A Place We Don't Want To Lose

      On those rare occasions someone writes me personally about the blog I always sit up and take notice. In my world I never know when someone will provide me with food for thought, or even better, with some fully fleshed out, professionally crafted articles.

     This morning a local MD encouraged me to "keep on writing and bringing us to a place we don't want to lose." This person couldn't have been more spot on. The world which I briefly describe in this blog, and which is fleeing from my memory faster than I might like, is precisely a place I don't want to ever forget. I may not write about all the difficult times but they are all part and parcel of the era.

     When I am drawn to describe today's world in comparison to the one I knew, there is always a part of me which marvels at the simplicity of the times I can recall. In comparison to our new world which I find increasingly more complicated. At times I find life above and beyond my capacity for understanding. When these moments overwhelm I simply recall how my grandfather, an Eye Doctor in Fulton, Missouri might have described it from his window on main Street. Just imagine: He got paid sometimes with chickens and wrote a weekly column for the local paper describing the comings and goings outside the confines of his office. Looking at today's events I believe he would have come down on the side of mask wearing, social distancing, and getting a vaccination. He had been through World War I and knew too well the horrors of a pandemic. He also raised a family during the Great Depression so I think it would have some insights to keep us calm on our current economic calamity. Lastly, he saw the better days when his sons had returned largely unscathed from World War II, became professionals, and settled down to raise families just as he had done.

     The world may well be beyond my capacity to comprehend, but this fact has troubled better people with more worthy minds than mine so I usually can calm myself down these days by recollecting this simple but true observation. No doubt it might be the prescription my grandfather followed during a period of history fraught with the same kind of perils we see today.

     The Kingdom of Callaway County, circa 1944.