Imperatives for Today

Sometimes Life just happens. But sometimes Life is what you do about it. Sometimes you must make it happen.

I have done some of that today.

I have a year and four months left on my bankruptcy. So, I paid my monthly payment.

Take that, Bank-o Merricka! I shall sink your cursed pirate ship of usury with cannonballs of cash fired steadily every month for almost four years now.

I ran the washing machine with my son’s police uniform in it. He has completed the Academy. got his certification, and is now on a delayed weekend break.

Take that, criminals of Dallas. Officer Beyer is now officially combatting you!

But Mom is in the hospital today, scheduled for an angiogram this afternoon.

If they find any blockages, as they suspect they will, they will attempt to fix them by placing in a stint as soon as the problem is revealed.

How wonderful it is that medicine is so advanced now that they can do this remotely as if it were a videogame. The doctor says she is too weak to withstand the older methods of heart surgery.

We are no longer who we once were.

We face different imperatives than we did fifty years ago.

And we still look to the future (through nerdy glasses) hopefully to face future imperatives.

But only if we can accomplish what we must do today.

My two sisters are both now up in Iowa, staying near the hospital to be with her constantly.

Nancy takes the lead in that, the practical, no-nonsense member of the formidable foursome.

Nancy is retiring from her career as a public health inspector for the State of Missouri. She will move into the farmhouse in Iowa to take care of Mom.

Mary’s family, is like mine, grown and independent. But she still has a job she’s not ready to retire from.

Both I and my brother David are retired, but both live in Texas. We will go to Iowa when we can, but at our respective ages. a thousand miles of travel is hard.

But for all of us, we do the things that must be done. And one day we will all be together again to say our goodbyes, because no one lasts forever.

But that day has not yet come. Today we still must do that which is imperative to do… for today.