Pappa Hardy's Musings on Life.

If not for modern medicine, would I still be alive? That is a good question. At times it is amazing that people ever lived to be more than 30. There are so many diseases that could have done you in and so many things that go wrong with these bodies of ours.

Smallpox, mumps, diphtheria, whopping cough, were just a few of the diseases that might kill someone in their youth. Polio and measles could also bring complications and cause a major problem. However, vaccines made it so I didn’t have to deal with many of those sicknesses. I did have to deal with the common cold, broken bones, and a whole list of other things.

However, today we live in a marvelous world. For those of us with weak knees, we can have our knees replaced. With those of us who have a heart that beats out of tune, we can have ablation that will correct the naughty nerves that cause us problems. We have medications that can help us control various maladies caused when the body malfunctions. It is just amazing that we live beyond 30, but then maybe beyond 60 will even better.

We live in a land of a noble experiment. Can man rule himself through a representative government and for long remain free? We continue to see that drama unfold each and every day. We now live in a very perilous time in the history of that nation. We are facing a significant challenge to our financial independence. Can we navigate out of the deadly financial waters that now encompass this nation? So many forces pull at us. So many concerns. So many people who say, give me the power and I will make it better for all. Can we continue to walk a tight rope? I pray that we will have the wisdom as a nation to not hand the power over to those that promise an easy solution to our problems. I see too many lessons in history of free peoples who gave power to those that promised easy solutions. Instead, that only lead to ruin.

My travels around the world, as limited as they are, have taught me some important lessons. First, we have a lot of diverse cultures. I have loved going into new places and seeing how people live, and what they enjoy doing. On a beach in St. Marteen I heard several ladies, natives of that island I assume, talking Creole while we all were laying out on the beach. They were obviously having a good time. None of them were well off, but they have a unique culture.

Despite these differences in culture, all of us have the same basic desires. We love and treasure family. We want shelter, and want meaning in our work and in our existence. It has been a constant that is everywhere I visit. We live together in groups because we are interdependent on each other and need each other’s expertise. It is true that we are different, but also the same.

You know, somehow or someway, or maybe even someday, I must be famous. I get to sit next to “important” people when I am in meetings or dinners. For example, I have sat next to two of three of the Congressman from the State of Utah. I have met both of her Senators and the Governor. I have sat next to the Lt. Governor of the State of Utah in a banquet. I have met two or three Senators from the State of Wyoming and talked to them face to face. One of them even knew me when I would write letters about this or that item. I know all of the City Councilman in Payson as well as the Mayor on a first name basis. I have a son, Christofer, who actually has shaken the hands of former President Bill Clinton when he was running for President in 1992. Another son was a friend of the daughter of the Governor of Wyoming.

You would think with all of the associations I have had with other famous people like my wife, or my kids, or my parents, or my friends, or just my neighbors, that somehow I would be famous. Alas, I am just good old Mike, the guy who lives down the street in the house next to the two story house not too far from Rocky Ridge.

I haven’t yet figured out why I am not on the evening news, widely quoted in the paper or on the local TV networks, or why everyone I meet doesn’t already know who I am. Instead, I am just me, and despite all of my association with the famous, no one knows me. Well, my family and friends know me and that should be enough, don’t you think?

We live in an extremely stressful time. Normally, it is stressful to make a day to day living. You have concerns about being laid off, of having enough to live on. You worry about your children, and whether they will be healthy and happy. You worry about uncontrollable things such as the weather and natural disasters. It just seems like there is always something to worry about. I do believe we need to get away from this stress, and make our lives easier. Of course, that is easier said than done.

Stress is killing us. It is causing our health to deteriorate. I think I am a prime example of that. I believe that it contributes to our cultures tendency to overeat. We need to make sure we stop our stressing out on things.

Any more it is not enough to sit and watch a movie, attend a concert, or just watch TV. We have become a society of participators, but only when we can do it electronically and from afar. People find it harder to interact with people, but they don’t mind interacting with people through a separate medium. I don’t know what this is going to do to our families, our country, or our world.

When our family was much smaller, and we visited Disneyland in Anaheim, California, we visited Disneyland. My wife as a young girl had a favorite ride that she wanted us all to ride on the minute we got into the park. The kids were thinking it was going to be Space Mountain, or Splash Mountain. I thought it might be the teacups, the Matahorn, or the Submarine.

Instead, it was a ride that took you through a tunnel on a boat. It was the ride, “It’s A Small World After All”. They had all of these puppets singing an inane song of the same title of the ride. It was something hardly any of us could tolerate, but Bonnie loved it and it did indicate that there were all kinds of cultures and peoples that blended together into one humanity.

When we visited Yosemite National Park, this silly song came roaring back to my conscious. We saw and heard people of every persuasion. I heard to English, Spanish, French, Mandarin, Russian, and just about every other language you could imagine. In fact, those of us who spoke English were decidedly in the minority. I couldn’t believe how many different people there were enjoying the National Park. It should have been called an International Park. It was a revelation as to who was using the National Parks and enjoying our national heritage and scenery.

It is funny what you remember from driving the same old road many times a week. I used to make the drive to Laramie, Wyoming, from Cheyenne, Wyoming, at least once a week and maybe more often than that. One thing that I would do to pass the time of day was to fixate on seeing the same landmark on each drive. For me, that landmark was Ames Monument. It was a pyramid like monument structure, built for what reason I am not sure of and don’t remember. However, sometimes I could see it and sometimes not, depending on how big of a car I was in, and if I was watching at the right time. I would watch it shift across the landscape as I drove on, and then it would be over for another week. Ames Monument is still a place I look for when I drive that bit of road.

The Power of the Media in this country (The United States of America) is truly amazing. They reach into our lives everywhere, and while they have a great potential for good, it is the misuse of this power that bothers me. For whatever reason, it seems that many of those in the media feel it is their purpose in life to educate us as to what we should be doing.

Maybe it is because they feel that masses of the people are too stupid or uneducated to really understand what is best for us. Maybe it is because they feel they have a responsibility to help put in power those that align themselves with what the media feels is the real truth.

Perhaps it is just a matter of personal arrogance of those that have positions of power in the media. Regardless, those that feel they know better than us have their own agendas that they push, and with the media intruding ever further into our everyday lives, their opinions and agendas are more important to understand than ever. Why? It is because many times the things that they favor are just wrong. They can ruin this country, and I think they have way too much power and control over what we in this country think about the important issues of the day.

I honestly don’t know the answer to this question. I am one of those that seem to be locked into a lot of those critters, and a lot every day. I guess they are good in that they help us to cope with health problems. However, the sad thing is that they are an indication of just how much older I am getting and the resulting health challenges that I face as a man.

The drugs help my diabetes. They also help my heart condition. They also cost a heck of a lot of money. It just seems like they could be the savior of mankind, but they also can break the bank. Being a banker, I don’t always find that exciting.