“A boy’s will is the winds will, and the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.” — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

After a boy grows old the “winds will” doesn’t seem to have the same influence it once did but sometimes the “long, long thoughts” still hang around as one’s wrinkles accumulate. Mark Twain said, “Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been.” If that’s the case then smiles can be noteworthy.

My father smiled quite often, and my mother wore the wrinkles I carry. I mostly remember my father in the last years of his life after coming back home following my mothers passing.

The time together living back at home was rewarding, and I enjoyed life with him. Frank was with Jeanne and I when we were wedded in a pole shed on her family farm, and by the night’s end a hard rain had fallen. Vince, Jeanne’s father, and brother Chuck used their two John Deere tractors to pull out vehicles stuck in the mud. The Hawaiians call this rain a blessing. And soon we began our own family. So with our three “kids” pretty much grown, this is where Mellow comes into our life.

Mellow is still with us. She came to us via the humane society. She seemed so kind and gentle when we first met. Not long after this she moved into our house. Then she didn’t exhibit all the “doings” she’s exhibited since then. Echo and Ptolemy, our cats, are beginning to hold their own with Mellow, but I’m not convinced Mellow has won their hearts. She makes these whiney sounds as she nears them that drive me crazy. I guess it’s better than barking or growling.

Now to take a minute to go to the other side of the world and witness the inked fingers from the recent Iraqi election. After boycotting the last election, the Sunnis came in droves according to the Tribune ‘to have a voice.’

The map in Monday’s Tribune points out the location of the Sunni Kurd, the Sunni Kurd/Sunni Arab, Sunni Arab, Shiite Arab/Sunni Arab, Shiite Arab and the uninhabited portion that looks like a third of Iraq, perhaps where the oil is. So what does all this mean? Are they building a nation, and will we be able to complete “our mission?” I guess time will tell.

This might be a good topic for a dialog. Betty Benner pulled up some information titled: “Viewpoint Learning, Inc…. What is Dialog” designed to assist a group that meets at the library one Saturday a month with room for more. The purpose of dialogue is it tells us is to understand and learn from one another. (You cannot “win” a dialogue.) All dialogue participants speak for themselves, not as representatives of groups or special interests. Treat everyone in a dialogue as an equal. A difficult one is to be open and listen to others even when you disagree and suspend judgments. Search for assumptions and express disagreement in terms of ideas, not personality or motives. You get the idea.

The library group will hopefully help bridge subcultures and clarify value conflicts. The Viewpoint Learning points out that dialogue is about learning, and debate is about winning. The dialog is about finding common ground words we now hear often. It’s something our state and federal government might benefit from and perhaps our local politicians.

Newsweek pointed out that Iraq was “once the most powerful country in the Arab world, (and) Iraq is now anything but.”

Again I wonder if the action taken by our last president was a mistake and a tremendous loss of life.

Personally I am tired of seeing the statue of Saddam being pulled down as if the Iraqi’s did it and George W. walking off the deck parked off California maintaining the war was over.

There have been recent indications that the route President Bush took regarding our actions in Iraq with prisoner treatment was not permissible. This doesn’t build confidence with America, but in someway generates money to the powers that be.

We have paid a big price for our military aid in Iraq with more than 4,000 American troops dead and almost $1 trillion in direct costs as well as maintaining the highest suicidal numbers we have faced.

Newsweek pointed out that “shoring them up may not be cheap, but it’s less expensive than occupying or ignoring them.”

In Tuesday’s Tribune there is a good front-page article on how Vets court to help scarred soldiers.