I don’t know about you folks but I have a hard time keeping the passing years in perspective!

Take, for instance, the Memorial Day weekend in Ohio. There were three events that I would have loved to have attended. As this was not possible, I have been doing a lot of thinking about the people who attended and who were honored at those events. Two of these events were alumni reunions of schools where I served as a teacher, coach and administrator. The other one was the induction into the Hall of Fame of the best all around athlete I ever coached.

My time problem is this. I see these people as they were over 50 years ago. I see them as they sat in the classes I taught. I recall young teachers I taught with and also those I hired when I was an administrator and many other people who served the schools in other capacities. The athletes I coached, their families and their friends. I was especially caught up in the memories of the best all around athlete that I ever coached, Oran Caldwell. His wife was there to accept the honors.

That is when it really hit me! Brubaker you are living in a dream world. Oran was killed in a car accident over fifty years ago. His wife has to be in her seventies and their daughter in her fifties.

Some sage has noted that we are a part of all those people we have met. I thank God that I have met so many wonderful people! They came and still come in all shapes, sizes, colors, nationalities and beliefs. Of course I have met some horse’s rear ends in my time; but they make up a very, very small percentage of all the people it has been my privilege to have met!

Folks I realize I can’t live back there but I mentally do revisit those days perhaps, just perhaps a bit more often than I should. Be that as it may, I thank God that I recall mostly happy and enjoyable times.

I also know that this is not the case for many people throughout the world. Where and under what circumstances a person is born plays a vital role in their lives. Never the less many people have overcome extreme circumstances and rose to heights that no observer would have predicted. How does this happen? Could it be that they were influenced by a person who touched their lives? A person who showed they cared about them?

I do know that I do not have such wonderful memories because of any goodness or merit on my part! My life was touched by God and numerous caring lovable people.

So perhaps it behooves us to take time to show love to others!

Time marches on with or without us!

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