In A Better Mood Today...... in Muddling Through As Best I Can

My last post was on the negative side, which I try not to do too much. Some days I just need to vent my anger and frustration.
I’ve been praying and meditating a lot on life the last couple of weeks, and I’m not where I want to be, but I feel like I will get there in time.
We had the girls this week, and it was mostly a good week. I had to limit contact as I contracted some kind of stomach virus and didn’t want to take a chance on passing it along. I have been feeling better the last day or two, so I made up for it by spoiling all five grandkids mercilessly, lol.
I also contacted the mother of Bradley’s son and finally met them. She is a charming young lady, and he is the spitting image of my Brad. He was a little unsure of the weird old man who was trying to dote on him, but I know it will take time. They are coming for dinner tomorrow to meet the Jill and the other grands. Brandon unfortunately will be at work, but he’s reticent about meeting her, so maybe that’s for the best right now.
Raina is almost 26 pounds (1.86 stone, or 11.79 kg) at less than five months old. That’s a twenty pound weight gain since birth. Am I the only one that thinks that’s too much too soon? Either way, we can’t control what happens during the week she is not here, so we abide. March just seems so far away.
Much racial tension going on in the U.S. right now, it’s all over the news. Brandon, who is a peace officer, received a death threat on a traffic stop. I worry about him constantly now. I never thought I would want him to leave law enforcement, but the current climate is dangerous here these days. There was an officer that made internatonal news, Officer Goforth, for being gunned down execution style while fueling his patrol vehicle. There is a large moral backlash right now, and hopefully people will stop and think before they let unreasoning hatred cause them to act rashly.
What strikes me most, is that the people who are acting out and making death threats weren’t even alive when the civil rights movement was in it’s heyday here. They don’t remember the riots, forced school busing, separate dining rooms and drinking fountains, lynchings, etc. I do.
Our society is far from perfect; we have come far, yet there are still strides to be made, of that there is no doubt. However, hatred is not going to solve any of our societal ills.
On a personal front, with the presidential elections coming up, there is a big issue with illegal immigration here, centered on the Mexican illegals. A prominant congressman wants to use Bradley and Shea’s deaths as a rallying point for immigration reform, and I’m not too enamored of the idea.
While I agree that if you come to live in another country you should do so legally, the vast majority of illegal immigrants come here (Mexican or otherwise) and work hard, pay their bills, and are productive in their daily lives. Unfortunately, the ones that get press, as in the case of the death of my son and daughter in law, are the illegals that act out of bounds of society. Yes, he was an illegal alien and he was drunk and high on drugs. He could have just as easily been one of any of thousands of American citizens who do the same thing. I don’t hate Mexicans because of this tragedy, I don’t even hate him; not really.
It saddens me beyond any words I can convey that I’ve lost yet another son and his precious wife, but it also saddens me that this young fool, regardless of nationality or legal status, is losing his most productive years to prison. I want justice done, and he deserves what he’s going to get, but it’s not because of his legal status. I won’t let Bradley and Shea’s names be used to further a campaign of hatred. To that end, I copyrighted their images so that neither their photos or names can be used in any fashion without my consent. It’s upset some family members on both sides, but in this I remain steadfast. I won’t let them be associated with such. It was not what caused their deaths. It was one individual who made a bad decision, not an entire society or substrata of society who did so.
Tomorrow, Rebekah and Micah (Brad’s son and his mother) are coming for dinner, so tonight I’m going to put all other concerns aside and put together the shopping list for a nice Italian dinner. My lasagna is to die for, if I do say so. I wish I could say it was my recipe, but Judy taught me to make it when we were married many many years ago. I’m going to invite her over too, I could use the positive energy and support for this first meeting of my new grandson and the rest of the family. We get along so well, I can’t understand why we divorced decades ago, lol.
At any rate, I’m rambling so I’ll go for now. Thank you all for your kind words, prayers and support. It helps me more than you know. One day, I will meet you all face to face. I look forward to that time.