By Rev. Dr. Louis Gerhardt

2010 has been a very good year for me. I have enjoyed good health, a loving family, many friends, and worthwhile tasks that challenge me.

I am an ordained minister and I officiated at several weddings including two same sex ceremonies. I delivered a number of talks at Rotary, Kiwanis, and other service groups, and of course, I offered a total of more than 60 positive living seminars. I also did considerable family counseling, blessings of homes, adult and child baptisms, etc.

My point is that at the age of 85 I have a pretty good perspective on our society and its individual citizens.

So as we begin a new year I give you the words of a world-renowned historian Will Durant speaking from the pulpit of the Church I served in Los Angeles.

“I was once challenged to sum up civilization in a half hour. I did it in less than a minute. Civilization is a stream with banks. The stream is sometimes filled with blood from people killing, stealing, shooting and doing things that historians usually record. While on the banks, unnoticed, people are building homes and making love, raising children, singing songs, writing poetry and even whittling statues. And the story of civilization is the story of what happens on the banks. Too often historians are pessimists because they ignore the banks and write about the rivers.”

Rev. Dr. Louis Gerhardt is a minister, counselor and author. His weekly column, Tough Minded Optimism, appears in the Hi-Desert Star, Desert Trail & Observation Post. He counsels those of all religions or no religion.

Contact Rev. Lou at 760-367-4627 or 800-995-1620 or res19mxc@verizon.net.