I guess I'm getting old...I don't feel like it on the inside.  I still get excited over the challenges that come to me on a regular basis.  Next year, I will be married twice as long as I was single. I'll be 60....I'll let you work on the math.  I love my wife very much.  I love my kids very much.  I don't show my love or affection as much or as often as I should.  I think my family knows I love them one and all.
    Has the last 38 1/2 years been total bliss?  Not quite.  Mary probably should have dumped me 38 1/4 years ago for someone more worthy.  She didn't and I truly thank God every day for her being in my life.  Do we always see eye to eye?  No.  Are we always in agreement?  No.  Do we like all the same things.....No again.  Do we want the same things out of life.....Maybe, depending on how you look at it.  Believe it or not, she is a social introvert and I am a closet extrovert.  She mixes real well with people and I tend to stand back and listen and observe before getting involved.  We both want our children to be happy and successful in their vocations....not necessarily being wealthy as a measure of success......I wish I could find the statement my brother Roger gave me on success back in the mid 70's.  It was a remarkable statement of success, without there being any mention of monetary gain.....it just covered the important things in life.
     I would consider myself semi successful thus far in my life.  My wife has supported and helped me for 38 1/2 years to stay married.  I think in the last 6 or 8 years, I have finally become a husband (not totally...but mostly...I still have a ways to go).   I would like to think that my children respect me for what I tried to impart to them on pursuing the passions they have, without the overriding concern with the bucks that may or may not come with it.  I have gotten some music played in concert by a college jazz band.  I have recorded 6 CD's of mostly my own music.  The last 2 CD's were mostly collaborative efforts of Kari Schoeffler writing the lyrics and me putting it to music and recording it.  I got good reviews from several people with the last CD that I did, they both said it was the best one yet and I ought to push it.  It was heavily Kari/Chuck collaborative effort. 
    Our kids are out on their own, pursuing their own efforts and goals and sort of keeping in touch.  I try to make an effort to be more communicative with my kids than I use to be.  I really like hearing from them on what's going on in their lives.  As their lives fill up with their own work, love, strifes and challenges, time for mom and dad lessens.  Mom and Dad notice it more than the kids because their time is being taxed more heavily all the time.
    Thinking back to our starting out 38 1/2 years ago, I didn't communicate at all with my family and was a little jealous with the amount of time Mary spent communicating with letters, cards, a few calls ( we were dirt poor in the Army then, even qualifying for commodity foods through the welfare system).  I would see my mom and brothers and sister during Christmas when we went back home, do some small talk not amounting to much and the spend the bulk of the time with Mary's family.  Both sides of the family genuinely liked each other {for the most part}.  Her Mom's side - The Harry's - had a family gathering a couple of weeks before Christmas and her Dad's side - The Gilmore's - about a week before Christmas.  Lots of hugs and kisses and gifts and some drinks and loud conversations and a lot of laughter.  Between the Christmas parties, the families kept up with each other....Brothers and sisters, cousins,etc.   It still hasn't rubbed off on my family...still kinda only get together sometimes for an occasional funeral and even less for weddings.  We threaten each other with gatherings, but they never seem to happen.  
  
     I'm sort of a rambler, I guess.  This posting doesn't seem to have much to do with the title.  Maybe it's an attempt to get some of my Houston relates interested in actually getting together this year for a couple of hours and for a light hearted, if we can work it in, visit.

You guys could actually leave a comment on this idea...if it not too much trouble for any of you that have Pierson DNA in your veins......I know it's going to be a little bit of trouble, but tough it out and try for me will you?



thanks........chuck


P.S.  picture taken Aug. 11, 1969 St. Mary's Catholic Church, Pittsburg, Kansas, USA