John Hill (age 32) meet John Hill (age 52)

If I was to meet the man I was 20 years ago, I wonder if I would like him. I hope that I have changed (for the better) over the past couple of decades. Heck, I'd like to think that I've learned a few things in just the past couple of years.

I know that I have learned to be more forgiving and less judgmental. I believe that I am much slower to anger than I once was. I think that I am more willing to try to understand somebody else's view point and less likely to insist on everything having to go my way.

I firmly believe that the fifty something John would think that the thirty something John has said some foolish things and believed that he would never back down from whatever stance that he made at the time.

While it is certainly possible that there are people that are very much the same as they were twenty years ago, I would hope that we have learned a few things along the way and, at the very least, become better versions of our old selves. Some of us may have been more foolish in our younger years than we care to admit. Most of us have said and done things that we wish we hadn't. I have learned that it isn't always important to say what's on my mind. Some things are hurtful and nobody really benefits from hearing them. Chance are pretty good that I would think that thirty something John is an arrogant, outspoken, foolish jerk.

This is a good time to apologize to the people that I may have offended in the past. For saying things that didn't need to be said (even if I believed it); for saying things in a mean-spirited manner; for not listening to your side of the issue/argument; for just being a jerk--I humbly ask for your forgiveness. Please excuse that insensitive, immature person of my past.

I bring this up because it would seem that there are people that are judging people based on words that were spoken many years ago. Whether it's war hero and former Senator Chuck Hagel or preacher Louie Giglio or any other public person, can we get beyond their past and look at their character today? Can we accept that we are not the same as we were in the past and they may not be either?

As much as our news media condemns our politicians for catering to the money of big donors, it is the media chasing the money of advertisers and huge ratings that inspires the sensationalizing of the news and the exploitation of people and events that have no real bearing on truth or ability. They play on our need for news and they abuse our trust. Politicians that we've elected to office are more interested in running for re-election than they are in doing the job we've elected them to do. There is so little integrity in these two fields that it is absolutely bizarre that they are the ones that are always crying foul on one another!

Sometimes I just have to shake my head and sigh.
(Fifty something John shakes head and sighs)
(Thirty something John pauses for a moment...then he also shakes head and sighs)
Maybe he's brighter than I thought.

John <><