The lite of
my days now in Landers is a big black cigar.
My doctors rag on me about this nasty habit but what do they know? Their cautionary tale is worth the listening
and I have limited my number of smokes a month but the habit continues to
shine. In the wheeling and dealing of
life, another truism has proven to be just as creditable. Haven’t you noticed, if you are old enough, it
just seems that “the good die young”? There are exceptions but life in this
bewildering world just seems to work out that way. We old geezers know our
place and our status.
My deceased
wife Karen was just such a shining light in this world. She had enormous personal
charisma to whom people gravitated because she saw and lived for the best
interest of others. I have come to
understand that this quality is the goal of every truly spiritual person but I have
been so slow to get the message. This
dunderhead never seemed to get beyond himself while she was with us and that is
the great failing of my life.
We lived in
a number of places and when we looked around she would comment on how this or
that structure had potential, it was almost a joke between us but not really a
joke. The positive qualities she saw in the
most uninhabitable situations and people were always only a matter of nurturing
potential. This quality made her an exceptional
nursing manager, wife and mother to two wonderful children. Karen missed it with me for I was stuck in my
own self-interest but her faith in us lives on.
Somehow this
world judged her rightly and she will be ever dearly missed.
G. Goslaw
Landers, Ca
