I plan to outlive the troubles

At the tender age of 17 or so, I first really noticed outliving something. US involvement in the Vietnam war ended. Walter Cronkite brought that war into my living room every night and then it was over. So many older relatives went there. As a kid you assume that maybe that’ll be your fate someday.

It wasn’t to be. I’d outlasted it, and just before I reached draft age. A friend of mine a year older than me went. That’s how close it was. He enlisted early. His plane was one of the last ones in. They disembarked from the plane, but never left the runway. The officers loaded them all back up and got the heck out of there. Things were falling apart that fast.

Another big one for me was outlasting the Berlin Wall. The Cold War was another one of those things I grew up with. We were all taught to fear Russians. One day we were told we didn’t have to fear them anymore. The fall of the wall was one of those rare definitive ending points to a historical period.

Growing up in a mill town, the mill is central to life. My grandfather and father both worked there. As a young kid, I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I did know I didn’t want to spend my life in the mill. Just as well, as I outlived the mill -and a good chunk of the town that went with it.

The Science Fiction writer Heinlein was a proponent of outliving of your enemies. That’s the attitude that got me through a few Presidents. Anyone remember Tricky Dick?

Looks like there’s trouble up ahead. Europe is turmoil, the US is having a hard time. Even China isn’t immune from economic unrest. Catastrophes await in the dark ready to ambush us all.

Even though I’m not even sure how everything will shake out, I plan on outliving the troubles. Why not? After all, there were people who outlived the fall of the Roman Empire. How much worse can this be?

-Sixbears