Influence requires investment. If you had to define leadership in one word, what better could you find than influence?Leaders effect change because leaders influence. Leaders achieve goals because leaders influence. Leaders are only leaders to the extent they influence. I remember bits of a sermon an evangelist passing through our little west Texas town preached…
The Dance of the Insane – or – The Direction of the Informed?
And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music. ~Friedrich Nietzsche I was in the house alone, except for my English Setters, Huck and Finn. I was lustily singing a Willie Nelson song to the plaintiff guitar strumming in my head. The dogs couldn’t hear…
To Trump or not to Trump | Decision 2016, a Christian’s quandary
To Trump or not to Trump? That is the question! It is also the most hotly debated social media topic among conservatives– particularly, CHRISTIAN conservatives“ right now. The Trump Tapes In the wake of the perfectly-timed release of the Trump tape from 11 years ago, on which he engaged in lewd and foul rhetoric and…
A Birthday New Year’s Resolution -or- 101 reasons to celebrate
What a week it’s been! I have 101 reasons to celebrate life right now. Last Friday, my baby girl got married to the love of her life and started that incredible journey called marriage. It was a beautiful wedding, well attended, and pulled off without a hitch. I had the privilege of preaching the charge…
It’s the Journey, Man! or, Welcome to Walley World, now go home
One of my favorite Hollywood comedies is National Lampoon’s Vacation. I love it because it is such an accurate caricature of life in the American familyand because most of us who have been around a minute can identify with the characters and their misfortunes. There is this epic journey to Walley World, with mishap after…
Lost in Translation | I Have a Dream (that needs an interpreter)
I need a Joseph or a Daniel to help me out here. I need a dream interpreted and I am willing to pay for it. Well, sort of. Last night I dreamed and this is how it went… Someone had died. I don’t now know whom it was, but in my dream, I must have…
The Journey Man: Celebrating seven years and change of not much
Today is nothing special…and that is a perfect reason to write this little bit of self-indulgence. I decided this morning over coffee to take a look back at my blogging journey. I discovered that I have been writing about sports, religion, family, faith, politics, and assorted othersubjects for more thanseven years. My very first blog…
Remember Franklin’s 13 Virtues | Make America Great Again
Donald Trump, the petulant presumed Republican candidate and the lesser of two evils, is campaigning on the slogan, “Make America Great Again.” That’s great. What is sad, however, is Trump’s idea of what made America great in the first place. I will tell you this much: It was not his brand of bombastic narcissism. It…
Brexit, Baby! Give me liberty or give me death!
“Love your neighbor, but put up a fence.” ~Russian proverb With the globalists stunned by the will of the British people to take control of their own lives again, there will be doomsday reports of a worldwide crash. Everything is falling apart. The American news agencies ABC, NBC, MSNBC, CNN, et al (aka, the media…
Unexceptional beginnings? Don’t stay where you started!
Ancestry.com is an exceptional tool for learning how unexceptional you really are. Likemost people around my age, I spend more time thinking about roots and origins and the “old times” than I did, say, 20 years ago. Can it, then,be a surprise that, when the opportunity to pop my family name into an Ancestry.com search…