Category: Uncategorized

Frederick Douglas provided a great statement on individualism after the Civil War was over in explanation to his former master: “I have often thought I should like to explain to you the grounds upon which I have justified myself in running away from you,” wrote Douglass. “I am almost ashamed to do so now, for by this time you may have discovered them yourself. I will, however, glance at them.” You see, said Douglass,

I am myself; you are yourself; we are two distinct persons, equal persons. What you are, I am. You are a man, and so am I. God created both, and made us separate beings. I am not by nature bound to you, or you to me. Nature does not make your existence depend upon me, or mine to depend upon yours. I cannot walk upon your legs, or you upon mine. I cannot breathe for you, or you for me; I must breathe for myself, and you for yourself. We are distinct persons, and are each equally provided with faculties necessary to our individual existence. In leaving you, I took nothing but what belonged to me, and in no way lessened your means for obtaining an honest living. Your faculties remained yours, and mine became useful to their rightful owner.”

My own opinion is that In being “free thinkers” we must also be fiercely protective of the rights of the individual. While we must all depend upon each other to some extent, we have to be careful not to go too far. We give over too much now in the way of our individual thinking to the collective “aura” of those who control us through money.

Everytime I hear the national anthem, I still get chill bumbs and tears still fill my eyes. When I see the flag of my country flying high from a flagpole, I am so proud to be an American. I hate to see it abused, I have reported municipalities and schools in the past for not taking down the flag and taking care of it. I also, cried like a baby when Johnny Cash sang “Ragged Old Flag” before the not so “Super Bowl” a few days back.

Most of my ancestors have been in this country since the earliest of early times. I have half a dozen who fought in the Revolutionary War, and a dozen who fought in the Civil War. I have Native American ancestors by the dozens also. My roots go very deeply in this beloved soil we call America…and I call my home.

My Daddy fought in World War II and Korea…and went into the fog soup of radiation on a Navy ship right after they tested the Atomic bomb at Enewetak atoll in 1946. I’m certain part of his health problems later in life were due to this, but he never got a dime. He never asked.

I grew up with many of you who are my Facebook friends. We were close in Trion. Most of our experiences were practically the same. We had the same teachers, the same “mill town” environment, where most of our Daddy’s and Momma’s worked their rears off in the cotton mill to raise us kids. To give use things they never were able to have during their depression years of growing up.

I graduated with many of you, I have worked with some of you over the years. I went to college with some of you. Some of you I have never met, except through Facebook.

I have been a religious man over the years. I was baptized when I was 8 years old, in a Southern Baptist Church. I spent 52 years as a member, including 12 years as a deacon. I became disillusioned about 6 years ago and now keep my own peace…but I respect the beliefs of everyone, as long as their beliefs are peaceful.

I have hunted, with bow and with gun. I have fished the rivers and the lakes…the streams and the creeks of this wonderful country.

I don’t care how many guns you own, as long as you are careful with what you got…and you know you are responsible for how they are used.

I don’t personally believe in abortion. I would counsel any family member or friend who comes to me against it. However, I do not believe it is my responsibility to tell other people what they should or should not do. (see three paragraphs back)

I’m an opinionated man. Anybody who knows me well, knows that. My opinions are not shared by a lot of people. I know that. For many years, it has been much easier to keep my own counsel concerning things I believe and don’t believe, and how I believe. With the coming of “social media” it has become harder and harder to actual have opinions, and have them ON “social media” without it causing hatred, hard feelings, name calling, and other myriad of bad things. Things which cause emotional and physical reactions, which a man with my problems doesn’t need. It’s hard for me to not make comments and share my opinions. It’s almost impossible for me really. I think it goes back to the old “blank page” syndrome for me….in which if I open Facebook and start reading stuff I just have a compulsion to open my mouth and say something….or write something on my timeline….my own “blank page”

Some of it may be the chance to finally have somebody “like” what you write….but unfortunately also have many “hate” what you write…as it pertains to politics, and perhaps also as it pertains to religion. I’ve tried keeping it mostly to photograhy which I love..but which I’m not that great at, and also some “homey” writing…which I also like to do, but which is mediocre for the most part.

I have said all of this, and have come this far with this post just to say that in my condition as a human being it’s in my best interest to stay disconnected for a while, think things over, and see what happens from there. There are a lot of things I am not happy with that are going on, and one of them is me. My attitude, my feelings, my need to gain more empathy and understanding for others.

There are many who are so unreachable in the security of their opinions and beliefs, as to never be able to be persuaded by either reason or love…by compromise or negotiation, by anger or pathos, that we humans, we Americans, have so much more in common than we have different. We cannot see past our bias and our ignorance to realize that once…we liked each other, perhaps once we even loved each other, but we let it slip away and we let it go just because we HAD to be the one who was right.

I don’t have to be right all the time. Neither do any of you people. If we just realize that, then perhaps we could see a little more peace in this lifetime.

I have to say that I have not, nor will I give up on the spiritual, mystical, unexplainable, mysterious,sacred or intangible aspects of the mind or the Universe. I respect the viewpoint of any and all people towards these things, and towards the furthering of their relationships with these things by any means.

The many years I have spent thinking on life and the condition of life, and what might exist after life, has brought me to the conclusion that any or all of us may be right or wrong. I think we need to all realize that, and quit trying to lead people towards things they do not want to go towards. If someone disagrees with you…go on about your life and leave them to theirs. Honor, love and respect others.

Do this, and we all will change and move on towards a better world.

Some viruses have really unexpected side effects…besides the obvious. I had the nasty new norovirus over the past 24 hours. My Lord… if you have not had it…you don’t want it, and if you have…I feel your pain. I think I went to “sleep” about 9 o’clock last night…but my brain was doing some really weird things. I’ve been reading some novels in the Fantasy genre lately and early into my “sleep” last night I dreamed an entire set up for a novel, complete with characters, story line, etc. It was a good novel too! My brain then went through the entire novel and edited it for publication. I’m not talking about some nebulous half woozy idea…it was complete! I only wish I could remember it now. Unfortunately, it’s “Gone with the Wind” I also had some dreams of a technical nature, which include math I have never known..and wouldn’t be able to do on a “normal” day. I’m awful at math. These dreams had something to do with coming up with computer programs to protect against…of all things…viruses!

There were other weird things going on also…pretty much all night long. It makes me wonder if there shouldn’t be some scientific research going on about the effects of new viruses on the human brain. I need to check in with all those folks who have been getting sick on the cruise ships lately and see if they had any of the same symptoms. Our brains are about as fully explored as the oceans which surround us. We just think we understand and know about what’s going on. We don’t.

The Last Stopover

This is my last stopover, before I move along.

I just dropped in here for a few lovely years,

To see what was going on.

In the end, the stars and the Universe will be my final home.

I just dropped in here for a few lovely years, and

Soon I will be gone.

Just got back in from taking the dogs out for the last time tonight. I like the little old weenie dogs, but sometimes my mind wanders back over the years to the first dog I ever owned…or who owned me…old Bullet:

One Saturday when I was about four years old, Daddy brought home a cardboard box with something in it, stirring around and scratching, and making whining noises. Ol’ Bullet had arrived!

Ol’ Bullet was my first dog, a half-German Shepherd, half Collie mixed breed which my Dad had gotten from the Kellets. The Kellets were farm owners who supplied us with “whole” milk and fresh eggs. “Whole” milk being defined as that milk coming directly from the cow’s teat into a shiny metal bucket, and from the bucket into a thoroughly washed and cleaned glass milk jug, without being pasteurized. Fresh eggs were those which had only that morning been up the hen’s rear end. At that time some people, including my folks, still thought these kinds of farm fresh goods were better for young growing bones. You could also work out a trade with the Kellets. (Try going to Walmart and asking to trade something for a jug of milk. I don’t think they would even know what to say.) Although I think there may have been some kind of law against selling it that way, the government didn’t have a big enough bureaucracy back then to check everything like that out. Back then, I don’t think the IRS even had a dozen people working for them. At least it didn’t seem like it.

I think all those fresh things are making a comeback nowadays, although there is some controversy about the milk….I have a cute little girl who brings me a dozen pretty brown eggs a week!

Me and Bullet took to each other like green to grass. Every time I hit the door, Bullet was faithfully waiting. He quickly learned the parameters of our yard, and it became his territory. He instinctively knew from our attitudes toward people who belonged at our house, and who didn’t. If you didn’t belong there, Bullet would give you one warning in the form of a low growl, and bared teeth. If you didn’t heed this warning, you had better be faster than a speeding bullet! Needless to say, we didn’t have to worry about anything being stolen from our yard or our house with Bullet around.

We had only had Bullet for a little over a year. I think it was one of the best years of my life. One day when I went outside to play with him, Bullet was acting strange. He could barely move, and he crawled over to where I sat on the back steps, and put his head on my leg. “C’mon Bullet, let’s go boy,” I encouraged.

But Bullet could barely raise his head. He wouldn’t eat or drink anything. Finally he got so sick he couldn’t move at all, and Daddy rushed him to the only veterinarian in the county. The Vet told Daddy somebody had fed Bullet rat poison in with some food he had eaten. He would have to be put to sleep to keep him from suffering. I can still remember how I felt when I got the news. I couldn’t breathe, nor could I utter a word. It was as if some giant, choking hand was stuck deep in my chest squeezing my heart like a vise. Finally when that little heart couldn’t take it anymore, it broke in half, and the tears started spilling out of my eyes, like water over Niagara Falls. Why did Ol’ Bullet have to die? Who would do such a thing?

We never found out who poisoned Ol’ Bullet. I am certain of one thing, however, and it is this: neither God nor Providence like people who would poison a little boy’s pet! He might forgive them, but somewhere down the road, somehow, they will have to pay for what they did. I still believe that.

The internet is loaded with “pot calling kettle black” comments. To me, this shows two things. The impulsiveness of knee jerk reactions to things which are heard or seen on social media or TV, and the lack of the discipline necessary to get to the real bottom of a story, to search out the real facts before making assumptions and comments which cause other people pain, make them angry for no good reason, or continue to spread a false narrative.

Social media continues to be the out of control bus careening down the road and smashing randomly into both the innocent and the evil.

How many of us remember rocking out to “RESPECT” by Aretha Franklin?

Ah..yeah, c’mon now, raise your hand. Yea, I thought so. Almost everybody.

It turns out that respect is one of the most basic things for which humanity is looking, and a basic thing which is lacking. We all want it, but often refuse to give it. Respect often just equates with common courtesy, something which seems to be have become a totally forgotten relic of the past. Holding doors open for people. Helping elderly folks carry heavy packages to their car. Little things which we used to do. Things I don’t see anymore…at least not as much anyway. I see so many people now walking with their heads down to the ground…never looking up, either lost in their own little world or afraid to interact in anyone else’s. Mostly gone are the days when people walked up to you with a friendly smile and a hello, or with their hands extended to shake yours. What happened to us?

Have you ever cut off anybody wanting to get in front of you in a lane you are riding in, when you really and truly had time to let them in? You just mumbled ‘screw you’ and acted like you didn’t see them? Be honest now. How about a little respect?

Have you trash talked or bad mouthed one of your children using words that would shame a Texas rodeo rider? Bad. How about a little respect? (Has your kid talked to YOU this way? How about a little discipline for them to teach them some respect? Maybe a butt warming would do them some good. I never saw any harm in using butt warnings with my kids, and nary a one of them are sociopaths)

Have you passed somebody you knew at Wal-Mart, or any other local shopping conglomeration and just ignored them, or simply turned down another aisle cause you didn’t want to run into them and have a thirty second or minute “howdy how are ya” conversation? How about a little respect? (the law of “random righteousness” will have those people you are trying to get away from, turn down the the aisle you turned down to get away from them, so you’ll run into them anyway!)

Have you left the toilet seat down (or up)

Have you forgotten to say “please” and “thank you?”

Did you ever KNOW to say them?

Did you teach your children to say them?

Respect is also a silent thing many times too. We can respect others through silence. If we keep our thoughts as thoughts and do not vocalize them, sometimes that turns out to be the greatest respect of all. If we keep our fingers off the keyboard and don’t put it up on the “board” for all the world to see that can be a measure of great respect.

Do you think of someone’s feelings before you post something on line which may or may not pertain to them? Do you consider the fallout?

Have you whispered a silent prayer for someone who needs it…or if you are not religious just think of them positively, and hope for the best for them? Call it what you will…prayers, positive thoughts…I believe they help. I believe they are guided towards the person at whom you are aiming them. I am a skeptical person, but I am human. I pray….I hope.

I will admit to not having enough respect for people sometimes. I sincerely apologize to anyone who has been on the receiving end of that lack on my part…including some of the above named examples.

How ‘bout a little respect? Aretha would love ya’ and other people probably will too.

Paula and I are sitting around listening to sixties and early seventies music today instead of watcing TV, and it’s quite enlightening. I cannot understand how it is that I can’t remember which drawer I put my socks in, but can remember every word of practically every song this station is playing.

I think the difference is that for most of these songs, I have a very vivid memory attached. “Saturday in the Park” …and I am remembering singing this song in August of 1972, when a certain baby girl was born. Joyous memory…Kirsten Brown

Then there are some which have brought tears to my eyes. We used to have performances at school at Trion, and when I listen to “Puff the Magic Dragon” by Peter, Paul and Mary, I remember a little High School group who performed this song on stage, composed of two brothers…the Myer’s boys, and a young lady named Susan Cavin. It is bittersweet because two of the three of these wonderful people are now gone…

There are many of these oldies which take me back…it’s wonderful and sad at the same time. How can that be?? Then…they throw in a Taylor Swift song called “Never Grow Up” and that one makes me cry to because of another certain little girl I love so much, and it being her “theme song” Auttie Bowers. I saw a photo of her in a red prom dress today for Senior prom and…..well…..I gotta quit writing now.

I hope you understand……

When you walk to the river, you see the ground beneath you teeming with life. The air you breathe is free to you, and you may gulp it in at your leisure.

And the crows up in the clouds, a hundred at the least, circle around you cawing either their indignation or admiration. Perhaps their acceptance, because they recognize that you are a creature of nature also….

And not it’s master.

…walking on Wednesday…