REFLECTIONS AND DEFLECTIONS

A few articles back I touched upon
losing some friends that we have
made through out the years and wondering
how our fans and teams will be handling
these losses too. Well, it does give
mind to our own mortality when we realize
a person was right here yesterday and
taken from our sight the next day.
To err is human and we all are guilty
of errors in our mortal lives but we
ought to make a conscious effort to not forget
those that have gone on before us. They
then have passed the tests and now are
in another phase of life/death.
Today we note a person we heard a lot
about during the Watts Riots.
Rodney King was found at the bottom
of his swimming pool and suffered
some incident that took his life.
Only 47 years old, he did suffer
several times with alcohol abuse and
other misdeamers, he still was abused
himself by L.A. police, all those years
ago and his statement made the news "Can't
we all just get along?" King said.
That is the question..whether it is
during a huge department store sale,
a parade that is long and tedious,
watching a ball game and perhaps even
in another town and not your own turf.
We should make a solemn effort to try
really hard to all get along. Life
does take its' toll on us all and
during our time on life's stage, would
it ever be great if more of us could
adopt this philosophy. There is a movie
out right now called "The best exotic
Marigold Hotel" and its' main claim
to fame takes place in crowded, impoverished
India about aging folks and their desire
to be part of a community with other aging
people leaning toward attempts at living
out their remaining days well, but not
necessarily in wealth and splendor.
The book is fabulous if you have not
yet picked it up. The movie stars Great-
Brit actress Judi Dench. She played in
the sit com for years called "As Time
Goes by" and in James Bond shows and
as the Grandmother in film "Chocolate".
She now has macular degeneration so it
is most trying for her to be able to
read her scripts easily but she is a
trooper and a wonderfully talented actress.
Each character in this Marigold Hotel movie
is bringing with him/her self, some baggage
and each is offering friendship, but is
doing so very carefully too and each one
finds a kinship with the other tenants.
To come to terms with age, it takes a
whole lot of courage and grit and along
with this, a bottomless sense of humor.
We live long enough, we shall age. We
are not privy to any other alternative.
And so it would seem to me to be such
a terrific idea if indeed, we could all
just try a bit harder each and every
single day we are still here, to get
along with "others", offering a smile too!
Babs Wells