International Forecaster Weekly

Musings

...don’t wait for a loved one to pass before going down memory lane. Do it while they’re still here. Enjoy the memories together. It’s a welcome break from the madness of this current world. 

Bob Rinear | June 24, 2020

I’ve certainly had a “period” of reflection this week. While I’m not about to recant the whole story, but because my mom passed away this week, there’s certainly been a lot of pondering, reflection, and yeah, some tears.

I was quite busy this week, as I was sorting through mom’s affairs and contacting the right authorities that she had passed. If you’ve ever done this for someone, the list of things you need to do is extensive. It sure taught me a lesson.

But because I was wrapped up with that, I didn’t have any time to play in the markets. No time to spend hours reading foreign papers, or reading economic releases, etc. And guess what? Despite doing paperwork that was frankly sort of depressing, there was an interesting calm in my mind. Why? Because I wasn’t watching the latest riots. I wasn’t listening to brainwashed reporters trying to stoke up even more racial division. It was…peaceful.

You guys know me. I’ve dug around in the sewer that is indeed our corrupt market for heading on 30 years. I’ve looked beneath the glassy waters of the pond of politicians, to see the bottom dwellers and the pollution in all its forms. I’ve been immersed in it up to my neck on a daily basis for years on end.

And it was glorious to NOT experience it for a few days. In fact, from the moment mom passed away Tuesday morning, the TV hasn’t been on. Not once. Certainly, I knew that David Muir would be on World news tonight, telling the stories exactly as his overlords tell him to spin it. I didn’t want to hear it.

I knew that on CNBC talking head analysts that get paid dearly to separate you from your money, would be gushing about how great the economy is and how stocks are still a great buy. Yet I also knew without looking that not a one of them would mention the fact that the global central banks have blown the biggest asset bubble in history. That sort of talk gets you yanked off the air waves.

The bottom line was that despite doing a job this week that no son ever wants, separating from the trash of the moment was pretty uplifting. I got to relive some excellent memories each time I pulled out another folder from the file cabinet.

Then it sort of dawned on me. A thought. A question. Why is it that we wait until the end of someone’s life to go back through those photo’s, those folders, those long forgotten memento’s? Things you’ve long forgotten, spring back to life in your mind and bring a smile to your face. Is it because we have no “time?”

I was looking for a particular folder that had her long term care insurance papers. In thumbing through the rows of folders, I saw one that just said “Boat”. So I opened it. In it was the original paperwork from when dad bought his first boat after moving to Florida some 30+ years ago. (not his first boat, just the first one he ever bought down here. He had a boat when he was 18)

I had forgotten all about that boat. And yet seeing a couple pictures of it, and his “bill of sale,” my mind was flooded with great memories of him taking my wife and I around Sarasota bay, fishing, sightseeing. Every summer we’d visit him and mom for 10 days. We had great times on that boat. It spurred the memory of the four of us out on it one day, when fishing for speckled trout, mom hooked a tarpon. The fight was over in seconds as her trout rod and reel was no match for that 100 pound beast. It was the highlight of that day, and we talked of it for days. Yet without seeing that folder, I’d maybe never think of it again.

I confess that a lot of my time over the past few days was not just looking for the pertinent papers I needed for her estate, but finding little gems like that, and taking the time to reflect back. Let me tell you, it was more enjoyable, more peaceful than anything I’ve done in a long time.

I have gotten everything together that I need now. But make no mistake, there’s more folders, more photo’s more memories in those cabinets that will be explored.

The most important “stuff” has now been taken care of, so some semblance of normality will creep in for me this week. The TV will come back on. The immersion into the inner workings of the sausage making that fronts as economic policy, will be dissected again. I’ll see more protests, hear about more Covid deaths, and see more statues toppled. I’ll listen to lying politicians, lying stock analysts, and I’ll scream at my TV like I have Turret’s. And I’ll go back to being angry about things.

I guess that what I’m saying is, don’t wait for a loved one to pass before going down memory lane. Do it while they’re still here. Enjoy the memories together. It’s a welcome break from the madness of this current world.