My Tireless Retirement - Week 33

 

Is anyone else in disbelief that this coming Thursday is Thanksgiving?!  Me too!  Time is passing all too quickly I'm afraid.

 

I wasn't sure what I would write about today, and I’m pretty sure I wasn't initially planning to write this, but here goes.  It has been a rough month for Idahoans fraught with a lot of loss and tragedy we just aren't used to facing.  A few weeks ago, in the next town over from me, a sixteen year old boy was struck by a car and died on his way to school and my heart ached for his family, especially his parents as they came to terms with their sudden and unexpected loss of their child. 

This past week has been exceptionally difficult as police search a neighbor's home for the remains of a boy that has been missing for nearly a year and a half and whose parents, and the community he lived in, never gave up hope of finding.  Now they are coming to terms with the finality of their loss.  At the same time we are praying and hoping for answers in the tragic murder of four University of Idaho students.  Never could we have imagined something so horrific happening like this and we are reeling. 

And on top of this we now have the trial of Lori Vallow (accused of murdering her children) and Chad Daybell (accused of murdering his wife in order to marry Vallow and helping his new wife to dispose of her children) to look forward to.  Their crazy nonsense is the stuff they make movies about and I'm sure once the trial is over there will be one.  It also looks like one of our death row inmates will be executed next month ten days before Christmas.  Executions are not common here and I personally have mixed feelings about whether or not they should be done at all, but I'll leave it at that. 

All of these tragedies have taken place in smaller towns too, you know, those types of places people have been gravitating towards lately in order to feel safer and live more simply?  I can tell you, even with the population explosion Idaho has been experiencing in recent years we're still very much  a small state with a relatively low population comparatively and even Boise is still a small city.  As a friend of mine said the other day, pardon the gross analogy, "you can't swing a dead cat around here without hitting someone you know".  But, it's true.  So when these things happen we feel it.  And when they happen in rapid succession like they have lately we really feel it.  I don't think you could be a good human being and not feel something about all of this. 

Right now the current economy is wreaking havoc with a lot of families that are worried about how they'll put dinner on the table this Thursday, let alone how they'll afford gifts under the Christmas tree.  Or how they're going to pay the heat bill this winter and even afford just the basic essentials.  Jeff Bezos announced layoffs of corporate Amazon employees and has been very vocal lately with his opinions of our economic future.  Many are feeling low over the outcome of the recent elections and stress over the unrest with Russia and North Korea.  Let's face it, there is a lot going on right now and a lot of unknowns about our future and where we are headed.  But remember, the truth of the matter is, if you look back in history, every decade has been this way.  Economies and the weather patterns fluctuate and human beings have a hard time getting along.  So what's my point?

 

I guess my point is that we all face tragedy and we all experience losses at one time or another.  And I know that when it happens at the holidays it feel even worse.  As far as the other things go we have very limited control, if any, over what is happening with the economy, our government or the governments of other countries.  What we can do is simply to pray for guidance, be grateful for what we have, prepare the best that we can for the things we do have control over, be kind to our fellow human beings and love each other.  If we take care of ourselves, clean up our own messes, help those that need it and share our kindness I do believe it will truly make all the difference.  Have a very blessed week everyone.