“Living is a constant process of deciding what we are going to do.” ― José Ortega y Gasset, Philosopher (1883-1955)

It's Wednesday, March 26, 2014 and I need to do what our President seems to do quite often, a reset. He's busying himself in resetting just about everything, from our relationships with most of the world's leaders to daily delays and changes to Obamacare. My reset is more of a restatement of the facts. I appreciate folks who express concern about the hours I keep, since I am admittedly an early riser and all of that. However, the date and time stamp on my blogs are not reflective of the actual time they were done. I typically always try to exclude that information when I copy my published blog over for emailing. But occasionally it slips through and people think I must be a night owl. I'm not. That time stamp comes from the Blogger utility I use and it is operated from out on the West Coast, therefore, it's two hours earlier. I copied one earlier this week that had 2:58 a.m. on it. My wife even sent me a note of concern. That was actually 4:58 a.m. here in the Bible Belt or Central Time Zone as it is called. Meanwhile, don't get me wrong, I very much appreciate any and all sympathy expressed towards 'my condition' and let me just say that 'my condition' is vast enough to need any and all the support it can get. Or something to that effect.

I was thinking the other day about things that were a part of our lives growing up that we no longer use or for the most part even think about. I suppose most of us are glad we no longer have cigarette ashtrays sitting around. I don't miss the party line phones where folks would snoop in on your calls. In fact, in a growing common situation, many folks no longer even have a primary phone. Just a cell number. Nothing else. You don't see that many clothes lines anymore. I can remember finding them at night when I was running through the yard. Talk about an abrupt stop! It would, as they say back home, knock the breath slap out of your body. There's also not so many of the big attic fans around. I can remember the one at my granddad's house that sounded like a propeller from a WW2 bomber. Us boys slept in a room just off to the side from where that fan was mounted in the attic. It was loud and it also created quite a bit of vibration. In many ways it was soothing as we allowed it to rock us to sleep. Sadly, my grandfather was a very frugal man and when he got up to go to the bathroom, usually around 10 p.m., the fan was switched off. There we lay, still and hot. Nothing but crickets to serenade us. We surely missed that sound. In fact, we missed it so much we got to where we weren't able to go to sleep because we were on edge trying to anticipate him turning it off. See what I had to endure. Next time maybe you won't chuckle when I mention 'my condition'.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not lobbying for many of those things from my version of the good ole days, although, I do think some things were pretty decent. Family was a part of how things worked and not just our immediate family. Community. Face to face conversations. Visiting. And, while I know technology has brought us many labor saving conveniences, back in the day we definitely operated in a low tech world but one where we lived with a sense of belonging. Last Saturday when I drove over to Louisiana I had five passengers with me. The vehicle we used was fully equipped with enough electronics to power all the smart phones and DVD players required to keep everyone totally oblivious to the road trip. I'm not sure they even knew we were moving down the road. Consequently, it was a peaceful journey, forth and back. Everyone with their own ear bugs. Everyone doing their own thing. Good for the driver I suppose, but when it carries over into every minute of every day of life, well, I'm pretty sure this type of isolated/insulated preoccupation will produce a bill coming due one day, and it might just be sooner than we think. Meanwhile, those of us who recognize what's at stake, we might do well in trying to impart some of those values that were handed down to us. Just a thought. See you next time and until then may God bless one and all. Amen.   ....More later.