The news for several days has been full of shots of the flooding across the Pacific Coast and now into the Midwest. It brought up memories of our home on the banks of the Susquehanna. That picture is a recent photo of the Susquehanna flooding.

When I was in grade school, my Dad bought a great house on South Water Street. It was a big old yellow barn of a double house with a front porch where we could sit for hours and talk and and watch the river and the cars on the other side. Very few cars came down our street. A wonderful house and a wonderful childhood. It was the lowest house on the street, too. The Susquehanna was not very deep, you could walk across with the water no more than waist high. And there had been at some time in the past, a dam right out in front of the house. The rubble did not impede the river but did make a shallow area. Lots of hellgramites, frogs, dragonflies.

Most winters, the river froze at least part way across. There was a little backwater between the bank and an island where we could skate.
When the winter started to break, the ice would, too. We could hear the cracks in the ice, sounded like rifle shots. The big chunks would drift slowly down the river and then pile up where the dam had been. And the dam would be briefly reborn. And it did what all good dams are supposed to do, it held back the river. So every few years, being the lowest house on the block, we got flooded.

The house had a cement floor basement. Dad had a workshop down there. Not much else. And we had the coal furnace. Dad got a really cool new invention. It had a long tube with a screw inside, called a worm for some reason, that went from the furnace to the coal bin. A thermostat turned on the worm and it stoked the furnace. Dad did not have to go down and shovel coal all the time. Neat.

Of course, we did not leave the Packard out front to be flooded. That would be just plain stupid. When the basement flooded, it became a real mess. Thick gooey mud a foot deep. It stank and brought some rats with it. The only time our first floor was threatened, some students from the Lambda Chi house up the street came and moved all of our furniture to the second floor. Put the piano on saw horses. It did not make it to the first floor, however, and the Lamda Chi boys helped put it all back. Dad and I would shovel out the mud and wash down the basement. We would take the worm apart and clean out the furnace and all was good as new.

It never made the news. Just something that we took care of back then. There was one thing it did not do, also. We did not make any insurance claims. We took care of it ourself and did not put any burden on others, like all those who pay their increasing insurance premiums so that a few can over and over again make flooding or hurricane claims.

December 7th. I was born in 1936 and, although I do not remember what I was doing on that date nor hearing about it on the radio, I remember The War. And that song “December seventh, nineteen hundred and forty one. A land of freedom was defied.” And FDR's memorable Day of Infamy speech. We were attacked.

When the Iraq War started, and frequently since, the thought has come to mind, should we have made a preemptive strike before hand in 1941? And against which threat? We did not have the capability of doing it but just suppose we did, called up the National Guard, and American naval forces hit the Japanese fleet while it was sitting in Tokyo harbor. Or B-17's based in England blasted German forces massing against Poland. Of course, that famous war song and the Day of Infamy speech would not have come to be.

One of the reasons we won that war was that “they” were definitely the bad guys. We were attacked. Blindsided by a cheap trick. But not only did we win, we conducted major military victories on two fronts and in a two ocean war. Neither Hitler nor Napoleon could pull that one off. The United States of America did the miraculous and against all odds, won. God was definitely on our side. We were the good guys.

The Iraq war is going poorly. The military does their job with skill and bravery. But lots of difficulties and lapses of judgement on the part of the administrators and diplomats. We were not the good guys and God is not on our side. People are not being wise and smart.

And, if we had preempted the Japanese and/or the Germans, what would have been the outcome of that 1940's war?

In a recent blog entry, Azron wrote about AIDS Day. (http://radicaldiscipleship.blogstream.com/). I made a comment about a National Geographic article in which the statement was made that of all of the people who ever lived on Earth, half of them have died of malaria (see my 17 July, 2007 entry). Another blog entry by the Hawk on plastics (http://isntlifestrange.blogstream.com/) brought a comment by me about how civilization stresses, like WWII, brought about so many wonderful inventions. (see my 28 April, 2007 entry)

These came together in my mind, sometimes the finger probes your brain (that hurts more than other things being probed) and points in a certain direction.

I always read or hear about someone who says “why did God go that to me?” Things like malaria, AIDS, war, violence, etc. I guess God is responsible. Either God or his CEO, Mother Nature. Same thing. But I can not imagine how God would have set up life, Earth, or the Universe without death. Of His critters or of His stars or of His universes. (see my 10 September, 2006 entry) Of course, there is no way I could second guess God's intelligence and ability but if we are to be here, it seems to me that some other stuff had to die. And should life be easy? Those of you who are fathers and mothers know that bad stuff and painful corrections are a part of growing up and building character. And, once again, it seems to me that Our Father would include those in our existence. We should thank Him that He gave us the strength and ability to get past them.

Part of our getting past them is these wonderful brains we have. There are treatments for AIDS and malaria. A whole bunch of our modern treatments are truly miraculous. And treatments for war and violence. Things are better than they used to be. Thanks be to God. And thank Mother Nature. And our civilization and our intelligence. And our love and caring.

Think of malaria killing off half of humanity. The impact that has had on the development of civilization with half of us dead and most of the others shivering with fever in their beds. But, we eventually brought about some degree of control of the disease and civilization forged ahead.

Think of World War II. 72 million lives lost! What a pressure on us and our civilization! And here we are, fifty years later, still refining and building on the inventions from it. Nylon (plastics) was discovered by Wallace Carothers (he committed suicide) at DuPont in 1935 but went nowhere until Japan and the Southeast Asia Coprosperity Sphere made it needed. Semiconductors were discovered in the 1920 but went nowhere until Texas Instruments could not get tubes for their wartime oilfield devices. And computers and medicine and.... Necessity is the mother of invention and when the necessity is big, the inventions are big.

Perhaps one of God's greatest gifts is that when you are dealt lemons, you – and our civilization - have the intelligence and the strength to make lemonade.

No, for those of you with filthy minds, this is not about that, it is about music. While visiting in The Big City, we had the opportunity to do some things that are not available in a little town.

One was to see and hear a couple of performers present some holiday music. The things we can accomplish with our human dexterity! A good pianist is astonishing. Wish I could do that. And so with this guy, James Frazier (saw and heard him on stage in concert):

And the Alexandria Harmonizers. There is no instrument like the human voice. Once again, wish I could. When it comes to "jerking tears" (http://bushsyndrome.blogstream.com/), a lot of good Christmas music from massed, or solo, voices can do that (saw and heard them in a Christmas concert):

And, when it comes to tear jerkers, if you get a chance and have not already seen it, see "August Rush". Music that comes from above, a great cast and performance, and an excellent and uplifting screenplay.

Music does a lot more than sooth the savage breast.

A recent blog entry by The Peever (http://thepeever.blogstream.com/) entitled “Baby Boomer Babble” brought up the subject of retirement. He, being still wet behind the ears, is just starting to face the age 62 decision. Born in 1936, I was over 30 and in coat and tie, part of the establishment, middle management, family man, when Peever and all the other “boomers” were having their time of glory. I was in the Cold War Navy. Too young for Korea and too old for VietNam.

I reached the age 62 decsion in 1998 while I was teaching in a day school. The fickle finger of fate probed my situation and pointed the way I must go. Teaching had changed, more dealing with HDAD and parents than real learning. We rented and our landlord was moving so we would have had to move. A headmaster I admired was let go in an unhappy political upset. It was before the market declined so my 403b was in OK shape. Nothing that we had not dealt with before, not earthshaking. I ran the math and looked at the plusses and minuses. Also considered the fact that retirement can be cut short at any time. With my luck, if I had postponed it to get more Social Security, I would have been run over by a truck on my 65th birthday. The kicker was when we sort of looked around and ran across a beautiful Tidewater Victorian in great condition, right out of Better Homes, in a nice neighborhood on Virginia's Eastern Shore (my family all lives in Virgina) for $90K.

Retirement, like every other part of your life, is what you make of it. I enjoy mine. In retirement, time is your friend. I waste time doing the things I want to do when I feel like doing them and take my good old time. There is still not enough to get everything done. It is like traffic. I notice the yuppies in their Beemers, full of vinegar, weaving in and out trying to get ahead in the lane. But, at the next light, there they are, sitting and waiting. And the '93 Grand Marquis and I get to our destination the same time they get to theirs. Confident in my masculinity, I do not have to compete.

It takes a definite period of adjustment, a couple of years, to settle into a pleasant retirement. I always liked hobbies and computers. Had a lot of plans about things to do. Most of them did not come to fruition. If you look for doors to open, even kick in a few, opportunities present themselves. And you have the time to do stuff. A school in Provence right above the Riviera needed a teacher for three months (go to http://teachersonthemove.com/) and we could go. How is that for an opportunity? Our kids need a baby or dog sitter and we can go. If I feel like Spider Solitaire, I can do it. Conquer the world (Civ IV). Fuss in the garden for hours without accomplishing anything.

And then there is blogging. It is time consuming. But I really enjoy writing in mine and reading others. There are a neat bunch of folks out there.

I ran across online tutoring (http://www.tutor.com/) which is enjoyable and brings in a few bucks. Probably are a bunch of part time things to do that can be fun if you do not have to support the family doing them. Found that, despite all the books I read and planning I did, the money did not work out nearly as well as I expected. In ten years, there is a lot of inflation. And stock market crashes become a lot more than just something on the news. And more yielding to temptation than was wise. OK but should have done that part better.

As a teacher, I felt I was making a contribution to mankind. In retirement? Just a parasite? Of course, there are a million things to do if one feels that way. The thought passes my mind every so often but not for long.

So, for all you boomers that the news is talking about, make your plans and major decisions. But it is not arriving at your goal but the planning and the journey. And retirement is neat.