Someone should have started a book long ago entitled “The World’s Worst”. Like Guinness describing the most and best, this tome would list the things at the other end of the spectrum. Surely, there’s a list somewhere. Perhaps Dickens cataloged them in an undiscovered appendix to his novel idea: “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. Ever since I was knee high to a grasshopper, I heard that term used about all kind of folk for all kinds of situations. “Why, she’s the world’s worst when it comes to keeping her […]
Cowboys and Angels
Ken Burns’ PBS series on Country Music raised our awareness of a particularly American genre of music. I’ve always loved the stuff for it’s downright affable and laughable way of portraying despair and desperation. Just take a couple of tell-all titles: “How Can I Miss You, If You Won’t Leave?” or “If the Phone Don’t Ring, It’s Me!” Justin and Ryan Harris grew up right here in West End and are currently making quite a name for themselves on the Nashville music scene. They call themselves “McKenzies Mill”, taken from their name of the road where they lived as young […]
Bible Verses
Before the world was coming to its end in the year 2000, remember when it was quite commonplace to see someone holding a big sign in the football stadium forthrightly proclaiming “JOHN 3:16”? Most folk could easily fill in the blank beginning with…for God so loved the world…etc. The real implication was that if you did not know Jesus, it’s adios! The whole idea of the bible is derived from the Greek word for books, and it is full of many “books”. Books are divided into chapters, and chapters into verses. Regard for this book of books varies from the […]
You Don’t Know Me
“You don’t know who I am, do you?” That’s the way she put the question to me at a recent gathering. I honestly did not know how to answer her question. For the life of me I could not put a name on her face. I did remember having met her several years ago. Not sure where or when. My mind worked rapidly but to no avail. She was standing there with her question in front of me: “You don’t know who I am, do you?” Inside, I was dealing with embarrassment. My good ol’ sense of inadequacy rose up […]
Trivial Pursuits
The Calvinistic work ethic that so many of us Protestants seemed to have inherited from God knows where [and I hope God knows why!] makes us suspect of people who would engage – or even think about it – in trivial pursuits or idle conversations. According to this inbred doctrine, we must spend our lives in an orderly pursuit of worthwhile goals. We should always work like the devil to produce results that are clearly measurable and have some utilitarian purpose. In my collegiate years, Florence Nightingale pinpointed this notion and grabbed my […]