OUR OWN OPTICS We live in a world of ‘optics.’ A word used too much, I think. I remember when it was used for a scope on a rifle. “Hey Charlie, what kind of scope optics you got on that there Remington? Bet you can pluck a tick off a hound dog’s back leg with it, eh?” For the life of me, I don’t know why you would want to shoot a tick with a Remington. Seems like a little... Read more
GOD DOESN’T ALWAYS SHOW UP Most of the time, in my life, and in particular since 2018, God hasn’t shown up. He’s there-here-everywhere, but most of the time, it’s like He’s walking around the house with socks on. He steps over the sleeping dogs, somehow moves down the hallway and through the rooms where the first steps of mine in the morning, reset the tile with my steps, their expansion and contraction causing a popping sound as they fall back... Read more
A CHANGE IS COMING I am-maybe, no longer a Night Panther guy. I need to change my deodorant. It’s not the name or the smell. I think my body is starting to find a way to smell bad even with it on. Look, I am from a generation following the Greatest Generation. My father wore Mennen Skin Bracer and Right Guard aerosol spray, because, back then I guess, the O-Zone was starting to smell a little B-Oish. I kept the tradition... Read more
Why Does God Allow Suffering? Gosh, I hear this a lot. It is a great question. It is a key question to God, to our faith and one we need to be able to answer, if not just in a general way. The shoulder-shrugging I don’t know answer doesn’t cut it with most people who are on the fence about their faith and is a main finger-pointing answer to those who do not believe. “See, even you can’t answer that... Read more
Declaration of Independence I WONDER WHAT I WOULD HAVE DONE…. I wonder what I would have done, what I would have been like, 246 years ago this week. 246 years ago, was the week before the Declaration of Independence was signed and read on July 4th. I wonder what I would have been like, listening to the man reading it on the steps of the building he and a group of men were locked up in, blinds closed, doors locked... Read more
Happy Father’s Day, Dad! If you are not a father this Father’s Day, you might be later or you will have young children who are watching you. Kids love to watch adults. Just some points for your review which I have learned or am learning about doing the hard things: Start with a win When you wake, make your bed first thing. Start with a win. Start the coffee in the morning. It means you’re on deck first.... Read more
SOMETIMES, IT IS OKAY TO REST Sometimes, a refreshing beverage is just enjoyed. In the right place, it glows like a welcoming beacon from a comfortable lighthouse to ships at sea for long periods of time. It could be a soft drink, a non-calorie sparkling water, a beer, a glass of wine, or even a good scotch whiskey. The drink signifies a time when rest is in order. When life and the business of it, can take a seat and... Read more
WE SHOULD BE ABLE TO LAUGH If, as you start this piece, have never seen the movie The Jerk with Steve Martin, you need to. As I write this, Steve is still alive. It’s a silly movie, the way Steve did comedy before he picked up banjo playing full time. It starts off with his voice over in narration and his black family dancing on an old wooden porch, everyone dressed in stark white, the way Steve dressed whenever he... Read more
Sometimes, in our seasons, we have difficulty seeing the season itself and get swallowed up in its trauma. Read more
JUST SOME OBSERVATIONS I have not talked about observations I have made lately. ‘I see things’ like the little boy tells a younger Bruce Willis in the movie, Sixth Sense. A good movie by the way which you never see the twist at the end. I think we all see things, things around us. Things in us. We can look at each other and sometimes kind of tell when someone is sad or sick or happy. When there is a... Read more
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