The Clock is Clicking

I went to bed last night and woke up 38 years later. No, this is not the plot for a science fiction movie. But, dang, it feels like it is. Time passes so fast. Before you know it, you no longer have all the time in the world to do what you want.

Unfortunately, when this realization becomes crystal clear, it is impossible to go back and take the time to do those things that have become so important now but were of little significance then. “If only” becomes one of the major laments of those who begin to understand that an opportunity once lost can not be recovered. Friendships lost through neglect are difficult to repair and polish to their once brilliance. Financial plans developed and conceived when the “time was right” can not be completed now because the time has run out. Career goals, travel adventures, sights and people to see all become part of the “if only” lists of lost opportunities.

To be fair, one must admit some plans were stalled by the unforeseen or underestimated; such as family expenses, illness, school expense, work load, and so on. Certainly one has to prioritize dreams and goals. But that’s not really what I am talking about. Perhaps a few examples will suffice.

My mother lived 20 minutes from me and I didn’t see her or call her, often for a week at a time. My grandfather died and I couldn’t be bothered to come home from college for his funeral. I knew the importance of funding an IRA but couldn’t find $10 a month to put into one. I wanted to earn my PhD in Political Science and teach on the college level but wanted a new car and a job more. My dad was in the VA hospital in my college town and I visited him once in two months. I lived less than two hours from my mother and father and didn’t see them for two years until my dad died.

Who is that Super Woman?

I went grocery shopping the other day.  “Honey", she said sweetly, "we need to do more things together.” “Okay, I’ll go shopping with you.”  If I had it to do all over again, knowing what I know now, I would find some other way to spend more time with my beloved, like skydiving or auto racing at 200 miles an hour.

Let me go on record: my wife is a good cook. She works and we eat out a fair amount of time, but when she is cooking, my mouth waters in anticipation.  What she puts into the food or whether it is “good” for me or what it costs are not important.  Do I have enough time to savor this meal is all I feel compelled to ask.

Back to the grocery store.  Since I eat cereal for breakfast with some banana slices on top,  I picked out a couple of boxes of cereal and carried them to the cart.  Nothing in life prepared me for her questions.  “What’s the price? Did you check to see if they were 2 for the price of 1? How much fat is in them? What is the sodium content? How many grams of carbohydrates are in each serving?  How big is a serving? Can you eat just one serving amount?” and the topper, “Let me see if I have a coupon for that specific cereal.”  Then she informed me, with a self confident grin, “I have a coupon and they are cheaper at Kroger so I will pick them up on Tuesday which is Senior Day.”   All I wanted was a box of cereal!

As so the time we spend together at the grocery store went like that through the canned goods, the lunch meats, and the produce, “I’ve seen bananas for 39¢ a pound at Harris Teeter.” I searched through hundreds of coupons to find one worth 25¢ for a tube of toothpaste. Not only must you find the right coupon but it must not have expired yet. Huh! I learned you don’t squeeze peaches you smell them to see if they have a peachy smell. You thump watermelon and gently squeeze oranges and search for a hard head of lettuce.

If I had a Million dollars

With the Tennessee lottery, it is common for folks to dream about winning an enormous sum of money. Would you take the lump sum, or would you opt for the security of a guaranteed payout of the full amount for 20 years? How much would taxes cut into the amount? More importantly, what would you do with the money after all taxes are paid? Everyone, even the good Southern Baptist among us, have pondered these questions.

When my kids were young, we would play a game with them. “What would you do with a million dollars?” Their young eyes would light up at the prospect of, what seemed like, an unlimited amount of money. As they named the items they mentioned, we would put a value on it and subtract it from the total. First a new house for Mom and Dad, value $65,000 (remember this was back when $1 million was worth $1 million), a new TV, at least a 21”, and new bikes, and a new car, one of those new Vans. And so on the game went until they ran out of things to buy. We always gently reminded them to remember to give to the church and give to a charity. They gleefully agreed but only after they had “bought” all the other stuff as well.

We laughed about our “purchases” and moved on to the next task like real shopping, my personal favorite, ugh. Over the years, the items changed as did their understanding of the value of things. Things like prom dresses, a fantastic vacation, a computer, and so on replaced their earlier choices. I like to imagine what their “purchases” would be today with, say, $10 million. I suspect church and college funding for their children would be higher on the list than a new home for Mom and Dad, as they should be. It would be interesting to see how their values changed as their years and maturity levels increased.

In The Beginning, God or Mother Nature?

Perhaps a little disclaimer is appropriate. I was born and raised in the middle of the Bible Belt, baptized at age 10, leader of my church youth groups in high school and college, have done some part time preaching and belong to a Southern Baptist Church. If you want to say my opinions toward the debate between evolution and creationism are somewhat slanted toward creationism, you would be correct. So it is with this disclaimer that I want to give my thoughts on the subject.

It is safe to say the scientific and "educated" communities firmly believe in the evolutionary development of the Earth and all creatures, plants, etc that make up our World. To suggest otherwise, is considered misinformed at best and ignorant at worst. But what is the opinion of those who question the majority opinion? Can we be evolutionary agnostics?

These are some of the questions I have for evolution.

1. When did the human species develop a conscience? If at some time during the evolutionary process, a conscience was developed in the human creature it must have been as the result of natural selection. That is, it's development had to offer a means of protecting the human otherwise the creature with conscience would not have survived, at least that is the position of evolution.

If conscience thought and the resulting ability to plan, communicate, remember, envision, have emotions and imagination, were helpful for the human creature to survive, why have none of the other creatures on Earth also developed a conscience to help in their survival?

You would think that over the several billion years of evolution, at least one other creature would have developed the ability to think, plan, remember, imagine, communicate and so on. Sadly, other creatures do not show the same level of development of conscience thought as humans.

Evolution is not selective, or is it?

2. Now this one is a bit far out, I admit. I went to the zoo the other day with my granddaughter. We happened to be observing the birds at the time when she asked an interesting question. She said, "Gramp, why are there so many different birds?" My simple answer was, "Because God wanted to have a lot of birds." That satisfied the five year old mind but it has hung around in this old man's head for a while.

When you think of the creatures of the Earth, there are a wide variety within most of the different species. Thousands of birds, multiple thousands of insects, numerous dogs, felines from lions to tabby cats, snakes and my personal favorites a lot of different fish.

Why so many different varieties within other creatures but only one variety of human? Yes, I am aware of Causians and Negro (No Virginia, this is not a dirty word, it is actually the correct word for those we call African-Americans) and Orientials. Within each there is a variety of skin colors, eye colors, heights and weights but not the wide difference found in other species.

With evolution causing the different turtles (Darwin first postulated his theory after observing different turtles on Easter Island.) and numerous birds, why haven't different human creatures been developed? You know what I mean, huge giants, tiny humans, ones who can reporduce without mating (That's another article.), ones with extrodinary hearing and vision, maybe even ones with an extra arm or extra eyes in the back of their head (as my mother also seemed to have.).

Is there something special about humans that has limited the number of extreme varieties to one?

3. I'm tired of thinking now. More later. My granddaughter and grandson want to go swimming. They swim like a fish, you know. I guess that is why I love them!

What do you think?

That's my View From the Fall.