By Vern Holmquist
Wow!
As I am writing this, I realize 2016 is almost here and I am still sitting at this infernal machine trying to make sense of what is going on in our world.
Our world has gone a little crazy.
While I can no longer quote it accurately, I remember something from a Mark Twain Tonight CD.
First, I took a monkey and put him in a cage, then I added a kangaroo, tiger, a polar bear, a lion all in a cage together and when I returned, they had realized they were all together in the same situation and they learned to live and get along with each other.
Then I put a Lutheran, a Catholic, a Buddhist, a Muslim and a Presbyterian in the cage and locked it and when I returned the next day, there wasn’t a specimen left alive. They all killed each other over a theological point.
Sounds like the morning news, doesn’t it?
Well, something much more important to me, probably no one else but me, is that I have now lived in this world for 94 years. And in spite of the bookmakers taking bets, I am going to beat the odds and celebrate my 95th birthday in May with a mug of good beer in one hand and a lovely lady in my arms.
And I want to tell you it has been a wonderful life – a lot of “ups” and a few “downs” which I can now ignore.
Now is a great time for me to say “thank you, thank you, thank you,” to the generous way this community has accepted my offerings in this column over the past 12 years.
The biggest “up” in my retirement life, the wonderful friends it has given me and that doesn’t mean we have always agreed. After all, I’ve been a Lutheran in a Catholic town and a liberal in a conservative town, I plead guilty on both counts but the love has flourished
So thank you, thank you to all those who have read and thanked me for my column. It makes my day. Have a great 2016.
And although I may make a few typos – thankfully that’s what are editors are for – I may keep writing, just not quite as regular.
Sending my love to you all.
