Ed Wood "The Right Stuff" Published Jan. 1, 2003

The look ahead

My daughter wrote a letter the other day in which she expressed the concerns of many who face the New Year. She wrote, "As you know, my work is too demanding. The pressure I am under both physically and mentally is a concern. Dad - it is a dismal world. As I told you this past summer, I truly feel you and mom lived through the best of times. We now live in a constant threat of war, or even worse. I fear for my child. I fear for me! There is so little "good" ever expressed. There isn't time to smell the roses, to squeal in the sprinkler, or to even remember Christmases past."

I am sure her sentiments speak for many. Is it any wonder? Our 24-hour news services thrive on gloom and doom. Good news doesn't sell, so our living rooms are bombarded with stories of strife, famine, warfare and man's inhumanity to man.

For most of the world's population, life has never been easy. The difference is that today's instant communication of sounds and pictures makes us more aware. But therein also lies the potential for a better life. We not only feel our neighbor's hurt a continent away, we can, just as quickly, communicate our concern, our warmth and our love over this same distance. The terrorist threat now touches all - but so can our love, if we will permit it to happen.

And yes, many of us are working too hard. Many families feel the need for two incomes, "just to stay ahead." But as my daughter was looking back on our "best of times," she didn't see that we never had the modern kitchens, the two car garages (or the two cars), the home entertainment centers, the fast food conveniences, central heat and air - all the "necessities" of today that require the two incomes.

There weren't terrorist threats in those days, but there was Elvis and the Beatles, whom many parents considered just as serious a threat to their children's welfare. Back then all our government ever promised was a "chicken in every pot," and most of us didn't even get that.
In spite of the media stories to the contrary, we are enjoying some pretty good times. Interest rates are the lowest in history, making home ownership available as never before. Unemployment is at record low levels. Educational opportunity is available for any child willing to work for it. Inflation no longer robs the elderly of their savings. The best health care in the world is available, one way or the other, that now turns what we once knew as major surgery into an outpatient service.

Hip transplants, knee replacements, cataract surgery and heart by-pass operations have become routine miracles that, in my generation, would have been accepted as just a crippling part of old age.

A positive attitude was then, and still is, the greatest defense we have against those who want us to feel somehow threatened. We live in the greatest country in the world. Our standards of living and comfort have never been higher, and the opportunities for prosperity and happiness have never been greater.

I don't know who wrote the following, but I have carried it in my wallet for many years.

"I am determined to be grateful for what I have right now, while I have it. I am determined to realize that right now, right this instant, is the golden moment, and these are the golden days."
Now let's go make the year 2003 the "Good Ol, Days" of tomorrow!

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Ed Wood is a resident of Sparta, TN. His column is published each Wednesday in the Crossville Chronicle.