Now Is When I Want to Live

Cathy and great grandmother
Effie.

A couple of postings back I wrote about "Is the World Getting Better or Is the World Getting Worse?"  Today I talked with a person who believes life is definitely worse.  Well, I didn't actually talk with him.  I listened and listened and listened.

I believe that, by almost every measurement we can make, life here on earth is better.  Yes, I know that there are individual circumstances that make life miserable for some.  I've just read Jimmy Carter's excellent new book on how awful life is for many women around the world.  We need to work to fix that - and many other things that are broken - but they can be fixed if we chose to do it.

Max and great grandmother, Cess.

On the other hand, life is good in so many ways.  Here's an example:  Here is a photo of my grandmother and my baby daughter, taken around 1963.  My grandmother had 13 children and a life of hard physical labor.  It shows.  She died soon after this photo was taken.  When I asked what had happen, it was explained to me that she died of old age.

Here I am a week or so ago with my great grandson.  We are about the same ages as the folks in the other photo.  There are all sorts of "better" things going on in this photo.

And I have no intention of dying of old age any time soon.


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