There are many things each of us does not know. Most are content just living day by day, and all things outside of that life are not needed to better themselves.
But as I grow older, I find myself wanting to learn more. I start a new book or just ask questions of those who know. Many times, I start up my old computer and just start asking questions and get a lot of answers from it.
The ones on the other end often do not know anymore than I do, and they refer me to different websites where I can find the answers.
But I am not content to take that answer as gospel. It could just be another’s opinion and not the facts. A lot can be learned about many things, but don’t rely on one person’s answer.
My morning starts the same each day. I get my coffee and my Kokomo Tribune, and I spend about an hour reading just about all of it before stopping long enough to get my daily chores started.
Putting the information from the newspaper to use is what I try to do by making notes to check later, either on the television or by checking with others before that is placed up into my memory bank for later use.
I learned a long time ago that many things you hear are just gossip and not the whole truth. Even good friends can give you the wrong information.
They put their own wording to it. They don’t do it intentionally, but they believe it must be said before they forget what it was all about.
Using the mind for remembering gets a little heavy once in a while, and some of those things you thought you knew just aren’t there anymore. The brain gets a little tired and feels like it has all it can handle without adding to it.
But the brain is a wonderful asset to everything we do or say, and many get the illness that dulls the brain to the point that we don’t even know our own family. Once a good friend had to put his father into a nursing home because he was getting old and fell a lot. Wanting to keep his dad from getting hurt, he did what he hated to do but it was for the health of his father.
He went in one day to see his father. The older man looked at my friend and said, “Do I know you? Who are you?”
The son said that broke his heart. His father had played a part in my friend taking up the ministry, as the father was a minister too.
Another old friend told me one day he visited his wife every day at a nursing home, and he had to constantly tell her to breathe. He said that it hurt him very much to have to holler at her because they had been married for more than 50 years.
We never know when that will happen to us or to one of our loved ones or friends. I guess we take life for granted. We expect to be able to live without problems, but it just does not work that way.
Life is what you make of it, but sometimes the making is a taking.
Maybe one day, they will find out what causes that brain degeneration. Maybe those affected will live a full life and remember all the things they did and all those wonderful members of their families.
I guess I should be tickled pink to be able to remember the things I do. But I think what helps me is that I read as much as I can, watch news shows, and that I am always ready to listen to others who lived before me and still knew what things were like in their day.
That is why I write this column. It keeps me alert and happy.
Ray “Uncle Ray” Day is a weekly contributor to the Kokomo Tribune. Contact him at uncleray@earthlink.net.
Columns
Day: Our lives are good but tough
- Columns
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MAUREEN HAYDEN: Indiana liquor laws are confusing to all
Are they intended to regulate sales or level the playing field?
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RAY DAY: Why not public schools?
School vouchers aggravate the misconception that private schools are better than public schools.
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ED VASICEK: 'Ed'-itorial comments concerning the news
Chicago natives just don't lack opinions.
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Hayden: From good to great in education
On the campaign trail last year and early into his administration, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence said repeatedly that his goal as governor would be to take Indiana from “good to great.”
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Mom’s simple advice still presents a valuable challenge
Most moms don’t base their advice on scientific research. Instead, their words of wisdom come from a greater source — the heart, where they store and process life experiences. Unfortunately, some folks don’t receive the gift of maternal guidance, for various reasons.
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Wolfsie: Making bird calls
One afternoon in 2011, my friend Eric spent a couple of hours over lunch explaining Twitter to me and I thought I understood it all, but as you’ll see from my first few tweets, I wasn’t very confident: “Is anyone getting this?”
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Vasicek: Mother’s Day stresses
For two hours, the lady sitting next to another airplane passenger boasted about her grandchildren, producing a barrage of photographs. She finally realized that she had been talking the whole time, so she tried to make amends:
“Oh, I am sorry! I have monopolized the conversation. I will listen to you now. So please tell me: what do you think of my grandchildren?” -
Day: Sports as I see it
Most of us have times when we want to vent our anger about things that happen for no good reason whatsoever and there are some who just don’t give a darn about what changes we have each day. Take me for example. There are things going on every year in sports where we are the ones who buy the tickets, yet we have no say about what’s happening
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Hicks: The real cause of Indiana’s ‘brain drain’
This week across Indiana bright, talented and well-educated young people pack up their meager campus belongings and head out to new jobs. Their employment prospects, for the minority who don’t yet have jobs, are fantastic
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House of Burgess: Committing virtual identity suicide
I joined Facebook Sept. 22, 2004. That was just seven months after Mark Zuckerberg and his cohorts created the site. Needless to say, it looked and felt much different back then. At its inception, the social network was only open to a few select Ivy League colleges
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