My blog has become, unfortunately, too public a place. That is to say that my family reads it from time to time and I can't always say what I really feel. (E. excepted--he knows everything I think/feel anyway).

So without talking about the personal details of my own family I can instead turn outward to you readers and say: Please, please, please take care of your future. By this I mean, think about your loved ones. Are you expecting others to take care of you in your old age? Aside from my opinions about whether or not this is fair, if you believe someone will take care of you--are you sure? If they do not wind up there for you at the end, what will happen to you then, and who will wind up paying for it?

Have you thought about your retirement? Have you begun to prepare for it? Are you expecting the government to come through for you with social security? I hope not.

Do you know what will happen to your house and your assets after your death if they are not paid for, and who will end up having to deal with the hassles, the paperwork, the taxes?

Are you counting on some distant windfall, some inheritance you believe you are entitled to? And what happens if it doesn't come?

Do you spend lots of money on gifts and gestures for your family by going into debt? Then you aren't thinking about them. You aren't loving them.

I don't mean to lecture, to scold purely for the sake of it. I am doing so because I know that love and money are often interchanged. I know that while you love your family, you can still screw them over, hurt them, make life hard for them by not taking care of YOURSELF.

Think about that.

I am all for living in the present moment, but not at the cost of other people's futures.

End sermon

JPR