Miscellaneous Monday

Just some random thoughts on a Monday afternoon --

This morning was our semi-annual dentist visit. Chris found a new dentist since we were not happy with our former dentist. As first impressions go, this one is much better. Chris took the earlier appointment and by the time I got there, I didn't need to worry about any of the first visit insurance stuff -- I just told them it was the same as hers.
Visits were okay, as dentist visits go. She finished first and went home to wait on me.

We went to Springfield for a light lunch and a couple of errands. She just dropped me off at a Starbucks where I'll kill some time while she takes care of some other things.

This past weekend, we went to a memorial service/family reunion for one of Chris' cousins. Her cousin had been living in Florida and the funeral service for her there was several weeks ago when she died. The get together on Saturday was for family and friends in the St Louis area that were unable to make it to Florida. The memorial service was simple and pleasant and was followed by lunch in the park and visiting with family and friends.
Over the years, we have had very little interaction with Chris' cousins, so I didn't really know anyone other than her sister and brother in law. I did know her cousins and aunt, but wasn't positive of their names and didn't really know which kids or spouses went with which cousins.
I think Chris has had a little more exposure to my cousins, but it is also pretty limited. Our mobile society has dispersed many families.

Since Chris is more social than I am (and also more likable), she has connected with many of my cousins through Facebook and I have connected with none of her cousins.
Just an observation.

Again, there are certainly many benefits to social media and its connectivity. I have to admit that I have purposely chosen to keep my Facebook group relatively small. I guess that is also true of my actual friends, too.

It's a little ironic that we have access to so much information and yet choose to remain ignorant of many of the issues that affect the people that live around us. We seem to be pretty keen on checking out that which affects us directly, but even so, we remain largely misinformed because we choose to believe what we want to believe rather than checking things out for ourselves. Most information that we read on the internet can be easily verified or shown to be false.
We should probably do a better job of checking things out.

Just as social gatherings have me thinking about social interactions, memorial services and news of friends or relatives dying gets me to thinking about how temporary and fragile human life is.
Whether we run the distance and live life to an old age or cash in our chips with many fewer years, this is but a temporary dwelling. I wonder if death is easier to deal with if you have no belief in an afterlife. Does believing that the end is the end make it more or less final than believing in the hope of heaven?

I wonder if that changes if you are the person that is dying or one of the persons that is left living.
My own beliefs are that there is a God and a final judgment. There is a heaven to be gained and a hell to be shunned. I believe that Jesus was serious and truthful when He said, "I am the way and the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father  except by me."

I know that there are people from around the globe that read this simple blog from time to time. I can only imagine that there are many different beliefs about life, death, and eternity. While I have listened as others remember loved ones, I can't imagine that my own passing will leave much of a void. Sure, there will be a few that will miss me, but life goes on and the day to day grind quickly fills the void for all but those that are the closest.
After all, death is just a part of life.

It could be that we won't make a grand difference to a large group of people in life, but perhaps we can make a small difference for one person for today. Maybe changing a life is too great of a challenge for most of us; changing a moment for someone should be doable.
A call.
A text.
A word of encouragement.
A smile.
I know it's not a big difference, but it is a difference.

John <><