"Life is at best, bitter sweet".

This is my brother, his boys, my wife, and me at Bogus Basin ski resort last year. They live in the upper northwest and we, my wife and I, live in the coastal southeast. If we are lucky we get to see them once a year. If we were really lucky we would get to see them twice a year. Twice a year for the next 40 years would mean we would get to see each other 80 times until eternity begins.

Hmmm....... that does not seem like very much when one views it from that angle. Something as important as family puts this into a sad perspective. What a shame it is to know people whom you deeply love and they either live far away or, as in the case with people I knew in college, they go away and will likely never be seen again. What a shame.

When my grandmother died my mother made an interesting statement. "Life is at best, bitter sweet". I have pondered this deeply over the years and I have come to recognize it's profundity. As good as a life can be, if you actually love anyone or anything, life can only be just so good. Deep happiness, as it depends on love, will only be short lived. Because of the temporary fragile reality of life, the uncertainty of tomorrow, and the changing seasons, deep happiness is as a wisp of cool air never to be apprehended. One might successfully find themselves in that cool breeze but one will never own it. It is fleeting by it's nature and will mock all who try.

If this is true, and I challenge anyone to disprove it, not by hypothesis or theory, but by empirical evidence(a life lived), then what are we suppose to strive after. If family is so precious and life is so short then what else in this life matters but to keep them physically close and devote all energies to protecting and loving(v,) them- maintaining "happiness". This seems like a logical line of thought. What else is there?

Many believe this and many live under this premise. Most do not. Why? What else matters other than family- family being defined as those whom you love. When life is short, what endeavor merits the sacrifice of family? This is an age old question; what is life about? If not family then what?