Time Traveler: Remember the past to move forward

Time Traveler: Wednesday before last, January 1, 2025 I awoke early. I didn't smell roses or see a priest looking down at me and I thought, "Hot damn! Another year gone by and I'm still here." Who would have thunk it? Certainly not my friends whom, based on my lifestyle, mostly predicted an early and ignoble end for me. I can only guess at how surprised they must be since many of them have turned their toes to the daisies and headed off to the great beyond, wherever that is. Mark Twain once said he would prefer heaven for the climate, but choose hell for the society. When I go, I expect I'll be in good company either way. They say that with age comes wisdom. Well, I ain't so sure about that. I know a lot of old people that are as dumb as a bag of hair. So what is wisdom, and how do you get it? Are some of us just naturally smarter than others? Nah, not so much. We get wisdom by making mistakes, hopefully non-fatal mistakes, or better yet, watching someone else make mistakes and being observant enough to learn from them. In 1787 a group of men consisting of merchants, planters, and professionals of one sort or another got together and created a document, a contract with America, called the Constitution. They ranged in age from their middle thirties to eighty-year-old Ben Franklin. While not perfect, it was as close to perfect as they could get, considering the amount of time they had. Alexander Hamilton stated that it "Should consist only of general provisions." The reason is that, "They must necessarily be permanent and they cannot calculate for the possible changes of things." It's been said that the Constitution was created by genius' to be run by idiots. So were they genius'? Maybe, but one thing these men had in common was that they all knew their history. They had studied other forms of government from republics to monarchies. They read the Magna Carta and even looked at the Iroquois Confederation in which five Native American tribes in New York governed themselves. These men were not seers who could predict the future, they were historians who learned from past mistakes. As I mentioned in the past, I grew up in a very rural area and spent a good part of my time wandering around in the woods. One day my uncle and I took a long hike and every quarter mile, he would stop and have me take a look back the way we had come. He would tell me to take note of a tree or rock, some feature of the forest to remember. That way we could always find our way back. The reason people get lost is that they only look forward. They have no idea what things look like behind them. A part of avoiding future pitfalls is to remember the past. Okay, that's enough of this wisdom stuff. I want to talk about something else, problem being, I have no idea what I want to talk about. I've been writing this column for a number of years now and it ain't getting any easier. A couple of years back, I was in line at Depot Bay Coffee and the man in front of me looked vaguely familiar. And then I recognized him as a columnist who has been writing columns for over 20 years. I tapped him on the shoulder, introduced myself, and asked him how, after all these years, did he keep coming up with newstuff? I guess I was expecting some pearl of wisdom from this great man, but he turned around, looked at me like I was a five-year-old street urchin tugging at his coattails and said one word, "Rewrites." With that, he grabbed his coffee and strode out without another word. Arrogant S.O.B. Next time I'll ask Susan Rushton. At least she'll pat me on the head and tell me what a clever little boy I am. So the old goat wants me to do rewrites, does he? A couple of times a week, I encounter someone on the street or I get a couple of phone calls from folks saying they appreciate my column. It wouldn't be fair to those people to do rewrites. Of course most of my readers are older folks, maybe their memories are shot. Rewrites….Hmmm. Another subject: It's the new year and like every other year, the talk always turns to new years resolutions. In my view, making new year resolutions is stupid on a cracker. For years, I vowed to become a better person but within a week I'd go back to being the same louse I've always been. If you insist on making resolutions, leave yourself a little wiggle room. For example, Rudyard Kipling's new years resolution was, "I am resolved - Throughout the year to lay my vises on the shelf; a godly, sober course to steer and love my neighbors as my self - excepting always two or three whom I detest as they hate me." To comment on this column call (530) 320-6441.