses
some height. Myself, I have gone from
5'10.5" to 5'10". I assume as we age
our spine starts to collapse and as we
approach 70 the effect is pronounced. I
saw a fellow on the news the other night
that is the oldest man in the world at
113 (I think he lives in Montana). He
must have been a giant of a man because
he still looked fairly tall. He was in
a wheelchair so it was fairly difficult
to tell. As things go, the oldest
person in the world is a woman age 114
and she lives in Okinawa, Japan. Fred
H. Hale was the oldest living man in
2004. He died in November of that year.
If I live that long they will be able to
bury me in a shoebox. I dunno if we are
related, but I'm hoping we are! The
longest unambiguously documented
lifespan is that of Jeanne Calment of
France (1875-1997), who died at age 122
years and 164 days. I think it is a
long held scientific belief that it is
impossible to live past 122.

None of my grandparents owned a car
during my lifetime. I can remember
catching the bus with Grandpa & Grandma
McCoy and going to Grundy (5 miles away)
the only town I knew as a 4-5 year old
boy. I do not know how Grandpa &
Grandma Hale traveled. I never saw them
in a car. None of my grandparents ever
took a vacation, nor, am I aware that
they traveled very far from their home.
None of them seemed, to me, to be
unhappy. What wonderful people they
were. They never complained about other
people, nor, what they didn't have.
Grandma McCoy used to chastise me (age
5) for yelling at the pretty little girl
that walked by on the road below, on her
way to the grocery store, and calling
her sweetheart. "Tommy Joe", says she,
" don't be calling to that ol' Hatfield
girl!" (we were supposed to hate all
Hatfields). I guess the point I'm
making is that my grandparents never
traveled much, heck, my parents didn't
travel all that much either. Jerilyn
and I have been home 3 months and we are
itching to take off again. How much
better our life is than the previous two
generations in my life. As I set here,
staring at a picture of my mom & dad
when they were 20, I find it impossible
to be thankful enough for the many
blessing in my life.

Have you ever tried to sharpen a knife
on a whetstone? I have never had much
luck sharpening knives. As a matter of
fact, I think they always come out
duller than when I started. Well, the
other day, as I was listening to an
audio book that takes place in the
1930's, this guy says to his son, "Jack,
let me show you how to sharpen your
pocket knife. Here's how: place your
knife on the stone, angle it the height
of your thumb and then only go in one
direction. Do both sides 10 strokes
each, checking the sharpness each time a
cycle is completed". Well, nothing to
do, but me to go out into the garage,
pull out my whetstone and Git R Dun. I
took Jerilyn's handy/dandy kitchen knife
(the one she uses for everything) and
after two complete cycles that knife
would cut a sheet of paper like it was a
stick of hot butter. I have only known
one person that could sharpen a knife
like that. Now, I know two, and one of
them is me!

Did you know that you can send a
message from your PC to someone's
cellphone? Here how:
Open your email program and type the
person's 10 digit cellphone number,
followed by @vtext.com - see example
below:
For Verizon users only:
xxxxxxxxxx@vtext.com
xxx=area code + number, no spaces
This only works for Verizon. I tried it
using my son's phone number and he
received the message. If you have a
different carrier you may want to find
out if they have the same feature.