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 family and 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…
Tag: Relationships
Hello, Spring and Happy Birthday, Dad
Dad didn’t pay much attention to his birthday, the way I remember it. Maybe that is because I was a kid most of his time on earth and kids figure birthdays are mostly for them and not so much the old folks. He’s been gone 25 years already. He would have been 76 today. It’s…
I, Tom Sawyer: The True Adventures of an American Youth | Part One: Billy Jack, Buford Pusser, and me
I grew up with a Bible in one hand and a copy of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in the other. If I had a third hand it would have held a football. A fourth would have had a baseball glove on it. A fifth and sixth would have clamped the handlebar grips of…
Everything all the time
I was spending some of Saturday’s rainy morning sorting through Amazon Prime, downloading “free” music, when I came across an album title that resonated with me. It is a Band of Horses album. It’s title? “Everything all the time.” And it got me thinking. We have created a world for ourselves and our progeny where we must fill…
Passersby: remembering not to forget those you met along the way
Arriving at the office before 8 AM, I am among the first in the BB&T building. The parking lot is empty, except for three or four vehicles strategically parked in the scant shady spots. The early bird gets the shade…and the windshield presents from careless birds. I’m alone on the elevator for the short ride to the…
The greatest love poem ever written, or How to say “I love you” so they won’t forget
Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote one of the most beautiful, transcendent, enduring love poems in all of human history: How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of being and ideal grace….
Some godly men I have known and you should meet
Yesterday, wonderful people from parts of our past stopped by on Facebook to congratulate Donya and me on 34 years of marriage. Just seeing some of the names afforded an opportunity to revisit those places where we left large chunks of our lives and pieces of our hearts. One of the notes was from Cathy…