Caught in the Middle

Byron Spires

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The Southern Voice

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2 min read

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Jun 29, 2024

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I find myself wanting to know what is going on in the world; however, over the last couple of years, it seems that there has not been much positive happening.

There are some good things, but it’s simply getting harder to find them.

Part of finding good things has been my attitude. It is hard to have a cheerful outlook with so much bad going on around us.

But it is still out there, we just have to look a little harder.

Here are a couple of examples:

My wife and I are great-grandparents. I was shocked when I became a grandparent. It slipped up on me, to be honest. Becoming a great-grandparent, well, to be honest, that really caught me by surprise.

I realized it was time, and my grandchildren got older. As I've been told, it is the natural order of things. It just seems it got here sooner than I thought.

When I was their age and started my family, an older gentleman who worked for me at the time told me he would not bring a child into the world because it was in such bad shape. That was 49 years ago.

If he thought the world was bad then he would be flabbergasted if he saw the world today.

I am a Rotarian, and over the last 25 years, my club, along with other North Florida Rotary Clubs, has supported the Rotary Disability Youth Camp. The camp provides kids with disabilities with a “Real” camp experience with one-on-one counselors. Just as importantly, it gives parents and caregivers some much-needed downtime.

It is worth all the hard work when you see the faces of the kids enjoying the camp, especially the parents who so desperately want their children to have a normal life.

Sometimes we get so caught up in the terrible things around us we forget about the many good folks and good things that are happening.

In other words, we get caught between all the evil and the good. The one thing we can never let go of is Hope. We must hope that things will get better.

I told the fellow years ago. I hoped that the next generation would be able to fix what was wrong.

That is still my hope, but I understand they will have their hands full.