Of Airplanes and Old Men…

The photo is mine, the words are all mom’s…

It is unfortunate that we cannot live our lives as though we were actors in a play, knowing the outcome ahead of time. Instead we have to make judgments and decisions every minute that will determine the next act. Unless it is a one man show, the decisions others make also impact the denouement.

I hope my son illustrates one of these things with a picture of a cute kitten. According to one of the comic strips this morning it would attract more hits than just someone writing her silly memoirs.

Evidently they may have discovered the Higgs-Boson particle with the help of the giant collider in Denmark. This is the so called God particle that caused the big bang that started this veil of tears we call life. Now if they could just find the mastermind behind Higgs-Boson. If you haven’t read about this you might Google ‘giant collider’ and ‘Higgs-Boson‘. Even for the scientifically challenged like me it is kind of interesting.

I am told the world is made up of matter and energy. Even ourselves. Matter and energy never go away. So when we die our matter goes into the ground to become support for the future life of trees etc. Our energy flies off into the universe. Do our minds go with it? Or do they just stop like turning off a light switch? Who knows? How do they know they know? I dwell on this. What do you dwell on?

I have been giving advice all my life. My Mother-in-Law said I deserved a PHA degree: half assed psychiatry. I was neither offended nor deterred.

They say our weather pattern has changed. The East coast is getting really bad winds and heavy snows and tornados. So glad I live in the northwest. We only have a bit of river flooding, an occasional avalanche and earthquakes. I hear it is suppose to rain here a lot. I hadn’t noticed since I am not water soluble.

After 85 years I finally learned a few things about men I wish I had known when I was young. But I am no longer interested in getting married or even shacking up. However, I wouldn’t mind if an interesting male lived next door. As long as he was funny, intelligent, worldly, mobile and compos mentis.

Everything in the world is potentially dangerous. Even thought, if it is expressed in the wrong place or time, can threaten one’s life.

Most of us do not fear everything all of the time. To do so would label us mentally unstable or emotionally unbalanced.

Fear can make you a prisoner or prevent your children from becoming confident adults.

Put your children’s safety in God’s hands and let them learn by making mistakes.

After flying commercial aircraft confidently through high school and college I suddenly became terrified of it after I got married. It was so bad I once went into shock during turbulence. Because I had an opportunity to fly on occasion I knew I had three choices: to not fly, to see a psychiatrist or get myself over it. I decided to get myself over it.  My first method was to have a martini in the airport bar and a drink or two on the flight. I hated not arriving sober. Method number two was to get drugs from my doctor and my dentist. A really bad idea. There was just one way: cold sober. Keep flying, but face the fear head on. It took a while but eventually it worked. And I bought a lot of life insurance just in case.

Shirley McClain once said she handled turbulence by zapping the plane with a golden light. I tried it, it worked and I zap everything now with a golden, white or blue light depending on the difficulty of the problem.

We all have the ability to handle our problems if we just do it.

-Jean Clarice Walsh