Lessons on life and losing a younger brother

Losing a younger brother and lessons on life

Your old columnist is treading a path that I’ve never walked before. That being the loss of a sibling, my younger brother Tom. Like we of the “older set” he’d led an event-filled life. Failing body systems had put him in ICU on a respirator and dialysis then a flare-up of bone cancer. The wonderful hospice organization put him on palliative care and then his time had come. May his soul rest in peace.

In the scheme of human affairs, it is interesting how life evolves. A firstborn baby comes into the world to a couple that have to learn to be parents for the first time. Mutually they have to train each other how to do life.

Reflecting back on the relationship of my own life as it applied to my brother I think that my parents unintentionally made things tough for him. We siblings weren’t respected as individuals and I remember so many responses to him that sounded like “Why can’t you be more like your brother?” Each of us had our own individual talents but mine were encouraged while Tom’s were too often unintentionally put down in order to “be more like your brother.” The result too often was rebellion and overt insistence that he do it his way differing from what our parents insisted.

All that is in the past but learning from it, too late, I have attempted to recognize and encourage in my own children their natural talents and always recognize them as individuals. Not a bad idea to treat all others we meet in life the same way.

At the moment our whole country seems to be up in arms on the subject of abortion. Marches on Washington to “protect” the right of all in favor of killing babies to-be while still in utero. Gatherings to demonstrate against “pro-life” clinics and similar organizations. Demonstrations against our Supreme Court Justices who ruled in favor of abolishing Roe vs Wade. Thankfully we here in Southwest Nebraska have been separated from such unrest.

Personally, this old guy has always thought that abortion should be a private matter be kept completely out of politics. Politicians all too often follow the money and are swayed by organizations like Planned Parenthood through large financial contributions. Nevertheless, that is the situation in our country today and the pro-abortionists and pro-life organizations are sadly at war with each other.

Another factor that modern medicine has brought to us is the ability to detect abnormalities in the fetus before birth that will cause birth defects in the newborn child. The decision to terminate the pregnancy of a child that will have lifelong disabilities should only be undertaken by the prospective parents and politics or advocacy groups should have no influence. Then too not all deliveries go flawlessly, and the newborn is sadly injured in ways that affect normal development.

This country was founded on Christian beliefs and the founding fathers were silent on the subject of abortion. Unfortunately, our Bible isn’t clear on the status of a developing fetus but states that life begins at the first breath and ends at the last breath. Yet in other parts of the Bible for instance, Jeremiah 1:5: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you…” indicates that the baby-to-be has a soul starting at conception.

The Bible, and our current culture, do indicate that the best way to raise children is with a married father and mother. Unfortunately, current governmental welfare programs all too often pay better for families with a single parent. Politics again!

Therefore the simple solution is that couples should not participate in sexual activities and thereby conceive a child out of wedlock. That is not the current culture in this country unfortunately due to Hollywood and our entertainment industry but that too could change and we could go back to the understanding of personal values when our founding documents were written. We Christians believe that only one woman in the history of mankind, a young unmarried virgin, was ever made pregnant other than by a man living on earth at the time of conception. No unwanted pregnancy—no need for abortion!

That is the way I saw it.

Dick Trail