Are You There God?  It’s me, Sheila      10-7-2008

I look into the eyes of my children, my precious one’s that I spent years trying to guide so that they would have a life filled with dreams, hope, success and happiness.  Helping them to see the good in people, in things, in the world. 

Yet everyday the last couple weeks it appears that those dreams may be harder to achieve for their generation.  It’s disheartening to see what the future may hold for them, stemming from what past generations have created and so selfishly passed down.  It’s a crime, really. 

I look at what is happening in the world right now.  And it scares me.  Are we on the verge of a depression?  Is this not as bad as it looks, is it going to get better?  I hope it does, but my gut says no.   Little pink houses are turning into pink slips.  Is this the American Dream we all work so hard for?

(This will take you back)

The biggest election, possibly in the history of our Country, and we’re talking about stupid things on both sides of the campaigns, rather than discussing what we are going to do to actually fix what is happening in our ever destructing world.  I don’t care what these guys did 40 years ago.  I care about how we are all going to provide for our families.  Today.  Tomorrow.  Next year.

My oldest will be entering college next fall and has worked so incredibly hard to achieve that!  And after all that, after 18 years of planning and instilling in her what it means to work hard and achieve her dreams, now another pothole in the path of life:  Will loans be available for her to attend college?  Because that’s the only way she can go! 

After 911 all the savings we had painstakingly socked away was cut more than in half.  It was so hard to save it in the first place, and poof!, there it went in a blink of an eye.   We still haven’t recouped that and now….now we are all facing economic disaster, on decisions made by a few that have affected the entire world.  Think of that for a moment.  Decisions of a few that affect the entire world.  What a lousy concept. 

I’m not one of those included in the foreclosure crisis, but I can’t help but to feel incredibly sad for those who are.  Just the other day, a 90 year old woman in Akron shot herself as the deputies came to remove her from her home of over 40 years.  What an incredibly sad state of mind that must be when you feel that killing yourself at 90 years old is better than the humiliation and uncertainty of what will become of you.  She lived through ninety years!  Look at all the ‘firsts’ that she experienced in ninety years!  Think of the history she has lived! 

I heard several analysts on the national channels last night telling viewers, for the first time ever,  NOT to invest money in the stock market right now if they need that money to live in the next 5 years.  Now that is a scary statement. 

Then I see the US is holding off on making a decision about whether or not to let imports of Italian spent nuclear products be shipped here.  What in the world is going on here?  We don’t have enough nuclear waste of our own? We can’t decide on where to put ours!  And yet they want to build more plants? 

The world right now, God, seems awfully messed up.  It seems almost ironic that the more advanced we get, the more we regress.  And the past certainly does repeat itself.  I wonder why we haven’t figured that out by now. 

Maybe the generation of children today will be able to figure it out.  I pray they have the will and determination to do so, to make a difference.  The future of the world actually depends on children.  I hope to You that we have raised them well.  If not, we’re in even more trouble then I fear now.