Thursday 22 December 2016

Observation #20 -after the dairy


Dec 22 2016 Observation # (who knows?-I'll look it up later)
 
Since I started this stuff- using Fr. Mike as a sort of narrator, I might as well continue with that fantasy. If he is listening I hope he is cool with what I observe on his behalf..

      The book with more than half of my diary entries is finished, and 900 books have been printed.
It is satisfying to have been remembered by so many in a positive way. What does not surprise me is to hear again how history is changing the habits of the era of my incarnation.
       Many of those who emailed my nephew no longer attend church- of any sort. Some still do of course and will continue to- as may their  children and their children's children.
    It has been gratifying for my ego ( I still have the memory of vestiges of that human characteristic) to hear how I was appreciated. I did the work  I did, not as work, but rather as a sort of obsession. I knew I could make a difference in people's lives in a way most  people don't have the opportunity to.
So how could I pass that up?
          There is no doubt it was my inherited strong ego (at times expressed in selfish ways), that made me bold enough or confident enough to attempt things others though were not doable. There were many times during the war that my sense of being indestructible enabled me to do what I did.
      That night when I visited the lads in the woodshed, I really had no conscious idea of how to find them. Whatever you who read this call it- luck or divine providence, I have no doubt that I was being guided to the right location by some force that was beyond my mortal power to comprehend. I chose of course to call it God, (and God by any other name) is that creative force on your planet good reader, that keeps humanity striving for the good and the positive energy to hold the negative forces at bay. That was the night I did not mention in the diary but did tell my relatives about when I came upon a German soldier in the dark, surprising both of us. He ran one way I ran the other- amusing to tell, but it could have all ended then and there for me.
   I was in no way a hero, I just did my job and was blessed with good health. The heroes of this era are those who are steadfast in their resistance to negative forces, to evil intentions, as expressed by the misguided and the psychologically damaged. In the time of WW2 there were countless deeds, obvious and unseen that were made every hour for six long years, that resulted in the defeat of tyranny. Whether or not mankind could rise to the occasion as did the heroic citizens of England during the battle of Britain, remains to be seen.
  The new Diary is now in 7 stores and 2 museums and the nephew is relieved to be free of the task of answering hundreds of emails, from which he sent out over 80 books. he is fully aware that the success of the sales is due to the publicity given to the book by 6 different print media and one television report.
   Now he is finding himself somewhat 'let down'. His habit of the past 5 years has changed from having what he viewed as a worthwhile project to be his daily work, to the past 8 weeks of being a mail order person,  to now being almost rudderless.
   Whatever the future holds, this chapter of his life has been a satisfying one. He knows something was done that has made quite a few of my old friends and parishioners happy and like his father, my brother Dennis, he has inherited a characteristic of receiving pleasure from making others happy.
    Nothing more really needs to be said, a job was started and finished- results obtained- now onto something else, which whether he knows it or not, will be exactly as it is meant to be.