Look Sharp, Be Sharp, Feel Sharp - file yourself to a point

When I was being taught by Mrs. Robinson at Sprague elementary school , my parents would buy these wonderful, bright yellow #2 pencils to use at school. In school they had these crank type pencil sharpeners that were screw mounted to a table or bench or something. I always wanted to get the finest points on my pencil possible so my writing would look its best. I didn't easily get the trick of applying just the right amount of pressure inward on the pencil until it had a sharp enough point. I struggled with this and many times ended up with a very sharp 2 inch nub instead of a sharp enough 7 inch usable writing instrument.

In many ways I haven't changed.. Sometimes, in my efforts to 'make a point', I try to put 'too fine a point' on the matter being discussed. I want to be thorough. I still want my writings /sayings to be sharp and to the point. I still fail to realize that, sometimes, sharp enough is enough. If others don't get the point then I have to learn to let it go and not continue to 'push that pencil into the sharpener'.

A prayer -
Dear God Jehovah,
Please continue to help me to grow and become a better teacher of your word. Please continue to help me to become more like the your Son, Jesus Christ who known as 'The Great Teacher'.....

Way Past Time

It is way past the time that I wrote down my stories and my thoughts. When I am gone, it will be all that remains of me.
Some said my children will remain. They are their own persons. I am my own person.

A Simple Song or Poem

Listen children to a story
That was written long ago
About Almighty God in heaven
And His human kids on earth below

In a garden He did place them
Full of life and paradise
All the things in the garden you may have
Except this one tree do not touch
For in the day that you do this
You will surely die for such

These words he did give to Adam
Who then passed them to his wife;
“We will not eat this fruit for if we do
We’ll lose our life.

But then the serpent came crawling around
Asking Eve if it was really so
“Did God say not to eat this fruit?
Is this really, truly so?”
“Yes”, she said, “it’s really true,
For we will surely die

If eat this fruit we would do,
In that day we would surely die”

Then the serpent, he did speak
The first lie that was ever told
‘You positively will not die,
Positively onto life you will hold’

‘For God knows that when you eat it
You will be just like Him
Knowing all the good and bad
Things reserved just for Him

Hunger did not over take them
For they had so much else to eat
But Eve thus began longing for it
So both she and Adam began to eat

To God a day is like a thousand years
And a thousand years just like a day
This disobedience would bring a billion tears
What did God now have to say?
‘For this thing that you have done
You will pay the ultimate price
Just as I said that you will die
No longer now will be paradise
From the dust I made you strong
Now back to that dust you will return
Because you chose to disobey me
All your offspring will now mourn

Now in that day they did surely die
They never lived even a thousand years
Yes, in that day they came to dust
Causing all a billion tears
Now He turned toward the serpent
Destroy him then He did not
But God stated His full purpose
Of causing His righteous rule to be put
Upon the Earth just as before
God’s seed is the one who would do this
And would be bruised in the heel, not dead
The serpent then would pay this price
Be bruised in the head, thus dead

With paradise on earth restored
Mankind then will be able to live
The kind of life that God had purposed
Eternal life on earth in paradise God to us gives.

A Fiddler in Everyone’s Life

I always liked the violin / fiddle. In 1991 we moved from Rock Hill to Peoria, Il and lived near there for 3 years. We bought a house about 20 miles north of Peoria in a little town called Sparland, Il, which is about 5 or 6 miles north of Chillicothe, Il. (Yeah that's right Chillicothe, Oh has a sister city in Illinois.) But I digress. Sparland's population was less than a 1000 people. Chillicothe, on the other hand, had about 6000 people. There was a saying in that area, "If you didn't work for CATERPILLAR, KOMATSU DRESSER or Diamond Star Motors, you was farming".

Well, there was an older couple that attended the congregation there in Chillicothe; Bro & Sis Daley. They were among the sweetest people I have ever known in my life. They had to be up in their 80's even then. Their home was small and unpretentious. Sis. Daley had and used a ringer type washing machine still on the back porch. They were loving and kind and God was with them. One evening we were at a little gathering at their home (they had 2 daughters in the area and all went to the same congregation - small as IT was). Bro Daley's granddaughter married, Danny, who could play guitar and sing. He did this one nightas Danny was pretty good and his entertainment was timely. Afterward I mentioned to Bro, Daly that I always wanted to play the violin or fiddle, but never made it happen. He looked at me for a moment as if deciding if he should share a precious secret with me. He stood up on his somewhat wobbly legs and motioned for me to come to his bedroom with him. He reached under the bed and started pulling out cases containing fiddles that he himself made. I sat there on the bed and handled the fiddles as if they were treasure (and they were). I dragged a horse hair bow across one of them and made a screeching sound (not a hissing noise like Charlie Daniels LOL) . Then he took one of up and started to play. Lawd! Lawd! I was enthralled, I don't remember the song but I do remember him playing (some very old tune that we would categorize as country music now). He then looked me direct in the eye ( as he often did when he was serious) and said why don't you just pick one , take it home you and try to learn to play it.  My heart swelled at that moment to hear such a thing. He was loaning me, without hesitance, one of his treasures.

I taught myself a few things on that old handmade fiddle; and now every time I hear a fiddle playing an old country tune, I think of Bro. Daley. You know as I write this, it came into my mind that Bro. Daley reminds me of the great grandfather  character in a song by Randy Travis called "I thought that he walked on water".

The Daley's died several years ago (not far apart from each other in time). I still, at times, can hear their voices and laughter and their praises to God. Be at Peace, Bro and Sis Daley. We will see you again soon.

Thunder From the Throne

It is said that God cares for us in many wondrous ways. There are times when His actions are not clearly understood by us. There are times when it’s unclear that He acts at all. But know this, that in the final analysis, He acts and He causes to Become… and that is when we can hear Thunder From the Throne…

The Bible book of Ezekiel Chapter 1 verses 22-28      "And over the heads of the living creatures there was the likeness of an expanse like the sparkle of awesome ice, stretched out over their heads up above. And under the expanse their wings were straight, one to the other. Each one had two wings covering on this side and each one had two covering on that side their bodies. And I got to hear the sound of their wings, a sound like that of vast waters, like the sound of the Almighty One, when they went, the sound of a tumult, like the sound of an encampment. When they stood still, they would let their wings down.
And there came to be a voice above the expanse that was over their head. (When they stood still, they would let their wings down.) And above the expanse that was over their head there was something in appearance like sapphire stone, the likeness of a throne. And upon the likeness of the throne there was a likeness of someone in appearance like an earthling man upon it, up above. And I got to see something like the glow of electrum, like the appearance of fire all around inside thereof, from the appearance of his hips and upward; and from the appearance of his hips and downward I saw something like the appearance of fire, and he had a brightness all around. There was something like the appearance of the bow that occurs in a cloud mass on the day of a pouring rain. That is how the appearance was of the brightness round about. It was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of Jehovah. When I got to see [it], then I fell upon my face, and I began to hear the voice of one speaking."



------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Paul had worked late the night before. That morning there was a presentation to be made to an engineering team at one of the major auto companies concerning the progress of PVP&R testing. The testing had not gone well and it was only a couple of months before the product launch date. We were going to be one of the causes of a delayed launch. Costly!

Elizabeth, the Sr. Test Engineer, was to review much of the test data using the pivot table functions of a spreadsheet program. The data was complicated to understand and cumbersome to condense into a report. There was so much raw data and many conclusions to be drawn. Some of the technicians’ hand writing was difficult to decipher. Part of the problem was that the data should have been recorded using black ink pens, instead some used pencils, blue ink, or anything that was handy. Paul made a mental note to review test data recording procedures with everyone in the test department.

The meeting was to be held at 2:30pm and it was now about 8:30am. Presentation time was fast approaching and the stress levels were rising. Paul was hoping for some ‘miracle’ that would postpone the meeting until another day, perhaps next week. There were so many things to get done.

The morning coffee began to take its toll so Paul excused himself and started to walk down the hall toward the men’s restroom. Cliff came running out of the lab with an excited look on his face. “A plane just flew into one of the World Trade tower buildings in New York!” But even nature couldn’t wait for this news. By the time Paul finished, Cliff, who had been listening to the news on the radio exclaimed again, “Another plane just flew into the other tower!” It was at that very moment that every one of us began to get that sinking feeling of dread and despair.  “There could be upwards of 30,000 people in those towers”, Paul thought.  An unusual silence could be heard all over the lab. The silence rose above the hissing of the air compressors and clacking test cycling equipment. Paul looked at Cliff, “This country’s at war with somebody”.

As the events of the morning began to sink into everyone’s minds, like the thick heavy rumble of a thousand speeding race cars, Paul could feel the comforting sound of thunder from the throne……..

Lights in the Sky

PRELOG:

The lights in the night sky shone clearly as I set my gaze upon a most exciting place. I turned my telescope southward with an altitude of 55º and azimuth of 160º. There in the Plossl eyepiece was the place that at once makes me feel so small and insignificant; while in the same instant breath of time makes me feel so necessary, so real. The place is Saturn. Its striated rings dancing with the rays of the sun millions of miles away; caring nothing about what I’m doing or what my issues may be.

Close by and with a red tinge hangs, Mars, as if hanging upon nothing but the hand of God. And there, sitting almost right on the horizon is the brightest of them all – Venus. All three are silently watching in tonight’s starry sky.

Attention turns inward as the gaze expands outward. So many different minds, different changes, and different reasons to believe; some far journeys we have taken, some sweet dreams we’ve had to leave. I realize that the dreams in my heart are as far from my touch as the dreams of those distant places. Still beauty persists and feeds our spirits – even the rebels we are.

A single point of light, a sphere containing broken, sweet dreams; a distant place so close but can’t even be touched. Such like a dream, such as you.

**************

A man sometimes forgets, but never those who have touched his heart. The love continues like a haunting, through the years; like benevolent ghost who lingers. Has this haunting happened to others? Men rarely speak of this phenomenon to others. ….



(more of this story to come)

Already Gone - Restart in Detroit

Restart in Detroit

When he could no longer work as a coal miner due to an accumulation of coal and rock dust in his lungs, Dad did what most men like him did- he sought a new beginning somewhere else. Several of mom’s brothers and a sister had moved to Detroit years before and were, by all accounts, doing pretty well. They offered to help Dad get a start in the ‘Motor City’. Since he could perform no manual labor due to the Black Lung disease, he certainly could not work in the auto factories. After moving in with my mother’s sister, as she had a big house on Townsend Street, he quickly found work as a security guard. The job turned into a sort of security guard/body guard for the owners of a small chain of independent grocery stores located mostly on Detroit west side.


The stores were owned by a family of Jews. There were few, if any, stores owned by Arabic speaking people at that time. Dad was actually employed by a company called Simpson Patrol which had been contracted by the Levy family to provide security and such for the six or seven stores they had. Dad soon became a trusted person with both companies and did well despite his physical limitations.

As in most large cities and for a variety of reasons, the very face of Detroit had started to change in 1965. The flight to the suburbs was underway. The Civil Rights movement was in high gear as well certain so called ‘militant groups’ were becoming more and more prominent. These were major changes for a family fresh out of the hills of West Virginia and my dad was suspicious of many of these changes. He had believed the hype and smear published by the feds, namely Hoover and the FBI against the ‘Black Panthers’ and others, like Malcolm X. In his mind these entities became hated as much as the ‘cool-aid color clothed, do-rag wearing fools' that paraded the streets all about. I heard a lot about these types of people from my father’s mouth and believed it all to be true. It became known to us and others that because of his work with the Jewish family in helping to protect their stores, he became a target of the Black Panthers, who were reportedly against any businesses in black neighborhoods that were not owned and operated by Blacks. In fact, there were two known assassination attempts made against Dad in those days. The first was when a rifle bullet was fired into his car as he drove into the parking lot of the 12th street store and a second one was when they shot the wrong man and Joe Moore, a co-worker lost his life. These incidents solidified my belief as to the nature of the Black Panthers and other ‘militant groups’.

Then there was the 1967 riot in Detroit. During that first Sunday, the day the riot got started, he was at the 12th street store helping to get the workers out and to shut the place down. Later that night, after coming home to get better armed, he went back to help secure the buildings as looting had become rampant. Over the next few days I saw him leaving and returning home with an ammo belt of shot gun shells, a Colt 45 semi-auto hand gun in a shoulder holster and a 38 police special in a hip holster. What happened here? - Why just a couple of years before he was a simple coal miner. Those images remain in my mind to this day.

We lived on the east side of Detroit. The direct effects of the riot were not as pronounced as it was on the west side of town. Though we saw national guard troops riding in troop carriers and jeeps, all carrying rifles and other arms, there was relatively little looting and killing. The family who lived, then, in the house on the corner went out and looted a sofa from, we think, Federals Department store. As they were carrying it across the Townsend foot bridge toward their house, Dad, who sitting on the front porch, commented, that the sofa would sitting out in the alley for garbage within six months. Sure enough, his words were prophetic. He had stated that because they did not earn the money to pay for the sofa, they would not appreciate the value of it and would ‘dog it out’.

That fall I entered the 9th grade. High school was so vastly different from junior high. Kids seemed more pugnacious in junior high. Generally speaking, everyone was more laid back and settled in high school, generally speaking. From my perspective kids were becoming more socially aware of themselves and others around them. We were growing up. I joined ROTC, I think, because I had always wanted to be a Marine since I was 7 or 8 years old. I got some flak from these guys who were labeled ‘militant’ by some of the teachers.

A friend from junior high, Al Justice, started to hang out with the 'militants' as we used to call them. The group thAT Al associated with were known as 'The Republic of New Afrika' or RNA. Al and I were cool from our days in junior high. But we seemed to drift apart as we got older. Al seemed drawn to the RNA a seemingly militant group., among who were the two Trice brothers (Morgan and Bokeba). At first, I associated these guys with the groups my dad used to talk about. They wore dark sunglasses and seemed to not listen to teachers. They were not bad as criminal bad goes but seemed recalcitrant and unwilling to go along with the crowd. The Trice brothers dressed in the U.S. army issued fatigue clothing of the day, usually olive drab green and combat boots. These guys even wore a denatured 50 caliber bullet on a string as an amulet or necklace. This appeared dangerous to me if not rebellious. They seemed angry all the time. I often wondered why but kept my distance. For the most part though, most of the kids I hung with held a quiet admiration and respect for the Trice’s and Al Justice. They were serious minded though knew how to laugh and have a good time. Still, they represented the RNA, who appeared to me to be similar to the Black Panthers who were, in turn,  responsible for trying to kill my dad. I hated them, respected them and feared them all at once.

Some years later, while attending classes at Wayne State University in Detroit, I learned a great deal more about people and certain affiliations. There were also those on the fringe of any group; those who had become truly angry and obsessed with a cause. The Trice brothers were not of this sort. They were sincere in what they strove to teach and obtain. I would have been glad to have struggled with them in those high school days, but time, family, and life itself led me down a different path. I will always remember Al, Bokeba and Morgan and many others who either knowingly or not, helped shape the person I am still becoming. I’ve looked around for those days and times but they were already gone.