Rant #3,846: A Ray of Hope

This is going to be a difficult Rant to write today, but it ends with a glimmer of hope.

I want to talk about a personal holiday miracle, but first, I want to talk about this holiday season, which is, unfortunately, reflecting a very focused light on what is happening in this very troubled world that we live in.

In a period of the year that we should be rejoicing, having fun, and reflecting on our family, this season is one that we are, instead, reflecting on violence and bloodshed.

The tragedies at Brown University, in Australia, and in California have permeated the festive air with a stench that I don't thing we have ever witnessed during the usual joyous holiday season.

Alas, we can go through chapter and verse about each one of these horrid events, but I do believe that it is fairly simple to look into why these things happened.

We, as a society, are letting things go too easily, and our leniency is coming back to haunt us. 

That goes for immigration, mental health, drug use, and a variety of other issues that at one time were taken care of, but in today's world, free of restraints. 

The leniency period must be over RIGHT NOW, and we have to go back to our old values. 

These tragedies are horrid, coming during a season we should be rejoicing, not mourning, but we, sorry to say, have ourselves to blame.

Yes, I repeat, we have ourselves as a society to blame.

We live in a society where right is wrong and wrong is right, where people fall all over themselves trying to defend senselessness, and it really has to stop before we are engulfed forever in an abyss of chaos, lawlessness and anarchy.

I mourn those brutalized at Brown University; I pray for the souls of those murdered in Australia; and I was as shocked as all of us were with the completely senseless murder of Rob Reiner and his wife.

All of these cataclysms were preventable, but, of course, that is easy for me to say, from the outside looking in.

But having seen mental illness in my own extended family, I cry for those who are the unfortunate victims of this illness, whether it be stoked by our enemies or by our enemies within.

It just chokes me up, but perhaps, with these tragedies before us, we can get better as a society, be on the same page, and work to make sure that nothing like these things ever happen again to anyone.

Easy to say, but extremely difficult to do.

Now, what I have to say admittedly pales in comparison to these tragedies and their effects around the globe, but maybe what I now have to say offers a glimmer of hope for all of us, in a very minor sort of way.

I went to the eye doctor yesterday with the full intent of having surgery on my right eye to correct a slightly torn retina.

Due to traffic and accidents related to the previous day's snowstorm and low temperatures, what should have been a 30-minute ride took in excess of more than double that, but we finally arrived at the clinic where this was to be done.

We--my wife and I--checked in, waited for our turn to be called, and we were brought into the office, fully waiting to hear when I would be operated on during this day.

My retinologist was reading off some pictures they had just taken of my eye, and I thought I heard the word "improved" among the other words that I had no idea what they meant, medical jargon that I didn't know.

A few minutes later, he told me that the tear in my retina had actually improved, ever so slightly, and that my options were to go ahead with the surgery or wait another month to see if the improvement was not an anomaly, but a positive pattern.

Evidently, this is part of the eye than can actually repair itself, which is something I did not know.

He leaned toward me waiting to have the surgery, and thus, under his recommendation, the surgery--if I even have to have it--was put off for at least another month, when I see him toward the end of January.

If the improvement continues, perhaps I won't need the surgery--

But I am taking the stance that ultimately, I will need this procedure, but right now, not right now.

So we left and drove home, and in the spirit of what just happened, it took us about a half hour to get home, as opposed to nearly three times that amount of time getting there.

To me, this is a personal holiday miracle.

I have had numerous physical ailments during the past three years, and top that off with being forced to leave my home of more than 50 years three years ago to the day yesterday, it has been a really tough stretch for myself and my family.

So I thought that this was going to be another negative notch on my recent life, but it was just the opposite.

It gave me hope.

And not to be too verbose and heavy handed, but isn't that what we all need in our society at this point in time?