A Christmas Essay

 

Peaceful or perfect or perhaps even pleasant. None of this will be experienced this Christmas by many. None of this will be experienced this December. None of this will be experienced this year or even, for some, next year and beyond.

Sinister shadows of sorrow are cast all over the world. More than 110 armed conflicts are currently ‘on-the-go’ on our little blue planet and that will be all that can be seen for some. No peace.

The blind indifference to the news is mind blowing. Even I am guilty now of switching channels to not face the reality of life on earth.

War and famine have been around since the dawn of time. The big difference is we didn’t have to know about it throughout five plus thousand years of recorded history. Now the horrors of armed conflict are broadcast, live at times, in our homes. It’s even in our pockets. It can all be seen.

What won’t be seen is the courage that will be on display all over the world in the coming weeks as many see their holiday celebrations marred by misery and mayhem. There’re over ten different celebrations taking place and not one of them is to celebrate war, famine, death, destruction or desire. Not one.

Christians will celebrate the birth of Jesus. Jews celebrate Hanukkah in remembrance of God’s provision. Then there’s Kwanzaa. Buddhism is also celebrated through him attaining enlightenment. It’s a long list.

The power of prayer is strong, as some believe. I can only imagine that power unleashed. What if, at high-noon GMT, on the eve of the Gregorian calendar flipping the page of history to 2024, everyone took a moment, all at the same time, and spent one whole minute focussing on one word: peace. That will be at 07:00AM where I live in Canada. I’m in.  Are you?

23 June 2023 ~ SIXTY-FIVE; TODAY

If you are younger than that, you might put me into a category of ‘really old’.  Not!

If you’re older than that, you may think it’s no big deal.  Well, driving your car around is no big deal either; but that day when you passed your driving test… milestone!  Celebration.  Recognition.  Jubilation.  After that you just get on with it. 

That is what sixty-five means to me today.  A bit of a celebration and then onwards and upwards.

Dad died in his fifties and his dad in his sixties.  I am hoping to attain a seventyish number on my stone, preferably high seventies!

Much like yourselves I have held several different titles in my life.  Some are professional, some are family titles, some titles aren’t repeatable!  My most coveted title is grandad (English spelling) to Jack; this young man has changed my outlook on life in a most dramatic manner.  

Here’s the facts about sixty-five.  By the time you get here you should have achieved certain things with all your journeys round the sun.  Your career is sorted, hopefully you have a home sorted.  In fact, most things should be sorted to a certain extent.  Why?  Because you can’t just get through each year of your life, you need to get something from each year of your life; that’s called achievement.

What comes next at sixty-five for me?  More of the same.  I’m still doing what I love.  The small group of professionals that I work with at Flightline Training Services is incredibly rewarding and I love being able to train Aircraft Maintenance Engineers all over the world using greenscreen technology from my home studio/office/man-cave.  I have occasional travel instead of constant travel.

My new goal in life is to earn the love and respect of my beautiful grandson, Jack.  I am even back into diaper changing.  I want to show Jack how to skip stones.  I want to show him the North Star and how to use the night skies to find his way.  I want him to learn to play my own grandad’s ukelele and his own grandad’s guitar.  I want to watch this nine-months old beautiful boy grow into a man of character.  I want to be able to stand tall, by his side when he is all grown up and strong.  I want him to want to change my diaper if that day ever comes.  No hurry, too much fun to be had first, and achievements.

Truly humbled by all the birthday wishes, and it’s true that I do enjoy a bit of recognition now and then; but don’t we all on occasion?  Let there be many more, for all of us.  Cheers to that!

Dad; Grandad: The Difference

 

I was born, at a very young age, a little over sixty-four years ago.  Just twenty-eight hours into the Summer of 1958.  And now it is Autumn 2022.  My first grandchild, Jack, was born with just a few hours left in the Summer of 2022.  Both of us are summer babies; we’re practically twins.  Getting old does come with its perks; wisdom, pains, enlightenment, aches, new fillings for old, I could go on.
 
I entered as a toothless son and grandson.  I shall exit as a dad and a grandad but not sure about the tooth situation just yet.  Getting from grandson to grandad is, indeed, one of life’s miracles.  Just as there is the miracles of the seasons, there is the miracle of life.  Life is such a short word for such a big deal, no matter how dilemmic it may become.
 
So different is the native New Yorker who visits with an old friend in Toronto.  Upon answering the door, the difference is immediate; one said “how’re ya doin’ eh?” and the other said “heyyy, how ya doin’?”  Now clearly this has no bearing on what I am writing about, but I digressed again.
 
As for the difference between a dad and a grandad; I have finally discovered the answer.  Such wisdom!  Dad looks in the crib to see if baby is still asleep, whereas grandad looks in the crib to see if baby is awake yet; it’s time to play!

 

EIIR:CIIIR; MY BLOG

 

Global Synergy, in the passing of HM Queen Elizabeth II, is astonishing; and at a time when there are many other worldly disasters taking place; Pakistan is under water.  Wildfires cast their fiery destruction all over the world.  The list is truly ad infinitum.

Disasters, like grief, know no boundaries; religion, real estate, social standing means naught.

This sweet, dear 96-year-old great-grandmother was my first real boss.  As an airman in the RAF, I wore her crown in the hat on my head for 12 years.  To be fair, the latter years it was usually on my car rear window’s shelf; such was my youthful rebellious self.  But it was always available to grab when you needed to go to SHQ.  Except there was this one day when I reached for it and it was heavier than normal, having been filled with lead shot weight.  This made it hard to wear correctly on your head due to gravity.  It was my fault because I’d superglued the lid on my mate’s lunch box forcing him to cut into it to get his sandwiches that lunchtime.  He decided afterwards he would cut into my beret.  But I digress.

Mine was a heavy beret for about 20 minutes.  Nothing in comparison to the weight of the crown on her head for 70 years.  At just 26 years old she also bore on her shoulders, the weight of her robe, her role, her people, and her own family.

Remarkable.

Thank you, Ma’am, for your service, your duty and for showing me the greatest lesson on how to behave.  You have shown me how to be.

May you rest in peace: And rise in Glory

God Save The King

MILD - AGE - LAMENT; MAJOR - AGE - GRATITUDE

23 June 2022 ~ MILD - AGE - LAMENT; MAJOR - AGE - GRATITUDE

“It sucks to be eight.”  The response of our youngest when her request was turned down by her mom.  That 8-year-old now has her own wings and is a flight attendant.  Our older daughter is expecting her first child this September.  Both enjoying life in their upper 20s.  Our oldest is a boy; well, he’s a man in his early 30s and is enjoying his career in the military.

Where does that leave me and my lovely bride, Jane, of 36 years?  Old.  Not Jane; me!  She’s still a foxy lady in her 50s.

My version of old, when young, was turning 64, a-la Beatles.  I am bloody here!   I have arrived!  My brain is ‘time-locked’ in my 30s/40s, but my body knows where I am on the old-geezer scale.  Though wiser with age, the trade off is living in an older body, that took a beating as a younger body.  When I was living in that younger body it allowed me to go crazy; I played all kinds of sports with football (soccer) as my favourite.  Mobility was only ever an issue when wearing a plaster cast from a sports injury; I had a few of those.   Along the way I accrued a couple of replacement artificial knees and there’s other hardware (plates, screws, etc.) in various locations.

Mild-Age-Lament

Therefore, my mild lament on age is just that; mild. I am slower now than I was then. But, at 56 years older than 8, I can still get from here to there. The treatment is easy for an ageing body; move it. I would prefer to live in a younger body, but you can’t, however by exercising daily, I still have periods of the day where all aches and pains are drowned out by the endorphins of well-being because I am so mobile and still able to exercise.

This mild lament is not about me living in an older body, it is more on watching others living in younger bodies and not using them to their full potential.  Not everyone, of course.  But I would love to be able to run a 10K again.

Major-Age-Gratitude

Age is the ever-changing sum of the constant totalling of time.  With age, I have lost friends and family members.  Some took their natural course of events; others were cruelly mis-managed by the sands of time.

For me, my nemesis of age is just a worn-down body from enjoying life to its fullest.  No regrets.  And incredible gratitude for my health and my life and my 64th birthday!

Still, when I must go up the two flights of stairs to retrieve an item at home, I always ask myself whether it could wait until I really need to!

COVID; COUP DE MAIN

COVID; COUP DE MAIN

Sitting and pondering all things COVID-19.  WHO declared this deadly virus as a global pandemic on 11 March 2020.  So, if top scientists all over the world have figured out exactly what is needed in order to combat said virus; like telling us to mask up and wash up and keep your distance or stay home; why would some “nations’” leader think they’re smarter than said experts?  Let’s remind ourselves that a leader, at least in democratised nations, is essentially a public servant of the people!

Now, a tremendously lousy leader would deny their expert advisors and decide they are not as smart as the all-wise-all-knowing leader; and it certainly makes the leader look very… sort of… ‘leadery’ doesn’t it.  Okay then; the leader knows better in everything.

As I write it’s 30 June 2020 and this virus is getting quite worse in some places here in North America.  It is 100+ days later and we don’t have it fully contained; this is too big of a mistake!

I am an AME and I deal in the maintenance of aircraft.  We get diseases on our aircraft too; corrosion for example – and let’s not forget Cladosporium Resinae!  But I digress.  If we had an issue with an aircraft’s system, and we had to troubleshoot to fix it, we wouldn’t continually repeat the same process over in order to find the fault; you gotta change it up a bit until you get the right fit! 

It is now self evident to be true that I know two things about the medical/biological world; one is nothing and the other is naff all.  But let me tell you what I figured out; if you wear a mask it will slow down the virus, which will help us all eventually break free again.  I know this and I’m a self declared dumb-ass of ‘medicsy’ stuff!

It’s bad enough a leader would be in contempt of their expert advisors.  But surely when this dumb-ass has listened to the same advisors and come up with the same conclusion as they have; it would beg the same question time and time again.

And so, I ask this question to any world leader who has managed to read down this far; wouldn’t it just piss you off, if you are/were a leader, to discover that even the dumb-ass people below you have all got this figured out and you don’t?  You, leader, are somewhat non compos mentis when it comes down to two very important things; one is COVID and the other is common sense.  Mask-up, wash-up, keep your social distance when out, and if you don’t need to go out please stay home.

We’ve already had one coup de main when COVID-19 struck the world.  Let’s have another global coup de main by having everybody wear a mask; at least!

 

definition of insanity;

Doing the same thing over and expecting a different outcome

 ~~~ Albert Einstein

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definition of life;

Life is the struggle to keep death at a respectable distance.  Death wants to move in prematurely. Life's job is to keep pushing back!

 ~~~ Jim Rohn

CELEBRATION; LOVE, LIFE, MEMORIES

It was a year ago, in England, on a late summer’s day; Saturday 15th September 2018 to be exact. Helen, my lovely bride’s sister, was getting married to Elaine. And when they tied the knot in front of family and friends, it was a day worthy of celebration. We also celebrated the lives of the brides’ fathers whilst cutting the cake. Sadly, Jack and Les are no longer with us; and yet there they were, front and centre, with photos of their handsome faces smiling back at their daughters by the cake. It truly was a day when love was celebrated in all its glory. A day that showed all in attendance that love is love and it really is all around us.  Their dads can rest easy knowing they love, and are loved, by each other.

Now, one year later, Helen, Elaine, Jane and I had more milestones to celebrate; to do so, we all met up in Mexico. We celebrated love and life once again. Jane and I had our 33rd anniversary, Helen her 50th birthday and Helen and Elaine’s 1st anniversary. And where better to do all this than in paradise itself. 

For me, personally, it was an opportunity to spend some time with Elaine. Usually when we go back to England, to visit everyone, the pace is brisk to say the least. It is a time when Elaine is constantly busy with all the laundry and the ironing and the putting of the kettle on and the making of teas and coffees; she never stops! But here, under beautiful Mexican skies, we had a chance to chat and chuckle and get to know each other better. Helen has certainly picked someone special with Elaine; a beautiful lady inside and out.

The Yucatán Peninsular is spectacular; especially along the Maya Riviera. No need to search for paradise anymore; we found it just south of Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo, Mexico. Sun, sand, cervezas and celebrations! And when that sun rises above the horizon of the Caribbean Sea it’s a sight to behold! On the beach at 9:00PM we watched newly hatched turtles scurry from their nests towards the sea under the light of a full moon. More new life happening right before our eyes.

Cervezas and sunrises, mimosas and full moons, milestones acknowledged and memories made; enough to last a lifetime.