I want to have a party. I want it to be a party like no other party I’ve ever been to. This will be a party that will set the standard for all parties to come after it anywhere in the world.

Given what I want this party to do, I’m not sure how to plan it. There probably won’t be a lot of dancing at this party, in the beginning anyway. I’m hopeful that merriment will break out before everything is over.

Enough delaying let’s prepare the guests list. I’m inviting hate and love, sorrow and joy, anger and happiness, deceit and transparency, humility and narcissism, diversity and xenophobia. That’s a pretty good list. I think I’ll ask each of these characters to invite others who they regularly associate with.

This party will have a goal. I’ll leave it to the guests to figure it out. The primary rule will be no shouting, no name calling, listen actively and try not to spill wine on the carpet.

Who doesn’t like a good party? I hope they all have a fine, personality-evaluating time. This will be the first time for all of them.

Old and Blessed

The late Malcom Jamal Warner, aka, Theo Huxtable, just wanted to be a regular person in one of the episodes of the TV show The Huxtables. He had no idea what it meant to be a regular person. He thought if he didn’t have an advanced degree like his father and mother, he could have a regular nine-to-five, making a decent salary life would be simple.

Theo was lost in a world of make believe. Yes, there is a make-believe world where people think they can live as regular people, without stress.

Look around. It’s the regular people who are fundamental to our society. They do the cleaning, collect the garbage, cook the food, harvest the crops, do the things that are critical. They struggle, while politicians balk at creating laws to move them from surviving paycheck to paycheck.

Regular people. They are worth so much more. How much? Imagine waking up one morning and all the regular people have mysteriously disappeared.

Old and Blessed

I was sitting in my man cave watching one of my favorite television shows and my enjoyment was interrupted by a news update. It’s happened again. It happens often. The regularity with which it happens these days makes its predictability easy for almost anyone.

Will it ever stop? Not until the flow of dead presidents and the power associated with them become less important.

Old and Blessed

Is there anything so mysterious, so powerful, so enveloping of time and space? It covers time and space, here and now, and it lays claim to future venues with and without thought.

It’s beautiful in so many ways, yet it acts as a tool for all that’s dark. Hate, envy, greed, and all that’s its enemy uses it to kill, maim and destroy.

All cultures on earth have ideas about how they should use it. Depending on the time of the day or the day of the week, it’s used to eat, sleep, work, and perform an innumerable number of human activities.

It’s abused, misused, not treated as the most precious of gifts, the universal treasure it is. And though we treat it with wholesale disregard; it refuses to surrender. It has powers of sustainability we cannot fathom.

If we were to treat it as it should be, wouldn’t we change the population of the entire earth for the better? Wouldn’t we direct all the world’s resources toward human development everywhere? Of this, I’m not certain, but I would like to see this experiment tried during my lifetime.

Old and Blessed

Human beings are complicated. They are curious. They are adventurous. They love. They hate a variety of things, including themselves. They are communal. They are tribal. They are peaceful. They are violent. They love to play. They love to rest. They praise each other. They criticize each other. They tend to live in the trees, not aware that the forest offers untold diversity that’s good for the larger community.

There is one thing that human beings don’t understand and that is that they, with their large brain, are to be good stewards of all they see. How complicated can that be?

Old and Blessed

It has an invaluable quality that we don’t often appreciate. It could mend emotional wounds, bond two diverse minds when coupled with honest communication.

It’s not prayed for enough; therefore, it’s not party to many a confab. Parties sit down at the table hopeful that it will feel comfortable to participate, and they do all they can to push it out, to make it feel worse than the elephant in the room.

We find ourselves longing for it, but we make it feel like that left foot that never seems to place itself in the center of the beat. If it were given a chance, we might find ourselves dancing gracefully more often toward a peaceful space.

Old and Blessed

Hello, self. It’s a beautiful morning. I’m going to take a shower. I’m going to have a wonderful breakfast just how I like it. I’m going to prepare myself for going out to have the world meet me. I’m going to wear that new suit I bought yesterday.

Good evening, self. It would have been a beautiful day if all the people I met understood what I had to offer. All of them seemed distant and not interested in anything I had to say. I guess they all had a bad day. Except for all the unreceptive attitudes I met, I had a wonderful day.

I will have dinner, read a bit and take a good night’s rest so I can present my best self to the world tomorrow.

Old and Blessed

What an interesting word. Where are we safe today?

Just as we think we’re floating, coasting, enjoying the ride unhampered, unthreatened, then comes something in the neighborhood, in the city, in the country, in the world that shakes things up.

Are we guaranteed safety? Our country has the biggest guns but are we safe? Doesn’t that just make us the fastest gunslinger, who’s always on the lookout for a challenger, who’s anxious to make a name for himself?

Are you safe? And if you think you are. From what are you safe from? Are you safe from the rowdy juvenile on the street, the mentally disturbed neighbor who has a warehouse of guns, or the government you didn’t elect.

Safe. What an interesting word. What’s your zip code?

Old and Blessed

Good is when you put a spoon full of homemade vanilla ice cream in your mouth on a hot and humid summer day.

Good is even better when you share a spoon full of homemade vanilla ice cream with someone else on a hot and humid summer day.

Share your blessings.

Old and Blessed

We’re born. We die. We start. We finish. We begin. We experience an end. We journey. Our journey ends. We see the sun rise. We see the sun set.

We begin the year in January. We see the year end in December. We see the beginning of each season of the year, and we see the end of each.

Borrowing from Admiral Michael Burnham, who began her journey on the Star Ship Discovery, “Everything ends someday.” Whether we’re ready for that eventuality or not.

We can’t always choose the beginning, nor the end; however, if we’re blessed to do so, we can make the middle count. We can do our best to love and serve. And though the end may seem too soon and sad, we, or the ones we leave behind can cherish the memories of the middle.

Everything ends someday.