This morning at work, I was given a stark reminder of how quickly things can change and how incredibly unsettling change can feel. We talk a lot about change, don’t we? The current president promised hope and change. Folks like me fail to see the hope, but we sure recognize the change. We talk about…
Tag: Life
The GreyBeard Chronicles: Welcome to Cube Gene
I recently welcomed to my cubicle a new inhabitant. I have now served as cube mate and mentor (do as I say, not as I do) to all three members of a trio of twenty-something friends. When this dawned on me and I pointed it out to the newcomer, he responded by calling my little…
Things I Ain’t
I ain’t never been nowhere I didn’t go to get there I ain’t never done a thing I didn’t do [br] I ain’t never spoke a word I didn’t think of And hardly thought a word I didn’t say [br] I ain’t never owned a thing I didn’t have I ain’t never prayed a prayer…
The Pessimist’s Version of the Old Adage
Have you ever been peppered by the well-meaning “old adage” as a means of getting you out of the mulligrubs? Maybe you are enjoying your mulligrubs. Maybe you don’t want to be cheered just yet. Maybe there is a cathartic element to grumpiness that some eternally annoying optimists will never understand. So, I reworked some…
The Greybeard Chronicles: Yesterday, When I was King— or, There is No Time Like the Present
It is the habit—and the prerogative—of those of us with silver in our hair to reminisce, to rubberneck, to relish (and embellish) past heroics. I have not pastored a church since 1997. I have not suited up for a game of organized football since 1979. The further I get from the things I “used to”…
2-4-23-38-46: Numbers that shall live in infamy
2-4-23-38-46, Mega Ball 23. If your Mega Millions ticket sported that combination last night, please know that you are loathed and envied all across the Fruited Plains and from sea to shining sea. Of course, if you just won a world record jackpot, you aren’t reading this little blog. So, never mind. What a crazy…
The Greybeard Chronicles: Why I said nothing at the moment of truth
What will you do when standing up means standing out? It is easy to talk tough until it is tough to talk. Everybody is ready to do something until something must be done. The reason we revere the founders of America is because they pledged everything their lives, their lands, their liberties for a…
What Do You Do When the Life has Gone Out of the Life of the Party?
Susanna Kim of ABC News has written a sad, sorry story about former NFL sensation Terrell Owens. Terrell Owens was despised by almost every fan of every team on which he did not play and by many on the teams on which he did. He was seen as selfish, self-centered, a Prima Donna. In…
Irony (or Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire)
I don’t miss you when we’re apart. I am just as well without you. I don’t need your approval. Your opinion doesn’t matter to me. You’re just another pretty face. There are plenty of fish in the sea. You aren’t the best thing about me. My every heartbeat doesn’t echo your name. I won’t love…
The Greybeard Chronicles| Christmas, 2011: Too Soon Past
Seven months and counting. That is how long I have been away from home now, working in Mobile, Alabama, doing my thing or, what passes for “my thing” until I can really do my thing. I came in May and now it is almost January. I would ask where the time went, but a…