Peace and War

Uncle Lou He was a devout man. He raised a lot of children. He seemed to have known that priority order was God, Family, and everything else. He wasn’t intimidated with job expectation pressures that ruled the corporate culture from the 50’s through the 80’s. He was a Right to Life Champion, having been arrested more than once for blocking the entry to abortion clinics. He had a steady supply of religious objects to pass out to people wherever he was. There was a time when I viewed him as an enemy. He pushed his spiritual beliefs on people and I didn’t want him doing that to me. He didn’t mind being obnoxious when he stood up for what he thought was right... Or wrong. It was after I worked on my own recovery from a seriously skewed life that I began to see that he cared for me and told me things, even though hard to swallow, that I needed to hear. I forfeited learning opportunities from him because of my attitude. He became sick with terminal cancer. From the outside view, he seemed to be processing his cancer ridden life as another project to finish up while he still could. The last photos of him show him to be in absolute peace and joy for his trials and tribulations, eagerly waiting for his call from God.