Nature is full of surprises. Without trickery or manipulative devices, it can make a mockery of seeming impossibilities. * * * The ability to communicate is written in the genetic code of the universe. Who are we to say that weeds can’t talk? Ok, maybe it is a reach to say that all nature can …
The wisdom of the hourglass: Time is short, Opportunity is limited. Get to it. * * * An hourglass stands next to my morning coffee. Its redeeming function is to clear the mental cobwebs from my morning fog. It speaks without sound, far superior to the morning news of politicians spewing vitriolic voodoo on the …
“Hey if it wasn’t for bad luck y’all, Oh, I wouldn’t have no luck at all.” Ray Charles * * * I’ve been thinking about luck while sitting around listening to Ray Charles and icing an ancient knee inflamed from too much weed pulling. I’m having a conference with myself, the kind that leads nowhere …
Ossification: The process of hardening into bone or a state of being molded into a rigid, conventional, sterile or unimaginative condition. Webster * * * What you’re looking at above appears to be a fossilized leg bone of some long-departed creature. I picked it up while walking our hound dog on the beach. It lay …
“Kick’ em when they’re up, kick ‘em when they’re down, we need dirty laundry.” Don Henley * * * It’s a dirty, grimy world out there. Plenty of dirt to go around. Nobody misses out. People sling it every day. Touch anything, touch anybody, verbally or physically, dirty laundry. Detachment avoids contamination. Back off six …
“A coward dies a thousand deaths, a hero only one.” * * * Outside the thunder rolled. Mighty winds roared. Sheets of lightning, like brilliant strobes of light, intermittently blasted the gloom, exposing the horror of darkness gathered above. It was an ominous and savage scene. Caught unawares, we bolted and ran for cover to …
Newspapers are on life support. They’d die without coupon-saving inserts. Who wants to read the news anyway? No, we’re Americans. We shop. Here’s my experience with coupons. * * * It’s Saturday morning. It’s raining. Rain begets boredom. Boredom begets the urge to shop. My wife’s reading the coupon inserts…savings galore. I know what she’s …
It’s Sunday. The sun shines. A beach day. I skip church but do the next best thing—read Scripture, looking for loopholes to justify backsliding and atone for secret sins. * * * You know the drill. Close your eyes, open the Bible, blindly point your index finger to a spot and then peek. Miraculously, Providence …
Iconoclast: A wrecker of idols, a mocker of tradition and a scorner of conventional wisdom. Are you one? * * * We’re living in strange and troubling times. Maybe it’s the brutal heat that has tempers aflame. Something has lit the match, for sure. The national mood has been turning ugly lately, maybe a reflection …
“(And) they say he got crazy once and tried to touch the sun, and he lost a friend but kept the memory’ John Denver lyrics. Dog Days is such a time. * * * On our island we know when Dog Days arrive. Nerves get on edge; tempers flare, cordiality is short and testy. We …