Finishing Well

For years now, I have had a gentleman's agreement to write the forewords for my old student and colleague James McReynolds' remarkable books. I had some misgivings about my own ability to offer a forward to a book on the fruit of self-control. Self-control and patience has never been a problem for me. When I look back across the years, I cannot remember a single time, from my childhood to old age, when I struggled with this issue. It was simply not a matter that I dealt with. Maybe it was because I grew up under a volatile father who would have punished me harshly if I acted up at any time. Perhaps it was because I have such a irenic personality that on those few occasions when I needed to become umbrageous over something happening in my vicinity that I just did not have enough taste for combat to even thinking of engaging in it. One evening when as I was watching one of the daily news problems I usually watch, I was stuck by all the terrible things going on in our world: the dreadful wars in Europe and in the Middle East, Vladimir Putin's scary and unseemly lust for power and dominance, the Chinese penchant for technical supremacy, the escalating violence in our own inner cities and the corresponding arrogance of the gun lobbies at a time when gun control seems to be an impossible dream. In a flash, I realized that these are all convincing evidence of an overwhelming need for self-control everywhere, not just in our individual lives, but in the world at large. If everybody had only learned to exercise self-control over their own thoughts and actions, we would not be in the mess we are in. People would not have gone to war because they had the impulse to do it or violated their neighbor's territory and personal safety because it seemed to a justifiable thing to do. There would have been a lot more restraint shown on every side. Everybody would have preferred peace and kindness to the sort of problem of madness and mayhem that have become the rule in our society. So Jim I now apologize for thinking that I had nothing to say on the matter of self-control. I do. I just do not really know what to say or where to say it effectively. Perhaps I should begin by merely thinking about this subject and praying for its most egregious violators to somehow come to the realization that a world gone mad is not what any of us really want after all. We must amend the situation by exercising more self-control in their realms. I could single out one or two people that I know who are violating the love-thy-neighbor rule right now and try to think how I could help them to harness their own actions and desires. Maybe I could write an opinion editorial on this problem to be published in the local newspapers. In fact, I am moved to write a new book myself entitled Growing Old Is the Hardest Work You Will Ever Do. I believe that. These are a few things I could do that might produce positive results in the part of the world closest to myself and help these persons to change everything for the better in our own proximity. One thing I know for sure, this issue needs to become a big movement in our world today as it has always been for generations past. We must go beyond the desire for more peace and equanimity in our own life environment. Jim has started something by writing his remarkable book. Now, it is up to us, his readers and publishers, to strive to create a more harmonious and cooperative world. This is the goal for finishing well for individuals and generations now and to come to complete their lives with grace, love, and joy. John R. Killinger Warrenton, Virginia