AHHH, THE VAGARIES OF LIFE

     Oy! Ow! Creak. Whine. Crack. The back! My knee. Oof! Where the hell did I put those blasted keys? Did I already take that pill? And what about the book - seems familiar. Didn't I already read this?
      Sound familiar? Many of us are at the point where we can take the time we spent in getting to work and back home again, doing the job, squeezing in the tasks of home and family, take all that time and put it to a different use. But it seems that just at the time that we have that extra time that time starts to fly and before we are used to writing one month, it is already time to start writing the next year's date. 
     Where did it all go? And is it not amusing how our kids now throw at us what we threw at them. You have to check in, we said. You have to call. Let us know where you are and then we caution the grandkids to do the same. But now WE have to check in and if we are not where they expect us to be we now go into emergency procedure. They all call or text each other and then our phones go berserk. We get a lecture how we need to let someone know where we are at all times, and they forget that we are still the adults here, still the parents, but it is cute though. Very amusing.
     And just as we get this free time and begin to wonder with what to fill it, we begin to see the world around us and its vagaries. Suddenly the passions of youth return. Suddenly we become passionately interested once more in politics. We have the time to read and think and listen to the broadcasts and the ever incoming headlines on the phone screen. We remember the protests of yesteryear and our feet seem to ache to join in once more - though the body may not always be willing. We remember what we fought for as kids and then wonder what the hell happened and why we have to do this all over again. 
     So we look around and we see. We see a man masquerading as a president , all the while embarrassing other seniors, is immersed in madness to the nth degree, is shattering the alliances we have with other long time allies, threatens women, famous and not, is a consummate liar, and we feel the nausea rise within us.
     We rage at his attempted interference with legislative processes. We rage at the incompetence of Congress and their lack of courage, their selfishness, their lack of patriotism, their greed and we think again - better get out on those protest picket lines once more. Our job is not yet done, not yet over.
     So in the vagaries of life we find ourselves back at the beginning , albeit a tad changed, damaged, but still filled with righteous anger, dismay and yet, also with hope, that we can turn this around and make America what she always was - a leader of the world, a moral guide to other nations and a country which made mistakes but tried not to repeat them, to fix them instead, a nation which recognized that immigrants have built this land, infused our culture with the new and the old. We can but try. We must try.
     But in the meanwhile there goes that phone or whatever it truly is these days. I have apps on there I never heard of and the question is - who put them on there in  the first place?? Snapchat. Instagram. Twitter. I do not know how to use these things and truly, I use my phone to call and text - and yes, I text, though it took me some time to figure that out. Sending emails on the phone - learning. Picture taking - oy vey! And the size keeps growing. Where, oh where, did my old flip phone go? And call waiting on the phone - I always lose the first person!!
     Oh no!! Now it is playing some noisy music. How do I shut this off? It just got louder. Not good. Gotta call my techie. Ge!!!! Help!!! Ah, at least within the vagaries of life I do have my constant, Gerry. Gotta go. Pill time. Life. A joy and a responsibility. Let us go at it in the proper and beneficial way and have fun at the same time.