Feeling Lucky, Punk?

This afternoon, I opened a fortune cookie to find a message inside which read "Three days from now is your lucky day". Now I don't usually take stock in mass produced messages stuffed inside MSG laden treats manufactured in conditions I'd rather not know about, but this one struck me as being so definite, that I placed it in my wallet. I thought about the message, and even imagined what it meant by "lucky day". Would I win the lottery? Maybe I would finally sell my book? Who knows, but then it started me to think some more.
Some days on my way home, on the parkway in front of the Save-A-Lot, there is an older man sitting with a hand lettered cardboard sign, exclaiming how he's sick of being hungry and homeless. And I feel lucky, that I have a job, not necessarily the best paying job, and my boss sometimes can be a jerk (but then whose boss isn't?), but there are aspects of it I enjoy, and it keeps me from being that man. It makes me appreciate the things that I have, which is not much, but then I really don't desire a whole lot anymore, as material things don't matter to me like they used to.
I put the fortune in my wallet between two pictures of my sons. Everyday I think of them, I feel lucky. I may not get to see them as much as I would like, but Im know of other fathers who rarely see their children, so I feel lucky. Then there are the fathers who don't want anything to do with their children, and that makes me feel lucky that I care about mine.
A couple of years ago, I began to take stock of my life, and I realized that it wasn't about accumulating things. There was a time when I thought I was perfect, but then I gave up drugs and realized I was far from it. So I began to try to improve myself, not physically (although, admittedly, I could stand to get in better shape and lose a few pounds)but spiritually. I took an assessment of what was really important, as opposed to what I thought was important, and came upon the conclusion that we all could lose the things we value the most, so it's best just to enjoy what you have while you still have it. The best way to change the world is to change ourselves.
I know sometimes I sit here and gripe and complain about the way the country is headed, but I feel lucky that I can still do that. So I try not to get mired in the negative, because things can always get worse, better to appreciate what I have. So, to parphrase Ed Grimley, everyday is my luckiest of lucky days.

The Best Gift A Father Can Give

"As soon as you're born, they make you feel small,
By giving you no time instead of it all...."-"Working Class Hero" by John Lennon
Weekends are busy time for me. My two sons usually come over, and between taking care of them and answering their incessant questions about the Beatles (or just music in general), the only time I get to myself is when they're sleeping.
And I don't mind. I can't really afford to buy them toys, and I've learned that the more toys they get, the less they value them (kind of like the more dollars we pump in the economy the less value they have because there are so many of them floating around). All I really have to give them is my time, which is also their time. They won't be this age forever, so I've made a point of trying to enjoy every second with them.
And my kids have turned out wonderful. But I won't take all the credit for that, just like when people compliment me on how cute they are, I'm only half the gene pool. But they get what children want the most-attention. They're not spoiled, but they're not perfect either.
When I was growing up, my father was in insurance, and so to support my brothers and sisters and I, he really had to hustle, which meant that he didn't get much time to spend individually with us. And then there was the several occaisions where he spanked us, which I will neither condone or condemn, all I know is when I was older, he did express a regret to me that he did using spankings.
There was a time in my late teens where it was just my father and I living at home, and we would spend evenings playing chess, he would buy some beer (after I turned eighteen. He felt that if I was old enough to serve my country in a time of war, than I was old enough to be served a beer)and we would just talk. I asked a lot of questions, because having lost my mother several years prior, I never knew how long my dad would be around. I learned about his first marriage, the one he had before he married my mother, and often wondered how he could have given up his first child completely. Somewhere out there I have a half sister that I'll probably never meet, or, in one of those quirks of fate, probably know as someone else.
It was after my father passed away that I realized what it's all about. We are not here to accumulate wealth or material items, we are here to make the planet a better place. The best possible way to do this is to raise children who are better citizens than you to take your place. The way to raise good children is not by ignoring them, but by spending time with them, teaching them moral lessons and giving them positive memories that will stay with them their lifetime. Pleasant memories last forever in the mind of a child as much as the bad ones, but only the good ones make them better people. Give your child some time today, and we'll all be better for it tomorrow.

Guitar Picture For Lily