The most important day in our life.

Thanks Mother. This is a subject we take all too often for granted. This is the one person who has had too put up with all or our "Stuff" all of our life. If I had it to do over again, I would really try to understand the full meaning of "Mother's Day", and work to make her life more appreciated and enjoyable.

That is a luxury that I no longer have because Mother has gone on to be with her Lord.

Just a Happy Mother's day and a hug will do wonders.

Snake Oil Sellers Alive and Well

When I was young I lived in a very small town in Tennessee. We were right on the NC&StL railroad with a depot. As a small boy I would walk down the 200 yards to the depot to see the people getting off the train.


Most were just people coming home from shopping trips or coming to town for business, we had a hosiery mill, milk processing plant and The Webb School. I am talking about late 30s to early 40s.


Occasionally there would be a well dressed, smooth talking, well educated, "Snake Oil" salesman who came to town. This person had all the answers to what ails people. Usually there would be a tent erected for the presentation so everyone in town could hear the spiel. It all sounded so great and the people would put up their hard earned money to purchase this wonderfully touted elixir which was supposed do magical things. When the show was over and everyone had rushed to get a supply of the magic elixir, the 'Snake Oil" man would catch the last train out of town.


The next morning people would awaken and realize that it had been just another "Snake Oil" salesman that worked his magic on small towns. Too late, he was gone with most of the money that the people who expected something for nothing had spent.


It is 2010 and I sense "Snake Oil" attempting to be sold in my home town. An expert has been brought in with all the magic words, and he is saying exactly what many of the people want to hear regarding our problems with "Illegal Immigration". Guess what, he is well dressed, smooth talking, well educated, a stranger with a brief case, an expert in what he sells, .......


Dealing with people problems in organizations and taking part in two wars, I have learned that there is no Magical Elixir to cure for organizational, municipal or "Illegal Immigration" problems.


Why does the "Snake Oil" person come to the small towns? I don't have all the answers, but it is my guess that larger towns usually have the expert power needed and a much stronger infrastructure. The small town usually has very few people who actually make the decisions and he has only that small group to sell. This small group is our elected officials.


The longer the "illegal immigration" problem has been allowed to exist the more embedded it is in the actual culture of a small town. Example, when I drive down the main street of my home town, the majority of the businesses are Hispanic, in a town that in the mid 8Os had very few if any people of Hispanic descent.


We are a town strapped for tax dollars. A new store recently opened called "Dirt Cheap". On every shelf I noticed signs "No Exchange, No Refunds. This is exactly how I feel about hiring this out-of-town expert. I think we will wind up with something we really don't like and stuck with "No exchange, No Refund".


Buyer beware.

More ramblings

Another day starts. It will truly be a day of new experiences, a re-birth from a restful sleep.

Yesterday, has become only a day to learn from, a day that nothing can be changed or re-done. Yesterday is gone. It was a day I accomplished many things, none of which was truly important, but things I wanted to do.

I visited with a lot of different people yesterday and had friendly conversation with each. Old African Proverb. "If you want to go fast go alone, if you want to go far go together.

I had feelings of helplessness for my new friend from Canada yesterday. It was not one of his better days, a day he was looking forward to being one of his best turned out to be one of his worst, but not of his doing. He did not look forward or backwards. He dealt with the problem and turned a bad day into a good day.

Today, is the present, a time for living, living each moment, remembering that you will never be able to live this day again. Live it with no regrets, but let it be a learning experience.

We reach a time in our lives where we can choose to move forward a little each day or become creatures of habit and replicate our past..... Replication is easy....... Changing to make each day a little better than the last is somewhat difficult, because we (humans, like animals) resist change.

I like my quiet time in the morning. Nothing but my mind (what little I have left) and the fan running. No sounds, not even the TV.... Today will be a day to impact positively on the life of someone other than myself, and a day from which, when it is over, I will feel no guilt (a word only mentioned 2 times in the King James Version of the Bible) for how I lived this day.

However, if my behaviors of this day do not work as planned, God willing, I will have another day to make some adjustments.

Moving with technology

I find myself completely amazed at the wonderful world of modern technology. However, many older folks have no idea of the power of our new age of communication. As the Hankster and I were walking last night, it came to me that I can communicate with a mass of people in a matter of seconds when just a few short years ago it would have taken months of even years to do the same.

I spent the greater part of my life finding fault in almost everything I enountered, including the people I loved most.

Today I find that it is much easier to accept people as they are and things as they happen. I must live today, for yesterday has gone and tomorrow has not yet come. If I live yesterday or tomorrow, I don't live today.

I have a wonderful family and can see that God has endowed each with different strenghts. They all bring something wonderful to the table.

For Fran, Karen, Mark, Bill, Nancy, Wes, Shannon, Madison, Etan, Courtney, Rob, Cora, Matthew and Katherine, I love you all and thank God that you are a part of my life.