Those of us who are older have experiences to share in areas that time never changes. We also have areas where we can and need to update our thinking, which is where you young ‘uns can help us. We have REASONS for the way we think, and you have REASONS for the way you think, but we don’t seem to share those in a non-confrontational, non-judgmental forum. This looks like a place where that could happen.

If we don’t share our reasons, we leave them open to interpretation by others. An example: My dad would never buy us a coke when we went on the long trip to our grandparents’ farm. He would buy one coke and we each (all 7 of us) got one swallow. He said that if we were thirsty, we could get a drink from the water fountain. He never shared the reason behind his actions, so we applied our own interpretation—he’s just mean and doesn’t want us to have our own coke. Forty years later, he made the statement that he refused to pay a quarter for something he could have at home for a dime. He was making a sound financial decision for his family, but because he never explained, we misinterpreted his actions. I even wrote a poem about that a few years back.

Lesson Learned

When I was much too young to know
The value of money and things,
Dad would buy one tiny coke,
And we would all get a drink.

“If you’re thirsty, you’ll drink water.”
The swallow of coke was a treat.
We’d pass it around between us
As we sat in our car’s back seat.

We didn’t know it at the time
The lesson we needed to learn…
Drink water out, when it is free,
And save the money you’ve earned.

It doesn’t make sense to me for us to wait until somebody “steps in it” before we offer ways to avoid stepping in it altogether. I see your “blog” as a place where we can pass along things of value that pertain to OUR lives and OUR worldview, and NOT where we blindly forward all that junk mail that floats along through the cosmos. It seems like a place where if you find something that “speaks to you,” you could share it and let folks know why it speaks to you. And then we could all talk about it. I like to know what makes people tick. Lord knows I have been trying to figure out what makes me tick for over 50 years.

God has allowed me to experience many things in my life, both happy and sad, and I believe His purpose in allowing them to happen to me is so that I can share them with others, and perhaps make a positive difference in their lives.

Mucho-love Dean!