What Are My Intentions Worth?

Each day I try to spend two hours writing. Often, this results in 110 minutes staring at my laptop and ten minutes writing, but it is still a goal. My mantra is the line delivered by Larry, played by Billy Crystal, in the 1987 classic Throw Momma from the Train: “A writer writes.”

One day recently, I was enduring the obligatory two hours staring at a blank screen. To facilitate the passing of time, I opened a folder of Word files which I call “Stories.” There I found twenty-one files: all partially completed stories -- some dating back to the 1980s.

In disgust, I began to read book titles from the two book shelves that fill almost an entire wall in my little office. Immediately my eyes landed on a volume entitled How Greek Philosophy Corrupted the Christian Concept of God. “That’s not my book,” I thought. “It belongs to so-and-so.”

Looking to another shelf, I saw Fifty Battle that Changed the World. “That’s not my book,” I thought. “It belongs to such and such.”

Then, to my dismay, I saw another borrowed book that graces my shelves: An Enemy Hath Done This. I’ve had that one since 1994.

Hoping to get my mind back on a story I am writing for my grandchildren, I walked into the kitchen and stared out the back window. My vision was immediately carried to my two muscadine vines. One was pruned completely, just waiting for the Spring warmth to fill the roots with vigorous activity. The other stood in disarray, 2010 growth mingled with the solid growth of previous years.

I returned to my computer and began to reflect on what the world might be like if everyone completed what they started and returned what they borrowed.

What an exciting world it would be if we all kept our word: to others, to ourselves, to God. Rationalization is the religion of modern man; but what if, just for one day, everyone assumed others expected us to keep our promises. “How early twentieth century,” you say?

This much I know: we cannot be in the least dishonest without hurting someone.

What if by some supernatural act, everything returned to its proper place? Wow! Just imagine all the saucepans, hammers, cups of sugar, power drills, quarters, and books crisscrossing the air around us! It would be fantastic pandemonium!

What if by that same supernatural act, every procrastination was completed? That paper that was due yesterday…that letter to Uncle Henry…that orchard which needs pruning! It staggers the mind!

But, it is said, if anyone is offended that we kept the book, failed to complete the job, or stepped on the edge of social rudeness, they should have said something.

True, life is so much easier for the inconsiderate when the offended are vocal, but one could just as surely say of a drowned man: he should have stopped breathing. Perhaps eventually the breathing will stop; perhaps eventually the mistreated will speak up; but in each situation the results will be undesirable.

I know I’ll still leave things undone…perhaps unreturned…but I, for one, will try a little harder to avoid it from now on.

Now, who borrowed my remote control?

A Tales of Two Evils - Being Trumped by a Third

I've got a bone to pick with the city of Charlotte. They seem to be very bias and segregated. Not by race, but by political ideals. All this makes this blog a very strange product, because I do not like hypocrites and the leadership of the city of Charlotte have come out as class A hypocrites.

Now the group that is discriminated against is one I really don’t like. Actually, if it were wiped from the face of the earth, I would not be bothered. The group to which favor is shown is one I really don’t like. Actually, if it were wiped from the face of the earth, I would not be bothered.

So why bother?

Because Charlotte is wrong-headed, hypocritical, and full of bunk, and someone should speak out!

A group called Racial Realist, an alleged white supremacy organization, has secured reservations to hold a conference at the Sheraton Charlotte Airport Hotel; but then the hotel canceled all the reservations after Charlotte City Councilman Patrick Cannon contacted hotels in the Charlotte area, clearly to bully the hotels into preventing a group with which Cannon disagreed from having a forum. According to the Charlotte television station WBTV, Cannon does not dispute these facts.

Now, Queen Michelle of Obama has announced that the 2012 Democrat National Convention will be held in Charlotte, North Carolina. Here is what this product of vile discrimination had to say:

“I am thrilled to make sure you are the first to hear some very exciting news. Charlotte, North Carolina will host the 46th Democratic National Convention in 2012. Charlotte is a city marked by its southern charm, warm hospitality, and an 'up by the bootstraps' mentality that has propelled the city forward as one of the fastest-growing in the South. Vibrant, diverse, and full of opportunity, the Queen City is home to innovative, hardworking folks with big hearts and open minds. And of course, great barbecue.”

Councilman Cannon expressed fear that the Racial Realist group would be dangerous, but I submit that the Democrat Party is far more dangerous.

The white supremacists are a bunch of nut jobs with very little influence. Any sensible person will laugh them off as irrelevant and borderline. They have been around for years and probably never killed anybody.

Now, the Democrat Party? They are subtle…sly…manipulative…anti-American…and will change appearances as the public opinion polls blow. The number of deaths caused by these socialists is unknown. What we see in the Egypt and other areas of the Mideast today is a direct result of Democrats’ ignorance of foreign policy. No one saw this coming? Not Obama? Not his State Department? What are they doing up there? They get caught by surprised more than those kids in the Jason movies!

And all we can do is watch several more allies become radical Islamic theocracies.

To me it is so clear. Charlotte takes the Democrats because of their money. They shut out the others because they fear their message.

I despise both groups. But I despise hypocrites even more!

And I bet Michelle Obama wouldn't know good barbecue from sauerkraut.

We're On the Back Slope of 2010 Now!

I just took down the Christmas tree and all the other decorations. Our living room looks as bare as my head. It's a little sad looking actually, like a favorite dog found on the roadside for about fifty feet. Y’know what I mean. Really sad, but what can you do? In the case of the dog, let the D.O.T. get him; in case of the living room, get some chips and dip and mess it up a little.

Well, if Christmas is gone, can New Year’s Eve be far behind?

New Year’s Eve is always a big deal for Risë and me. We have this special routine for bringing in the New Year’s. I’ll be in my recliner in the living room watching Law and Order reruns and she’ll be in bed asleep. At the stroke of twelve I’ll open the bedroom door and say, “Happy New Year,” and she raises up and says, “Shut the door.” Then I’ll go back to watching Law and Order and she’ll go back to dreaming of Patrick Swayze at the pottery wheel. (I'll pay for saying that!)

I hope all of you have a great New Year. Reach for the stars. See you at the top. When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Stay alert, stay alive. A sack of flour makes a big biscuit. Winners never quit and quitters never win.

Gutn tog.

Glancing Back and Staring Forward

As the year of 2010 draws to a close, I feel it is fitting to look back and review some of the events, great and small, that have affected my life. I don’t think I will, however, because it only depresses me to see how little I have accomplished. Others in my life have accomplished much, but I seem to just ride along on coattails and do little to improve the lot of others. But so much for my whining.

Now, let’s look to the future. 2011. I won’t tell you my plans, because if I do, and they do not work out, you will laugh at me and say I was either a cock-eyed optimist or a lazy, unmotivated bum who failed at every turn. I don’t think I am either. I am a pragmatist. A hard-core, right-wing conservative pragmatist.

As for New Year’s resolutions, I will present the one I always present: I vow to eat more and get less exercise.

That one seems easy to keep.

In reality, I plan to lose weight, exercise more, cure all forms of cancer and wipe out poverty for those who earn more than $250,000 a year.

So, let’s see how it goes.