A Day of Light — Longer Lives

Night Blooming Cereus: Photo by Ann Peters

Good Morning, God!

Yesterday seemed for me a Day Filled with Light! I stopped on my way to the gym to take photos of the white puffy clouds. And this cereus looks like a Cupful of Light. Amazing, God, that all this beauty lasts just for one night. Youtube is FULL of time lapse videos of cereus opening and closing.

I think, God, that “not having any work to do,” since my second retirement, might have something to do with my enhanced appreciation of  Sky, Light and Day.

Easing up from “Too Busy” has taken several weeks. And the process of unfurling may be continuing. But today I noticed how good it was not to rush.

Looking back at our Hahaione Valley from the gym

Good Heavens, God! What Madness possessed me? Hmmm. Maybe a need to keep on working is bred into us? Maybe it is some ancestral memory of cultures where there just wasn’t “enough” for people who weren’t “useful and productive?” I have no idea if the Eskimos ever did put their old out on ice floes — but,  deep down inside, I worry. Yikes!

It seems that Otto von Bismark, the “Iron Chancellor” of Germany, selected 65 as the age for retirement back in the 1880s. He introduced a social security system to reduce the appeal of the Socialist Party to the workers. Of course, God, Bismark, like our Congress 55 years later, knew that very few people lived to be 65. It was for many years a cheap and easy gift to give.

Our improved life expectancy is good news for those of us who are living longer — but, it is creating some challenging economic and social situations. Please help us, God!