HOW TO MEASURE GREATNESS

I first published this in 2017. Because of what I see is happening to America I think it is time to re-post it.

There is to much greed. Some billionaires aren't satisfied with what they  have, they can't get enough. I don't think anyone is worth 2, 3, 4 hundred billion dollars. What if they lowered their prices or services and were only worth 100 billion. Poor babies. Remember the ones working hard to make them rich were the great ones.        I am now 77 and have been married 54 years

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I'm 68 years old and I have seen a lot in my life. I have seen literally thousands of good things and thousands of bad things in that long lifetime. I heard a very rich man say on TV not so awful long ago that you have to be wealthy to be great. That has been getting under my skin for the last several months and I have to say that man is dead wrong. You do not have to be wealthy to be great. Greatness is measured by what someone does, how they threat other people, what they have accomplished in their life.

I am not a highly educated man and I do not pretend that I am. I graduated high school as an average student. I could have done better, I just didn't apply myself as much as I should have. Two years after I graduated I enlisted in the United States Air Force. I served my country and I did it proudly. To those people that think you have to be wealthy to be great I say, I served my country for four years and I am great.

I got married at the young age of 22. Now my wife and I who I met in the Philippines have been married for 46 years. That is a great accomplishment. I love my wife as much today as the day I first met her in the Airmen's Club on Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines. We have a son who served for 20 years as a U.S. Marine. We are so proud of him. We have a daughter that went to college and studied art. She is an artist/graphic designer. We are so proud of her. What she can do in her line of work makes us so proud. She designed the cover for three novels I have written. Our son and our daughter are great.

I spent 30 years working in manufacturing. I started as an engraver and worked my way to be a machinist. It was at times stressful but often rewarding. I worked on hoists for shrimp boats, engraved small gold drums that in the 1960s went into the guidance systems of missiles, I worked on valves for sewer and water lines, I worked on panels for computers, parts for aircraft, parts for the space shuttle. Sure they were minor parts but all important parts to accomplish a mission. My greatest achievement when working in manufacturing was a tiny but necessary part for a company. For 30 years the engineers at this company tried unsuccessfully to rivet a contact into a part only about an inch long. That part went into security and fire detection systems for large buildings. I worked on that part on and off in my free time. It took me a long time but finally I developed a process to rivet that part in that thin piece of beryllium copper. After, I was a technical adviser to  a company that built an automatic machine to rivet that part. The machine allowed us to make 1,000 parts an hour. It made $750,000 dollars a year for the company. I received the MVP award for that accomplishment. I got a watch and a dinner along with other people that did similar successes. That was my greatest accomplishment in manufacturing and yes I am great.

As I neared retirement, I got an overwhelming desire to write. I started by writing short stories. Some of those were published in Our USA Magazine. It gave me the encouragement to keep writing. I wondered if I could write a novel. The more I thought about it I came to the conclusion that each chapter in a book is a short story. That first novel was published in 2011, one year after I retired. The title was, Golden Haze, the story of a four legged angel and demons. Everyone that has read that novel have told me how much they enjoyed it. To that rich man who says, you have to be wealthy to be great, I say you are wrong again. When that novel brought joy to my readers, that is greatness.

I have written three other fiction novels. All have received good reviews on amazon and I feel proud when someone tells me they couldn't put the book down, they had to keep reading to see what was going to happen next. If someone can give that feeling to someone else, that is greatness. I will continue to write, because I enjoy it.

My point to this article is that you don't have to be wealthy to be great. I consider myself great for what I have accomplished in my lifetime. No, I am not rich, I am great. I am a patriotic American that served my country. Worked hard all my life and decided to not sit back and do nothing when I retired. To the millions of hard working Americans out there that go to work everyday to provide for themselves and their families, YOU ARE GREAT. Remember if it wasn't for you, that rich man could not brag about how wealthy he is. I am proud of how I have lived my life, by hard work, respect for others, and being a decent man. GOD BLESS AMERICA!!

Copyright  Larry W. Fish   2017

GROWING OLD

When I was in my teens I was sure I was going to live to be 100.  Those sure feelings have now drifted over the horizon. I may make it, but a few health scares in my life have made me just lucky now to be alive. A little over a year ago I went to the ER  and discovered that I had a blood clot in each lung. I was pretty much told that I was knocking on the door of death.

I have been feeling pretty good ever since that health scare. I just turned 77 a couple of weeks ago. I am happy to reach that milestone. It is not super old but many from my high school graduating class are already deceased. Some as early as their 30s. So young for people to die. I am thankful reaching 77. I still have high school friends that I keep in touch with. We joke about the old days, as we call them. Growing up in the 1950s and 1960s was so different. We had no computer, cell phones, or the technology that we have today. I think so much of that technology is good, but some of it I frown on.

As an example the cell phone. When I was a child I wore penny loafers and had a dime in each one so I could go to a phone booth and call home for mom to come and pick me up. Our phone at home was a corded black one with a rotary dial. We were on a party line, three houses on the same line. Wow how times have changed. The cell phone is great to have in case of an emergency or making a quick call to a family member or a friend.

However, I think those cell phones also have a bad side. It seems like people  have become obsessed with them, people seem to be looking at them constantly. Sitting in the doctors office waiting room the other day there were about 12 people that we could see around us. Everyone was using their phones. Before cells people actually talked with each other while they were in a setting like that. I honestly text with my older friends and we say there were times that we wish we were back in the good old days. Those days were much simpler, we didn't have the stress that is placed on us today.

I often look at the local TV news and I see that someone is celebrating their 100th birthday and they look so happy and full of joy and life. I think to myself, I just might make it. I exercise every day. Sure not as hard as I used to. There was a time when I was young that I could do a thousand situps. Now I do chair yoga for seniors. They are not stressful exercises but they help with the balance and mobility. Keeping me more limber and in good shape. I also do a few other exercises on my own.

Yes, I am 77. My wife is 80. We still do work around the house. Do yard work outside pulling weeds, mowing the grass, trimming the bushes. We plan on doing it even when we get old. We feel young, act young, can do much that we did at 30, it just takes us longer to do it. We are happy, have been married for 54 years. Don't worry about getting old, many people don't have that privilege. Enjoy it!

Larry W. Fish

GUNS

 I was born a true country boy, raised way back in the sticks as some would say. I had a gun in my hands when I was about five years old. I spent many hours shooting at targets and tin cans. I was taught from the first time that I held that gun that I was to point it at no one. My father was very strict about that and I soon learned that it was something that I would never forget. We had no close neighbors. I grew up in the 1950s and 60s. Our high school even had a rifle team and would have competitions with other schools in the area. Often guys would carry guns in their cars or trucks so they could go hunting right after school.

Oh, how times have changed. I have been saddened with mass shootings ever since I learned about the shooting in Sandy Hook. In the times of today, it is not news anymore, but something that is almost an every day occurrence. As a veteran and someone that grew up being taught how to properly handle a firearm I am shocked about what I am seeing today. I know I will I touch a nerve with a lot of people, but I feel there are to many guns in today's America.  

I am also a firm believer that no military style firearms should be in the hands of civilians. For instance the AR-15 is a military firearm made for one purpose, to kill as many people as possible in the shortest amount of time. Why should anyone be allowed to walk into a gun shop and walk out with an AR-15. Many of those buying are mentally ill or just plain bad people. I have heard some say I need a military weapon for hunting. That is a lie. I hunted deer for many years. I never needed more than one or two shots to down a deer.

Life is tough these days and a lot of people are worried about their safety. I see nothing wrong with someone buying a gun for that purpose. However, I do have a problem with anyone buying a gun and having no idea how to use one. I believe those people should have a class and be taken to a shooting range and prove that they are a responsible gun owner. 

I turn on the news every morning and I hear that someone was shot in the city about an hours drive away. It happens every day. That is an occurrence in about every city. This country has the most gun violence of any country in the world. I don't have all the answers and I don't think anyone does. However, I do know that something needs to be done. To many guns, I think so. Guns in the hands of people that should never be allowed to have one, that I do know.

I don't want to make people think that I am totally against guns. I am not. I think having a gun for protection, shooting target practice, skeet shooting, shooting in competition is fine. This post is my personal opinion. I am fed up with hearing about anyone being killed with a firearm. Mass shootings are as sad as it gets, especially in schools. I have said it before and I will say it again something needs to be done.   

Larry W. Fish