Puzzle

April 24, 2017

I have been, for some time (maybe all my life) gathering pieces of a puzzle whose final image I do not perceive. I know the puzzle exists but I don’t even know the shape of the boundary much less the image that it will reveal. It is a montage of pieces that range from simple colors and shapes to textures, numbers, data, video clips, poems, classic works of literature, theological constructs, conspiracy theories, histories of civilizations, economics, governments, physics, and God himself. Each of these pieces is, in itself, another puzzle like the first but seen in opposing mirrors with reflections that recede into infinity.

As pieces are added to the puzzle, my perception of it shifts with all the pieces coming into closer alignment and the whole more closely resembling the final result which is the Universe.

I have seen quotes of Tacitus before but only lately appreciated the scope and importance of his contribution to the building of my puzzle. Understanding Rome, its expansion, decline, and fall sheds light on the plight we now face. Some believe that our empire is in the same late stages as Rome in its death throes. Truely, there is much in our country that is unsustainable and that which cannot continue will stop.

This sentiment has become all too real for me and my daughter. I’m losing two days off my contract next year due to financial constraints and my daughter is giving up several weeks of work because of state budget cutbacks.

The question is: are the signs we’re all seeing tectonic shifts or are they minor aberrations that occur normally in history?

Old Truths

April 30, 2017

The old truths are the best. You can never overestimate the extent of human avarice, deception, and selfishness. Everyone is weak. Even those who you think should know better fail in the end. I wish I could have been a better man… the one that never compromised, never backed down. The one that embodied wisdom, honor, and courage. There are no honorable men left; just self-absorbed, stunted children who are completely self-indulgent and I am in the vanguard.

Family

June 17, 2017

I had talked to Mom and Dad a number of times about a road trip to the country (homeplace) and today we did that. I was just planning on the three of us doing it since I didn’t think anyone else would be interested.

Dad wanted the grandkids (both our kids and my sister’s) to go so we planned it for father day weekend when several of them (along with spouses/boyfriends) would be in town. We rented a 15-passenger van and toured the places my parents were born and raised near Gravel Switch, KY. This is a rural community near Springfield and Lebanon. Both came off the farm, Dad dropped out of high school in the late 40’s and then joined the army and served in Korea during the war. Mother came to Louisville to go to business school in the early 50’s. They married in ’54 and he went to Eastern Kentucky University on the GI bill….graduating with a degree in accounting. He worked for the KY department of Revenue, L&N railroad, and Kentucky Fried Chicken. She went back to school right before I graduated from high school and ended up with a Masters and taught business in high school. In fact we taught in the same school for several years!

This entry has a lot of family details that wouldn’t interest anyone so I’ll just summarize by saying they were both from big farm families and had a traditional rural/depression era upbringing. Mother had it a little better; Dad says they were so poor they didn’t know there WAS a depression! He tells one story I find interesting. When he was 6 or 8, (just before WWII) he was riding in a horse drawn wagon with his father (my grandfather). Another wagon approached them and they realized it was the pastor of their local Baptist church. They stopped to chat and the pastor asked my grandfather if he had any money he could spare because the pastor’s children had no bread…..nothing in this world to eat. My grandfather pulled out a dollar and gave it to the pastor. They chatted on and finally parted and as they drove away from the other wagon, my grandfather said to my Dad that he had just given away the last dollar he owned on this earth. How many of us have ever given away the LAST dollar? It was a different time, a different world.

We visited my Mom’s home place which is still in the family and we drove by the last farm my Dad’s parents owned before moving into “town”….. Texas, KY. Most of you would not call this group of 10 or 12 houses a town at all but to farm folk, it was “town”.

Anyway, we enjoyed the day and at one point ended up at Pleasant Hill Baptist church which both families attended and where Mom and Dad were married. The grandkids got creeped out when their grandparents showed off the gravestone that is already in place with names already etched and waiting only for dates. Where they started, they will end.