MUSING ON A SPECIAL DAY

Today is my birthday --- how and where did all the years go? (And if I feel like this, how does my 107 year old aunt feel?) Sixty-nine years ago today my mother gave birth to me at Vanderbilt Hospital here in Nashville at approximately 5:00 in the afternoon. Looking back over the years I realize how much has happened in our country and world.

There are some things I wish that were still here. I really would like to board a passenger train and go almost anywhere in the country instead of fighting the traffic on the interstates or putting up with all the confusion in airports. One could just sit there and read or watch the scenery without having to worry about the driving. And you could go to the dining car when you got hungry or, if you were resourceful enough, you could bring your own food along. I never had the experience of sleeping in a berth, but I’ll bet that was exciting. I did a few years ago get a roomette on a train from Phoenix to New Orleans and that would have been really great if I hadn’t been sick from some disease I caught in Mexico. All this to say that I really miss that mode of transportation.

I also wish that relative feeling of safety I felt whenever I went anywhere was still with me. Nowadays, when I go out in the car, the first thing I do is to lock my doors. I’m always on the lookout for suspicious characters who are close to my car when I’m stopped at a light; I’m ready to take off if I feel threatened. And I don’t like that feeling; I can’t help but compare it to the forties and fifties when we never thought about things like that. The crime rate was nothing compared to what it is now.

But then I think about all the conveniences we have that have changed our lives. Of course, the computer immediately comes to mind and the cell phone, also. TV and Ipods, and on the home front, dishwashers, ice makers, filtered water on the fridge door, microwaves, remote vacuum cleaners, alarm systems, and on and on. So many medical miracles have occurred in my lifetime, too.

I guess I could look at the dark side and moan and groan about all the evils in the world, but I choose, especially on this day, to think about and appreciate all the good instead