Been a long time

In case anyone was wondering, I ain't dead yet. Life dealt me a couple of very tough blows, and I needed to take some time off to deal with it all. I'm still not sure if I will be around here a lot, but I have missed my friends and enemies here. I hope you are all doing well and are still as passionate about WWII history as I am. God bless you all.

 

Hey there mate! We have missed you around the place...Life has been messing with a few of us this year...gotta plough through - All things will pass.
As one of our Prime Ministers - Malcolm Fraser once said:

 

Great to have you back!

 

Thanks, CAC. We all do have our challenges and burdens to work through especially as we get older.

 

Thanks, Gordon. It's good to be back.

 

Hey, Lou. It's good to see you are still going strong. Thanks for cleaning up my "newbie" mess.

 

And, Opana...

 

The year 2022 was an awful year for me. On 31 July 2022 I lost my little sister to cancer. Then, on 30 Sept 2022, my friend and WWII veteran Clarence Smoyer, passed away. Clarence's passing could have been tolerable, but with the loss of my sister so recent, it was a bit too much to bear. Fortunately, I was able to visit Clarence at the end of June before he passed away. On top of that, some personal health issues and family crises nearly sent me careening into the ditch. Thank God for giving me the strength to deal with each crisis as I was able to. The hardest challenge was dealing with the loss of my sister. It's been two years and I've only recently been able to think about her without turning into a pile of blubbering jello. And earlier this summer, my cousin, a Viet Nam veteran, died of complications from exposure to Agent Orange. He was such a kind and gentle soul. The only consolation I have is that I was able to tell him about his father's service in WWII. He thought his father hadn't done much since he was only in the ETO for about 30 days. It turned out his father had participated in at least two assaults on the Siegfried Line before he was evacuated due to extreme frostbite of his feet and legs due to lack of proper clothing. Giving my cousin that information meant the world to him.

 

I lost my best mate 10 years ago (took his own life) - I still remember him almost everyday and tell him the things he is missing and would've liked...
We all have about 75 winters and 75 summers - Then its over whether we like it or not...Life is short. If you believe in an after-life we will all be together again soon.

 

My take on it is that some things you don't get over, you just learn how to live with them. That is the way it was with losing my sister. It took me over one and a half years to just get through one day. Now I feel sad, but I also remember what a wonderfully fun person she was. Her middle name was "Joy" which perfectly described how she lived her life. It is that to which I cling, remembering the joy she brought to life and not the profound loss of that joy in my life. I will probably never live to experience the loss that a parent feels when they lose a child, but losing a younger sister has to be pretty damn close to that. Still, we need to find a way to live with the loss, or we will certainly be lost. As you quoted, "Time heals all wounds", but sometimes it take a very long time.

 

Thanks, Lou. It does help quite a bit to know that others do care. Grief can be a very lonely place, but knowing your are not alone means so very much. God bless you, my friend.

 

CAC, I do believe in an afterlife and God. However, we all deal with the same loss and grief and pain in life. Being a "believer" doesn't make you immune from pain and suffering of life. It just gives you a way of dealing with it. And, as you alluded to, there is a place where there will be no more war, pain or suffering... no tears and no weeping... only joy and love... where we will be reunited with those who have gone before us. I would rather believe in that and be wrong, than believe that ultimately nothing matters and be right.

 

"Science will bring you closer to God than religion"
This is a quote from scientists...Quantum physics is drawing many to the conclusion that there IS a creator - And there is plenty of circumstantial evidence of an afterlife.
Of course it is doubtful that God is an old man with a beard (we instinctively know that He is an alien - Not from Earth, and we instinctively know that this life cant be all there is)
“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,/Than are dreamt of in your philosophy” - Hamlet
This covers everybody, even those who dwell on God and and afterlife...I believe in a God and afterlife...but know its far more complicated than we can understand. We can be right for the wrong reason.
PS: We also instinctively know we can "talk" to God and the afterlife - An old scientist might say that even sending "telepathic" messages a hundred or a thousand light years away will take a hundred years or a thousand to reach "God" - A modern scientist might say "with quantum entanglement talking instantaneously over vast distances is quite possible".
Believe your instincts.

 

Time is a human constraint. With God, He is always "present". He operates outside of time. He is not past or future. Applying time constraints to God is nonsensical. I had a discussion with a friend who disagreed with me. He discussed it with his wife, and she agreed with me! Needless to say, he rethought his position. Ha, ha!!

 

Again, science says that all time is simultaneous (past/present/future have all happened already) - We live a linear life being only aware of the present. (we cant prove the past or the future even exist) Not only does this open the door to time travel, but explains God's ability to know and see all.