Being “Brave”

“Say what you wanna say and let the words fall out.
Honestly, I wanna see you be brave.”
– Sara Bareilles

I know, I’m beating a dead horse but hey, it’s like 10 degrees out. I can either go outside and stand there till my bones hurt (about 5 seconds), or reveal to you a correlation I noticed recently. How can we celebrate a song like “Brave” (over 29 weeks on the Billboard charts) then turn around and bash someone who actually carries out the lyrics? Yes, I’m referring to Phil Robertson… or any Christian who just so happens to speak their beliefs which most of the time contradicts anything in mainstream media. I tell ya what, we live in interesting times in the US.

“A free America… means just this: individual freedom for all, rich or poor, or else this system of government we call democracy is only an expedient to enslave man to the machine and make him like it.”
– Frank Lloyd Wright

Florida State vs. Auburn

Maybe it’s cliché to say this the day before Florida State plays for the national championship, but if there’s a Seminole bandwagon, I’m on it. Of course if you know me at all, you know that I’ve been a Nole since December 26th, 1978. Just a little baby doing the tomahawk chop in a Key West hospital. Folklore suggests that my first words were, “Scalp ‘em!” but there is no recorded evidence. They could’ve easily been, “Go Noles!” or “How ‘bout them Noles?” or “Gators stink.” My mom came from a family of Seminole graduates (and is one herself) so who am I to question our lineage? Would I stray like the prodigal son by applying to some other inferior Florida college, cough cough Gators, cough cough Hurricanes? Heavens no! So on this, the day before the national championship where the beloved Noles take on “the team of destiny,” rest assured that I will be cheering hard for Florida State. Because hey, at Florida State, if we’re gonna do it, we do it big! Go Noles!

-Out of the Wilderness

Wasting Time Watching TV

You hear a lot about how much time people spend watching TV. I’d be curious how much time people spend looking for the other sock! I need to reorganize my chest of drawers because it took me way too long this morning. I wish I could just wear my Christmas slippers all day.

-Out of the Wilderness

Walking a Tightrope

It’s like two friends walking parallel tightropes. Their hands are clasped, holding on to keep them both steady. But somehow it’s only when they let go that they can see the end. And today, I feel like I let go of a friend’s hand. But the end is still too far away to see. So now I walk the tightrope in faith.

 

The Relevance of Cuss Words

A few nights ago I comically confessed to my parents, and other family together for the holidays, that my brother and I used to have cussing sprees on the golf course behind our house in Aquia Harbor. Oh, and he wasn’t present when I spilled the secret but I assumed he wouldn’t mind. Sorry if this throws a wrench in your style, bro! It’s not that there wasn’t anything else to do in Stafford, Virginia. I guess we were going through some sort of rebellious phase even at the young age of early high school (my brother) and middle school (me). I can’t remember what compelled us to start using profanity, but we’d leave the house, walk up the hill and through the small amount of woods separating us from the 4th hole tee, and let the foul words rip.

swear-words2So now I’m a taddle tail. Sue me. It’s not as if my parents could ground me. “I’m a grown man!” I don’t think they’d ground my brother either. The most trouble he can get in is explaining this to his church! Yes, he’s a pastor. But if anyone in his congregation is reading this, cut him some slack! He was a young whipper-snapper just trying to navigate high school life while trying to be as cool as his younger, middle school brother. Or so I assume. At some point we grew tired of our trips outside so we stopped. At this point in the story one of my sister interjects, “Was the only reason you stopped because we moved?” How dare she! But maybe. Either way, we turned from our evil ways and became wholesome again. It might have had something to do with the time I said the ‘s’ word in front of my dad. He was reading the newspaper while my brother and I were talking nearby. Somehow the curse word slipped out and I immediately jerked my head towards my dad, assuming he was going to ground me for life. He didn’t flinch at all. Are parents really able to tune children out that well? Amazing. And I was thankful for it that day.

I’m all grown up and can now say cuss words are more relevant to me, only because I know when they are appropriate to use. On the golf course as a middle schooler was completely out of context (because I wasn’t actually playing golf, anyway).  But am I the only one that thinks in the right scenario, certain words just work better? And by “right scenario” I mean “in traffic with bad drivers,” and more specifically, drivers in the south.

-Out of the Wilderness