Still Traveling

Hello. It's been awhile since I've been here - since 9/11. It's now 0230 - and my youngest son, Steven, is 29 yrs old today. Well, not quite. He was born in the evening so it'll be a few hours. He's been on a much rougher road trip through this life than I have. It's a long story and it's his story so let's just say I'm very proud of him for overcoming so much in his life. He's an OIF veteran like me - Operation Iraqi Freedom. Yes, one of those. I've prayed for him quite a bit since he got back. Lots of emotional pain and turmoil in his life.

But I received painful news 3 weeks ago. A dear, good man that I knew died in a tragic accident in Anchorage, Alaska. His name: Walter Larson. He had a couple of nicknames that he answered to - Sonny and Iggy. He was an Inuit - a Native American Alaskan. He and I went to boot camp together in the fall of 1989 - Orlando, Florida. Navy. Then we went through electronics schools together in Orlando and later at Great Lakes, Il near Waukegan. He was a short, muscular young man. He couldn't march worth a dime but had a great attitude and ready smile. Always laughing, always joking. My wife adopted him like a son and he stayed with us several times while we were at Great Lakes.

Unfortunately he couldn't make it through electronics school but was so well thought-of that the brass transferred him to aircraft structural maintenance. So he ended up working on Navy aircraft structures and served on an aircraft carrier and then got an honorable discharge. I linked up with him the last year on Facebook. And we laughed about many things via the printed electronic word.

Now he's gone. And the world is much worse with him gone but was much better for having had him in it.

Here he is in a couple of his last photos - always clowning around but oh, what a joy of a man he was.

Rest In Peace, Sonny. God bless and keep you. I'll see you at the Resurrection and the 2nd Coming of Jesus Christ.
























A few weeks ago I mentioned how my job is in jeopardy. It still is but I have been given a brief reprieve. My termination date has been moved to (at the latest) March 31, 2012. So I'm still teaching for now. And attending college (nights).  Sometimes I wonder why I'm doing it - I am 54, after all. But if one is still moving, then they are still alive. So...keep moving forward.

I do have another teaching prospect with a contract company that's on Keesler AFB. I applied, just have to wait and see.

Life is tough. I wonder how people make it in this life without Jesus Christ in their lives. He is real. Yes, it's about faith and it's "pooh-poohed" by the "intellectuals" of this world. Some say they've read the Bible but it's only mythology and besides, it sure didn't seem to make a difference in their lives. Maybe nothing happened because they never actually TRIED. To actually pray. To take that step of faith.

Jesus is coming back. He's at the end of life's road trip. He's the Hand on the steering wheel. We just have to learn to let Him drive.

On that note, I leave here. I'll share more later. Hopefully, I won't wait so long to do it. 

Until then, consider these words from Psalm 19:1 --  "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands..."

10 Years After 9/11

10 Years After...9/11/01 ► 9/11/11. 

10 years after the World Trade Center was struck by two hijacked passenger planes - and then the Twin Towers and surrounding buildings collapsed.

10 years after a hijacked passenger plane flew into the Pentagon.

10 years after 40 brave men and women, non-combatants, learning via cellphone of the attacks in NYC and Washington, D.C., decided that they would not go down without a flight - and rushed the terrorists in the plane's cockpit. The outcome was brutal yet bravery personified - the plane crashed into a field outside Shanksville, Pa. - no one survived. Uncommon courage that day at all the places attacked. New York firefighters and policemen ran INTO the WTC as people rushed OUT. They went into harm's way,  not with guns and bullets, but with their willing hearts and hands to help people get out of the horror that had transpired around them. And many NYPD and NYFD did not survive. They gave their lives so that others might live.

This past weekend, our nation remembered, with telecasts from all the major networks that relived that day - the planes' collisions, the people jumping from the WTC - choosing to die THEIR way, the horrific sight of the massive towers falling, the growing, gray cloud that rolled down the streets between the buildings like a monstrous flood - but it wasn't water, it was dust and dirt and debris from those huge buildings. The after-view of the buildings' fall was just as brutal to witness. The people, vehicles, wreckage, still-standing buildings in the close avenues - all covered with the white/grayish dust that made it look like a alien planet suddenly appeared on our television screens.

The past two days were solemn ceremonies of that day to commemorate the dead - and the families left behind. After 10 years, the sites still do not have completed memorials, but what does exist are moving. At the field in Pennsylvania, are forty, 8-foot tall, white marble vertical slabs, with each slab engraved with the name of the 40 passengers and crew. Former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton spoke eloquent, heart-felt words about those brave souls who sacrificed themselves to prevent an attack on our nation's capital. Vice President Biden also spoke and he was very moving as well.

It was refreshing to see unity there - for the past 10 years there hasn't been much of that in our country. There was for a few weeks after 9/11/01. President Bush gave speeches that inspired, the country was behind him nearly 100% to invade Afghanistan to destroy the al Qaeda strongholds and terrorist training camps.
Then we invaded Iraq (yes, I was there on the ground at the time) and then the country's unity began to dissolve. The rancor of the left (Democrats) against the right (Republicans) grew stronger and now they've polarized the country.

But I digress...

Today, President Obama and George Bush, with their wives, attended the 9/11 ceremonies at the WTC, NYC. Sad, solemn, heartbreaking. And the words were, again, respectful and inspiring.

God bless America - is all that I can finish this with ... I pray for so many this evening.