Hindsight 2020

 I've been thinking a lot about the end. My end. I'm currently over in Sweden with my wife. The purpose of this visit was supposed to be to celebrate 20 years of marital bliss and see some of her family. A chance to take it easy for a while. That was the purpose until my wife's stepmother, Monica, suddenly passed away at the beginning of August. We had already purchased our plane tickets for the end of September and it would've been expensive to try to change the flights. Plus, I couldn't take off of work any earlier than we had already planned for. So, with my wife's halfsister's help, we arranged to have Monica cremated and then planned for the funeral to take place when we got to Sweden.  Monica had no children, but my wife considers her more of a mom than her biological mom. Monica had cancer and we all knew she would never be cured of it, but she had been responding very well to treatments and we were both looking forward to spending some quality time w...

Hopefully, enough time has passed now. Out of respect, I've been holding off on posting this particular blog. It's always (almost always) sad when someone dies. People die every day. Unless the dearly departed people are close family or friends, most of us don't spend an extended amount of time or emotion mourning their loss. I don't, anyway. That's not to say that I don't empathize with those around me who have lost loved ones because I do. I've been in that situation. I've lost close friends and family members. It's a loss that can be very difficult to come to terms with. I get it. What I don't get is why millions and millions of people are so fixated with the passing of Queen Elizabeth. She obviously led a full life.  96 years.  Can you imagine? She also led a life of privilege and prestige because, well, she was  royal .  Royalty . In this modern day and age, we still have kings, queens, princes, and princesses who are revered and honored bec...