Emma, I am your grandpa in San Antonio. You don’t know me that well because I live far away and I’ve only been to see you a few times since you were born, but believe me I think about you all the time. Your mom sends me pictures and video clips of you so I feel like I have been watching you grow into the “big girl” you say you are every chance you get these days. I am so old I even have pictures of your mom and Aunt Erin when they were about your age.
Emma, the world is a wonderful place, but it has its ups and downs. Each day gives us another chance at happiness and sadness. I wish I could say that my generation was leaving you a perfect world, but the truth is we made a bit of a mess of some things. We are leaving you with problems like global warming, worldwide terrorism, war, poverty and pollution. Each preceding generation helped create these problems to be sure, but my generation should have done more for yours.
My generation forgot a lot of things. We forgot that while Mother Nature is very forgiving, She has limits to the amount of abuse She can take. We forgot that we should love and respect one another and to treat others the way we would want to be treated ourselves. We forgot how to share. We forgot the joy of giving to those less fortunate than ourselves. Sometimes we got so busy with worldly things that we forgot how to laugh out loud. We forgot how good it is to stop and smell roses and watch the beauty of sunsets. We forgot how to be tolerant of others. So many times, we forgot how to seek the truth and be honest with ourselves.
What we leave your generation is our hope. We leave you with wonderful scientific advances that have led to marvelous discoveries in medicine and science. We leave you with possibilities for a brighter future on this planet. Will you find a way to deliver affordable healthcare to everyone who needs it? Will you find a way to end poverty and feed the hungry? Will you find a way to end our thoughtless pollution of the planet and reverse our global warming? Will you find a way to bring peace, justice and tolerance to a world so tired of war and terrorism? Soon it will be your turn to change the world and try to make it into a better place and I wish you all the best.
The challenge to your generation will be to undo our mistakes, find solutions and accomplish what we could not do during our time. Your challenge will be to find a way to bring more peace, joy and love into a starving world. I challenge you to wage peace, not war in a world too quick to go to war, too quick to use force to resolve complex problems. I challenge you to find long lasting and meaningful solutions, not quick fixes. I challenge you to laugh often, love with an open heart and cherish your friends and family. Be the best Emma you can be.
God Bless you!
FOOD for THOUGHT...
Gramps
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Steve,
American is the most generous country in the world ~ at least that's what's said of us. We give more, and help more than anyone else. I give, my friends give, and God knows, our government gives.
I think our government gives too much to outside countries ~ they should first take care of the hungry children here, in the US.
We should provide affordable healthcare to our CITIZENS ~ not provide it for illegal aliens. Nonsense.
And, we're leaving our future generations with the stigma of being, "politically correct". Probably the worst thing we leave them. Don't racial profile? Don't speak the truth? Don't look at the history of violence and regognize who the "bad guys" are?
Well, I could go on and on...
God help the new generations. They'll need His help. We should all hang our heads in shame for what we allow and continue to allow.
Post a Comment