Laura and I had the genuine pleasure this past weekend of visiting with some of our favorite people:  Laura’s aunt Carol and uncle Roger; my uncle Bob.  Having lost all our parents at a relatively early stage in our lives, these folks are our last close link to that generation:  Carol and Roger are in their early 80’s; Bob is in his early 90’s.

Much has been written of this generation, calling them heroic for winning a war and toiling to build our modern world (both of which they helped do).  That ‘s not why these folks are my heroes.

Carol and Roger and Bob (and my aunt Mae who just recently passed away) are not heroic in the history book sort of way.  They are folks who married, raised families, worked jobs, and were members of churches, community groups, card clubs;  they fished, took car vacations, stayed in motels;  golfed, did needlepoint.  In sum, they lived (and still live) simple good lives without complaint, self-absorption, or knowing what the term self-actualization even means.

Sometimes we make things a bit too complicated. . . .