It is what it is

Life is a string of events needing decisions and resulting in consequences. Most decisions are easy, Coke or Pepsi, tea or coffee. Most consequences are non issues. We go through our mostly mundane day mindlessly making decisions and accepting the results without even thinking about them.

Some times the results aren't so mundane. Sometimes they result in accidents, lost or damaged articles that we value. Sometimes injury and even death.

When this happens we look back over the last few hours at all the decisions and think "if only"? If only I had left the house 10 minutes earlier like I had planned, I wouldn't have been at the intersection at the exact moment the other driver ran the stop sign. If only I had taken the few extra second to put my camera in my purse instead of trying to hold it and several other things in my hand I wouldn't have dropped it off the second floor balcony of the hotel. If only I had not put mu cell phone in my shirt pocket I wouldn't be trying to fish it out of this toilet. If only I had left my wallet in the truck while I was in the canoe checking trot lines it wouldn't be at the bottom of the Flint River. (That one was for my son, Drew. A great teaching moment.)

We can look back over the last few hours or maybe days, trace the events backwards and see at several points where a decision we made created a sequence that lead to the tragedy.and assign ourselves blame.

It kind of funny how, when something good happens we don't track the events of the last few hours to see the decisions that brought about the good events. Wow, If I hadn't taken those few extra minutes to go back and change shoes I would not have been in the right place at the right time to run into that old friend I hadn't seen in years and she wouldn't have told me the wonderful news of her daughter's pregnancy.

Its impossible when we make one of these day to day insignificant decision to foresee the path this sets us on and where it will lead. Life is what it is. Live your life, accept what the day brings and remember that you cannot control the outcome.

One last thought, and maybe this will help. If we could go back and change one simple thing in our day that would set the days events on a different path whose to say that path would not have created and even more tragic results.

Thomaston looses an Icon

Last week Thomaston lost a downtown icon. The Hotel Upson was taken down. To show how small of a town Thomaston is, this grew a crowd, some even took a few bricks as souvenirs. In its day it was a very elegant building. A lot of important people stayed there in its day. It was a big part of the downtown skyline. Downtown will look very different with it gone, a very big hole where it once stood. Once the center of activity, for the last several years it has been empty, almost forgotten about. The deconstruction made it the center of attention for one last time as people came to pay last respects for a building few of us really new. Most people my age and younger had probably never stepped foot inside.

Some remarked what a tragedy it was for it to be torn down. and I agree. But this tragedy didn't start Thursday night. this tragedy started probably over 50 years ago when use of the Hotel started to wane. Travelers started taking other routes, business fell off, the money dried up. Maintenance became less affordable. The longer it went unmaintained the more expensive it would have been to save it. It had finally reach the point of no return. So now we will have a parking lot where a once proud building stood and in a few years we will be hard pressed to remember exactly what it looked like with the building there. Much like when I try to recall the old Silvertown before Piggly Wiggly came to town, or Northside before Grant City was built . (Think K-Mart, Fred's, McDonald's).

Time marches on, and building like people either keep up, stay relevant or get cast to the side.

Good bye Hotel Upson, I never really knew you, but I will miss you just the same.