When Are We Ever Enough For Ourselves?

A pervasive attitude.

I was given a treasure of sorts to read. A local autobiography of a man who died in 1957. Not just any man but a man who was a mayor at one time and had made sure our main road into Eisenberg was being built, although the main part of his story was of his time as a prisoner of war during the first world war. I daren't say fascination stuff because it must have been sheer hell but he survived.

One of his sons died because of the next world war and that was the name I had stopped to have a look at this morning on my way passed the local war memorial. The plaque is there with names of the fallen and it saddens me every time I read it.

Shouldn't any leader of a country who is able to declare a conflict have been given a taste of life in and around a war? Perhaps a few weeks in a current war zone might cure the verbal trigger finger.

The lady who looks after this memorial and its lovely flowers was sweeping up leaves and we got talking about life and how it is at times unpredictably long and at other times just the opposite. Yet, how many of us keep on saying to ourselves:

• I'll have fun when I'm older.
• I'll have fun when I've lost five kilograms.
• I'll have fun when I've saved a lot of money.
• I'll have fun when I've met the right man.

Living a long life is a blessing, a gift and not a given. We know it but we don't live by it...let's cut those mental restraints and have some fun. The man whose life I have just read about might have done many things, but I am sure that he treasured every minute of life as he had seen firsthand how quickly a life can cease.

Biggi