Oh, To Be a Simple Man

No, Ashley, we didn't let E sit in front of the TV all weekend.    He was bonding with his cousins.

This was a big week in many ways.  S left for Fort B and in traditional Army fashion, he was stuck in San Jose an extra day after the computers crashed and he couldn't be processed.  "Hurry Up and Wait" was the Army motto my father used to repeat.  S got a first hand lesson on his first day as a soldier.

B finished his first year at FSU in fine form.  Now looking for a job and trying to keep his cat,  Earl-J, happy.

The last person in the above picture, J, is I suppose like most fathers--along for the ride, watching.  Or maybe that is just my take on the world.

This week I also attended a funeral of the mother of a good friend from high school and college. There were many friends I hadn't seen in a while, as well as some I see fairly often.  Nice to be in the presence of good people. The service was nice, and it should be.  This was a nice woman that had lived a life serving others.  I never heard a cross word from her mouth and she lived to help, especially feed, others.  Some would say she had lived a difficult life, moved from the Midwest in the 1940's as a child, worked in a packing house, then raising two boys and a husband.  I don't think she would say it was difficult.  I think she would say she just made the most ofeach day.

As I was listening to the song, "I'll Fly Away," I was struck by the simplicity of this wonderful woman's life.  Not the "Oh, such a simple woman,"  thoughts.  The "WOW! What a glorious,  simple example of a great life lived."  Why do we humans complicate matters so much?  The longer I sat and listened and looked at the people at the service, I was struck by the power of simplicity.  The singularness of doing a few things, well. 

Oh, that I become that simple.