Fan Mail

Dear readers thank you for sharing your comments, compliments and critique.
Anita wrote:

Gene,
I read your writings & thought essays. Your are such a great writer!
I felt so much in your words and thoughts. You have a very special
gift with words & thoughts. …………………………………
………………………………………………………………..
Thanks for sharing your writings. Have you ever read Emerson?
You remind me of him; or even Thoreau.
Anita

Dear Anita:
Please forgive me for being tardy in responding to your email. Since receiving it I have been extremely busy. All the running back and forth to Kinko’s and Hobby Lobby and deciding on enlarging copy, matting and custom framing and such…it is very time consuming. Then there is the placement…should I hang it over my bed so that I might re-read it every morning and night or should I hang it of over the front door post so that the entire world could see it? Decisions…decisions?…then there were the multiple trips to the Hatter trying stretch my old hat to fit… and it’s still too tight. Anyway the main purpose for writing was to request a signed and certified copy of your e-mail to show to my skeptical school teacher wife as proof of my literacy.

Thanks again for your support and encouragement.

Gene

P.S. I could not find a Even Thoreau listed on Wikipedia but there was a Henry David Thoreau…maybe it is his brother.

Writing on Walls

My wife set me up with a FACEBOOK account…apparently so I might have friends. She explained that I could write whatever I wanted on my wall or someone else’s wall. I don’t think she understood that I have an aversion to writing on walls…it probably stemmed from an early childhood experience. As I recall...I was in my sixth year of life, it was just prior to my first grade episode; a whole other story (see story titled “First Grade”). For some unknown reason I decided to scribe a line around the entire outside circumference of our house’s white slate walls with a red crayon. Our house was one in a row of many identical houses that made up the oil field camp. I really think the red line gave our abode a certain notoriety that set it off from all the rest. It looked kinda like a high water mark…ironically in the middle of West Texas. Needless to say…this unleashed a tsunami of wrath and rage from my father. The fury of which was so powerful that I can recall the exact consequences of my actions some seventy years later.

So please forgive me if I don’t seem too enthusiastic about embracing the idea of writing on your wall, for it seems almost like vandalism.

Besides I liked the ole family chain letter with pictures you could hold and touch, with notes and letters written on real paper with real pen and ink. Maybe it was not sent at the speed of light but it was an event. Maybe I am just too old and too tired to keep pace with all this new electronic technology. Oops! gotta go! My computer is telling me “I’ve got mail”.

Thank you, Lord Jesus, for a wife who’s always looking after me, for a father who kept me in line and most of all for your example to follow. Amen

Official Greeter

My wife is always getting me to do stuff…stuff I am not really qualified to do. Today she dressed me in a suit and tie then explained that we were greeters at 11AM Mass. Wait a minute! What do I do? What do I say? Shouldn’t there be some sort of training for this? You do know people scare me…don’t you? “Just say good morning and give them a prayer book” she cajoled. Maybe I should practice in front of the mirror. “It’s too late for that” says she pinning the official greeter name tag on my lapel.

Good morning!...Good morning!....Good morning!....Good morning!
Good morning!...Good morning!..................................

Well! That wasn’t so bad.

Thank you, Lord Jesus, for a wife who always challenges me to be someone I’m not.
Truly, I am not who I used to be.
Yet, I am not who I am going to be.
Please, Lord, make me into who You want me to be.

Amen


3/22/2009

What’s My Zip Code?

I am supposed to be cleaning out the garage to make room for the wife’s car who’s exterior has faded. I meant the car’s exterior not the wife’s. But I began worrying about other issues that seem more important. The economy, the country’s leadership, the moral state of the country in general

My faith in all the above is dwindling. The economy with all the money shufflers and money changers is a problem. I think the rule is: "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s goods". Our neighbor’s goods…that’s what 401Ks and such are made of. Greed seems to be the order of the day…certainly it is neither prudence nor common sense. Our political leaders apparently did not get the memo on “Thou shalt not kill." They are eager to spend our tax dollars on butchering the unborn and partially born in the name of choice and change.

Where am I…Sodom, or possibly Gomorrah? I need to check my zip code. I am feeling like Lot must have felt when he was told to take his family and leave. Sometimes it feels like I am all alone and I think surely there must be fifty others that think as I. Maybe forty-five? Forty? Thirty-five? Twenty five? How about ten? OK! I need to get out of town, change my zip and don’t look back.


Father God thank you for a clear set of absolute truths and rules to follow.
Thank you Jesus for your example of how to follow the rules.
Please, Holy Spirit, help me stay focused on Jesus and not look back.
Amen

Pondering Pain

In the early morning dark the moist chilly air was uncomfortable as it rushed over me. Gradually the slow burn from my legs circulated throughout my entire body until I welcomed the cool air as it refreshed and carried away the unwanted heat generated by my pedaling. The dense fog gave things an eerie cast and made the light from a lonesome car disburse and backlight each and ever particle of moisture. I pondered the meaning of it all. I thought of life and death, suffering and pain. I thought of my aging aunt who had recently fallen and broken her arm and how much pain she must be in. I thought of you, Lord Jesus, and how much pain you went though and still do…when I, your child, do prideful things and say “it doesn’t hurt anyone else”. That part I have only come to understand and appreciate because of my children. Is that why you give us children...so that they bring us to our knees? I am sure their view point is “it’s not hurting anyone else”. But it does hurt…it hurts me when I see them hurting themselves…breaking Your commandments. Oh yeah! Sorry about that…Mom and Dad…all that I put you through. Yes! If I only knew then what I know now…it would have been different.

Thank you, Lord, for giving meaning to pain and suffering.
Please accept my meager aches and pains as a small token of my appreciation for what you have done for me.
Please, Lord Jesus, help me keep my eyes focused on You.
Amen.

3/20/2009

Happy Hour

It’s five o’clock, and here I am here again. This is getting to be a habit. Coming here, getting high and hanging out. I am almost embarrassed. Oh Well! At least my clothes don’t smell like cigarette smoke. And I am not going to be hung over. It is five AM not PM. Adoration is pretty cool. Getting high on Jesus. Hanging out at church. Not all habits are bad.

Thank you, Lord Jesus for letting me spend this “happy hour” with you.

“It’s five o’clock some where.”

Amen

3/11/2007

ONE HOUR?

“Don’t sign me up for adoration” I begged my wife. I don’t want to give up an hour of my precious time to sit in church trying to pray when I know I’m not any good at that. I can’t even say a decade of the rosary without loosing my place. I will never make it. Oh! No! Not every Friday? That’s too much of a commitment. I can’t do that every Friday. What if I have something important to do? “Well! OK” I relent, thinking to myself. I can’t afford to alienate the only woman I am allowed to have sex with. After all 4:00am is only an hour earlier that I normally get up anyway. This want be so bad. I’ll just sit here and see what God has to say to me. Maybe, I’ll stop thinking with my head and start thinking with my heart. Yea! I’ll try that.
What? It’s time to go? What happened to the 60 minutes of pure agony I was expecting? I rather enjoyed the time with Jesus. I am looking forward to next week. Doing nothing with Jesus is kinda fun.

Thank you, Lord Jesus, for allowing me to spend time with You.
Thank you, Jesus, for giving me a wife who is a spiritual and moral compass, for surely without her I would loose my way.

Amen


3/6/2007

Tooth Fairy

(you might read "Keep your mouth shut" first, posted 3-10-2009)

Dear readers, thank you for your questions and comments:
Ed wrote:

Gene,
Since it was a baby tooth, I would like to know if the tooth fairy came?
Ed


Dear Ed
I am currently in negotiations with said Fairy. While the tooth in question was in fact a baby tooth it appears payment can only be made if said tooth has either fallen out of…or been removed physically from…the mouth (in its entirety) and left under pillow of the tooth’s owner or legal guardian. In this case a large portion of the aforementioned tooth did in fact leave the mouth or facial area but the root remains intact. Therefore this voids all fiduciary arrangements and agreements between said Fairy and participating baby/adolescent or in my case senior citizen.

It appears my only recourse is to appeal to the highest court in the land and hope for some sort of “bail out” or “stimulus payment” that will relieve my financial woes.

Thank you for your concern.


Yours truly,

Gene
Dentally challenged senior

Keep Your Mouth Shut

As I stumbled out of the dentists office the feeling in my face along with my memory slowly returned. I recalled him saying “we’re going to numb you up a little bit”. Are you kidding…I couldn’t even feel my eye brows. If that was a “little bit” what’s the next step…general anesthesia?

Anyway I was pleased with the outcome. All the plastering on of material, curing it with a laser light out of “Star Wars”…all the grinding, scraping and polishing was worth it.
He had created a perfect sculpture of a tiny tooth in some kind of white marble-like substance.

I had become accustomed to that bicuspid. It was a baby tooth actually and for some strange genetic reason it had never fallen out. So after breaking a piece off on the occasion of my 64th birthday I was pleased it could be given a new lease on life. Science and medicine have come a long way…I can’t imagine sporting a wooden tooth.

Now I no longer feel the need to heed the warning of my wife… “Keep your mouth shut.” I hope she was referring to the “tooth” thing.


Thank you Lord, for all these wonderful benefits I enjoy.
Thank you for a dentist that knows what he is doing.
Thank you for a wife who is always there to give advice.
Amen


3/10/2009

Still In A Daze

Good morning Lord. I can’t believe I am really here. When I went to bed last night I was hurting and just knew I was not going to get up and make it down here for our five AM appointment. I even dreamed that the alarm did not go off and when I awoke it was already too late. But then the alarm did go off and somehow I got here…still in a daze. I went through the mechanics of saying the rosary but can’t seem to wake up. Probably should have pedaled my bike down here instead of using the car. That usually gets my blood pumping. I’ll just rest my head on the back of the pew, close my eyes and absorb some of your wonderful presence and peace. Yeah! That’s it! I’ll just be quiet and listen…for a change.

Zzzzzzzz, zzzzzzz, zzzzzzz, zzzzzzz,
Zz
Zzzz
Zzzzz

Oh! That was good… hope I didn’t snore. It is amazing how a 30 min snooze can really refresh me.

Thank you, Lord Jesus, for the peaceful and quiet time.

“Take me back to you,The place that I once knew…..;
Constantly the eyes of God watched over me.
Oh, I want to beIn the place that I once knew …..,
Fall into the bed of faith prepared for me.
I will rest in you,
I will rest in you”

Amen


Friday 5 am 3/6/09