Pedde Family Reunion, August 22, 2009

I am taking a week off. I know, how dare I, with so much to do, not least pointing out to everyone who will listen that we are descending pell mell into a hell of economic misery, thanks to misguided and incompetent bozos in various levels of government. Worse, while they are at the wheel, it is we, the electorate, who without much prompting have our foot on the accelerator. What's wrong with us? Are we all masochists at heart, not happy unless everyone is reduced to the same level of misery as everyone else?

Maybe I need a week off to get my mind off this stuff. I will be in Gananoque, Ontario, for a few days, at a family reunion I have put together. My cousins Friedhelm, Gunter, and Horst from Germany, cousins Richard and Horst from Texas, and my brother Alfred and sister Wanda from Ontario will all hopefully be there. Some of our kids will be there as well, in particular my brother's kids Jasmine, Amber, Jordan and Jessiah, my own son Zachary, and my sister's daughter Rita. It should be fun.

I put together a huge poster for the event, a smaller version of which is displayed above. I love looking at old photographs. They remind me that the human race has been around before my generation and will in all likelihood continue to exist after I am gone. I can't see how, given our propensity for collective stupidity and a seemingly total abdication of common sense and personal responsibility, but maybe things truly do move in cycles and those laudable and currently absent qualities will return again.

I sure hope so.