Caught in the Middle

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 going on.

There are some good things, 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 grandchildren got older. It is the natural order of things, so I’ve been told. It just seems it got here sooner than I thought.

When I was their age and started my family, I had an older gentleman that worked for me at the time tell 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 that 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 have supported the Rotary Disability Youth Camp. The camp provides kids with disabilities a “Real” camp experience with one-on-one counselors. Just as importantly the camp gives parents and caregivers some much needed down time.

It is worth all of the hard work when you see the faces of the kids enjoying the camp and especially the parents who so desperately want their child 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 in the middle between all the evil and the good. The one thing we can never let go of is “Hope.’ We must have hope that things will get better.

That is what I told the fellow years ago. It was my hope that the next generation would be able to fix what is wrong.

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