Author: thegraymaniac

Of all the qualities which set human beings apart from the rest of humanity, there is our voice. It was this means of communication which allowed us to move beyond other species and become social animals.

Our voice allowed our ancestors to pass on instructions on how to do critical things to survive. We began to live less off of instinct and more off of experiences passed down from generation to generation. Language came long, long before the ability to write and so most knowledge was passed down by oral tradition. Since early man tended to live in familial situations, with tight family ties, language probably varied a lot, and then as families stretched out and became tribes the group adopted the most useable language form available to communicate within the entire group.

But, the anthropological aspect is not where I want to concentrate. It’s the spiritual and mystical aspect of the voice to which I wish to “speak”

I’ve had so many wonderful and unique voices which have inhabited the echoes of my mind. My Dad’s laugh…I can never get it far from my immediate memory. He laughed a lot and at a lot of things. He gave me a lot of advice with that voice. I took some of it, and some I wish I had taken. His voice was stilled in 2010.

My Grandfather Jervis’s voice. My voice is a mixture of his voice and my Dad’s, leaning more heavily towards his. He could sing from bass to tenor and I inherited a bit of that. I used to sit around in his living room and listen to him sing his “scales” “Do..do..do……do, ray, mi, fa, so, la, ti, do..do..do..” I got up in front of the congregation where my Grandpa was song leader when I was four years old and waved my hands around like I was conducting the choir. Nobody laughed or made fun of me. I was really proud of myself and I remember it so well. My Grandfather’s voice was stilled in 1991.

My Mom and my Grandmother had similar voices…and they were both worriers. I asked my Grandmother on her 100th birthday what she would have done different if she could go back and go it all over again. She simply said “I’d worry about things less, because all the worrying I did never changed nothing” Her voice was stilled in late 1999. I still dream of her quite often, most of the time in the kitchen. She’s always telling me: “I wouldn’t worry about that, Honey” she’ll say. I still worry…I guess I can’t help it, I get it from her and Mom. My dear Momma….she would always say “I love you” and too many times, “I’m sorry” for things which really were not her fault, not anybody’s fault, just fate and fate alone. Mom’s voice was also stilled in 2010.

In late 1999, I was really scared. The specialist had found a lump on my vocal cords and he was pretty sure it was cancer. I went into surgery wondering if I would come out with a voice…..would I come out with a hole in my throat and no voice. Turned out it was a big lump of scar tissue. I came out with my vocal cords, but it took a year a rehabilitation to even get back to regular talking, much less singing. I have had to be very careful since then. Some days are good, some days not so good. At least I still have that mechanism of communication to use with my family, my friends…(although sometimes I bet they wish I would shut up!)

My voice will be stilled one day, as have been the voices of all human beings who ever lived. I hope I have used it correctly…will use it better, and maybe there will be some memorable phrase “hanging in the air” for someone to remember me by.

The Power of the Voice

The Power of the Voice

— Read on thegraymaniac.com/2018/09/26/the-power-of-the-voice/

And I still hear his voice in my head. Slightly husky, and a little more past the midnight side in the bass range. Barking out orders and commands, or soothing and reassuring when the yellow jackets stung.

There is a magic quality to the human voice which cannot be adequately described with words. One has to hear the voice to know the magic. The importance of the voice cannot be quantified in the development of humanity or the achievements of humanity. It is paramount.

I remember JFK for his voice, and I believed him when he said we would put a man on the moon.

I remember Martin Luther King for his voice, and I still believe in his dream. ..

There are many times you just know that someone loves you, or you love them. Only the human voice has the capability to actually verbally affirm that love.

Use it while you can.

I hate to be morbid, but it’s just a way to get a point across.

Imagine yourself on your deathbed. What things would be the most important to you…..excluding your relationship whether real or perceived, with your creator?

Are the things which you can think of, make a list of….are those things what are most important to you right now?

If the answer is no….why not?

If the answer is yes, then congratulations for being a good person.

The most difficult trait for humanity to overcome, is in my opinion, aggression.

That trait, along with Homo sapiens natural proclivity to stay together in first familial, and then tribal groups, has enabled us to survive and thrive.

Clashes over territory which contained game and wild fruit and roots escalated over the centuries into what we have now.

Wars over territory, differences in ideology, and the right to control the fates of massive numbers of other human beings, are taking place every day.

All this wasn’t quite as dangerous when our ancestors were using rocks and sharpened sticks. Now however, a small percentage of humans, known as the “genius inventors” have given mankind weapons of mass destruction.

Not all human beings have the temperament to be in charge of these terrible, awful weapons. Too much aggression….not enough temperance.

The time to search for a way to reduce human aggression as our main trait for survival….is now. I’d like for all my descendants to have a decent world to inherit. How about you?

Some days are diamonds and some days are stones. However, all days are good days to be alive, even the slightly bad ones, even still the terrible ones. We learn something even from the extremes.
I have had some days lately which have been a little frustrating. A lot of it is me. Something is happening to me….I don’t quite know what yet. I sleep all the time, day and night, and still feel pooped. But that’s no excuse to lose my temper, my nerve, my resolve, my humanity, my tact, my politeness and misplace my love. I forget what I am put here to do, and then remember it when it’s too late and I have already hurt someone I didn’t mean to hurt. Apologies are good things, but you can’t ever take back words once they have come out of your mouth, and someone has heard them. Guess it’s better to think before you speak isn’t it. I haven’t quite mastered that yet, probably never will.
Well then, tomorrows another day as Scarlett O’Hara would say, and I am hopeful I will see the sun rise again, and have a chance to try one more time to get this “living” thing done right. After all, we only get so many chances don’t we?

I read scientific studies that show when a person does something compassionate for someone else, it increases the endorphins in their body and makes them feel better.
If a person feels anger and divisiveness, it increases stress hormones and makes them feel worse, and could eventually lead to health problems.
That tells me that we should stop listening to the people who are trying to divide us, no matter what the issue, and start being compassionate and empathetic to other people. We need fewer dividers and subtractors, and many more adders and multipliers.
I’ve seen and read enough stuff this weekend to fear for future health problems for a LOT of people.
Take it from someone who has had two heart attacks and health related problems, some of which I am sure was due to my stress level caused by letting things anger me….you are better off refusing to let divisiveness over things which you cannot directly affect you, cause you anger and stress.
Hug people you love, work in your garden, bake cookies, read a book, take a walk….anything….anything besides obsessing over social media issues.
Give to charities going to Puerto Rica or Texas.
I know that It is important to be aware of important issues, and to make your opinions known to people who can directly affect those issues I.e., call your Congressmen or Senators, quit buying products from advertisers that advertise on shows that you don’t think are in line with your beliefs, quit watching things that don’t match your values.
If you want to speak your peace on something, then do it. But forego letting it rule your life.
I’m trying, and I realize it’s hard. It’s hard for me. I know it’s hard for y’all too. But, we gotta quit with all the anger and division, because sooner or later, in one manner or the other, it’s going to kill us.

Solomon said “to everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven”

I know that The Byrds and Dylan put that chapter to music. It was a really popular song.

I wondered about it, so I analyzed it a little.

To EVERYTHING there is a season. That means even the little things we take for granted on a daily basis. Not just the big things. The small kisses from your children and your grandchildren…your husband or wife. The days that we work at our jobs. There is a season for that and a purpose. We may not consider it always to be a noble purpose, but in a way it always IS, if we make it so. (I always hear Patrick Stewart in my head when I write that….”make is so”) We project ourselves in those purposes. In everything.

There is a SEASON. Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. There are those seasons in our lives both externally and internally. Sinatra sang about it in the song “It Was a Very Good Year” When we are 17, the seasons seem like they are stretching out forever. The time passes by slowly…but by the time we reach the Autumn of the year the time is passing by like a blur. We take note of the passing of the time on the calendar, the Christmases and the Hot summer days, and our biological clocks just keep on moving. It’s my belief that we all have a different time on our biological and spiritual clocks. Nobody knows what it is, and we MUST learn to fit our purpose into that time that we have been given.

Under Heaven. As our time that we have is spent attending to our purpose here on Earth, we often forget that we are under Heaven. We have this wonderful human life and the time that goes with it and we have been given a purpose to accomplish. We often forget that and go about living our times wandering and squandering this wonderful gift. I hope and pray that when my sand, which is running so quickly out of the hourglass is done, that I will have accomplished what I was sent here to do. I think I have. In my heart of hearts I feel like I have. So that if I left tomorrow I believe I could rest in peace under the heavens that Solomon wrote about so long ago.

It’s not what you think…

I was a pretty good baseball player. I led the Pony league in batting average for two of the three years I played. Hit some good home runs although if my memory is correct, Tom Brewster, Junior as we knew him then, had more home runs(we were both lefties, and he could pull the ball into the tennis courts better than me. Mine were mostly to center field and had to be “run out” since there were no fences. Several of mine ended up in the Elementary School yard though) Thing is, as good as we were, we didn’t get any trophies. They didn’t give them out back then just for participation. You had to win the league, or the All stars, so….no baseball trophies on my shelf. I didn’t have anything from those wonderful days…at least I didn’t think I did.

I had been cleaning up in my folks house last year before we sold it. I thought I had everything and was making a last sweep of the place. I looked back in the far corner of the closet in the “dark room” and saw the outline of a ball bat. I retrieved it and was taken aback. It was my #34 Orlando Cepeda bat! A bat I had used in many games to hit those low screaming line drives down the first base line. The bat I used to hit a scorching line drive to center field that rolled all the way to that old black pipe water fountain at the Grammar school. I took it outside and swung it for 10 minutes, feeling the balance, and heft of that old bat.

I hadn’t known Dad had saved it. Maybe it was his weapon of last resort for intruders. But, it hadn’t been under the bed…it had been in the corner of the closet. Dad had carried that bat through three moves and had kept it. I wandered back in my mind, remembering how he had been at all my games cheering me on, just as he had later attended all my brother’s football games. Could it be that he had actually been that proud of his crazy acting lefty son? Maybe so, I thought as I took my trophy out and laid it in the seat of my car.

Today I was able to see and speak with each of my children. I was able to kiss my three youngest grandchildren, and tell them I loved them. I had supper with my wife of 46 years, and took the dogs out for a walk. I then took a 40 minute walk around town myself.

Sometimes I gripe about the way things are going in this country, and in this world, but I am so…so very lucky. If I make it one more day, or 30 more years, I am so very lucky.

I am not rich in terms of dollars and cents. As a matter of fact I live from month to month. But I have plenty to eat, and my barky dog located home is paid for. And if that’s all I have to endure, I am so very lucky.

I am not a refugee from war. I don’t live in a terribly repressive country, though some would make it that way if they could. I do my best to not let them because I am lucky enough to live where I am able to do so. I can still get in my car and drive pretty much anywhere I want without being bothered, unless I break a law.

I could, if I wanted to, go to any house of worship in this country and I would not be kept out.

I am so lucky to have been born where I was born. Yes, sometimes I gripe about the way things are going, because I want my grandchildren to feel lucky too when they grow up.

Now, I don’t have all the answers, but neither do any of you other people out there. Together we might be able to put something out there that’s gonna last. Together. With compromise, and compassion, and conversation….other than all this name calling stuff. It serves no purpose.

I am so lucky, and if you are reading this now, so are most of you.

Let’s try a little love. Start with your family tomorrow like I did with mine today. Work your way out from there and mean it!

If you are a Christian, remember Jesus said to love your neighbor….but he also said to love your enemy. The common word is love.