I wonder why so many of us spend so much more time thinking about what we don't have than what we do have.

This afternoon I stayed in the pool alone after a water aerobics class and just let the water soak all my negative thinking, all my frustrations, out of my body. I was completely underwater up to my chin and I stayed at that level, watching the deep blue water shimmering in front of my face. And as corny as it sounds, I spent half an hour thinking about my life.

[caption id="attachment_371" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Family is a blessing"]<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/DSC_0433.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-371" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/DSC_0433-300x199.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="199" /></a>[/caption]

I thought about the fact that I have a wonderful wife, one who has stayed with me for better or for worse for more than 17 years now. Nicole sometimes worries that we don't have enough interests in common, but we love each other and we have made it through most of the tough times and ought to have some good times ahead.

One thing we do have in common is that we have raised two amazing children together. This is an area in which I have been truly blessed. Not only do both of my children love me and think I was a good parent, both of them are happily married, already started in good careers and on their way to great lives.

That's wonderful in itself, but when you consider the fact that neither one of my children have ever given me even one day of heartache, I am absolutely incredibly lucky.

Yes, my career ended two years before I had hoped it would, and it ended somewhat unceremoniously, but I was a journalist for 29 years and there were more years in which my job was a joy than there were years that it wasn't. In the course of covering sports, entertainment and business as well as writing a column for five years, I had the opportunity to go places most people never get to go.

I covered baseball games in Baltimore, Philadelphia, Atlanta, St. Louis, San Francisco, Anaheim and Los Angeles -- hundreds of them -- and pro and college football games in great stadiums from coast to coast, from the Coliseum in Los Angeles to the Meadowlands in New York. I've been to a Super Bowl, a World Series and bowl games from Atlanta to Pasadena.

[caption id="attachment_372" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Another generation"]<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/DSC_0119-2.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-372" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/DSC_0119-2-300x199.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="199" /></a>[/caption]

Whether it has been the world of sports, entertainment or politics, I have met some amazing people, many of whom are no longer with us. I sat with the late Roger Maris for an hour at a minor-league baseball game and talked with him about hitting 61 home runs in 1961 and the frustration that came after.

I interviewed the late Peter Ustinov almost at the end of his great acting career, and I talked with Doris "Granny D" Haddock as she was starting her walk across the country at age 90 for campaign-finance reform.

I covered three national political conventions and a major earthquake.

I saw a lot of places I never figured to visit,