Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Ron Rants and Raves about the four social/cultural institutions that have shaped his life

The nearly 2,000 questions that were asked of me on Reddit's "Ask Me Anything" initially focused on my longevity and amazement that an old man could have a blog, I soon came to realize that the underlying theme related to what I felt contributed to my having a relatively satisfactory and successful QUALITY of life.

It seemed the questions posed by (mostly) young people were a rather nostalgic look at the past wondering what made the "Greatest Generation" what it was. But at the same time it forced me to look at the FAILINGS of the past with the hope there might be clues for making America EVEN BETTER in the future.  While I was surprised at the number of questions, I was even more surprised by how insightfully probing they were and how they seemed to want advise from the "Voice of Experience" on some of  the basic issues of life!

Equally dramatic to me was how answering them effected me.  It was almost as though - at the age 90 - I was mysteriously forced to look critically at these 90 years and place my life and existence in perspective.  With questions as wide ranging and intrusive as "After 43 years of marriage how could you even consider marrying someone else" to "What do you think of revenge" to "What is the purpose of life" to "What did you think about the dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima"?   I was amazed at how easily the answers flowed, but I hardly expected to have to be philosophical about that which is so important.  And even though I have never had a course in philosophy, I now begin a philosophical look at my life and offer some thoughts for the future!
  • The four social/cultural institutions that have shaped my life are:
    • The family
    • The church/Religion
    • Public Education
    • Government
  •  Each of these are in the midst of dramatic change.
I'll have a week now to prepare my thoughts on the topic that was so profoundly effected by Traister's book, "All the Single Ladies: Unmarried Women and the Rise of an Independent nation". I'll look forward to any thoughts you might like to share with me.


1 comment:

  1. Bless you for the article, I might come back later to view out your other posts.
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