Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 4:00 a.m. in "The City."

I'm gong to depart from my regular format of sports scores, weather and the like, to muse on some things that have been on my mind of late.

For too many people, the American Dream has remained elusive and in all too many cases, it has been snatched from their hands just as it seemed that their dream had a chance to reach fruition.

As a society, we are either fast losing the American Dream, or we never had it in our grasp at all. As you will recall from my previous blogs, Mary and I had the opportunity to go to Road America and view the cars and races that represent a portion of the my Dream that was never even available to too many, regardless of their personal desires.

Mary and I have individual "Bucket Lists", you know those things that you want to accomplish before your time comes. In some cases, our lists are like Venn Diagrams, there is some overlap between the two. But for many items, there is no overlap whatsoever. For example, Mary indulges me when it comes to something that should be anathema to her, automobile racing and allows me to feed my needs. I indulge her need to do crafty things and decorate the house, more tastefully I might add that I could ever do. But I guess what I am saying, is that there are things that we have to recognize that will remain elusive to us in spite of our best intentions.

Another example is that I really wanted to see that concert last night, something that Mary can take or leave, but which I like because of my personal love for music of most genres. No matter what, I still don't like opera, but I have a new found appreciation for the music of Bob Dylan. Alas, my up and down health status made attending that concert impossible.

If I'm sounding maudlin, I don't mean to. I just believe that there is a better way to approach life, a way that can appreciate all of the facets and all of the possibilities open to some members of our society, albeit not yet open to all.

So, rather than belabor my points, let me add that until you have walked a mile in another man's moccasins, you can't fully appreciate what you have.

Just a few random thoughts on life ar 4:00 a.m. Ciao..