Wondering if It’s Too Late

            With all that I have to do today, I wonder if it’s too late to clone myself? But then again, how would I stand myself. I know my foibles and my mistakes and I do know that I wouldn’t want them all over again. I know that there are traits that I have that are offensive to others and probably, I would be offended if I had to be close to me, too. I like to tease and joke to make people smile, but I am sure that I have pushed that too far at times.

            I know that I have good traits and that was brought out in the nearly forty years of helping to care for the sick and injured as a naval corpsman and then as a nurse. Being close to the sick, the ones in pain, and those who are dying, either softens the heart or kills the compassion of those around them. I still have kept that tenderness of heart.

            It has also given a warped sense of humor. As compensation to things others would find offensive, I see the lighter side. Body fluids are something to be dealt with. I can see the funny side of things, where many folk see horror or gloom. It’s not that I don’t understand their pain and suffering, because I do. Humor has become a defense mechanism that allows nurses to put a bit of distance between their works and allows them not to burn out. It gives some space between reality and their soul. If this wasn’t so, more nurses would burn out and there would be many less of us to care for those in need.

 

            This wasn’t the reason that I started to write this post. I went down a completely different stream. I meant to write about the many things that are expected of me today and wished others would do some of the things for me. This morning, I need to help the Ohiopyle Volunteer Fire Department with their buckwheat and sausage festival. I’ve volunteered to work at whatever they needed for about forty years. I started out washing dishes when the ladies shaped the sausage by hand then fried the meat in cast iron skillets over small gas fired burners. I fried the buckwheat cakes to a lacy brown memory making cake. For the last twenty years or more, I have fried sausage. No longer do we use skillets, but spread the sausage out on twelve griddles that are 24 by 20 inches to cook to perfection.

            I have a writer’s meeting in Latrobe at one p.m. and will in most likelihood, not make it there. Today is the last night of our revival meetings at my church, Mt. Zion Independent Baptist Church. It’s located at the top of Kreinbrook Hill road, Acme, Pennsylvania. I do plan to be there when the doors open tonight.

            My day, today is full and tomorrow isn’t much better. There is a book signing and local authors will be there to read as well. It will at the Energy Connection in North Huntingdon at150 Robbins Station Road (just off Route 30 at Jacktown Hill.) The time will be from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. We will have our books on sale and the prices will be better than if you would buy them on Amazon. Christmas is creeping ever closer and books can be a great gift.