Year: 2021

Just Plain Luck

“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 …

The Ossified Bone

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 …

Dirty Laundry

“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 …

Running for Cover

“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 …

The Finger of Blame

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 …

Counting Days and Pennies

Will our pennies last till the end? An oxymoronic question asked by a moron. *** Who can deny we’ve had too much idle time on our hands lately? Idle time stirs up mental demons that stoke the fires of our fears. I’m reminded of the Scriptural advice of numbering our days and applying ourselves to …

Fireworks & Freedom

“And it shall come to pass afterward, I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions…”  Joel 2:28 *  *  * What we have here is a minor 9th Century BC prophet projecting his prognostication …