Given

 In a play particularly, TV and movies too. one has a script describing all that happens within.  The given circumstances are what we work in/with.

It's what's going on.  We might surmise a bit about before, but we don't know what will happen after.  It is the here and now.  Time may be condensed, events consolidated, yet we move forward.

It is rather like life.  The idea is to make it realistic, no matter the topic.  

In life, we have certainties, though some things are sometimes unclear.  We move forwar because there is always a choice.

In the prolog to The Alamo (1960), a brief history is given.  The last sentence talks of the eternal choice of men: To endure oppression Or to resist.

Let's use what's given to fashion the future.

Reminders

 So many details.  So little time.  

I have a pretty good memory.  But, it sure helps to have a whiteboard.  

When I have a thought re my company, I mark it down.  It's a modest list.  I don't scribble all over.  

It's a to do list and concise reasons about my work.  

I try not to waste time, nor space.  

There are a few items such as call the dentist etc.

Mostly, it states reasons and goals.  

When I say 'my past is my future', I point to the board.  Use your time and the newest, loss galvanizes, stand out.

There is a corner portion concerning my quest for a house/home.  Get and keep.

Last but hardly least, it says 'of, by and for the Light'.  It's a ref to the Clan Sinclair motto 'Commit Thy Work To God'.

DO IT.

Proud.

 The two sided coin.  

I'm proud of my kids.  They think for themselves and do the right thing.  

I'm proud to be an American.  We face life eye to eye.  Scared sometimes but we push through.  

The mirror is true too.  It comes before the fall.  Slow poison which breeds delusion is the reason some angels fell.  Thinking you're better than everyone else leaves a mind gap.  The emptiness creates an obsession.  Control satiates the hole, for a while.  

In Clinical Psych there is controlling due to lack of self.  That describes the darkside/collectivism to a 'T'.  

Now, I say there is self controlling due to having a firm sense of self.  

In the midst of chaos, we can remain focused.  We listen and are confident as well.  

Stand but be flexible

Sometimes when they try to knock you down, roll.

Ripples

 I had the chance to wander around part of my old neighborhood recently.

A local bar has reopened.  It holds a lot of memories.  It was a neighborhood bar that encompassed locals and students.  It was a late night haven for other bar employees, a little r & r.

Now it's at the same place, yet different, a mixture of old and new.  

One can't go back.  One shouldn't.  We remember the good and bad.  There is no living in the past.  We bring our memories forward and I hope learn from them.  

I noticed a lot of 'old timers' showed up.  Everybody has stories to share.  I'll just leave those to personal memory lol.

Now kids and dogs can be on the patio during the day and early evening.  In olden times it was strictly adults right up to 3 in the morning.

Lotta comedy and drama in there.

I predict the bar will survive.  Its location is just right and near another decades old tavern.  Good neighbors.

As I wandered, I noticed most of the houses remained.  Many neighbors, now gone but the houses pass onto new folks.

The corner drugstores are long gone.  And a landmark grocery, one of a chain, finally closed a year and a half ago.  I'd've thought it might survive being a landmark, but no dice.  Needless to say smaller stores disappeared decades ago.  The malt shop is no more.  Even a comic book shop, though existant, moved out of the area.  

The oldest mall has become a string of stores, open air again.  Behind it, encroaching, is an apartment building  With a black and grey facade, I thought of Sing Sing.

Thgere are more apartments being built nearby.  It's a long way from where there was once a cornfield.

An increase in crime, robberies and some shooting has reared its ugly head.  

Back when, I walked to the stores.  I went to college nearby and frequently walked alone late at night.  Now it's a dangerous proposition.

The atmosphere has changed.  A lack of personality permeates the air.  Not unfriendly, just distant.  There is a growing lack of trust

I'm reminded one of the socalled 'elites' has said we will own nothing, live in box apartments and be happy.  Nope.  Not as long as enough of us stand up and maintain our humanity.  

Interestingly, I think the reopened bar and its older cousin will help.  They are not trouble spots.  Never were.  

I will kieep my head on a swivel and once in a while visit.

Stand up, speak out resist.

And toast the future.