Middle-Aged Reflections

On this, the occasion of my 39th birthday, I have a few things on my mind. Mind you, 39 does not have the significance of 18, 21, 30 or 40. As best as I can figure it (optimistically) I am at the exact half-way point of my life. I work out regularly, I generally eat right and I do not smoke and I seldom drink. I believe if my profession does not kill me I can make it to 78.

Without sounding like some cliche movie, my life has been well-lived up to this point. I made mistakes, many of them. There have been disappointments and missed opportunities but ultimately I would not change anything of significance.

I have traveled the world, I have met people and experienced cultures that most of the world only read about. I have seen all the great wonders and stood where it all began. I have known great men, lived with them and moved in their shadows. Not the great men of industry but men of character and integrity.

I have faced death and found that in those times my faith sustained me. I have experienced hardships that, looking back, I can hardly now imagine, and through it all I remained the man my parents raised me to be.

I was young and wild once and knew women on several continents, but Providence called me back to my upbringing and provided me with a lady to love and cherish.

I am not special, in reality I am just blessed and truly I am nothing more than a miserable sinner forgiven by grace.

I was fortunate to have been born in and spend significant portions of my youth in South Carolina - during a time that the state and her people still retained a sense of culture and identity. To me, it makes perfect sense for beer joints to close at midnight on Saturday and for stores to be closed on Sunday. I fail to see why any self-respecting decent Southerner would see that any different.

I recall the utter joy of hearing the regimental band play "Dixie" Friday afternoons as we cadets marched off the parade field. That meant the weekend was about to officially begin and we acknowledged that fact with a hearty rebel yell. I fail to see why anyone should have a problem with such a practice.

I remember a time when real men spoke their mind and said the truth as they saw it. There was no thought of labeling a person for ideas and words - only deeds mark the tenor of a man. I fail to see how our current gender-neutral, politically-correct speech is an improvement on what was.

I remember my childhood home in which my mother spent 18 years of my life being my mother full-time. The material things we had my father went out into the world and earned. The intangibles my mother provided every day and every night. I fail to see how mothers dropping their children off for someone else to raise is an improvement on what I enjoyed.

I fail to see the sense in many things that go on in our world today. Frankly I am mad as blazes. Our federal government is run by a bunch of greedy, paternalistic, lying, socialist bastards. Our state governments are run by simpletons and lackeys - not a single statesman resides within their midst. Our population is no better - mindless drones, concerned only with acquiring the latest gadget or trinket. Most of the fools living around us would (and do) mortgage their entire future to debt just to have "things". We are a society of slaves - and we became so because of our own greed.

Politically we have bought into the charade of a two party system that ultimately offers no real choice. There is no real difference in either of the two major parties. Many fools dedicate their lives and efforts to dogmatically defending their side of that common coin but it all springs from a shared ideology - a flawed ideology.

We live in a society that condones and protects the murder of unborn children while at the same time promoting illicit sex and sexuality. Something within the natural order is out of balance.

We will send fellows like me to the Iraq/Syrian border to protect the sovereignty of Iraq but we fail to do anything to really protect our own borders.

We have absolutely no respect for our elders, we treat them as a bother and shuffle them off to a "long term care facility" for someone else to change their diapers. I remember as a very young child folks sitting up with the dead - they were loyal even up to the point the person was buried, they would never consider sending them away when they were still alive. I suppose such loyalties get in the way of "careers".

We preach equality and follow that up with silly quotas and affirmative action plans. Federal judges still to this day rule over local issues and dictate which child goes to what school. We are 40 years past the civil rights movement - it is time for every man to stand on his own merit.

We have taken the "woman's equality" issue entirely too far. Women are not equal to men in all categories - women are better at some things and men are better at others. We let our daughters dress and act like whores and then send them off to college to do who knows what. How is that just? Have fathers completely lost touch with their role in raising and protecting their young ladies?

Men are no longer men - we are much more effeminate. We have homosexuals, metrosexuals and your run of the mill pencil-necked geeks. We have few men that talk straight, act decent and know how to work all day if they had to (real work). We neither protect or respect our women nor do we lead our families through hard-work and good example.

We shuttle our children off to public schools that are little more than statist factories churning out good drones. Little real education occurs within those places - a lot of indoctrination takes place however.

We are a grotesquely fat society, the converse is the plastic narcissistic part of our culture. Each shows the worst sides of human nature, selfishness and greed.

I know most people do not have a clue what I am talking about, I am however informed by my principles and convictions. The world is turned upside down. It all makes me mad - but more so sad. My children deserve much better.