I recently found a bicycle grip washed up on the beach I walk looking for treasures the ocean offers me. This particular find took me to a place I didn’t see coming from behind.

 A 1965 boys bicycle grip. I instantly went to that time and saw a little boy gripping the handle bars of the bicycle that used to belong to his older brother. I couldn’t help but see what he was wearing as he pedaled down the street. It wasn’t his sneakers, jeans or plaid shirt that I first noticed; it was the set of dog tags that belonged to his older brother lost in Vietnam. Something so innocent as a bicycle grip took me to such a polar opposite place. One of these young boys could have been his brother in 1965.

I felt compassion for the brothers that shared a bicycle and saw so much tragedy. I watched the news later that evening and my thinking began to change as I listened to all the horrible and wonderful things happening in our present day. The only difference between 1965 and 2017 is the year and styles. Human beings haven’t changed. Looking back through every decade or so I noticed the same patterns of human behavior around the world and found that every new generation loses its innocence by our own hands. I also observed the same amount of kindness and compassion lining the outsides of each heart breaking event wiping the tears and picking up the pieces of innocence some refer to as collateral damage. I was going to post other pictures to compare but what is the point, we all know what is happening today and what was yesterdays news…1965 had war, riots, protests, murders, catastrophic storms, political upset, hungry children, tragic accidents, medical miracles, scientific break through, volunteers, compassion for the hurt and dying, family and neighbors helping each other, etc etc the list of good vs evil goes on forever. When we are gone and the new generations are making their way through this mixed up world, we can only hope that more will choose the side of good to help keep the scales of humanity balanced.