my life

my life has had distinct time periods.

• birth through high School
• college
• early work years
• marriage
• post-marriage

the years from birth until the early work years were reasonably straightforward. they were by no means average years but I followed a standard path that millions of people follow to reach adulthood. it probably would have gone better to quit my first job after about 18 months. instead that first job lasted 18 years.

some people might question this next statement, my marriage was a good choice. my wife and I were very unhappy together and the two things we were able to get out of the marriage were two beautiful kids and proof that the father son and holy Spirit can keep anybody together. we stayed married 33 years. she had attempted to commit suicide before we met. she did not do anything to harm herself throughout our entire marriage but shortly after she divorced me she died. it was kidney failure. I like the think she just couldn't live without me.

throughout my entire life I've seen the hand of God working repeatedly to accomplish things and to present opportunities that seemed divinely-inspired. this current phase is no different. for instance we used to do Bible study with a church organization and would get together at Easter each year. this year for the first time since the organization was founded they had to cancel the meeting at the end of 2019. this was before anyone realized that covid-19 was going to be so disruptive. so the meeting would have been cancelled anyway. you might say gee that just doesn't really seem like the hand of God, but I say it does. there are many other examples. for  instance the car I'm currently driving. it is not a car I would have chosen, but it was such a fantastic deal and it's almost a new car and it's a blast to drive. so when it's time to get a different car I won't resent the fact that it wasn't my first choice. it seems like it was God's first choice.

in America our lives are largely dictated by money. almost anyone can live anywhere. and there are many places, especially outside of cities that are very reasonable to live on a minimal income. but how you live there will be dictated by money. of course you can come up with oddball examples where somebody is living a fabulous life with almost no money but generally speaking the vast majority of people that don't have any money live a very simple basically poor life. that doesn't mean it has to be boring. you can do all kinds of outside activities and still travel. but you won't be traveling in style. 

so what does this next and probably last phase of my life hold? I plan on living alone. since hormones aren't driving most of my decisions it seems like alone is way more fun. and currently it seems like a good idea to remain somewhat mobile without large local responsibilities. it doesn't seem like having a big career at this point is a good career move. we'll see.

vaccine, why can't you be true ?