Words To Live By

About three years ago, when my wife heard that a young friend had received a speeding ticket, she recorded some of her own traumatic experiences with policemen. Perhaps you can identify.

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My first time to be stopped by a policeman was when I was 19 and dating James. We had broken up (again), and I was [...]

"I couldn't go hunting this year because of work and school. But in May, that problem will be solved, though I never really expected to graduate." So reported the young cashier with marked enthusiasm.

Upon reflection, there are many things I never expected to see either. And three graduations–high school, college and graduate school–are among them. [...]

Why do great men often have simple, understated obituaries summing up their lives? Perhaps because their works speak for themselves without flowery embellishments. Such was the case with Roy Chatham.

Consider several snippets from his obituary.

“His church ministry was in education, youth and music in Oklahoma, Missouri, Tennessee and Florida, as well as Arkansas, where he [...]

The outside air crackles with the first autumn crispness, and we're confined to chemotherapy treatments in the doctor's office. But the words of a song–my favorite–lilting through my mind transports me beyond these sobering confines.

I'm certainly no embracer of favorites: colors, foods and such. But I do have a favorite song.

No, it's not the latest [...]

Glancing over the right arm of my recliner, what confronts me? Books. Not neat, precise, manageable stacks–but a landslide flinging itself beyond me in ever-increasing sprawl.

I wish that I could justify slovenliness and that my wife didn't have to occasionally remind me to "straighten up my nest." Plunging cats that scatter books like ninepins don't [...]

"What did Sherlock Holmes say?" she anxiously asks, befuddled by Jeremy Brett's decidedly clipped but authentic British accent. "Back it up a bit," I reply, failing to have grasped his words myself. So she begins furiously stabbing buttons on one of several devices beside her–but the action does not stop. Then I decipher the problem [...]

Just last month I painfully, reluctantly forged my latest alliance in a four-decade string of relationships. I bought a new vacuum cleaner.
After Mary and I married in 1967, the linoleum, wood and flattish commercial carpet in our first few apartments responded well to the old-fashioned broom. In 1968, however, swankier quarters with plush carpet cried [...]

An old friend rescued me from a bit of a jam last week. He's one of an elite group I've come to count on for more than four decades now.

I happened when a young river birch I had planted fell flat in a driving rain. Tying it into an upright position immediately, rain or not, [...]

An old friend rescued me from a bit of a jam last week. He’s one of an elite group I’ve come to count on for more than four decades now.
I happened when a young river birch I had planted fell flat in a driving rain. Tying it into an upright position immediately, rain or [...]