Face it. My blog has not gone/will not go viral. I rather like it that way, low on the radar. I can write whatever I think and not expect blowback the next day, probably never. It turns out that the lively dialogues that I really enjoy occur on Facebook, not here. Facebook is where I (and many others) turn for human contact. Facebook is where I play Scrabble and argue with grandkids and their ilk about global warming, or evolution, God or no God, Obamanation or Abomination. Its amazing how much they think they know. Without Facebook how would I keep up with the greatgrandkids I’ve never seen, like Caleb in New Hampshire and Aiden Lux in Florida?
We’ve seen a sea-change in society, we old ones. We remember a time when we left our keys in the ignition and didn’t lock our house doors. A time when children played outdoors (in the street), walked to school unaccompanied, and played with each other instead of with little machines. A time when most people lived by the Ten Commandments, whether they knew them or not. I have read that people today have some lingering morality that is a hangover from the time when we had a Christian society, but it is gradually wearing off and having a diminishing effect. When you think there is no God and no after-life, it makes sense to take and enjoy what you want when you want it, because it’s now or never.
It does not seem possible I could not have known what a lesbian was until after I was married! (Nowadays children read about Heather and her Two Mommies in kindergarten!) Though I truly loved my best girlfriends, it could never have occurred to me to have sex with them. We all eventually married and have the children to show for it.
More and more often I turn off the TV as a waste of time. Who knows how much time I have left! I find my musing time to be my most valuable time, you know, pondering eternal verities or intimate relationships, looking for insights, I guess you might even call it prayer time. Believe it or not, life at 90 is still exciting. Just a few months ago a student from Kenya, studying for his doctorate at Rutgers, asked to “Friend” me on Facebook. I wrote back one word: “Why?” It turned out he had read my article on MercatorNet saying that evolution cannot/does not explain how the differentiation in sexes came about. As far as I know, this young man in Manhattan and I are the only two people in the universe with the same ideas on the subject! A kindred spirit!
Another exciting online discovery this past year was what I consider to be the best-ever proof of God from design in a PowerPoint by an Indian blogger. Also I was very happy to discover that Nick Vujucic, an Australian who I have written about before, who has no arms and no legs, has married and is expecting a baby boy!
The first day of my 90th year (7/11/12) latest greatgrandson, Aiden, was born. Here he is today, almost one year old, in a Father’s Day photo with his Daddy, Robert Beck. I have yet to meet this child in person.

This year I have broken a toe and have had three facial malignancies removed. I am impressed with how this old body still heals itself. Six months after breaking my toe the toenail was still black. When I mentioned that to Mary she insisted on seeing it immediately. I think she feared her mother might be walking about with a gangrenous toe. Yes, the toenail was black, but the flesh around it was pink and healthy. It was April Fool’s day when the toenail got caught on my bedclothes. Lo and behold, it was loose and I lifted the whole toenail off, entire, painlessly, leaving behind a fresh new pink toenail. My face, too, shows little sign of surgery on the malignancies. Then, too, I lost a molar after 80 years of faithful service and am currently coping with a new, updated denture that used to attach to that molar!
Granddaughter Amy had a December wedding that was extraordinarily beautiful and I think I have raved quite enough about it. My friend from the Rescue days, Anne Fitzpatrick, died this past year. We became acquainted in 1988 when we slept next to each other on a mat on the gym floor at Niantic prison. A widow, she remarried and we went to her wedding. Following an accident we visited her often at a nursing home in Springfield. She was a good friend. Rest in peace, Annie.
I would be seriously amiss if it did not here put in a plug for a book by another aged blogger, Leona Choy, who at 88 is still not only blogging away but writing and publishing actual print-and-paper books. I recently finished her Living It Up which was so chockful of wise advice and pithy comments (which I was tempted to use as my own) I figured I might as well just recommend the whole book. If you have an aging parent, relative, friend in a nursing home, anyone old you’d like to do a nice thing for, get them Leona’s Living It Up.
A recent snapshot of the times we live in took place in Texas. A bill was passed by the Texas House yesterday stating that unborn babies could not be aborted after 20 weeks, at which time we know they feel pain. The bill also required abortion clinics to be duly inspected and have access to a hospital in case of emergency. Pro-choicers attempted to shout down speakers by chanting “Hail, Satan,” and pro-lifers responded by singing “Amazing Grace.” Every day the lines are being more clearly drawn.
I am sad about what is happening to our beautiful nation, “sweet land of liberty.” I lament with Hamlet:
O God! O God!
How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world!
Fie on’t! O fie! ’tis an unweeded garden,
That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature
Possess it merely. That it should come to this!
Padre Pio’s advice gives me some peace: “Pray. Hope. Don’t worry.” We did not make ourselves or put ourselves in this world. The God who made us has shown us the way and is worthy of our trust.
And as life slows down and I find myself less able and less in charge I remember Milton “On his Blindness.”
God does not need
Either man’s work or his own gifts,
Who best bear his mild yoke they serve him best.
His state is kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed
And post o’er land and ocean without rest;
They also serve who only stand and wait.
After five years my blogging is slowing down but I’m not quite ready to close up shop. After all, I have new computer and my driver’s license was just renewed last month for another six years!
Stay tuned.
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