Editors right what writers write, right?

Life ain’t easy as a grammar nazi.

Actually, I consider myself a wordsmith. More often than not I resist the urge to correct other people’s grammar – especially on social media – because I know that I’m not perfect. You might say I’m a grammar hypocrite because I frequently butcher the English language. Most of the time it’s intentional, but not always. Sometimes I’m just stupid and other times I get help from autocorrect. My stupid times usually come when I try to write after 8 p.m. or before my third cup of coffee in the morning.

There, their, they’re now, just calm down. Most of us know the difference in those words. I’ve learned that people who mix them up are either in a hurry, don’t care, or both. Constantly correcting them isn’t going to endear you to them, nor is it likely to change their writing habits. People who have been writing your when they mean you’re are not about to correct themselves just because you go all grammar nazi on them. They are, however, a step above those who write ur for your or you’re. Please note, if you’re a person who writes ur for your, I will go grammar nazi on you.

The irony behind me being a wordsmith or grammar nazi is that I couldn’t spell and was really bad with grammar when I was in school, college, in my early professional career, and so on. To this day I can’t tell you the difference between an adjective and an adverb and I have no idea how many participles I’ve left dangling because I don’t know what participles are.

Back in elementary school and junior high, we had to diagram sentences. That’s where you draw lines connecting the different parts of a sentence to show how they’re related. It was an exercise in futility for me, but I muddled through well enough to get a C- and move on. In hindsight, I think my teachers gave me a C- just to move me on. They did the same for me with math, but that’s an additional story for another day.

Writers write and editors right what writers write, right? I began my professional career as a reporter, highly dependent on editors to clean up my work. Two years into my first job at a daily newspaper I was promoted to news editor. I was good at the stuff on the periphery of the job description, such as managing schedules, deciding where stories would go in the paper, laying out pages, and stuff like that. When it came to editing copy, however, I had to “fake it ’til you make it.” Except I wasn’t faking. I didn’t fool myself or the reporters whose copy I had to edit. They sniped at my snips and didn’t stay mute about moot points.

Last Saturday I volunteered in the print shop in Villa de Austin at San Felipe de Austin State Historic Site. I found it comforting to know that writers and editors in the 1820s and 1830s were no better at spelling and grammar than I am.

In the days before spell checkers and autocorrect, a story would go through two to three editors before it went to print. I could edit a story for style, content, and length, but I needed other editors to do the spelling and grammar. Oh, I tried very hard to do that part. I even have a well-worn dictionary that is dogeared and highlighted with every word I had to look up, which is a lot. If I had to look up a word more than once, I underlined it in red. After a third time, I wrote the word on the Post-it note and stuck it to my computer.

Today, I can get by with all the built-in editing tools in Microsoft Word. I also google a lot of words I’m unsure about just to make sure they’re spelled right and I’m using them correctly. Even with all these tools at our disposal, I’m astounded at how bad many people are when it comes to writing, especially on social media.

When I see all the stuff posted there, I feel like I no longer have to fake it because I’ve made it. I don’t mean to sound pompous or arrogant; it’s more of a feeling or relief and accomplishment. After nearly 37 years as a professional journalist, I think it’s safe to say that I’ve learned enough about the English language to butcher it properly.

English is a complex and difficult language to understand, which is why it’s so much fun to manipulate. Double entendres are especially fun. One of my favorites is the Bellamy Brothers song, “If I Said You Had a Beautiful Body Would You Hold it Against Me.” Actress Mae West had a gem when she said, “I used to be Snow White, but I drifted.”

One of the best verbal acrobats was Yogi Berra. He said things like, “It’s like déjà vu all over again,” “If you come to a fork in the road, take it,” and “No one goes there nowadays, it’s too crowded.”

A big problem for most writers is writer’s block. Having writers block is a lot like mental constipation. But then something gives and you’ll have a vowel movement. When I do, look out. That’s when I’m likely to go all grammar nazi.

Don’t harbor your dreams, your light is meant to shine

“Don’t die with your music still inside you. Listen to your intuitive inner voice and find what passion stirs your soul.” – Wayne Dyer

Don’t go to the grave after a long life unlived. In other words, get out, live life, take chances, be creative, enjoy the ride. Pardon the clichés, but carpe diem (seize the day)! Go for the gusto! Be all that you can be! Just do it! We only get one shot at this life, so make the most of it.

Most of us see the first of the year as a clean slate – a chance to start over or begin anew. That’s the way we should face every single day. Tomorrow isn’t guaranteed and there is nothing you can do about yesterday.

If you want to be successful in life, you have to have a goal and a plan to achieve it. As Zig Ziglar used to say, if you aim at nothing you will hit it every time.

Ask yourself, if you had all the time and money in the world, what would you do? Then ask yourself, what’s stopping you? We all have ambition and drive. We all have the same 24 hours in a day. We all have dreams and desires. We all have it within us to fashion a dream and make it come true. For some of us, there may be one or two things we are absolutely passionate about. For others, there may be dozens of things.

None of those things, however, will come to fruition without a dream, a measurable goal, and a plan to get there. If you stare at the big picture long enough it becomes daunting, intimidating, and discouraging. If you want to eat an elephant you have to do it one bite at a time. You need a daily, written plan. Commit a certain amount of time to it, or none at all. Whatever you do, be content with your decisions. Don’t let someone else’s opinion of you determine your worth or your direction in life.

You have to take charge of yourself and where you want to go in life. No one else is going to do it for you. No one is going to make you fit and healthy. No one else is going to make you wealthy. Experts can guide you and give you direction, but ultimately, it’s up to you to put forth the effort and do the work.

Your happiness comes from within, not from others. Your dreams are your own. Someone else – a spouse or a partner – may share in your dream, but they can’t do the dreaming for you.

All of these things are important. You have to take care of yourself before you can take care of anyone else. That brings us to the why. Why are these things important? It’s not so that you can be self-centered and self-absorbed. It’s so that you can help others and share the music within you. It doesn’t matter if you’re the best in the world at a certain thing if no one else can benefit from it. What good is a song if no one hears it? What good is a book if no one reads it? What good is art if no one else can appreciate it?

The light within you was made to shine for others to see. Wealth is worthless to Scrooge until he learns to share it. You must be at your best in order to give your best. How you treat others speaks volumes about yourself.

As you are making New Year’s resolutions, think about why you want to do them and how you will accomplish them. Write it down! Do you want to lose weight? Write down what foods you will give up and what foods you will add to change your diet. Make a daily exercise plan. It doesn’t have to be at a gym. It could be a step goal; a walking jogging, or biking goal; or a plan to do push-ups, sit-ups, yoga, etc. If going to a gym motivates you, then go. Schedule the time on your calendar and keep at it. Practice makes perfect.

If you get off schedule or backslide, don’t give up on your goal, just start again where you are at. If you lose interest in your goal or something better comes to mind, then hit the reset button. Don’t feel like you have to be trapped in something just because it isn’t working for you. Likewise, if what you are doing is important enough to you, don’t let setbacks or failures discourage you. Get back up, lesson learned, and keep moving forward. Every master was once an apprentice who made plenty of mistakes. If Thomas Edison had quit with every failure, we wouldn’t have the lightbulb today.

If you harbor your dreams, they will never set sail. Ships aren’t built to stay moored at the dock. An airplane is useless in the hangar. Sometimes you have to blow up a few rockets to reach the stars.

Whatever it is that ignites your passion, keep the fire going. Hone your skills, keep improving, keep focused and someday when you reach the end of your life the world will be a better place because you were in it and you shared your music for all to enjoy.

May God bless you always and may you always be a blessing to others.

Looking into the 2024 crystal ball

We’re just days away from 2024, a new year loaded with all kinds of possibilities and pitfalls.

It’s a leap year, meaning February has a 29th day. Looking ahead to this year we know there will be a presidential election. Paris, France, will host the summer Olympics. Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce will continue to be in “the news” though as if most of us really give a rat’s patootie about ’em.

It’s a pretty safe bet that the United States will continue to throw money and other resources at foreign wars. The government will continue to spend more than it takes in. Donald Trump will continue to muddy the political waters, whether as a candidate, convict, or both. Joe Biden will … you know, the thing … support the, uh, 54 states, thanks to Representative Jackie Walorski, who ... is she here?

In Texas, the state’s biggest scofflaw, Attorney General Ken Paxton, will continue taking revenge against every single state lawmaker who voted to impeach him, all while dodging the felony securities fraud charges that have dogged him since just after he took office eight years ago.

On a more positive note, 2024 could be the year that human beings return to the moon, albeit in a flyby mission on Artemus 2. It will be the first time a woman (Christina Koch), a Black person (Victor Glover), and a non-American astronaut (Canadian Jeremy Hansen) have gone to the moon. They will be commanded by Reid Wiseman. The earliest they can launch is late November, so there is a good chance this event will take place in 2025.

The celestial event of the year will be the total solar eclipse on Monday, April 8. The path of totality crosses through the heart of Texas from Del Rio to Dallas. Some of the best viewing will be in the Hill Country communities of Fredericksburg and Kerrville. Uvalde, Austin, Waco, and Tyler should also have great views. All of the lower 48 states should get at least a partial view and Wharton will see most of the sun blocked out by the moon.

For the few of us who care, spring football will be different with the merger of the XFL and USFL (United States Football League). I keep seeing a lot of conflicting information about which teams will survive the merger and how the season will be played out. The latest information I have is that each league will keep four of their eight teams. Houston is the only city with a team in both leagues, and it appears that the XFL’s Roughnecks will be disbanded in favor of the USFL’s Gamblers.

When the new league starts play in March, I hope that the Gamblers will be playing somewhere in or near the city. TDECU Stadium at the University of Houston – the home of the Roughnecks – is undergoing renovation and will not be available.

As a huge fan of the original USFL in the 1980s, a relish the thought of being able to see and photograph Gamblers games. I’ve photographed nearly every home game of the Roughnecks in the two seasons they played here and am happy that it appears two Texas teams from the XFL will survive – the Arlington Renegades and the San Antonio Brahmas.

Before we get to spring football, however, the NFL continues its march to the Super Bowl. I think the AFC championship game comes down to Miami and Baltimore and the NFC championship pits Detroit and San Fransisco against each other. I’m betting the Super Bowl features Detroit and Baltimore with the Ravens taking it all.

This spring, while my attention is on football, Major League Baseball will get under way. I think the Houston Astros will once again make the playoffs, but it’s too soon to say how far they’ll go. Can the Texas Rangers repeat as World Series champions or was 2023 a one-off for the team? With the Dodgers signing Yoshinobu Yamamoto, they should be the early favorite to win the World Series. There are a lot of question marks going into next season and I’m anxious to see how it all plays out.

Other things to look for in 2024 include continued construction of Wharton’s long anticipated levee project. There will be at least three elections, with the primary on March 5, city and school board elections on May 6, and the presidential election on Nov. 5. If necessary, the primary runoff will be May 28.

If anyone still cares about Hollywood, the Oscars will be held on March 10. Early on it looks like a continued battle between “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer.” I used to really enjoy the Oscars, but they’ve become so convoluted in leftist politics that they aren’t much fun anymore. They’ve become a slap in the face to real entertainment.

So yeah, we march on to 2024 and all of its cheers, jeers, ballots, and bullets. Happy New Year’s everyone!

Feliz Navidad and other holiday misery

Constant Christmas music, Day 27: I’m going to get seriously sick if I have to hear “Feliz Navidad” by José Feliciano one more time.

I’m not joking.

OK, maybe I’m not serious about barfing, but can we please agree that the song has been played enough this season and we’ll just put it back on the shelf with the elf for another year?

I enjoyed the song when I was a kid, but I’m not a kid anymore. I haven’t been for a very long time. Even my kids are not kids anymore. Yet every year that infernal song gets played over and over and over again. Flipping radio stations doesn’t make a difference. Another song I can do without is “Last Christmas.” For Heaven’s sake, it’s a breakup song, not a Christmas song. It’s a depressing dirge played with an upbeat melody.

On the plus side, I have not heard a peep out of Mariah Carey, and I hope I haven’t just jinxed myself by saying that. How I’ve managed to avoid hearing her at Christmastime is beyond me, but I’m not complaining. What I am complaining about is the total lack of airtime my favorite Christmas songs are getting. I like “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer,” “The 12 Pains of Christmas,” and “Snoopy’s Christmas.”

And thinking of Christmas songs, have you ever listened to the lyrics of “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch?” I know the song is from a Christmas cartoon, but it should really be played at Halloween, not Christmas. Seriously!

Speaking of the Grinch, I could do without ever seeing Jim Carrey’s “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” ever again. It and Will Ferrell’s “Elf” are horrendously stupid and just don’t work for me. The same goes for Tim Allen’s “The Santa Clause” movies. Ugh!

This causes great division at our house each Christmas season. Those are my wife’s favorite Christmas movies. She thankfully tries to watch them when I’m not home, but sometimes I walk in and catch her watching them like a kid caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a complete Scrooge. There is a lot I love about Christmas. There are plenty of Christmas songs that I do enjoy. There are also Christmas movies and television shows that I really like watching. My all-time favorite is “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” There is something very endearing about the Claymation classic that warms my heart. I try to watch it, “Frosty the Snowman,” and “A Charlie Brown Christmas” at least once each season.

Of course, this is all the secular side of Christmas. The real reason for the season is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, the son of God and the savior of mankind. The other day Sandy was talking about something she read that gave a different light to the story of Jesus’s birth. What we see today in Christmas plays and hear in church sermons is a very sanitized and romanticized version of a very dark and messy story.

Try to picture Joseph and Mary. They’re probably teenagers; newlyweds who have not consummated their marriage. Mary, still a virgin, is pregnant with a child that is not her husband’s. Near the end of her pregnancy, with a baby due any day now, the government calls for a census and they have to make the 90-mile trek from Nazareth to Bethlehem. That’s about a four-day journey on foot for someone in good health and not pregnant. It probably took them nearly a week or more to get there over rough terrain. On top of that, Mary went into labor on the way.

Imagine how it was for her to be in labor pains and them having nowhere to stay, not even in someone’s home. Desperate, they make camp in a stable. It’s probably filthy with animals, manure, and flies. Mary is miserable and not very happy with Joseph for dragging her through this. When the baby comes, there is no doctor, no nurse, no midwife, just a carpenter who has probably not seen so much as a puppy being born. He doesn’t know what to do and Mary probably doesn’t have much of a clue herself. They are scared and panicked.

Jesus is finally born, wrapped in cloths, and placed in a feeding trough for lack of a crib. Unlike what is depicted in nativity scenes, there are no wise men or crowds of visitors at that time. There were shepherds, but the wise men visited them back in Nazareth years later. In the interim, Joseph is warned not to go home but to flee to Egypt, a journey that makes the trip from Nazareth seem like a walk in the park. No doubt the teenage Mary, carrying a newborn baby and still aching from childbirth, was just thrilled with Joseph.

They are dirty, poor, tired, and on the run for their lives. Yuletide greeting indeed! Yet this messy entrance into the world foreshadows the messy death Jesus would face 33 years later. All of that was so we could have the hope of life eternal in paradise. It’s God’s sacrificial gift to us.

Don’t let this gift be in vain. God gave us Jesus as our only way to him. Let this be at the heart of your celebration this season and always.

Feliz Navidad, my friends. I hope you have a happy and blessed Christmas.

Team loyalties run deep when Houston plays Denver

Who are you rooting for?

It’s a question I get every time the Houston Texans play the Denver Broncos, which they did in Houston on Dec. 3. Many people in Texas know me as a photographer who has been covering the Texans since 2016. I’m an ardent Texans fan and make no bones about it. But they are my second favorite team. I’m a born and bred, ride ’til I die Denver Broncos fan. I bleed orange and blue.

My interest in the Broncos dates back to the 1977 season when Denver made it’s first trip to the Super Bowl with old number 7 taking the snaps (and I’m not talking about John Elway). Growing up near the Denver metro area, you couldn’t help but be a Broncos fan back then. They were the only show in town and the excitement that season was palpable. The Orange Crush defense, the M&M Connection, Mile High Magic, it was all there.

I didn’t care much for football or any sport up to that season. But I got caught up in the playoff excitement and Super Bowl XII against the Dallas Cowboys became the first NFL game I watched from start to finish. Though Denver lost, that game did two things to me. It made me a Broncos fan for life and a Cowboys hater. I stuck with the Broncos through thick and thin, including three more Super Bowl losses before Denver won Super Bowls XXXII and XXXIII. I got to cover both victory parades and celebrations for the paper I worked for. I was also on the team the produced a special section about the new stadium when it was built in 2000-2001.

My family has had season tickets since 1986, and those tickets belonged to my ex-wife’s family from the 1960s until they moved to Minnesota in 1986 and gave the rights to my father. I’ve seen a lot of games over the years.

I was still living in the Denver area in 2002 when the Houston Texans began playing. I took a remote interest in the team because I was impressed that Houston came out of nowhere to upset Los Angeles for an expansion team. I also liked the logo and uniform colors. I loosely followed the Texans in the early years and knew this team would be special when they beat Dallas in their first-ever game.

We moved from Colorado to Texas in 2005 and then to the Houston area three years later. By then I was following both teams pretty closely. Aside from Houston and their divisional opponents, the Broncos are the team I’ve photographed the most. I first got to shoot a game at old Mile High Stadium in 1991 when Denver beat the Phoenix Cardinals. I first photographed the Texans in 2010 in a preseason game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In 2015 I got to photograph a preseason game when the Broncos came to town.

The next year I received season credentials to cover the Texans and have been doing so every year since then, except 2020 when COVID restricted access. In that time Houston and Denver have played each other five times and I’ve photographed four of those games, including one in Denver. I’ve photographed two quarterbacks as starters for both teams (Case Keenum and Brock Osweiler).

Photographing the NFL is dream come true. It’s something I’ve wanted to do since I photographed my first professional game. That was in 1985 when the Denver Gold hosted the New Jersey Generals in the original USFL. I also photographed a game in the World League of American Football in 1991 between the Raleigh-Durham Skyhawks and the New York-New Jersey Knights.

I have never taken a minute for granted that I get to spend on the sidelines of professional games. I respect that it is a rare privilege given to only a few photographers. I know it’s a privilege that could be taken away at any time. My gratitude to the Texans for allowing me to do this with four different newspapers is endless, as is my gratitude to the Wharton Journal-Spectator for allowing me to continue doing what I love so much.

It is a thrill to be on the sidelines and close to the action. But I think the part I enjoy the most are the friendships I’ve made over the years. I’ve gotten to know a lot of the fans, along with a lot of the sideline personnel, including security people, game day staff, the mascot TORO, some of the cheerleaders, and so on. I don’t get a lot of interaction with the players, but several of them recognize me and say hi.

Even though the Broncos are cemented in my heart as my favorite team, I’ve never been closer or more involved with a franchise than I have been with the Texans. It’s a fantastic organization and I’m proud to be a part of it in some small way. So yeah, I get it when people want to know which team I’m rooting for whenever Denver and Houston play. It’s a game I can’t lose because one of my favorites is going to win. And while I root for the Broncos, I am most definitely not rooting against the Texans.

DB4L! We are Texans! This is my life and I love it!

Early delivery was the surprise of the season

Monday, Dec. 2, 2002, is a day I remember vividly.

It was a cool, overcast day in Longmont, Colorado, where I lived and worked. As the community reporter for the Daily Times-Call, my schedule was slammed. I was the guy who reported on all the community events, especially those involving churches and nonprofit organizations. Early December is a very busy time for holiday activities. I had more going on than I could handle and was very busy writing stories.

We learned that two Longmont teenagers were going to be on the cover of Newsweek Magazine to promote abstinence until marriage. I contacted them and set up an interview for that evening, not like I had anything else to do. The cause was one I support and to have something with national exposure was enticing to write about.

Meanwhile back at home, Sandy was busy taking care of three of our children while carrying our fourth, due Dec. 22. She was equally as busy getting the older two to school and taking care of things around the house while having to give a lot of attention to our 18-month-old boy. Luke had to be carried around because he fractured his leg two weeks earlier. We were living in a rental house because we sold our home before our new one was built. It was under construction, but still months away from being ready.

That afternoon Sandy went grocery shopping. When she got home, she called me at work. I normally love talking with her and don’t mind brief interruptions while working, but today I was too busy for idle chit-chat. I had deadlines to meet before I went out to do the interview with the teenagers.

“It’s time,” she said.

“Time for what?” I responded, probably sounding a little more irritable than I should have.

“It’s THAT time,” she said.

I didn’t have time for games and asked her what she meant.

“I’m having contractions. The baby is coming!”

All of a sudden, I wasn’t so busy anymore. She had my full attention.

Of course, I asked her all the usual stupid questions that an expectant father asks.

“Are you sure? How can you tell?”

She politely assured me that the baby was definitely coming today. Worried that I wouldn’t be able to get my work done, we tried to estimate how much time we had before we needed to go to the hospital. We figured I had enough time to meet my deadline and come home, but the interview with the teens had to be pawned off to a colleague of mine.

I got home, ate a quick dinner (for some reason Sandy wasn’t hungry), got the kids ready and called my dad to see if he could come over and watch the children while we went to the hospital. I’d normally ask Mom, but she had medical issues that kept her home. When Dad arrived, Sandy and I gathered up her things and walked to the hospital.

Yes, I said walked. Yes, I made my pregnant wife in full labor walk to the hospital. And she was happy to do it. After all, we lived a block away and it would have been more strenuous to get in and out of the car and walk a similar distance across the parking lot. So you see, I’m not a total cad.

Once we were settled in the delivery room, the wait began. We watched Monday Night Football as the hated Raiders beat the Jets. Sandy had to keep the nurses from turning off the game because she was watching it too. The game was depressing because our beloved Broncos lost to the Chargers the day before and were now sinking lower in the standings to division rivals.

Not long after the game ended, the big moment arrived. I positioned a video camera off to the side to record the blessed event. I don’t think Sandy was too happy about that, but she was rather preoccupied and didn’t complain much. Finally, around 11 p.m. (and 20 days before he was due), Colton made his grand entrance into the world.

Oddly enough, he would be the sixth member of our family and the only one to not be a first-born child. Sandy and I are first borns. My daughter from my previous marriage is a first born, as is Sandy’s son from her first marriage. Luke was our first together. Poor Colton was always destined to be the baby of the family. It’s a role he came to relish and take full advantage of.

As I write this, we are in preparations for Colton’s 21st birthday party. Our baby is a fully legal adult now. He is a junior at Texas A&M and we are extremely proud of the man he has become. He is a Godly man, fully dedicated to his faith. As parents there is not much more we could ask for.

All of our children have grown up to be great adults and we are so happy and proud of all of them. No parent could ask for more than that. And if you think I am bragging, well, you wouldn’t be wrong. I’m a proud dad and a happy husband and feel immensely blessed by God.

Catalogs delivered Christmas joy

A long time ago, well before Black Friday was a thing, there was great anticipation for the arrival of the Sears and JC Penny’s catalogs.

When the phonebook sized full-color catalogs arrived in the mail, my two brothers and I would either huddle together around them or fight over them (usually the latter). Either way, the arrival of the books was a harbinger of Christmas. We would spend hours poring over the toy section, drooling over the toys we wanted to find wrapped under our Christmas tree. We would circle the ones we wanted and made sure Mom knew exactly which ones they were.

Most of my choices were action figures. I circled the ones I didn’t have or the ones that needed to be replaced. The Mego superheroes and Star Trek figures and playsets usually topped the list, along with The Lone Ranger, Johnny West, and G.I. Joe. As I got older, bikes and skateboards moved to the top of the wish list. That was followed by BB guns, shotguns, hunting accessories, etc.

Aside from the toys, the best part about the catalogs was the secret fun we had with them. When we thought no one was looking, we would flip to the lingerie section and ogle the ladies modeling their unmentionables. It was an adolescent thrill that I’m sure most boys our age enjoyed back then. It was the next best thing to Playboy for a 10-year-old kid.

Sometimes we would take an eraser and try to lightly brush away the bras in hopes of seeing more. We knew we wouldn’t, but it was worth a try. Inevitably we would doodle on the pictures, blocking out teeth, making devil horns, and scribbling beards on the model’s faces. By early December our catalogs were dogeared and well worn.

One of our holiday traditions was to take a family trip to Kmart or the mall to shop. Our parents usually gave us $20 each to spend on gifts. I have a lot of memories of pushing a cart through Kmart with my jacket in the basket to hide the gifts. It was a cat-and-mouse game of getting gifts without being seen by the recipient and then buying them and getting them hidden in the shopping bag for the trip home. At home we would take the loot to our rooms and wrap them and then place them under the Christmas tree.

Every year we watched “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and other annual holiday favorites. We never missed them and often spent days in anticipation for them to air on TV. Decorating the Christmas tree was also a big deal. We all had favorite ornaments that we placed in prominent spots each year.

Back then the radio stations mixed Christmas music with their regular fare. But on Christmas Day, it was all Jingle Bells. Nothing but Christmas music all day! Now it’s nothing but Christmas music all month. After a week I’m tired of it. Not my wife. Sandy could listen to Christmas music year-round if she could get away with it.

Looking back, one of the things that made Christmas so special was the anticipation. Although it was agonizing at times, the anticipation of Christmas made it that much more exciting. I never slept long or well the night of Christmas Eve. I was always peeking to see if Santa had arrived. We always left milk and cookies for him and come morning they were gone. The pile of packages under the tree would be bigger.

My parents had to set the five o’clock rule on Christmas Day. We could not wake them up before 5 a.m., which we did like clockwork. To add to the anticipation, we had to wait for their coffee to brew before we settled down to open gifts. By 5:45 a.m. there would be toys, new clothes, and wrapping paper everywhere and three boys out cold asleep.

Later in the day we would call grandparents and other relatives and give thanks for the gifts we received. The hard part was remembering who gave us what because we ripped them open with such reckless abandon, we didn’t pay attention to who sent them. Usually, Mom could sort it out before each phone call. Sometimes we would sheepishly have to ask which gifts Grandma got us.

In my adult years, the religious aspects of Christmas became more prominent in my life, followed by watching my children go through the same anticipation for Christmas that I did at their age. The difference is that they grew up in the digital age and there were no catalogs to mark up and ogle over. I still try to watch the old Christmas specials each year, though my kids think they’re dated and corny. We all look forward to candlelight services at church and dining on the feast that Sandy will spend days preparing.

This is such a special time of year and I hope each one of you enjoy it and the anticipation of things to come. Most of all, I hope everyone will remember the reason for the season and celebrate Jesus, the only gift that comes with eternal rewards.

Choose to be thankful for bad things

Have you ever been thankful for the bad things that happen in life?

It’s not an easy thing to do. It’s hard to be grateful when you’re sick, get in an accident, lose a loved one, get cheated on, or suffer heartbreak or humiliation.

Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people? Why does he allow good things to happen to bad people? Why is there pain and suffering? When things are bad and getting worse, why should you be thankful? Note that I didn’t say happy, pleased or joyful – I said thankful. Being thankful isn’t the same has being happy.

As I was heading home from the Texans game Sunday, it took nearly 30 minutes before I could get out of my parking space and start crawling out of the parking lot. My normally two-hour drive took just over three hours. I got stuck in traffic on Highway 290 due to an accident, all while my bladder was sounding an alarm. I wasn’t happy but I was thankful. I was thankful that I wasn’t the reason for backup on the highway, which I could have been if I had just zipped out of the parking lot.

I was thankful that while my bladder may have been full, it meant I had plenty of water to drink. Back in the parking lot, I was thankful that fans are finally returning to watch the Texans and that they are winning again. When I finally got home, I was thankful to be greeted at the door by my loving wife.

While that’s pretty simple stuff, what about the harder questions. How can you be thankful when someone you love dies? You start by being thankful you had them in your life for as long as you did. You can be thankful for all the things they did that made you love them so much. Yes, it hurts when loved ones die. You go through a whole gamut of emotions, but one of them should be gratitude.

You may not get along with your in-laws, but you can be thankful that they gave you your spouse and made him or her the person that they are.

You can be thankful when you get sick knowing that your body has the ability to heal and recover. If you’re in an accident, you can be thankful you are still alive and that it wasn’t worse than it was.

If someone beats you in a game by cheating, you can be thankful that you did your best and also that you won’t be the one with a guilty conscience.

This summer, two of my sons lost their cars in accidents. I’m thankful no one was hurt and that they were each able to get replacement cars. My car is an old beater that is on the verge of breaking down, but I’m thankful every times it gets me where I’m going.

Recently, a friend shared something on Facebook that made me take a second look gratitude for bad things. To summarize, it asked what if God had saved certain people from their hardships. If God had saved Joseph from mistreatment and difficulties, the nation of Egypt would have starved. If God had rescued Jesus from the cross, we would not have a savior and hope for eternity in heaven for those who believe. Basically, if God keeps us from difficulties and life’s challenges, he prevents us from finding success and meeting needs we cannot begin to fathom, whether they be for us or others.

That’s why, when things go wrong, we should be thankful for the things that will go right. You can’t have success without failure. As the late, great motivational speaker Zig Ziglar said, you’ve got to have an attitude of gratitude. It changes your whole way of thinking and improves your outlook on life. He called it the healthiest of all human emotions.

I had that put that to the test last week as I started a new job as a delivery driver for a FedEx contractor. It’s something I’ve never considered doing. It’s something I’ve never aspired to or thought I would do. I’m making less money now than I did 10 years ago. It’s hard work and long hours. But I’m thankful to have a job. I’m thankful for new experiences. I’m thankful for the new friends I’m making. I’m thankful for all the beautiful countryside I’m getting to see that I normally would not from the highways. I’m thankful for all the smiles we get when we deliver a package that someone was eagerly awaiting it. I’m thankful for new experiences and challenges in life.

And now, with Thanksgiving upon us, I’m thankful for so many more things in this life than I can count, because like it or not, each one is a blessing. I hope each one of you reading this will find a spirit of thankfulness this Thanksgiving holiday and allow that spirit to indwell in you long after the turkey is gobbled up, the last touchdown is scored, and the last houseguest returns home. In the end, if you have an attitude of gratitude, it makes the bad bearable and helps spread love and peace in the places that need it the most.

Chainsaws and other manly things

What is it about operating a chainsaw that makes a guy feel manly?

After spending half a day cutting away at a downed tree, hauling logs, doing chainsaw maintenance, and getting covered in oil and sawdust, I felt that good kind of tired that comes with a feeling of accomplishment.

I felt tough and smelled just as bad. I then got into our beat-up old 2000 Ford F250 diesel pickup truck and hauled a load of trash to the dump. Still covered in grime, holding a steaming mug of black coffee in one hand and the steering wheel in the other while listening to some classic tunes, I rumbled down the road with that manly feeling that I haven’t had in a few years. Decades of white-collar work will do that to a fella. But there I was, owning my manliness and feeling invincible.

We don’t have our hobby farm operating yet at our new place in Bryan, but every day we inch closer. Every time I clear brush, build something, or do any kind of mowing or heavy lifting I get the satisfaction of clawing closer to that dream. I used to have a poster in college of an elaborate sandcastle. It said “Fashion a dream and make it come true.” That’s what we’re doing here and it feels good … feels manly!

Growing up on a one-acre farm, I never realized what hauling all those hay bales, lifting sacks of grain, and shoveling manure were doing to me. Back then it was hard work and I hated doing it. Now I see how it was building not only muscle, but character. It was forging in me a love of the land and a heart for animals. Now I’m doing it again, only the muscles hurt, the back aches, but my heart yearns for more.

There’s a lot of grunts and growls like Tim Allen on “Home Improvement.” There are also a lot of moans and groans, a few Band-Aids, ice packs, and heat wraps, but we’re making progress. That progress, however, is about to slow down some more thanks to the weather, the holidays, and a new full-time job.

This week I’m starting a new job as a delivery driver for a FedEx contractor. (Don’t worry, I’m still contributing to the newspaper. That won’t change.) I have very little experience in the blue-collar world, so this should be interesting. I’ll keep you posted.

Although the tough, physical aspect of manliness is making a refreshing return to my life, I have been doing manly things all along. Helping raise children, providing for my family, being active in church, and volunteering in the community are all manly things, but in a different sort of way. And I’m still doing those things.

Over the years I’ve written a lot about the importance of manhood and the need for strong male leadership. I feel that more now than ever. I think back to my days in Promise Keepers and how coach Bill McCartney would remind men that every man needs a woman to love, a dragon to slay, and a kingdom (home) to lead. It’s essential to being a man.

I do have a woman to love and we have a new kingdom that we’re building. My dragon is my comfort zone. I’ve been afraid to do the hard work. I’ve been afraid to get out of my comfort zone and try new things, especially something that’s physically demanding. I’m not afraid anymore. Life is too short to be a coward. New adventures and new horizons await. It’s time to embrace them and become the man I thought I was.

And speaking of a woman to love, my much younger trophy wife just celebrated a milestone birthday and I want to give a big shout-out to Sandy. I love you, Sweetheart!

We had a house full of family, friends, and neighbors as we combined her birthday with a house warming party on Saturday. It was fun, even if it was cold, overcast, and muddy. We surprised Sandy by having her sister and niece come visit from South Carolina, where they currently live. Our brother-in-law is an Army chaplain and was just promoted to colonel. He and our nephew were not able to come, but trust me, they were busy doing manly things over the weekend.

As I prepare to start my new job, I find myself picking up trash, washing dishes, doing laundry, and all those domestic necessities while Sandy works from home. I don’t mind doing the work, but believe me, I’m dreaming about building a chicken coop and rabbit hutches and going after those trees with my chainsaw again.

Arh, ooh, rah, Aeuhhhhh!