with a little help from my friends

Sometimes I think life stinks

     And if you are looking for a joyful, funny read....skip this one.
     I  admit it.  I am a negative person by nature.  I think I got that from my father.  He never saw the bright side of life.  I see the glass as half empty.
     I read the news and that probably is a mistake.  Violence in the Mideast; fires and drought out west, innocent children fleeing violence and crime only to face rejection and hostility; bank robbers using innocent women as human shields.
      300 people die when an airliner is shot down by a missile.   82 shootings in Chicago over the weekend.  Ebola in Africa.
      I sometimes think life stinks.
      People get diseases.  Like MS.  Or ALS.  Or MD.  Or any of the other odious initials that spell a lifetime of challenge.
      And our old friend, cancer.  The big C.  We have spent hundreds of millions on finding a cure, and it still takes tens of thousands of lives a year.  It touches all of us, at some point, in some way.  A family member.  A neighbor.  A friend.
     If they are lucky, with good doctors and nurses, they survive.  But they always live in fear.
     I sometimes think life stinks.
     It's not fair.  Good people get sick.  Evil people roam the streets.
     I used to have a big family.  At Christmas and at other holidays, the clan would gather and eat and drink and visit.  Kay and Jim, Minkie, Doug and Laurel, Dort and Floyd, Rondy and Loretta, Bea and Henry, Harry.....my mom's clan.  And the kids....my brothers and me, cousins Bob,  Sally,  Jody,  Ron, Dave, Gene, Lee and a dozen others.
     Some I knew well, others....well, they were older than me and we didn't have a lot in common.
     We grew old too fast, grew apart too quickly.
      Now the ones left are spread all over the country.
     My cousin in Alaska is struggling, fighting, hoping.  She's one of those hit by cancer.  I know miracles are in short supply in our world, but she sure could use one.