Maybe I am the way I am because my mom used to say this when I asked where she was going, "To see a man about a dog."

I flipped on the light switch but I'm not sure anyone is home this morning. That's the way it goes on some days and it seems to be so on this day, Wednesday, February 12, 2020. One of these days I will write my last blog. If that were to be today, I could say, "I'm telling you for the 3,265th time, that is, the last time." My mom used to be heard saying that quite often, "I'm telling you for the last time." Sometimes she really meant it and what happened next was not good for the person she was talking to. Not good at all. Sometimes she would say it more than once which led us kids to try and guess when it was really the last time. Guess wrong and pay the price. You are right. We didn't have a lot of games of our own so we had to improvise. I talked with someone the other day who lived in an area not too far from where I grew up. We were talking about the Louisiana state insane asylum located in Pineville, La. He said he too heard the threat growing up about how that if the kids didn't behave they were going to send their mom to Pineville. With our large family, this was a near-constant refrain from my mom. We, by the way, never caused her to have to be sent to Pineville. I'm not saying we didn't try, but, it didn't actually happen. I suppose this threat is fairly common because I have met folks over the years who said their moms said something very similar but used their own well-known mental facility in issuing their threat. For me, it may have gone something like this, "I'm telling you for the last time if you don't straighten up and fly right you are going to send me straight to Pineville!"

I know some of what we heard was brutal. "Stop that or I'll pinch your head off!" "I'll slap you seven ways from Sunday!" "Stop that crying now or do you want me to give you something to cry about?" "I'll slap that grin right off your face." However, we didn't have school shootings and for the most part, we were taught to mind our manners and behave. Let me quickly add, the whippings were a part of it as well. I didn't say spankings because they were whippings. For us, it was plumb tree switches which were diabolical with tentacles that stung and left marks. Yep. Marks. But, as you can tell, it didn't bother me, bother me, bother me, at all. What folks call cruel and inhuman today was referred to as God-ordained discipline when I was growing up. I ask you this question. Why is it that I look back and can only be thankful for my mom and all she did for me including the whippings I got? Today we have kids in therapy because the parents sent them to their room for being disobedient. I do know there were excesses. I can remember even as a kid some crazy people who literally beat up on their kids. They were dealt with accordingly. Like I say, I have nothing but the utmost love and respect for my mom and all she did to try and put us on the right path. That's my heart and my word and I am unanimous in this affirmation. Amen.

Lest you get the wrong idea, we did not grow up in an ideal family setting. Our life experiences, even from a young age, were shaped through tragedies, heartaches, and difficult times. We didn't live in a protective cocoon and we didn't operate our daily existence like an episode of 'Leave it to Beaver.' My mom never wore pearls that I know of. We did get a steady diet of excellent Southern cooking along with plenty of spiritual guidance and lessons on living a life of integrity. The bottom line, my mom did the best she knew how to do given the circumstances she faced. And, like moms before her and after her, she was fiercely faithful to her children to the very end. Don't doubt me on that. I can actually prove it. When people talk about their upbringing, them being reared, all I can say is we were snatched up by our widowed mom who had to make it up as she went, and, all and all, look how I turned out. Wait a minute. Hold that one for now. And, replace it with the overriding truth for us all and that is the reality of any of us being who we are today only by the grace of God, period. I do not know where this train of thought came from but it almost turned out to be a runaway locomotive. I suppose this is what happens when one flips the light switch on and no one is at home. Have a great rest of the day and may God add His blessings. Amen. .....More later.