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“AND HE NEVER SAID A MUMBLIN’ WORD”
Those of you who have been reading my essays over the years, know that spirituality is not a function, major or minor, in my life. But music that celebrates spirituality is something that I treasure. I treasure it for the music, not for the spirituality. I am fully aware that some people, perhaps most people,…
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MAYBE LILLIE WAS RIGHT ALL ALONG
The Lillie in the title of this essay is my mother, to whom you have been introduced before. Lillie was born in Pope County, Illinois on the banks of the Ohio River in a community called Lusk. It was not a town at all. It was simply a landing spot for the folks who traversed…
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DEFICITS DON’T MATTER – RICHARD CHENEY, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
If I were to eat a meal at a local restaurant and leave after the dessert course was served without paying, I am certain that the owners of the restaurant would be all over me before I reached the door. If I were to say to the owners in that case, “I have been reliably…
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DECISIONS
As we march through life, there are thousands of decisions that must be made. A high proportion of them are made by ourselves. At the same time, outside forces make many of the decisions for us. All things considered, I would like to have the decision-making made by myself but I know that is an…
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ON TYING ONE’S SHOES
I have been blind for more than six years and there are certain things that interest and amuse me. One of the facts that is of interest and amusement to me concerns tying my shoes. Sighted people have no trouble in performing this service. But non-sighted people have a bigger problem with tying their shoes.…
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KATHLEEN MAVOURNEEN: AN ADVENTURE STORY
During the 1930s and 40s, and perhaps a bit longer, there was a magnificent tenor who appeared in several productions of The Metropolitan Opera as well as in concerts. He also appeared on radio and later on television programs like The Bell Telephone Hour and The Firestone Hour. I was glad to tell people that…
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A THOUGHT OR TWO ABOUT TOM SCANDLYN
Somewhere in this batch of essays, there is one called “Old Age is a Disease.” That was a tribute to Hana Davis’s mother and to Howard Davis’s mother-in-law. As I noted at the end of that essay, I never had the opportunity to meet the author of those lines about old age being a disease. …
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GEORGIA
I am dictating these lines on the afternoon of February 14, which of course is St. Valentine’s Day. The object of this essay is to pay tribute to a lovely woman who has been my friend for perhaps 30 years. This essay has nothing to do with the state of Georgia in this country or…
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ANSWERING THE CALL
If my sources of news are correct, there will be a large meeting in Houston called by the Governor of Texas, Rick Perry. I gather that he has made arrangements to set aside a Saturday in August when he will conduct a national day of prayer. The most important element of the national day of…
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THE HONDA BUMP ENHANCER
About this time in 2009, it was decided that the 2001 Chrysler, which had given impeccable service over the years, should be traded. I used to think highly of my skills as a negotiator but in this case we ran into an implacable enemy. The implacable enemy was the salesman who sold us a new…