Hurry Up I'm Late

I am in a hurry today. I have been in a hurry all day. I was late when I got up and I haven’t caught up yet. I am like the politician who jumped upon his horse and galloped off in all directions only to find after a couple of hours of hard riding he still wasn’t there yet.

Have you noticed when you are in a hurry Murphy’s Law takes over your life? Well, he does mine anyway. Traffic lights that are always green turn red just as you get to them and stay red for an interminably long time. You lose things. Now I don’t mean you can’t find something you had yesterday. I am talking about losing things you just had in your hand. In fact, it is not too unusual if I am in a big hurry to actually find it, after a significant time spent searching for it, exactly where I last had it – in my hand.

Then when you are going someplace, even if you have been there before, you get lost. I even have a GPS. I’m like the little green van in the movie Carz; I’ll never have to ask directions again. Except more than once the GPS did not know where we were either. It recently led us to a hotel instead of a hospital and then argued with me that this was the right place. To add insult to injury the thing calls me “Master.”

We have a long-standing and well-deserved reputation for being late. Often we leave home about the time we are supposed to be some place. That, by the way, will make you late every time. We have been known to arrive after the party was over.

You know, every time we have rushed to do something or get somewhere the few minutes we saved really did not amount to much. Speeding on the highway is a good example. The difference in the time you get someplace driving 80 mph and driving the speed limit is never more than a few minutes. Nobody really noticed you were late or cared and probably did not miss you when you didn’t show up at all.

Well, I have slowed down now long enough to write my blog, even though I need to be on my way and still have things to do to get ready. ,,, late again.

You Are Past and Present

The Apostle Paul wrote "For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself." Man cannot live in isolation. He will affect others even if he should attempt to live as a hermit in a cave. First of all, man cannot isolate himself from his past. Your ancestors may have been peasants or kings, but ultimately all of our records did get lost in the flood.

We are a part of those who have gone before us. I have been told that I sound like my father when I talk. I know I have many of his mannerisms and often hear him speaking in things I say. Many of these characteristics, I suspect, could be traced back to his father and grandfather.

So, we cannot live isolated from the past. Neither can we isolate ourselves from the present. Everything that we do affects someone else. Often we make people happy or sad just by the expressions on our faces. A word spoken in the wrong place or at the wrong time can never be retracted. Every salesman knows that each client he calls upon can influence as many as 250 or more other people to buy or not to buy his product. From every deed will arise consequences, and the scriptures say that these consequences will go from us down through many generations.

Sitting on Cactus Patties

My uncle Pat Bullock was a politician. Uncle Jesse said they always knew he was going into politics. One day when they were kids, Pat was sitting on the school ground just bawling his eyes out, The teacher came out and asked Uncle John what was the matter with Pat.

“Nothing’s the matter with him, teacher,” he said. “ He is sitting on a cactus patty and too lazy to get up. Says he is going to run for the senate when he grows up.”

I have noticed in my lifetime there are a lot of folks sitting on cactus patties … not all of them in politics. They sit and bawl and . . . worry. They worry mostly about what somebody (insert government) is going to do for them. Then when something is done, to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars, they cry more because they did not like the way it was done. Mostly not enough was done quickly enough to suit them.

On Being Texian

I drew my first breath beneath the big sky of your high plains.

A dry land, west winds bring sand from New Mexico that turned the sky black at mid-day.

A land that was hard won by the sweat and blood of our forefathers.

Born from the womb of pioneer women who followed their men in covered wagons,
doctoring their children with Wizard Oil.

Diversity is the rule. Pine Forrest surround your eastern lakes.

A land of many rivers flowing from the forbidding hill country to the waiting Gulf of Mexico.

Mountains and the Llano Estacado complete the geography.

Heroes of the Alamo and Goliad gave Sam Houston his battle cry at San Jacinto.

The Lone Star Flag speaks of courge and honor. This land is truly my native soil.

My bloodline runs deep in the good earth of Texas.

Here one day shall I rest. Forever a part of this stubborn land.