A Question With No Answer

As this is "summertime and the livin' is easy," I've been taking it easy myself. I decided to take a slight breather this month. I traveled to my ancestral homeland for the first time and wrote the following words during the first part of my journey:

Dateline London:

I'm sitting in my hotel room in London scribbling these words into a bound journal. My lifelong dream has always been to travel to this city and actually see some of its famous sites and meet its people (although it would be impossible to literally meet all nine million Londoners, I'm giving it a stab.)

Journaling

That was it. That was all I wrote specifically for Hugh's Views in the United Kingdom. I did more writing in that journal, but it was reflections about what my wife, Adele, and I did each day. Part of our routine for our two and a half week trip was to stop at a bed and breakfast and, before retiring for the night, write in our journals. It gave us a chance to reflect on the day's activities and get the names and places straight.

History and Herstory

Traveling opened up our eyes to this other culture that contain both our family's roots. My family on my father's side came to the United States from Scotland via Ireland in the early 1700's, Adele's on both sides in the early 1900's.

Question

I kept asking myself what our predecessors would think of the world today and if their quality of life was better or worse overall than ours. I know they didn't have the modern conveniences we have today, had to work long hours to exist, died at younger ages and couldn't travel as far or as fast as we do today. But were they happier and more content?

Can't get no....

I have a feeling that's the dilemma of humankind. We are never really satisfied. When we get the thing we want or think we need now, we soon feel the want for something else. We make a major purchase, a car or house, and it doesn't take long before we crave a newer better dwelling or vehicle. Think of the computer industry. What a person has is never good enough, fast enough or contains enough memory. Speaking of memory, I will remember to update these ramblings earlier next month. Honest. Really. As if in the long or short run it matters...

Hugh Peebles________________Late-August, 1996