It's not a funny one. Sorry.

It's not a funny one today.  Sorry about that.  If you tuned in for the regular program, you might want to sit this one out, because I didn't feel inspired to be funny but I felt more serious.

I was having one of those "what does it all mean?" moments after reading an article about a 75 year old man who was beaten to death while walking down the beach on vacation with his wife.  The alleged perpetrator murdered him for his wallet.

I have had a few of those moments lately.  Well, if I'm honest, I have those moments fairly frequently.  Things happen- little things, big things, things that aren't even real- like moments on television- and they make me think about what we're all doing here, what we all should be doing, what drives us to do things that are good...and things that aren't so good.

I don't know what it all means.

No one does.  Some people have more faith than others, and really truly believe that they know what it all means- but I'm fairly certain that no one really, really knows.  We might have guessed right.  Some people might have more of a handle on the meaning than others.  But no one really knows for sure.

But just because we don't know what the master plan is- if there even is a master plan- doesn't mean there isn't a way that we should be while we're alive.

As far as anyone knows, we get one shot at this life.  One life.  You don't know when your clock is up.  Good people, bad people, average people, all kinds of people die for ridiculous reasons all the time.  Some people get to a fitting end, grow old in the arms of someone they love.  Others are walking on the beach on vacation with someone they love and they are killed by someone they've never met, for a matter of probably fifty bucks.  Fifty bucks.

Is that what that man's life was worth?

Absolutely not.

What should we do about this?

This is what I think.  Take it for what it's worth.  It's more of an exercise for me than it is a sermon for the rest of you.  I want to live a positive life, every day.  I need to try harder.

We get one life.

So does everyone else.

Spend that one life making other people's one lives better.

Why waste any of your time- your precious time- making another person unhappy?

Even petty little things...laughing at something that makes someone else happy.  Like someone who enjoys music you don't care for.  Justin Beiber fans.  I don't get it.  But it doesn't matter even a little what the hell I think about their taste in music.  Laugh at them?  Make them feel bad about something that makes them happy?  How disgusting is that?  Make someone feel foolish about what they like, guilty about what they like?  How horrible.

I am not always a good person.  I'm not always making other people's lives better.  But I really think that my ultimate happiness lies in being the best person I can be, and seeing other people benefit as a result.  And I really think that is true for other people as well.  It sounds so corny...so simple... but what if we were all trying to take care of each other, respecting each other...what if we were all kind to each other?

Would the bad people take advantage and overrun the good?

Or would there be less bad people, because they wouldn't have any reason to be bad any more?

I don't know.  It just breaks my heart that some old man was walking down the beach with his old wife and he died.

He died because someone else beat him to death.

I want the news to be about reunions and sneezing pandas and charity dinners and hope and good and happiness.

I want to live the best life possible.  I am going to try harder.