Location: Heart of Haynesville RV Park (home base); Mansfield, Louisiana
As I enter my eighth decade of life, I’ve
become a little more retrospective. Lately I’ve been thinking about and
remembering people, places, things and ideas. Wow, that was an elementary school
year flashback, using the definition of a noun. Oh well, I guess it fits in
with my pensive mood lately.
At some point in my life, I went from spending most of my
time looking forward and planning my future to looking backwards at my past and
what was or what could have been. I’m guessing that break point is when you
realize the days you have left are less than those you’ve already used. It
becomes a combination of some regrets and some “patting myself on the back”. I
don’t think I spent enough time just enjoying the present. That is a life
lesson I learned too late. But dang, the present moves so fast and changes
constantly. It doesn’t feel that way when living it daily, but when you stop
and look, it just zips by you in a hurry.
One minute your children are crawling on the floor, the next you’re helping
them with algebra at the dining room table. Turn around again and they are
receiving their diploma at graduation before heading off to a life of their
own. And that is the combined sad and happy thing, “a life of their own”.
I remember myself as a twenty-year-old planning a cross-country
motorcycle trip. I’m about 99% sure I won’t be taking it now. That was a youthful
dream. I bought the motorcycle and double checked my plans. The plan was to travel
and explore the country during the day and sleep in wooded places alongside the
road while using my motorcycle and a tarp as a windbreak/bedroll. There was no
time limit on the plan, and I fully intended to do it until I either ran out of
money or got bored. But then, like so many times, my plans changed when life
got in the way. I sold the motorcycle within a year of buying it. With it being
only a year old, it was a quick, albeit emotional sale. Notice I’ve held back
1% on the motorcycle trip because that is another life lesson I’ve learned,
never say never and expect the unexpected.
I enlisted in the Navy when I was seventeen years old. That
was back in the early seventies when the Vietnam War and Hippie movement were
both winding down. Veterans were coming home and being spit on while being called
“baby killers”. Active-duty military were encouraged not to wear their uniforms
to avoid possible conflicts. Combine that social environment with Watergate and
you get a mood that wasn’t very patriotic. Being realistic and looking back on
it fifty years later, I know the reason for my enlistment was a combination of
patriotism and a sense of adventure. Those four years reinforced the foundation
of my life that my parents had started. Honor, truth and respect. Those life
lessons have stayed with me to this day.
I stumbled on my first love while I was in the Navy. I was
drowning in love and life was great. Then she showed her true colors and broke
my heart. I like to believe that she felt guilty about deceiving me, but she
probably knew I was wising up to what she was doing. So, after happily swimming
in love for three whole months we went our separate ways, and I drowned in
heart-break. I had been broken. I hadn’t yet learned another life lesson. When
two people are in a loving relationship and one is “living a lie”, that lie only
affects the other person when it becomes known. Prior to the lie becoming
known, the person only knows the love of the relationship. Ignorance is truly
bliss, until the truth is known. Of course, the truth was she was a cheater and
a liar. I hope her son turned out to be a solid, well-adjusted man. I pointed
him in the right direction, but our time was very short. The odds were against
him though, due to the influence of his mother. Maybe she met a stronger man
than me who helped turn her life around. Fingers crossed. *** Begin Post-edit. The boy was not mine. He was 3 years old when I met his mother. Someone pointed out the possible confusion in the original post. *** End Post-Edit
Those were just some of my thoughts about a part of my life. I read something the other day that applies here. "If we erase all of our regrets and mistakes in life, we ultimately erase ourselves". That's a bingo, come check my card.
This blog has never been totally about traveling. I use it sometimes as a way to talk to my grandchildren in the future. Someday, maybe 30 years from now they will read the words I wrote on the day before my 70th birthday.
A blog post needs a picture. Tonight, there will be two oldies, but goodies but are applicable to the subject at hand.
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| A nice sunrise over the Gulf of America while parked on the beach. I was camped at Mustang Island State Park, near Corpus Christie, Texas. |
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| Sunset over the Pacific Ocean from a beach near Fort Stevens State Park Campground, Oregon. |
Ya'll take care of each other. Maybe I'll Cya down the road.
