That’s Something Good

You can never really know the effect that you have during your lifetime. You are born, grow up, live your life and eventually die without being able to track or know the impact you have had on people and the world around you. I suppose that is for the best or we would spend our time trying to make that impact on the world.

There are some who do just that, but for most of us, just living our lives is complicated enough. There is an eastern belief that when this life has run it’s course and you pass on, you get to view the good and evil that you committed during your life in the Akashic record. Personally, I don’t believe that I have ever done what I consider to be evil. I’m not sure I have done a lot of good either, which would indicate that there is a 50-50 chance I will be back here doing the same things all over again in the next life. I can live with that I suppose.

Tonight we had a visit from one of the boys that I knew from when Brendan was in Cubs. I watched this boy grow up. He and Brendan were good friends and remain so to this day. He is also a good friend of Maegan. I would like to think that we are also friends, not the “Let’s go out and get smashed!” kind of friend, but a friend just the same.

He had come back to Calgary to visit his family and friends that still lived here. He has moved to Vancouver and made a very nice life for himself out there. He is a good person. There was a year or so back in the day when it might have been touch and go on the good person thing. Louise and I were pleased that he made the time to come and say hi to us before he left and it was a very nice visit.

There are so many factors that go into a person’s development and the kind of person they become. Parents are a large part of course and so are friends. I think that friends are the biggest influence, but I’m just guessing. I’d like to think that in a small way I helped to keep him on the straight and narrow, but I suspect my influence ended with being the dad of Maegan and Brendan.

I do wonder how the world would have been without me. I don’t want to do the “Wonderful Life” thing, or have three ghosts show up on Christmas Eve that point out where I went wrong. Perhaps a Casper like ghost that just tells you the good things you have done in your life. “Yeah…well…ahhh…you didn’t crush small animals with a sledge hammer. That’s something good…right?”