Just in case someone is counting, this is the 289th blog I have posted to this site. That is a lot of blogging. More blogging than I ever intended to do for sure. I’m not sure how long it will last. I guess as long as I am able and I have something to blog about.
As I have already mentioned here I started this site to put some things in print for my kids and grandkids to read one day when I am gone. Hopefully I will still be getting traction in their lives after I am long gone. I have written a book and there are numerous recordings of my talks. And now there are 289 articles and counting. Not sure what I will leave to them materially but I’m getting the feeling that what is written here may be the most valuable gift they receive. For that reason alone I keep writing.
What I haven’t published here (and won’t) is the final chapter to my family. Whether you realize it or not there is method to the madness of these blogs. I’m sure most of you read each article by itself. Sometimes you laugh and maybe sometimes you think. And maybe sometimes you even have a tear or two. And sometimes you wonder why I wrote what I wrote and truthfully cannot believe what I wrote. But I am purposely weaving a life message throughout all the articles.
It is a message about my own imperfections, about family, about people, about relationships, about memories and about faith. I have some lifelong friends who will be my friends until the day I die. And I have met a ton of folks as I have traveled all over the place. From hotel clerks to waiters and waitresses to office managers to undertakers to flight attendants to taxi drivers to bosses to those who work with me to people standing in line with me. I ask purpose questions and you would not believe how eager people are to tell their story. I always try to ask a question behind the question. I try to peel the onion so to speak. I figure I have to get past the outer shell to get their story. As I have listened to their story many times the door opens for me to share some important truths I have learned about life. Or at least tell them a funny related story. Amazing how many doors open for some interesting conversations. And how many of the conversations turn into later emails. And all of a sudden a relationship is built. And then the sky is the limit as to the possibilities.
But you will also notice I go back in time a lot. That’s on purpose too. As I have already mentioned previously, I learned most everything I needed to know about life in Reynolds, GA and in the first 18 years of my life. There is nobody that presses on anymore than I do (I hope you have noticed) and I understand the principle that you cannot plow straight if you are looking behind you. But there is so much about my life in my incredible past that guides me as I go forward. And I want my children and their children to have the same benefit I did.
And the comments and emails I have received from the readers here have been nothing short of incredible. So it has become very neat for me to open my life up for the blog world to see.
I guess in peeling back the onion as I relate to others, I am peeling my own onion.
And the way I figure it that has to be a healthy thing.
2 comments:
I feel so bless to have grown up in Reynolds also. I learn so much from so many people. I, like you had very loving, caring and hard working parents who taught me so much.
I learn from your dad and my Uncle Cecil that a good pratical joke could be fun and loving and not destructive. Dr. Whatley always had a new vocabulary word. Some of them I have never and will never use. You also learned at an early age that everyone in Reynolds was family. When something happen to one it happened to everyone. That is the one thing that I miss the most.
I don't miss driving 30 or 40 miles to go out to dinner or to go shopping. I think that I now have the best of both worlds right here in Warner Robins. I can even decided at midnight that I want to bake a cake and there is a store open to get what I need. Like I'm going to do that, as long as we have a bakery.
Know what? I wish everyone else would have the courage to peel back their own onions. You are truly leaving behind the greatest gift to your family. They will be able to see into your heart for generations to come. Yippee!!! Never stop, my friend. I love what your blogs say and they always make us “think”. C in Houston TX
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