Just a Thought

You know you're getting smarter but you realize who much you don't know.

Memorial Day Thoughts

I stand at the front of the line to commemorate and pay homage to those who have given the ultimate sacrifice as defenders of our country. But I also grieve to the bone over the millions of lives that have been lost by our country and those of all those with whom we have engaged in war. What a horrible commentary on the human race.

In Memory of Our Fallen Troops

The Nation Which Forgets Its Defenders Will Itself Be Forgotten.

Words of Wisdom from Coach John Wooden

"Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are."

Mistakes

Wouldn't it be good if we could sell our mistakes for what they cost us?

Recovering From Broken Dreams

For nearly half a century, I have listened to an untold number of broken dreams, shattered lives, and sometimes unutterable life stories. At one and the same time, I am often appalled but never surprised at the tragic– much worse than any soap opera– horrific experiences of the human race. Yet, I am equally awe-struck by the resiliency and regenerative powers of so many to keep on keeping on in the face of such insufferable pain.

Excerpt from my new book-- to be released next month.

Taking Risks

You can't make a three-point shot from under the net. ~ Steven Tyler

Experience

Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

Rapture Afterthought

All the hype about the second coming, just reminded me of the irony of heaven. Everybody exalts it but nobody wants to go there-- now.

Rapture Story From Long Ago

Well, I'm off the bike and the roads looked about like normal. So, maybe the time zone was the problem.

As promised, here's a rapture story from long ago.

After a couple of years in the ministry in South Georgia, I had a lot of contact from other churches but the ones that wanted me did not interest me and the ones I was interested in were not interested in me. It's very much like high school and college dating.

After about 5 years in Georgia (we stayed ten) the University Baptist Church of Coral Gables, FL showed a lot of interest. The church was very close to the old Orange Bowl and the University of Miami. My strength at that time was working with youth and young adults so those factors contributed to my interest in that church. According to the chairman they were very impressed with my focus on youth, young adults, and broken families-- getting divorced people back in church, etc. which in those days was not an easy task.

They came to hear me preach a couple of times and pursued me hard enough that I flew down and spoke in a neutral church so a larger number of their key people could hear me, etc. I met a couple of times with the Pastor Selection Committe and I talked at length with the chairman and we hit it off real well. I was beginning to get very interested as was Marth except it was even further from our roots-- little did she or I know that a few years later we'd be moving to CA.

Anyway, we were getting down to crunch time and I flew back down for another preaching engagement and a full afternoon of talking with the ten members of the pastor selection committee. This is the time when they throw numerous questions at you about everything imaginable-- Biblically, theologically, and a lot of personal stuff-- exactly (except for content) like a job interview for an executive position.

The meeting had gone extremely well with some very serious stuff and some humor-- it was me, right! (And you also need to remember that in those days, I could sometimes be a smart-ass and as I'm now much older, I'm even worse.) Near the end of the meeting one of the committee members said, "There's an area we haven't covered. What is your position on The Second Coming?" My reply right off the cuff was, "I'm for it." Several members laughed and the chairman said, "I like that."

But the guy wasn't amused and retored, "What do you mean by that?" I said, "Well, I just believe that the one who started this whole thing can stop it anytime and it's fine with me." Looking stunned and strained, he replied with a slightly raised voice "But I want to know your position-- do you believe in pre-millennialism, post-millennialism, or a-millennialism." His tone didn't sit well with me to say the least. And the chairman could tell it, and he was squirming and trying to turn the ship and he said, "I think I'm for it, too." Others members laughed a one or two said, that's a tough subject so his reply sounds good to me, too.

The guy was not finished and he said, "What do you preach about the second comng?" Now, I really got smart-assed. "Well I haven't gotten around to preaching on the Second Coming, yet, not sure I ever will." He replied, "Why!" And I lite into him with a little arrogance to test is knowledge. "Well, I do a lot of preaching on ellipis, pistis, and agape and very little on eschatology and teleology." I got the reply I wanted, "What does all that mean?" I said, "That translates faith, hope, and love. That's what I preach on. I'm a lot more interested in the nasty hear and now than I am the sweet bye and bye. Furthemore, I've never had a church member to come to my office asking about the rapture, or the end of time, or my beliefs on such. What I do have coming to my office are people dealing with their kids on drugs, their spouses wanting a divorce, their grief over the loss of a loved one, the guilt over cheating in their marriages, and others trying to figure out what to do with their lives. So that being what my congregation is living with, that's what I preach on." The chairman said "I like that." And the others did also. The meeting closed and I flew back to Georgia.

Later that night, I got a call from the chairman, who said, "I am heart sick. Nine members of our committee is 100% in favor of offering you "a call." There's only one problem, we have a rule that we will not call anyone without 100% of our members being in favor. And the guy you would expect voted against you." I said, "Well, Mr. chairman, in my humble opinion, your first mistake was having that 100% rule. But don't let it bother you, if he was that upset with my answers about the Second Coming, he would really be upset with me after about a month or two. So, it's better that we nip this in the bud."

And that was the end of the possibility of us moving to Miami, FL somewhere around 1974. Five years later, we moved to Burlingame, CA for eight terrific years.

If you stayed with me through this whole thing, I thank you. If you didn't I don't blame you!


dd

Repture Observations

I'm riding the bike today and will probably be on it about Rapture Time. So, here are a few observations:

1. I don't believe in it.

2. I don't expect to be "in the rapture" now or later.

3. If I see very few people on the road, I'll know I was wrong and right.

4. When I return tonight, for those of you who are still around, I'll tell a rapture story from long ago.

EDUCATION

If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.

The Paradox of TIME

Time is a great teacher, unfortunately, it kills all its students.

"Who, Who, Who Are You?"

The hardest battle in life is to be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you like everybody else.

Simple but Profound

You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing.
Bob Dylan

PERKS FOR BEING OVER 60

1. Kidnappers are not very interested in you.
2. In a hostage situation you are likely to be released first.
3. No one expects you to run-- anywhere.
4. People no longer view you as a hypochondriac.
5. There is nothing left to learn the hard way.
6. Things you buy now won't wear out.
7. Your secrets are safe with friends because they can't remember them either.
8. Your joints are more accurate forecasters than the national weather service.
9. You can sing along with elevator music.
10.You can live without sex but not your glasses.

Words from Charles Darwin

The highest possible stage in moral culture is when we recognize that we ought to control our thoughts.

It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.

We must, however, acknowledge as it seems to me, that a man with all his noble qualities...still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin.

More Funny Bones

I'm tired of losing my mind and trying to find it.

Amy Cochran

Lost and Looking?

Many people who come to see me for intensive therapy totally identify with this song. Written by Bono and released by U2 in 1987, it's still extremely relevant. After reading the lyrics, check out YouTube and listen to this haunting search for purpose and passion in life.

I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

I have climbed highest mountains
I have run through the fields
Only to be with you
Only to be with you

I have run
I have crawled
I have scaled these city walls
These city walls
Only to be with you
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for

I have kissed honey lips
Felt the healing in her fingertips
It burned like fire
This burning desire

I have spoke with the tongue of angels
I have held the hand of a devil
It was warm in the night
I was cold as a stone
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for

I believe in the kingdom come
Then all the colors will bleed into one
Bleed into one
Well yes I'm still running

You broke the bonds and you
Loosed the chains
Carried the cross
Of my shame
Of my shame
You know I believed it
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for...

A Tribue to My Mother

My 88-year-old mother is the most naturally optimistic person I have ever known. She would have no idea what you are talking about if you said she was a proponent of the power of positive thinking– she just lives it. One example illustrates my point. No matter the weather, she enjoys it. Good morning, I will say, how are things this fall morning? Well, I’m just loving watching the leaves fall. Or, there’s a nice gentle rain falling and we need it. Or, The sky is the bluest I’ve ever seen– just beautiful. If it’s snowing, she’s ecstatic, It’s snowing and I just love it. And I’m going out to get some snow to make snow cream.

These are minor issues for sure, but she’s that way about nearly everything. She plays the cards that are dealt her and she gets through the territory without whimpering, complaining, or making foolish choices. Oh, I forgot to mention, she’s dealt with colon cancer, kidney cancer, and breast cancer, including chemotherapy.

On the following day after her last chemo treatment, she was ready to get her life back. So, she got out on the property to do some walking and slipped on the morning dew and broke her ankle that was almost a compound fracture. There was a bright blood spot big as a quarter right on the surface of her ankle with the bone just underneath. She wasn’t found for well over an hour. Surgery followed and she wore a cast for several weeks. Did all of that keep her down and depressed? Nope. She even went to a grandson’s wedding in a beautiful dress with a cast that came up to just below her knee. All of these problems came in a period of about two years– all of which was nearly twenty years ago.

No matter the circumstances, if you ask how she’s doing, her reply is always the same, I think I’m a little better, which I’ve told her for years is going to be the epitaph on her grave stone. I Think I’m a Little Better

*****

Excerpt from my new book-- Don't Ever Top Believing... The Best is Yet to Come-- to be released in early July.

Operation Enough Already About My Ride (after this one for sure.)

Origin of "The Dream Ride"

In January of 1988, with ten inches of snow on the ground, Martha and Jerry Wagley were having dinner with us. All of us were in our late 40's, and the conversation got around to things we had not done that we still wanted to do, achieve, or accomplish before cashing in our chips. Between us, there were some very honest, open, and vulnerable answers. One of my answers: Well, it’s not on the top of my list but one thing I still want to do is ride cross-country on a motorcycle. Jerry replied, When do you want to go? That is when the dream began again.

Along with Jerry as my riding buddy-- "Don't call me Bud"-- we’ve ridden the mountain states, Nova Scotia, Key West, Pensacola, Hilton Head, the entire length of The Natchez Trace Parkway, and numerous other rides of 250 miles or so. Then beginning April 9, we did the B.A.R– 6514 miles, as all of you have heard repeatedly!

Enhancing a dream that began in the summer of 1955 when I was 13 years old, and reignited in the winter of 1988 with a foot of snow on the ground, the dream has now officially become a reality. The slogan for our big ride of 2011 fit me to a T. Four Wheels Move the Body, Two Wheels Move the Soul.
So, here's a summation of the trip. It was for sure, the Ride of a Lifetime, with a 1000 awesome sights, some beautiful, some inspirational, some unbelievable, and some scary. Southern Utah blew us both away. Except for the mountain ride above the Pacific, Southern Utah was by far the most spectacular inland sights of all. I made several pictures in The Arches National Park at Moab, but after looking at them, they just did not and could not capture the vastness of an area that is 300 million years old. I'll try sending a few along so you can at least "get the picture."

Now, the other part. There were several days that we absolutely terrible, frightening, and for sure majorly challenging. We miscalculated the weather. Those folks in Eastern OR, ID, UT, and CO were still having winter- snow, rain, and cross-winds of 30-40 mph. At one point, we actually talked about renting a U-Haul truck and driving to Albuquerque but checking the forecast, they were having the same weather there, too. So, we just headed South as fast we could to get ahead of a snow storm that was just a few hours behind us. There were three places that set a low temperture reading for that day in April.

Yet, here's the "deep thoughts" part of this diatribe. There never was a day that we did not experience something really spectacular which verifies the maxim, Not everyday is a good day, but there's something good in everyday. Another verification of an old insight-- the parts of any trip that sometimes are the most memorable and most fun to tell, are those when things were not going well. As long as you keep the good and the bad in the right perspective, life is good, the USA is awesome, so please don't let me die until I'm dead. Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in one pretty and well preserved piece, but to skid across the line broadside, thoroughly used up, worn out, leaking oil, shouting GERONIMO!

Now, let me tell you about Jerry Wagley. In the fall of 1959-- somewhere I guess around say, August 15, with fear and trembling, I walked through the "Fraternity Rush Line" of Kappa Alpha Order at what was then MSU-- Memphis State U. Whereupon I shook hands with a guy named Jerry Wagley. From the get-go, we became fast friends-- fraternity brothers, room mates, sworn into the navy at the same time, and became naval officers within four months of each other. We don't shake hands anymore-- haven't for years-- we hug. So, come August, we will have been friends for 52 years! This again, is a life lesson about the mystery of life, which I love and celebrate, the unexplainable laws of coincidence, and the mind-boggling laws of probability-- better stated the laws of IM-probability.

Here's the funny part-- no two men could be any different than the two of us. Jerry is as quiet as I am loud, as calm as I am animated. He's totally organized, I'm very disorganized. He can return to a town and street that he visited 25 years ago without looking at a map, I could get lost in a round room with one door. He always operates between the borders (speed limits and such) I cross the border every chance I get. He's only had one speeding ticket in his life and I've filled up a shoe box. I've never seen him rattled-- he saw me have more than one "come apart" on this trip. In all these years, we've never had a real conflict-- except the time I put a disected cat from biology lab in our apartment sink.

Even on bike trips, none of his clothing is ever out of place, wrinkled, or shabby-- mine? Well, you get the picture. I tell numerous stories (and some of you are saying "what?") Jerry listens to my stories and the ones that are repeated over and over and never tells me "I've heard that one four times". We do have a hand signal he can flash to say "heard it." I'm sure I told 100 stories and that was before we got through Texas. When the four of us are together, he is the odd man out because both of our wives are talkers and story tellers, too, and he is the quiet one. But on our bike trips, he has to talk more because I get exhausted talking and need a breather. (Martha Wagley, you would be shocked!)

I could go on and on about the differences in our personalities but the question is how can two men who are so different be such great friends for 52 years? One word is at the top-- respect, loyalty, trust, and love-- I know that's more than one word but I'm verbose, too. And we have nearly the same life-view, values, political persuasion, and mostly religious views-- and that's pretty rare in Memphis, TN!

On this ride, Jerry was the pilot and navigator which with my ailments-- asthma, allergies, and arthritis-- the big three-- all I had to do was follow him at the exact speed limit, of course, and just enjoy the journey, which I did. I started out calling him Captain and me The Tailgunner, but since we never had any hostile fire from the rear, I was really more of the Caboose. I had several difficult health problems on this trip and I know he was very concerned about getting me back to the Bluff City in one piece. And he did.

Jerry Wagley is a good man, a good husband, a good father, a good grandfather, and my very good friend.

And that's it for sending emails about the trip... which you probably doubt.

dd