Billy Bee

It’s Great To Be Back !!!

Well, it sure feels good to be back! For those of you who are just joining us, I have been gone from the writing circuit for about 6 years now.  I received a golden opportunity to go down to Southern Florida and pour a lot of concrete for two of the biggest builders in the US and what children’s book writer in his right mind would pass up an opportunity like that:-)  So I took 12 guys and down South we went.  Well, things went great for the first 3 years but the last two were spent healing all the wounds that the economy inflicted on all of us.  I’m not complaining though, I really do believe that everything in life definitely happens for a reason and mine was to bring me back home and continue with my writing.

It was great to be back and simply amazing at how fast time has gone by and the changes that took place in that short period of time.  My two little girls are now turning into very lovely young ladies in what seems like overnight. That alone is an incredible experience, just to watch them grow and come into their own personalities and I also have to say that living in a houseful of women can be a pretty amazing adventure in itself:-)  Also, we have a neighbor Mary who has lived across the street from us for over 20 years now and I got to speak with her daughter Valerie for the first time in a while.  Talk about time flying by, Valerie is in her 20’s now and is just about to graduate college with her masters in psychology.  “Psychology!!!”  I remember when I first started writing and doing school presentations.  One of the first schools I went to I asked, “Has anyone in here ever heard of Billy Bee before?”  And a little girl in the front row raised her hand and said to me, “I have Mr Thomas, I live across the street from you.”  It was my neighbor Mary’s daughter Valerie, about 6 years old at the time, in the first grade and a little bit younger than my two daughters are now and it gave me goosebumps as I thought about it.  It felt like one of those out of body experiences, because as I was talking to this very accomplished and successful young woman I couldn’t help but think about her sitting in that front row almost 20 years ago raising her hand and now in what seems like the blink of an eye she’s getting ready to graduate college and become a psychologist and make her contribution to try and help figure things out in this world!  Even now I get goosebumps just writing about it!!!

Well I have to say, that alone takes a lot of courage in itself, because I’ve been here for 49 years and I still have difficulty trying to figure out why things happen in this world we live, especially in the political world. The reason I even bring up the world of politics is because lately this political world has had such a strong impact on all of us.  The financial troubles, the economy, the war overseas, all of it!  But the part that is really amazing to me is the money that we as a nation are spending on everyone else.  Now right off the bat I want to get one thing clear, I am not saying it’s Democrats or Republicans.  I don’t know enough about either party or what’s going on to make an authoritative statement either way and it’s been going on for many years now and just seems to continue with each new administration. But why do we spend Billions overseas on a monthly basis and billions in our own country on things that are deemed a matter of national importance that doesn’t seem to be that important to anyone I speak with.  And can some one please tell me why no one has ever seemed to notice what is going on in our country with education and our children. Shouldn’t that be deemed one of the most important matters of our nation. These children are not only the future of our country but they will be the leaders of this world we all live in, the main problem solvers for all the difficult tasks that lie ahead of us and for all the difficult ones that we can’t seem to figure out.   These children that sit in the classrooms right now all across our country and across the world, will be the new teachers and scientists and mechanics and nurses and leaders and politicians and more of tomorrow. And in the blink of an eye just like my neighbors daughter Valerie, these children will be leaving school and applying their contributions to our world. In the blink of an eye!!!  So shouldn’t we spend a little more money on the people we put in front of our children to teach them these important skills and maybe a little more money on the schools that they have to learn all this important information in. And maybe a little more money on the tools they need to absorb all this information.  I wonder how many schools we could build or how many teachers we could hire or how many computers we could buy, I wonder how many walls could be built in the schools that now have only sectional petitions separating the classrooms. I wonder if we took the money we send overseas for just one month and put it towards our education, how much of this we could do?  I bet these countries that have been surviving with out us or any of our generous contributions for the last 2000 +  years will survive just fine if we skip just one month of our generous donations.  Then maybe, just maybe, with the new tools that we could put into the hands of one of these students, it may ignite the desire and intelligence that is needed to stop some of the problems that exist in today’s world. Whenever I go into a school and do a presentation, I can’t help but feel that I am looking at the most valuable, precious resource that surrounds all of us, the children!!! The children are our future! The children are our most precious resource! Remember, In the blink of an eye, these children will be running this world that we live in. Let’s give them what they need to make it a better place for all of us!

Well I hope I didn’t cross any lines or ruffle to many feathers:-) I’ve been known to do that on occasion:-) But I just want to say it’s good to be back and stay tuned because we’ve got a lot of pretty incredible stories on the horizon. Thanks for checking in and checking things out but most of all “Thanks for Beelieving!”