Ponderings From My Shower

 

        I love taking showers. I take one every day, unless I'm on the boat. I've even considered buying a different boat just because I could take a shower at the end of a long day. Not only do they get me clean, but the hot water seems to offer some relief from my aching joints. I take rather long showers, and while in there I spend a fair amount of time thinking; often of what I've just heard on what passes for news nowadays. I was going back over the news in my mind and thinking of Lord knows what all else, when  a thought struck me from out of the blue. I don't know if it was a question from God, or just a random thought that found it's way into my brain as the result of something that I'd recently heard or read or possibly what I was feeling. Anyway, a question formed in my mind- HOW LONG DO YOU WANT TO LIVE? It made me wonder, do I really have a choice? I mean outside of suicide, which isn't an option for me, and I hope that it wouldn't really be considered by anyone. What if I had a choice? What if I could determine the number of my years on this earth. Would I want to live a long time more if every day I woke up in pain? If I were immobile or had to be waited on hand and foot by family, or worse yet be in a medical facility, would I want to carry on?  How about if all the friends I love have died or become incapacitated to where I couldn't communicate with them any more. My good friend Buffalo Bob called me yesterday. He's 82 and will turn 83 soon. He mentioned that he decided to update his address book. It was something he had been putting off and finally decided to do it. As he was going through updating, he came to one page with five entries of friends, and every one of them had died. That's kind of a downer. It makes you wonder if you're next. Will one of your friends be scanning the obituaries and find your name and turn to their spouse and say- " hey ol' so and so just passed away."? HOW LONG DO  YOU WANT TO LIVE? I have nasal polyps which make smelling things kind of screwy. In my mind I know what a rose should smell like, but chances are that's not what I'll smell if  I sniff one. That sucks. On the other hand, I also know when a baby needs a diaper change, and even though I may remember the smell, not actually smelling it is  kind of bonus. The polyps also affect my sense of taste. While I can taste some things, they aren't exactly the way that they would taste if I were polyp free. It almost seems to be a waste to have a delicious dinner set before me. Why not just eat some cardboard injected with mass quantities of vitamins and minerals made to look like real food? Still, now and then I get a hint of what something really tastes like, and it's so enjoyable. It's like going fishing and hour after hour I'm trolling through the water without a strike. I get bored and tired and angry and then out of the blue a fish bites and I've forgotten how I felt just seconds ago. I'm excited and happy and trying to strike a bargain with God- " Oh Lord, just let me catch this huge King salmon- I won't ask for anything else for the rest of my life." Yeah right. When I spoke to Buffalo yesterday he mentioned that he spent almost all day outside. It was in the sixties and most of the snow had melted. He was enjoying the sunshine and the warm temperature. It's the time of year when maple sugar is being made and there are taps in most of the maple trees around him. As we were talking I looked outside at about a foot of snow. It was sunny, but only about ten degrees. We're still in the middle of winter here, and I really don't like winter. However, the days are getting longer very quickly, and there is more sunshine and spring is just around the corner. Something to look forward to. I spend a lot of time thinking of the direction of this country. This pandemic has really changed the world for the worst. Personally I think it has been blown out of proportion. Remember the saying of a former Obama appointee- never let a crisis go to waste? Personally I believe it's been an opportunity to deprive Americans of their rights and simultaneously appear to be rescuing them in the form of a government handout. Ronald Reagan said in a speech, "The most terrifying words in the English language are-'I'm from the government and I'm here to help." While I can laugh at it, no truer words were ever spoken. I'm afraid of where we are going as a nation. I don't know if my writing to my representatives does any good or not. What would it matter if I weren't here to bitch about how things are? One less person drawing Social Security. That's one way to look at it. On the other hand, one of the things I can do, and am directed to do by the Apostle Paul in the New Testament, is to pray for those in power. Big tech can sensor me. The news outlets can spew lies and the government can take away our freedoms, but they can't control my prayer life. If I weren't around there would be one less Christian to pray for those in power. Would I choose to opt out and leave the heavy lifting for someone else? I know that this is a long post, but there is a little more I want to say. HOW LONG DO YOU WANT TO LIVE? If you were to ask a baby in the womb that question, I imagine they would like to at least have the opportunity to answer, but for over sixty million babies in the United States alone, they were never given that opportunity. They were aborted by their own mothers. No one made them do it, it was a choice. For whatever reason they aren't with us today. No doubt many of them would have had a lot to contribute to society, but we'll never know. In the Old Testament there is  the Book of Esther. Esther was a Jewish girl who had been chosen by the Persian king Xerxes to be queen. Her nationality wasn't known to the king. The king's right hand man hated the Jews and plotted to kill them. Esther's cousin Mordecai got wind of the plot and let the queen know, realizing the if she went in to see the king without being invited, she could be killed. She chose to take the chance and ended up saving all the Jews in the Persian empire from annihilation. It was no accident that she was chosen queen at that time in history. It's no accident that any of us are alive at this time in history. We are here for a purpose. It doesn't matter if we can smell or taste our food or if we have a job or are suffering with a physical or mental illness. It would be good to find out what the purpose of our time here is, and to fulfill whatever God's desire for our life may be. HOW LONG DO I WANT TO LIVE? I guess the answer, at least for this minute, is until God decides it's time for me to go home.