Your Itinerary and Arrival Information

Do you have an elder or other person to whom you turn for wisdom and advice?

As an adult, I frequently forget that I once heavily depended on older people to provide guidance to me.  I fail to see the child's sense of awe that balances our view of what life's all about.

As adults, parents, community leaders and elders, we older people have a responsibility to the younger generations.

We may be all too aware of our responsibilities if we're surrounded by children.  But others, like my wife and me, don't have children around us in our daily lives.

I don't hold the exact percentages in front of me but, from what I recall, the majority of people in the Western Hemisphere believe in Divine Guidance through the existence of a Being or Beings.  In the Eastern Hemisphere, many are guided by written/verbal wisdom handed down over generations. [Beware of generalisations, of course.]

I know, through my experience as a child raised in a community that considered religion-based personal guidance the key to living, that people find a deep sense of relief when they know they can depend on support from more than other people, all of us falling short of having all the information and wisdom of the universe as we know it.

I am only one person, who has access to all of the information our species has gathered, but it does not make me or any other person the wisest one around.

There is value in leaving the source of some of the guidance we seek to the great unknown.  If you believe in a loving God, a vengeful God, a mixture of living, vengeful, person-like and/or animal-like gods, or no gods at all, I am not here to encourage or stop you.

Instead, use what you believe to provide guidance and support to the young people around you.

Whether a place called Hell exists, I cannot say with certainty.  However, I can wish our apathetic attitudes to go away and end up in a hell-like place, replacing those attitudes with a desire for us to want to make this world a better place to live.

When I was a child, I saw two types of people - those who complained about negative aspects of their lives and those who acted to create positive changes.  The latter inspired me to join a youth group that visited nursing homes, community centers and small churches to spread the message that there's no reason to feel desperately lonely or helpless, regardless of your beliefs.

I have felt helpless in the last couple of weeks, knowing that my wife's life was not completely in my hands.  At the same time, I felt secure that my wife's life was in the hands of others.  To know and understand those thoughts and emotions has reminded me of the child I used to be, who looked up to the adult faces around me, always looking for answers to questions.

Some questions are never answered in the moment.  No matter how much information we have, we never have enough.

That's a lesson wise adults taught me when I was a kid - what you don't know is what you don't know, don't fear it or attach any negative emotional thoughts to it - accept or seek the unknown at your own pace, providing guidance to those who don't know what you know.

As you nurture the children around you, don't forget to nurture the kid in you, too.

Although I'm just an ordinary guy, I know I represent our species as an adult male - thus, part of the reason I'm here is to serve as an example of myself to others, complete with all my positive attributes, faults and shortcomings.

I'm happy to be who I am.  I hope you're happy to be you, too, because I love you for the set of positive attributes, faults and shortcomings you have.

The past couple of weeks have shown me that we could all use a little more support of each other and a little less criticism.  Don't mistake my style of satirical humour for criticism - it's just my way of seeking from and providing guidance to others, a universal message not intended for everyone's taste.  Words in one language written in this space can never completely mean the same thing to seven billion people.

Now, back to nurturing my wife, my one and only true love, who's supported the child in me in more ways than I could I ever return in thanks.

More thanks: to Shelly at CCI and Letty at Wal-Mart.