While an older gentleman (sans gentle) now, I think myself young and ageless. However, I am reminded on every side that I am “mature,” so to speak. Not mature in the sense that I have great wisdom and respect from my peers and community or especially from the younger generation, but “mature” in the polite (“political”) sense (that is, as the posted signs suggest: give this man a discount or reserved seat on the bus or metro). [Perhaps such socially instructed behaviors are responsible for the tendency of some elderly to withdraw from the hubbub of street life and to ponder in relative isolation and self-absorption. But the 21rst century may be a game-changer. Older citizens live longer and the dividing line between the “senior” and the “rookie” is fuzzier. Take down those “senior citizen” signs. Reader, don’t give up your seat unless you are asked to.]
https://youtu.be/o9qTCzoM1G8 (YouTube link, 4 min.)
For my part, I have begun my final journey, although I expect it to last an eternity. Neither it, nor I, may endure, I admit. But who really knows? I have accepted “Pascal’s wager” (unlike Faust’s). Better to assume I will have it all than to waste my thoughts on the possibilities of nothing.
What has gone before now, mostly in the latter half of the 20th century, was a full and exciting and adventurous course for myself -- not the extreme confrontations with life and death that many heroes, sung and unsung, have dealt with on their own time and in their own places, but my own brand of risky behavior, if you will.
No matter what I do and think though, dear reader! This publication is for young people across the globe, not for the elderly (who may have poor eyesight). Young persons will find my stories and philosophical protestations, and especially the pictures (mostly my own photos) that illustrate the way, to be interesting and even entertaining, like a game of clues. The images and tales are mostly but not wholly true and portray one tiny period of human history wedged between long eras of evolution and tumult on this earth. This is so as my theme above suggests — life is an impression that bears scrutiny and sorting.
Africa- Atlas (Namibia)
Van Gogh (Malta)
Images are sculptures at entrance of Capitol Building of State of Pennsylvania - Harrisburg
Sculpture is on campus of Eastern Mennonite University - Harrisonburg, Virginia
Appendix:
Rosie's - LaCrosse, Wis.
Xinjiang Province, China
La Paz, Bolivia
State Capitol, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
