The Emerald Rose

      As you become older, believe it or not, you DO become wiser. As a matter of fact a lot of things change, except your age, your physical ability to be a 20 year old activist, and the tethers holding you back that never existed “back then” when you were “younger”.

      As a teen and “transitor”, from teen to adult, some became activists, some did not. Some became wealth, status, or otherwise “sucess driven” , and some did not. The road went many ways for many people, and in most cases never to meet again. That is sad,….extremely sad.

      Oh of course there are the Alumni appeals, and weekends at the old Alma Mater, the Ship, Squadron and similar Reunions and High School Reunions. Some folks got caught up in that early on, and have been a regular attendee at the fifth, tenth, fifteenth, twentieth , and on and on and on. It’s an excuse to escape for a while, to remember stupid things done in stupid times, for nothing but stupid reasons and childish thinking,….at least from an “older” perspective in later life.

        I am surrounded by it here in the South, home of the Pater Pan Syndrome of the entire civilized world and planet. A place where the more “successful”, the more “status”, and the more “wealth” one has, the further one regresses into the “escape” tunnel of regression. College is about Education first and foremost, not a winning football team, a Fraternity who could consume it’s entire houses weight in Beer every day and twice on the weekends. It’s about “scoring” for the guys, it’s about “career security” as a pampered “trophy” for a lot of the women,….and for some it’s actually about the education. Then what?

        Then the world opens up, getting a job, developing a “direction” with this funny little thing called “life”, cutting back on the number of cases of beer consumed each weekend, beginning that long hard look at “What now,….and for the rest of my life. What’ll I do?”

       Realization that money is required, in fact very much required, ergo the first adult thought, …” How do I get the most I can, as fast as I can?”. Then it’s on to the more adult thinking of savings, long term companionship, not necessarily committed, as those “little boy” twinges are still strong, and the money that’s beginning to flow can be made to support a fantasy or two every now or then.   Picture a group of eight or nine 60 year olds,  all gathered at the bar, ordering Oysters and beer after a full day of golf, lying to each other, and MORE than enough beer before they ever got to the bar. It is not a pretty sight, but trust me I see it around here at least once a week.

       Now if you’re like me, and I don;t wish that on you, I become a bigger cynic as each day goes by. Retirement is a “non-event” as far as I am concerned, and as we slow down physically I, at least, tend to get caught up more and more in the “information  highway”. It’s like I can not get enough information. My Blackberry provides me with hot alerts to news and stock market “stuff” and virtually anything I think I can “drill down” and virtually become an expert on in an hour on-line.

      Worse yet I get to think about it! Now THAT is the scarier part. Questions that bother me are like,…”Why is the damn government even involved to any degree in business? Why are they “nationalizing” our countries financial entities with TARP money and then telling those who want to return it that they need permission to give it back? Why is it that with all the medical advances we have made the tail is wagging the dog and it is out of control? Why is it everyone seems to think they are “entitled” to everything? Since when did working for a living NOT equate to a solid work ethic?

     And as you think on it even more consider,….if the healthcarecosts, and the Social Security costs become more than we can reasonably bear as a country,….well, what do you do? Does someone or some politician put forth a “bill” that says if you can’t meet certain personal financial levels that you are tagged with an “X” , meaning your term of hospitalization is severely limited, your access to medications are severely limited, and one morning ,….well, you just never wake up. A sad thought and an even sadder potential reality, but as we have become entitlement driven, morally “optional” , and driven by the need to multi-task, and simplify one’s life to the point of mandatory time accumulation for survival sake, or in other words NOT doing or participating in any non-career, non-personal mental or physical enhancement matters, or any matters outside one’s immediate sphere of control.

       My mother had and died of Alzheimer’s at 84 years old, and sadly I tried to keep her in my house until she was endangering herselfand others and beyond our level of care without drastic, critical personal business or career curtailment. So she went into a nursing home. Visiting was a “must do” thing, then with soccer for the kids, landscaping and lawn maintenance at the house, flat exhaustion after a six day 80 hour work week,….well it slipped from mandatory to “should” and then ultimately, to a “man there are just too many things happening and I’m losing it, I need to just relax and calm down. And that was fifteen years ago! Things I fear have denigrated from there. Now we are at the “I wish I  could afford the time  BUT,….” mode, and going down fast.

        Old values of family have declined, old values of “friends” have declined, and we’ve become a nation of iPods with everyone plugged into thier own private channel and oblivious to all else around them, unless it offends them.

        And they are becoming more tolerant of “offense”, it’s just the way it is, “I can’t change it, it’s not my job, and I don;t have time, and if the truth really be known,….ask me if I really care.”

       A commentary on today,…..I sincerely hope not.

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