The Confessions of an Autocrat and Other Whimsy: A View From the Senior Bridge

For a person to have lived for over four score and fifteen years without having formed opinions about many facets of life and living, death and taxes, he would have to have been marooned on a desert island, far removed from that way of life we have named “Civilization”. Yet, the past century has seen much of life to be far from “civil”. The author was born while Europe was denuding itself of a generation of young manhood. “The Great War” was followed by almost a century of wars of greater and lesser scope, even unto to-day where seemingly never-ending conflicts have limited, and are reducing personal freedoms throughout the world. A century ago, to go from one place to another by public transportation, you went to the station, bought a ticket, and climbed aboard the proper train. Help was there to assist you courteously with your luggage, and you settled into a seat to begin your journey. No one x-rayed your luggage or inspected your personal brown bag to sniff out contraband. To-day to board an airplane (which has almost totally replaced rail transportation,) the would-be traveler has to show his personal ID multiple times, have “carry-ons” searched for multiple prohibited items of a personal nature, your body electronically strip-searched, and even your shoes examined. Freedom may be ringing somewhere, but not around airports world-wide. The author has also remembered many facets of his life-experiences, and hopes you will enjoy them as he did in their occurrence. A section on the experiences of his World War II service recall the many emotions he encountered, from love to anxiety to longing to exhilaration to compassion to the appreciation of the cultures found in foreign lands. And an occasional poem deepens the experience.