18 days and counting…. I spent part of my afternoon with a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper’s family at Baylor Medical Center in Dallas. He was struck by an intoxicated driver early Sunday morning in Mesquite while placing another suspected drunk driver under arrest. The sprawling medical facility is overwhelming. It is just a huge hospital. I felt like a country bumpkin that had come to town as I entered “Parking Garage #5.” As the trooper recovers in the…
Processing personal criticism is not a favorite pastime for anyone. Critical comments are often delivered in an atmosphere of anger or frustration. Sometimes what is said is not very nice. And frequently it is not communicated in a very polite way! I am currently reading a fictional book that contains a lot of generational conflict in the plot. As I read through the plot, it just makes me cringe to see how easy it is for good people to misunderstand…
Excuse #1-These guys are all younger than me. That was a weak excuse, because it turned out not to be true. Excuse #2-My job does not entail knocking doors down or crawling through weed infested lots in the heat of the summer. Now the excuses are getting better! Excuse #3-When athletic ability was being distributed; the Lord took a break when I was being created. I really like that excuse. Blaming someone else for not being physically fit takes the…
I have the opportunity to serve crime victims on a regular basis. And that includes people that have lost someone who have been murdered. The depth of grief that such individuals experience is beyond my comprehension. All of us struggle to determine how we can best meet a grieving person’s needs in the aftermath of such a horrific event. By now many of you have read the story about the Southwest Airlines pilot who delayed takeoff as a way of…
It was a cold day in Chicago in 1968 when my father received a fateful call that would prove to be life changing for our family. My mother had no clue who the mystery caller was on the other line, but she overheard my dad say: “I am not married to The International Harvester Corporation.” That little comment unnerved her! He had been employed at International Harvester for 17 years at that point in their married life. But that was…
The first vehicle I bought with my “own money” was a 1979 Chevrolet Silverado. I was really proud of that truck. In an earlier post, I described Plains National Bank’s president, T.J. Wallace setting up a car loan for me that I was able to sign for with my own signature as an 18 year old kid! The pristine used truck did not have an 8 track player. It had the latest and greatest cassette tape player! I was so…
There is such a thing as a statute of limitations on certain crimes. When enough time has passed by, you can no longer be convicted of that particular infraction. But there is no statute of limitations on gratitude. As long as the person who needs to be appreciated is still alive and well, they can still be thanked. My father died rather suddenly when I was 15 years old. Such an event has a way of putting a teenager’s life…
“The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man while he lives.” -Albert Schweitzer You wake up one morning and realize that you are just going through motions of life. You go to work every morning. You take care of the children. You drop off your shirts at the dry cleaners to be pressed and your car at the repair shop for needed maintenance. You grab something for dinner on the way home and maybe even stop for an…
I read an interesting article today in which a man described seeing an Amish family at a museum. The Amish of course are known for living lives of extreme simplicity out of religious conviction. Some Amish sects do not use any kind of modern inventions like a car, or even a tractor for agricultural work. Their dress is characteristically simple. The movie Witness featuring Harrison Ford and Kelly McGillis gives some insight into the culture of the Amish. The man…
Is it mental illness? Is it the overly negative political atmosphere that our country finds itself in at the present time? I don’t know the answers to those questions as they relate to the recent shooting rampage by 22 year old Jared Loughner. I have a few theories, but that is what they are…theories. I would go as far to say that some of the political rhetoric in the aftermath of this tragedy is out of line. I am convinced…