Success is Not Permanent

That's one of the hardest lessons I've had to learn in my whole life.  I used to go deer hunting with my father in Freesoil, Michigan.  I was too young to legally hunt deer in Michigan at the time so I was just a tagalong, but it was the high point of my whole year.  We used to stay with a farm family that lived right across the road from the Manistee National Forest.  I made up my mind right then that I was going to live someplace where I could hunt right from my house when I grew up.  That way, if there was ever another Great Depression, or a war or something when gas was rationed, or if I became too poor to own a car, I would still be able to go hunting.  My dream was fulfilled in 1970, when we built a house near Indian River that was right next to a 40 acre tract of state land.  All the other land around there was privately owned, but the owners didn't live around there, they had bought their land as an investment, planning to subdivide and sell it at a profit some day, and they didn't care who hunted on it.  I found a good sitting spot about a ten minute walk from the house, from which I shot a little doe while the house was still under construction.  The first season after we moved in, I shot a nice buck from the same spot.  I naively believed it was going to be like that forever, but it was eleven years before I shot my next deer, an then I had to travel 20 miles to do it.

I voted for Reagan twice in primaries when he ran against an incumbant, once against Nixon and once against Ford.  The third time was the charm, when he finally won the nomination and the presidency in 1980.  The Soviet Union collapsed in 1990, under the watch of Reagan's successor, Bush the First.  Life was good, the world was finally made safe for democracy, and I naively believed it was going to be like that forever.

That's the way it goes, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, and nothing lasts forever.