Reflections

A word from a maybe not so wise man to all you young type A personalities out there: stress causes more problems for you than just heart disease! I am a type A personality that is striving to learn to "chill out" a little. I've heard the Alabama song for most of my life, "I'm always in a hurry and I don't know why, all I gotta really do is live and die." I'm going to try to learn to live that way as much as life will allow.

In the past two years I've had some mounting medical problems and recently I had to deal with one more thing brought on by stress and heredity. I had to have the muscle that controls my bladder trimmed down a bit so I can empty my bladder all the way. Any of you guys out there going through some similar problems? For three years I've felt like I've had to urinate all the time, kinda like I've had something inside me and I could never get empty no matter what I did. Believe me, I've spent lots of time in the throne room, but I finally let the doc get a shot at fixing my problem. The doc says this surgery will fix it, I guess we'll see in a few days when I quit peeing blood! If it works, I'll probably be doing less reading! If it doesn't work I don't know what I'm going to do, I guess I'll just learn to live with it becuase I can't even attempt to think of having that done to me again! Talk about some real pain!

These last couple of years, I've reflected a lot on my life and what my life has meant and what kind of impact I might of had on other folks. I'm not going to air all my dirty laundry here on this blog, but I must say that I need to learn to relax a little and not get so wound up about small stuff. Recently I had a conversation with one of my friends about how most of the problems we face in our lives are of our own doing. I believe that to some extent. Sure, I probably would have had heart problems anyway since it runs on both sides of my family. However, twenty-six years of smoking and me being wound up like a "three-dollar watch" played a huge roll in my current and on-going health issues. I guarantee you that my huge bladder muscle is directly the effect of me being so high strung.

Why is it that we have to get older before we learn some things? The old saying,"youth is wasted on the young" is so true. Gosh, if I knew then what I know now my life would be so much better. Of course I had a daddy, way back when, that tried to impart his wisdom to me. He tried to tell me to relax and not smoke and to take care of my body while I was young. We all know that our dads were stupid and ignorant and didn't understand a thing we were going through and so I went right on a did what I just KNEW was best for me.......Now that I'm in my mid-forties I understand what my dad was trying to tell me. I understand that my old dad was really smart and oh how I wish I would have listened to what he was trying to tell me back when it counted. I'm not saying my dad had all the answers, for he surely didn't, but he knew about life and he knew about what was most important. In fact there were several older men who tried to give me advice, back when I was young, but of course I already knew everything and was wise beyond my years.(I really believed that back then..ha)

I see these young men coming up today, and most of them already have all the answers to everything, or at least they think so. I've had conversations with several of them in the last few months and I see me in so many of them,full of fire and brimstone, ready to tackle the whole world. When the conversation is over I just smile and think, you'll learn one of these days, and they will if they live long enough. Hopefully some of them will not be as hard headed as I was but I don't hold out much hope for that. We all have to learn from the "school of hard knocks". No matter how much we try to shelter our kids from the world, eventually they have to go live in it and learn the hard lesson's of life.

Words of advice to the younger men.
1. When you get married you party days with your buddies are over. If you don't believe me just check out the divorce rate here in America. Now see #2 on this list.
2. Cherish every day with your wife and put her before anybody and everything except for God. Make love to your young wife every day if at all possible. That is what God intended for us to do.
3. Love your little children and be patient with them. They love you so much, you need to be deserving of that love. They'll be grown before you know it.
4. Live your life with honor and decency. Your honor means everything, it's who you are. Be decent to folks and they will usually be decent to you.
5. Take very good care of your body when you are young for you will pay for abusing your body when you get a little older. Trust me, you will.
6. The "bad-boy" image is for punks and thugs. Who cares how tough you are and how mean you look. To anybody with any sense that attitude and look makes you look ridiculous.