"Memorial Service: A farewell party for someone who has already left." (Unattributed)

This is today and it will be for the remaining time we have. That is before it becomes the next day which is Saturday. If you want to watch that happen you might want to stay up until just after midnight. I'm told that's how the clock/calendar synchronization works. It's Friday, August 21, 2015, and I bid you a fond welcome here at the ole blogger ranch. People do take their political preferences serious. The Houston Chronicle ran a little blip about a fellow who had died and in his obituary it had this message: 'In lieu of flowers, please do not vote for Hillary Clinton.' I know what some of you are thinking. You wonder where he really stood with regards to his candidate choices. Don't know who he was for but I think we get at least a strong clue who he did not want to see in the Oval Office. I've read a few obituaries that were very personal in nature. They were, in fact, written by the person who passed away. To say the least they are different than the norm. One lady started hers out this way: "It pains me to admit it, but apparently, I have passed away. Everyone told me it would happen one day but that's simply not something I wanted to hear, much less experience. Once again I didn't get things my way! That's been the story of my life all my life." What follows those words is a rambling account of her life from her earliest recollections. It is an official obituary out on Legacy.com but it has to be at least three typewritten pages long. She apologized to her children for the clothes she made them wear when they were young kids. She talks about stuff that happened in grade school and all the way up through college. Towards the end she has this recognition: "So…I was born; I blinked; and it was over. No buildings named after me; no monuments erected in my honor. But I DID have the chance to know and love each and every friend as well as all my family members. How much more blessed can a person be?" Maybe I will share others in the days ahead. No. I am not practicing on writing my own. It's been done for years. Just joking. (I did write one a long time ago. It was part of a management training exercise in how you want to be remembered.)

My wife sent me a note the other day talking about one of my longer postings. She thought it was good. She also thought it was long. She may have even said it was really long. Some days it just kind of works out that way. When I first started out I actually did four, five, or six paragraphs on some days. Then I remembered what Paw Paw Mac used to say when we were serving food onto our plates and how that we should not let our eyes be bigger than our stomach. You know. Make sure its proportional and digestible. But he also used to think that while I couldn't do that much in too many areas I was pretty good at talking. And, he also thought I got quite enough exercise in that particular area. Hopefully some of it makes an impact for good. That is one of the key motivations behind what I do. Anytime I remind us all that we need the Lord and He is always there and ready to help, well, that makes up for a lot of the other stuff, like interesting obituaries and tidbits like that. Some folks who write talk about polishing their craft. At this point and time that might be a bridge too far for me but that doesn't mean I will quit trying. You know, quitters never, or at least they are not supposed to.

The class I teach at our local fellowship where we attend is called Truth Seekers. We are the older group in our Church. Last Sunday these folks sang me the Happy Birthday song and they gave me a wonderful card and this 2 pound bag of Community Coffee. I'm not saying that coffee is a part of my theological presentation but they do know how I feel about my Community. That's what we use in our class. For the most part that's now what we use in our Church. One of the sweet ladies, Sis. Betty, took a photo of me dressed up in all my Santa gear and she put it on the bag of coffee. Therefore, I now have my own personalized version of Santa Community Coffee. I do appreciate her and the rest of our gang thinking about me on my birthday. If I could only see myself always living up to the wonderful comments they put on the card. If I could just be that person all the time. I guess I will just have to keep on trying. And, that's what we are called to do. With His help of course. Get up every day and seek Him and get out there and do our best to honor Him by serving others. And, by doing what we always said to our kids at Bible club: "Good clubbers always have a good attitude." That's plenty on my plate. How about you? Enjoy your Saturday and Lord's Day Sunday and if the Lord provides I'll try to show up on Monday morning and we'll see what falls out of my head and lands on the page. At least that's what I will try to do. May God bless each one. Amen. ....More later.