A Reminder, A Story, A Recommendation

3/22/2021 This is my first blog since finishing one on Feb. 26th

The phenom of me having a Song In My Head each day when I awaken has never really gone away, but I have failed to mention it several blogs. Today, though, a great hymn was there and Barb and I even sang a few lines from it about breakfast time: It was: “Come Thou Fount” by Chris Rice. This is an “old sound” hymn, but Mr. Rice is much more contemporary than his sound, I never saw the exact date he wrote it, but his only picture I could find was a man of 30s-40s in 1996. So Mr. Rice wrote lyrics of a great deal of understanding about who the Lord Jesus Christ is and what He has done for us. Very thankful for this song as the SIMH today. (Read the lyrics all the way through.)

Here’s a borrowed paragraph from the very first blog I wrote in August of 2018:

 [This is not an attempt to gain your sympathy or to win you over as a friend, and it is definitely not to try to sell you anything. It’s just a blog about life. I’ve been in life a long time now and there are some things worth writing about.]

Well, now I’ve been here almost 3 years more than when I started this. I’ve seen many things in these 32 months, things I didn’t want to see; things that astounded me, things that angered me, things I wish I hadn’t seen and many things I pray I never see again. (Come to think of it, perhaps that describes my whole life.)

As I walked to the store this morning, this beautiful Spring morning, I was reminded of some events that happened in my school years. For several years of my 12 year term in the one 3 story building known as THS (Trafalgar High School, Trafalgar, IN) we had a boy in our class—I don’t remember him graduating, but he was there for several years and is probably worthy of more stories than I can tell on here. Many of you may have had someone in your past who would fit into his category. And if you ever read the book, “A Prayer For Owen Meany,” you’ll know what I’m telling can be sorrowful but meaningful. 

This boy come to us from Indianapolis in about the 3rd grade, I think, and maybe left after our 9th or 10th grade year. He was little for his age, and his look always invoked in me that he wasn’t getting fed properly at home. (Watching him eat the school’s meals or when he visited in my home made me sure of that.) We boys were sure he was being beaten pretty hard by a not-so-loving father. Nothing we could do about that, of course, but if we ever hoped someone to get out of his home life, it was this boy. His clothes were never what any of us would call clean, his thick glasses were always dirty, and he never looked warm enough. He had some bad habits of a personal nature which we endured.

He would continually do things to draw attention to himself which, in the years I was in school, always got him in trouble with teachers. I’m sure I remember him being pounded on the back, hands slapped, or being shaken in his seat by every teacher except two. Mostly he was a disruption to the norm, that’s why he got the disciplinary action they all thought would help: it never did. It always made me feel sorry for him, but he wasn’t easy to be around, regardless.

After about the 8th grade, most of us boys smoked cigarettes. This boy did too, the only difference was he never had any money to buy them. He used to say to whomever had a pack, “Hey, Jesus said ‘Share’—give me a cigarette!” And we usually did. If he saw me in the drugstore or pool hall, he would beg me to buy him a coke and I would if I had the money. Before I had begun to make a little money, another boy in town would buy me cokes, so I guess we sort of “paid it forward” before there ever was such a term. 

Back to this boy: After he left our school, I never heard from him again. I’ve very often wondered about him, but I can’t think of anyone who has ever had any update about him. I kept expecting to hear he had been in this trouble or that, or died an untimely death or something. It seems strange to me these vivid memories of him are here today. Perhaps I’m going to hear something about him soon.—Fascinating.

Here’s something to take into consideration concerning the political side of the world now in the 3rd month of the new administration in Washington: I do not want to see anymore poking fun about Joe Biden’s physical/mental condition. I now believe he is going to be a short-lived president because some of his mistakes or miscues or even his tripping on the steps up to the plane are things which are going to become worse. I don’t think his opposition should make fun, I think they should enter into a serious dialogue with those close to him and get him the help we would give to anyone. He doesn’t seem at all to able to be the most powerful man in the so-called free world. He should be pitied, cared for and relieved of his duties. Yes, I know what we’d get with those stacked up under him, but we are getting them, anyway. He’s not in charge. And he should not be going through this pressure. It’s almost inhumane right now, and it’ll be worse in days to come. Just my opinion—didn’t cost anything.

Thanks for reading, 

the Elder