All things must pass.

-George Harrison, who got it from Matthew 24 :6-8

I’m at home alone quite a bit. Two of my three kids no longer live at home and of course have their own lives. My wife still loves to travel and well, I’ve lost the taste for it a little bit. I’m actually tired of traipsing around Asia, eating dim sum, noodles and dhal bat. Or maybe she doesn’t like me much anymore. I don’t know.

I’ve never asked her. I don’t feel it’s any of my business.

I know kids keep you young. Without them I’d probably be just another angry old white guy shaking my fist and shouting at clouds. When they’re around at least I can shout at them. But deep down I know that it is the primal instinct of the young to get rid of their elders, to make room on the planet. The Greeks knew it. Read the Greeks.

Not that I’m any expert on the Greeks. although I never missed that original ‘Hercules’ cartoon that was on t.v. in the 1960s with Newton, Toot and his arch-rival, Devilus. And also in the 1960s two of the soccer teams in my league were named the Spartans and the Trojans and so I asked my mother what a Trojan was. She told me they were enemies of the ancient Greeks and then she read a story like she always would to us kids about the wooden horse and Achilles and his tragic heel and I was hooked on history. I don’t know how much of it is true but then my own daughter says she doesn’t know how much I write in my stories is true. When she bothers to read them.

But the trouble is when our only reaction to history is to knock down statues and to magnify the flaws of our fore people? who set the stage for us is that we lose focus on the only persons we can change – ourselves. The ancient Greeks knew better. They weren’t afraid to not only give their gods wonderful powers but also magnificent flaws. Wasn’t Zeus always coming down to earth to impregnate some luscious young virgin who had caught his eye ? What did social media 3000 B.C.E. have to say about that ?

Several years ago my son was working on a math degree and took as an option a course on Greek mythology. He enjoyed it so much that he considered changing his major (again) and focusing on Greek mythology and film studies.

I didn’t say anything, as I am loath to give anyone advice. I’ve steered myself in the wrong direction too many times to go down that road.

But I remember thinking… better stick to the math, kid. I don’t want you to get any ideas from those Greek gods.

I mean, you go around impregnating any beautiful young virgin you see in this day and age, you’re in big trouble !