Ruminations on my birthday - Part One

Yes, celebrating a birthday is better than the alternative but moving into a new decade can be a bit off-putting.
Born in 1951, my attitudes (and life purpose) bear the marks of the civil rights and peace protests.  Having never trusted anyone over 30, it was difficult to realize that in 1981, working for the State Board of Education, I had become a part of the establishment.  However,  my passion was satisfied with my charge of watching over the rights of all the special education students in the state.  The world around me was entering a new phase with all the technological advances--the first flight on the Space Station Columbia, the first time the word Internet was mentioned, the release of the first IBM PC.  (The cost of a gallon of gas was $1.25.)

Ten years later, I was a married woman of six years praying for David’s safety in Desert Storm.  In late summer, with the birth of Andrew, I became a grandmother, a very young grandmother.  Amy had finished her freshman year at ISU.  One million people were hooked up to the Internet and a web browser was invented.  Globally there were changes I never thought I would live to see--the Soviet Union ceased to exist and after years of Apartheid, South Africa formed a new constitution for a multiracial society.  (The cost of a gallon of gas dropped to $1.12).

When I turned fifty, we’d been living in our house in Savoy for a year and Zoe was nearing her first birthday.  Of course the most memorable events of that year were the terrorist attacks on our country, the start of the War on Terrorism, the invasion of Afghanistan, and the cessation of easy airplane travel.  Technologically, Wikipedia went on-line and Apple released the iPod.  (The cost of gas was $1.46.)

I am amazed at the changes in my life since that last decade birthday.  Bob retired and became a cancer survivor.  We are now orphans, free to travel at will…and we do!  I celebrated fifty years of friendship with Muffy and that led to the purchase of a condo in Holland, MI.  I was even paid to write editorials for a local newspaper.  Historically, our country finally elected an Afro-American president.  But, to my dismay, the U.S. is involved in multiple wars, elected officials are controlled by business, business is trying to break the unions, greed reigns on Wall Street, and federal and state spending is out of control.  (The cost of gas has almost tripled.)