Whom can we trust to tell us the truth? Advertisers want us to believe that their latest model automobile will make us powerful and popular, or that their "new and improved" grooming product will win us a whole new circle of friends. Political parties try to "sell" their candidates, and confused religious teachers offer a bewildering spectrum of contradictory promises and wild ideas.

Have you noticed that despite the incredibly high divorce rate in our western society, despite all the turmoil and challenge of the dating process, marriage itself remains very popular today? Many books, television shows and movies deal with the ideal goal of finding a "soul mate"—an intimate, long-term, committed companion in life. People will seemingly try anything in the attempt to find someone they can truly share their life with for the long term. Why is this?

Nursing homes are places that I have often visited as a minister. Such visits can be a vivid reality check regarding the dramatic effects of aging. These “assisted living” and “memory care” facilities are places for men and women who have reached the point of needing care that their families, for whatever reason, are unable to give.

Each spring, for several years after our family moved to North Carolina, we tried to raise a vegetable garden in our backyard. But the seeds fed the birds, nursery plants fattened the local deer, and the fertilizer produced the most beautiful crop of weeds in the county!

There is a line from "A Death in the Family" by James Agee that says: "How far we all come. How far we all come away from ourselves. You can never go home again."