Fast-forwarding through life

     Over a decade ago, I volunteered to take on the task of typing my dad's journals into the computer so copies could be made for everyone in the family to read at their leisure. Because I don't work on it every day, it is taking me awhile. In doing this typing, I am learning the effects of a personal history. It's amazing how many of life's details we forget. It's also amazing how differently we may view things due to a variety of perspectives. I find myself mentally traveling back in time as I picture people, places, and incidences. Often I have a warm feeling, remembering people I love and don't see very often, or maybe will never again see in this life. Sometimes I feel sorrow remembering a difficult time for someone or a traumatic event. It's almost like watching a movie where days, weeks, months, or years go by in rapid succession and your emotions run the gamut of reactions to what is going on. For the most part, life just goes on day after day. Getting up, brushing teeth, taking out trash, fixing meals, running errands, visiting and being visited..... But it's that everyday, simplicity repeated over and over that defines us. There are those who spend endless hours seeking entertainment and self-gratification. Their journals would be a record of movies watched, novels read, restaurants visited, trips planned and taken, parties, vacations..... For my dad, it was endless hours of fixing, improving, helping, serving, with any rare moment NOT accomplishing something being notably labelled "goofing off". It seems to me that just about everything comes down to where to draw lines. I remember resenting my dad for not being around much. Yet, I am proud of him when I hear about or remember the many people he has helped and the many physical buildings and places that bear the witness of his meticulous work. I guess when it comes right down to it, I am grateful for both of my parents. They were loving, serving, sacrificing, honest, just plain GOOD people. Any little thing I might be able to "fault" really doesn't matter. They may have drawn a line in a little different place than I would. That's okay. They were completely on the GOOD side of the line between people that leave a positive impact on the world and those who don't. I just hope my posterity will feel that way about me after I'm gone. I want to endure to the end in being GOOD.