Seven Keys to the Good Life

     On New Year’s Day, Hawkfinder goofed off.  As projected, we enjoyed a lucky mess of black-eye peas and partook of egg nogg.  Despite our complaints, we watched five football scraps brought to us by advertisers in their wisdom.  It was a bit of a surprise and delight that the Florida Gators survived their encounter with the Ohio State Buckeyes.  In company with many others, however, we are in shock to see former Gator football coach, Urban Meyer, segue from the Orange and Blue to join the Scarlet and Gray.  An OSU academic department offered us an assistant professorship decades ago, so Columbus can’t be all bad.

    My wife and I have spent nearly 65 years together, 50 years next September in the same house.  We have come to some conclusions as to what’s important and what’s not, but before spreading these thoughts at length, some caveats.  No family, neither mine, nor yours, nor anyone’s in the real world succeeds at all times in perfecting these keys.  They do not include overarching philosophical and cultural backdrops such as religion, dietary laws, political persuasion, functional challenges and a host of other differences welcomed by America.  Listed in circular order, none is less important than another, and all are subject to revision.

The Seven Keys to the Good Life

·       Loving, understanding and inclusive family interrelationships.

·       A job or jobs that provide satisfaction and adequate income.

·       An evening meal at the family table with meaningful conversation.

·       Family appreciation of learning, music, the arts and other cultures.

·       Friends and relatives who can and do enrich the immediate family circle.

·       Home, appliances and furnishings set in an acceptable environment.

·       Engaging in sound physical, mental and emotional health practices.

     Every family is free to choose, but often the bounds of ability, money and just plain luck tie us down.  You and we know that, so we do the very best we can to live the good life and, more to the point, to teach our children to live that which is positive and to avoid the temptations posed by those ways of life that are negative or even downright evil.

     Warmest wishes, Billy Hawkfinder