Mellow? Not me!

I've mentioned before that I get a lot of ideas for this space from my pastor.   I also occasionally get one from the lady that cuts my hair. 

Last week, she mentioned that I had grown "mellow" in my column.   I didn't really see that one coming.  Mellow?  Me?  

Well, she knows me pretty well.  Heck, she's been cutting my hair for almost 30 years.   I tell her all the time that it's up to her to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.   I don't really think she does that but I can at least blame the gray on her regular intervention (not really).

Anyway, she said that yes, I had mellowed, but that was a good thing.  People of a certain age (my age and older), have choices:  they can become grumpy old men or they can be happy little grandfathers.

OK.  I can live with that.  

Still, I want there to be a little edge to what I preach.  I want to challenge folks to make better choices; in life, in health, and in how they relate to other people.

I want you to take responsibility for your actions.   I want to discourage you from blaming someone else for the mistakes that you made.  

I still haven't gotten over someone else being responsible for you spilling hot coffee in your lap.   And that I have to take my shoes off when I go through airport security simply because one person tried to set off a shoe bomb (although I will never argue with anything those folks do to make flying safer--it's just that one seems almost humorous--millions of people have to take their shoes off because of one crazy guy)?

I want to end hunger, homelessness, and child abuse.   I don't even like to use the term "wife-beater" to describe that sleeveless t-shirt because that phrase is so abhorrent to me.  

I want to end obesity, particularly in our children and if no one is smoking, well, that would be just fine with me.  I think everyone should practice preventive health care because it is the best tool we have for solving the health care crisis.  

I want us to raise our children to be wonderful, loving, responsible adults and in turn help shape our grandchildren in the same way.  I think I have some ideas how to do that and I occasionally share those ideas with you.

In the past couple of years, I've even let politics creep into this space, despite being told by folks much wiser than me to never go there.   I just want us to all get along and that seems especially important (and glaringly absent) in the political arena.   We seem to penalize those that reach across the aisle to communicate and corroborate in order to get things done.   I'm sorry but that is exactly how the government gets things done.

Politics have become so incredibly partisan partly because we have become so incredibly partisan.  There's too much "if you disagree with me, then you're wrong."   There's not only two sides to every issue but there is often "more than one way to skin a cat" (whoops--is that a cliché?---sorry).

I do want to be an instrument for change but not at the price of being just plain ol' unpleasant to be around.  I guess you can be grumpy or you can be happy.  It's mostly a choice. 

Mellow?  Nah...more like an iceberg, where there's a whole lot more that you don't see than what you see.