I sit here in front of this computer trying to figure out what is going on with the world. Every day I see kids being kidnapped, raped, and killed by various methods on my screen.This morning a nice looking young couple was arrested for having enough explosives to take out an apartment building. Every time I drive I get cursed out, cut off, and almost killed by someone talking on their phone. I keep asking myself how did we as a nation get so self centered that no one else matters.I just can not wrap my head around where we are.
My grandparents went through tough times in the 20s and 30s. Raising three children when the only food available was what you grew yourself. If you needed to build a house or barn all the building materials came from the woods. If you didn't have the proper tool or equipment and the neighbor did it would be readily shared.I remember my grandma feeding homeless people on the front steps, not table scraps but as good a meal as we were eating. Neighbors would stop by and chat and it was a common occurrence to just go over to someones house and just visit, see how they were doing and make sure they didn't need anything.
We were not coddled or helicoptered or forced to endure the embarrassment of having your parents shouting at umpires at games. If you wanted to play a sport it was up to you to figure how to get there and back. We were taught respect for everything, people, animals, tools (guns were included in this category). My grandma even told me that you should respect your well. It took until later life to understand what that meant. But if you lived in the country and you used too much water and the well went dry things went to very bad very soon.
As a crusty OFG I don't have all the answers or even some of them but it seems to me many of our problems could be solved with Grandma's advice RESPECT..try it you might like it.....
Doug
