Day: April 29, 2019

My advice to people…speaking from experience is too not accumulate too much “stuff” At least not stuff of the physical kind. There’s a difference between the physical stuff and the spiritual stuff. Over the past almost 43 years I have accumulated WAY too much physical “stuff” I hate to throw anything away. I have things which will NEVER be used again, but…I start to throw them on the “give away” truck and I say “well, I MIGHT need this again someday” and back it goes into the pile. I have been battling this demon a lot lately and I think I have won. I have gotten disgusted with all the physical stuff we accumulate in this world. I have gotten rid of several truckloads last week, and will continue to haul it off until there is not much left except what I really need. I don’t think you can accumulate too much spiritual “stuff” though. At least not the good kind. There’s a possibility you CAN accumulate to much of the bad kind: hate, envy, spite, vulgarity….such as that. You can never accumulate too much of the other kind: love, caring, compassion, giving. Their is a space in our heart for these kinds of things which can NEVER be totally filled. There is always room for more. The more you drive out the negative spiritual feelings the more room for the good feelings. Keep that in mind today when one of the “baddies” jumps into your head. Oh and by the way…..could I interest anybody in a load of junk??

We need to all remember during this election year that nothing, and I MEAN nothing you are going to hear on TV (99.9%) will be totally true. Some of it will be WAY untrue…some of it will be a little untrue. No matter which side it comes from, extremists are the ones now controlling what we see and hear about what’s going on. Running the gambit from MSNBC to Fox. We must remember that out of all we hear, the truth…the real truth lies somewhere in between, somewhere in the middle. Neither candidate will be as good or as terrible as they are depicted. This is American politics in the 21st century and we should get used to it. We should also try and hold back our most “passionate” comments….things we may regret saying later, and simply remember that 90% or more of the people in this country already have their minds made up about the election and the negativity that occurs between now and November is a dogfight for the other 10%. (my statistical “guessing” I haven’t seen any polls…nor would I believe them anyway) We can discuss and debate, but let’s don’t cuss and hate.

The creator gave me some wonderful souls with whom to be associated. My wife, our children and grandchildren. Those who have passed on, who I have loved and missed so dearly. They have been and continue to be my anchor.

I have an obligation to fulfill to each person I meet, in the name of honesty as well as I can discern it. People deserve honesty, fairness, and caring. I revel in showing little tots how to hit a ball off of a tee. I am awed by the speed with which new babies learn so quickly as they transition into toddlers. I am surprised at how most people react when you simply smile and say hello.

This is a crucial and critical time in our country. It’s a time when families of all kinds must learn to understand themselves, and then learn to bond with other families. Some say the church is one place to do this, and perhaps it is, but I think we should come together at the level where ALL families can be involved. If the church cannot accept all types of families then it is not the ideal place for families to learn to bond. I see SO many good families both in person and online that I know if we worked together there is nothing we could not accomplish. We only lack a leader with the strength and fortitude to pull us together and not apart.

Most of all we, me must practice our kindness. I am afraid for the most part it is a learned trait. Start small and grow larger. Kindness often costs nothing but careful thinking.

We can bring this world back from the brink of disaster if enough of us want to. Our worst enemy is apathy and our worst trait is hesitancy to get involved in trying to make a difference. We humans are better than this, we just need to get our heads out of the sand and into the fight.

May is almost here, and on the 10 day weather forecast I see 80’s starting to show up. Hot weather. Where I’m not much of a fan of it now, I certainly once was.

May meant school was almost over, and a three month vacation was just around the corner.

The fishing rods and cane poles could be dusted off, and new nylon fishing line would replace the previous summers scum encrusted old stringy line. We’d cut the old rusty hooks that had been holding the line to the top of the rod off, and tie on a shiny new barbed hook and lead sinkers, or a snap leader, so we could use a shyster or a plastic black worm to entice a bass.

The Chattooga river was barely a rock throw away, and I could hear that water pouring over the dam, and feel the spray hitting me as I stood on one of those limestone rocks, casting out towards the middle…looking for a sweet spot. I can still smell it even now.

We’d get our baseball gloves out of the closet and rub a tiny bit of Vaseline into the dry leather, and then just put the glove up to our nose, and smell the scent of baseball. Visions of games with new clean uniforms, and wooden bats contacting those brand new white baseballs, perhaps even shattering the bat if you hit it too high up on the handle, well…those visions danced in the heads of us Trion boys more so than any candy cane at Christmas time ever did.

I can see Jess Emory chewing on a cigar, and hear J.W. Greenwood or Cherry Crisp calling: “strike three, you’re out” more often than I wanted to!

I took a Brillo pad and shined up my golf irons. I took a Phillips head screw driver and made sure the metal plates on all my woods were tight. Me and Dad, and Tommy and Mike Brown would go golf ball hunting to stock up for the summer. We boys would spend hours a week playing and practicing so we could be as good as Darrell Broome, or Faye Brown. We’d caddie during the times we couldn’t play for Otis Tanner, or Mr. Florence. We would get real good tips during the Trion/Ware Shoals match. I’d always try and get Donnie Davis or Mr. Munns from Ware Shoals. They paid good.

It’s funny the things you remember when the weather starts to turn. I’m glad I grew up where I did, when I did. I could write more, but the sandman calls.

My advice to people…speaking from experience is too not accumulate too much “stuff” At least not stuff of the physical kind. There’s a difference between the physical stuff and the spiritual stuff. Over the past almost 43 years I have accumulated WAY too much physical “stuff” I hate to throw anything away. I have things which will NEVER be used again, but…I start to throw them on the “give away” truck and I say “well, I MIGHT need this again someday” and back it goes into the pile. I have been battling this demon a lot lately and I think I have won. I have gotten disgusted with all the physical stuff we accumulate in this world. I have gotten rid of several truckloads last week, and will continue to haul it off until there is not much left except what I really need. I don’t think you can accumulate too much spiritual “stuff” though. At least not the good kind. There’s a possibility you CAN accumulate to much of the bad kind: hate, envy, spite, vulgarity….such as that. You can never accumulate too much of the other kind: love, caring, compassion, giving. Their is a space in our heart for these kinds of things which can NEVER be totally filled. There is always room for more. The more you drive out the negative spiritual feelings the more room for the good feelings. Keep that in mind today when one of the “baddies” jumps into your head. Oh and by the way…..could I interest anybody in a load of junk??

I sometimes wonder when the Universe was created, what the creator had in mind?

Is the Universe like the wonderful, super high quality pocket watches that the immensely talented Swiss watch makers create? So good a product, that you simply wind them up on a regular basis, and they keep on running day after day for decades. They rarely ever needed cleaning because the cases were so tight and dust proof. The jeweled movements were so accurate that men in the streets would look at their watches when “Big Ben” chimed in the streets of old London, and say: “Hrummp, forty seconds off according to my Bregeut..”.

Yes, they were that good, and today’s modern timepieces are even more accurate! But wait, the discussion started out with a discussion about the creator of the Universe! I regress a bit, or do I?

When God created the Universe, Time was also created. We humans, in our tiny attempt to understand God, have created our own small way of attempting to keep up with one small aspect of that incomprehensible creation. It’s one of the most logical and true ways, however. Would that our philosophy of all other things having to do with religion and the treatment of our fellow man, be as logical, humane and high quality as our ability to keep up with time.

When the bill comes due one day, I suspect that even our logical ideas concerning God’s time will be archaic and childlike. Where then will the sum and substance of all our other less logical philosophies fall? I can’t even really wrap my mind around it.

If faith is really the answer, what then is the real question?