I never watch the news – unless I just happen to be somewhere that it’s on and that doesn’t happen but once in a blue moon. I don’t pick up the newspaper. It’s too damaging to my spirit to even try to fade through the blackness that surrounds our society as we race headlong in no direction and kill our children and selves as we blindly push forward forgetting there is no finish line.

I do read AARP – I refer to it as the ‘Old Fart’s Magazine” – and the wealth of information in it is all around general use and news for every one of every age that can comprehend what they read. Perhaps I’m an ostrich with my head in the sand because I’m not informed about world events and happenings. Perhaps I’m saving myself by not knowing. I really can’t deal with most of ‘the news’.

I still have people ask me, “What’s going on?” and I hate that because it’s a canned query where they really don’t want an answer, they just want to make some idle comment and slide out of the situation of facing what’s going on. My candid reply is, “Lots of things!” And sometimes I switch it up with, “Everything!” But all of that doesn’t even begin to jog them out of their reverie and complacency with life and how they treat themselves, the earth, and our children’s future on a planet that deserves much more than we are committing to right now.

I had these thoughts long before I became a granny. I’ve wondered how the children of today would survive in the future – when my children were children. It’s scary.

This little cherub face spent the afternoon with me and even though she’s a whole four weeks old, we’ve already agreed never to lie to each other and to always make time for each other:

I spent a lot of yesterday evening (before the traffic from hell got me) playing Cactus Bruce with this guy. Sure he’s hooked, I got him on one of my favorite computer, no brain, smacking monkey games and he’s got pretty decent mouse control and reaction for a 3 + year old toddler. Of course I play through some of the levels and let him smack the last few monkeys left. We love it! Big cheers and applause as we both scream, “Woo hoo! Yipppeee!” And when the monkeys win the round, we simply say, “They got me!” and off we go into the next adventure. He loves Spiderman. He loves the Ninja world, so obligingly, I got him a Halloween costume that isn’t for Halloween, it’s just for fun, anytime wear:

As I laugh with, and enjoy, these two bright spots in my life, I can’t help but wonder what the future holds for them. I suppose it could be tagged as depression of a sort but I can’t find an easy out or solace in the fact that we are human, and we weren’t meant to live forever, and the earth will continue long after we are gone, and all the other things that people seem to comfort themselves with as they build a defense for their actions and what we do to ourselves and our living environment.

In May of the year 2000, I had this page up on PokerWorks: *Begin Page*

Just suppose your house was on fire. You’d try to save your family while trying to get help. The planet we live on isn’t any different than the home we choose to house ourselves and belongings. Our Earth is in trouble. We need a combined effort from everyone to protect the beauty of a planet that we take for granted.

Recycle. Stop water waste. Clean up your garbage and debris. Protect our natural resources. Take a giant step forward for yourself and everyone around you by taking care of our Mother Earth!

*end page*

I made the hokey little graphic with my granddaughter Kayanna – she was 3 + years old at the time. But I still feel the same way about the earth and what we are doing to our living environment.
I can’t help but wonder what will become of our children as they try to forge a life out of what we are leaving behind.