Thoughts On Getting Older

As morbid as this may sound, lately I've been thinking a lot about preparing more for the end of my life. I'm not so egotistical that I can't accept the fact that my life someday WILL end, nor do I presume that it will continue for a long time from now. But I find it frustrating that it seems my entire working life--from my years of auto parts, welding, and my training at IVY Tech--has all led me to where I feel confident that I can build my lifelong dream, my street rod pickup truck...but now that I have the experience, education, and training to do it, I find myself too broke to actually do it.

And now I'm experiencing the aches and pains that "traditionally" go with being my age. Before I turned 50, I could pretty much do all the stuff I did when I was 20. When I turned 55, the deterioration started for real. And now, as I'm in my 60th year, I'm finding I suffer from sore joints and muscles without the benefit of knowing what--if anything--I did to cause the pain.

But it's the combination of all these things that has me thinking that I need to make sure that loose ends are getting tied up, and that I begin to take on fewer, not more, responsibilities. I'll not be seeking any long-term financing for any projects, and I'm not seeing a "lifetime membership" in anything as a financially sound investment. I'm not depressed--other than the part about my truck--but every day, I find myself asking myself, "What are they [the folks who count on me to do things] going to do when I die? I realize that I'm no more indispensable than anyone else...but I'm already thinking that as one by one our pets make their way across that rainbow bridge, I can't consider replacing them, much less adding to their numbers...because I want to be able to adequately care for them, and the older I get, the harder it gets.

That's also why I'm committing to fewer and fewer promises, even with good friends. I'm just finding myself less and less able to deliver on such promises. And I don't make promises lightly. I wish I could do more for friends and family, sure...but my physical resources just don't allow for that as much as I'd like. I can't run on empty at all any more...not like I did when I was working 2 jobs, or 3 jobs including the weekends, when I was younger. Maybe I just used myself up over the years, but I don't have the reserves I did a few years ago. And it leaves me feeling bad for those around me, more than it leaves me feeling sorry for myself. I can't contribute as much to their lives as I'd like. And as much as I'd like to think I could "turn it around," at this age there's just not as much ability to "bounce back" as I used to have.

So I'm facing my own mortality, and realizing that , in my 60th year, it'll be here sooner rather than later. Now, I plan to put THAT off as long as I can...BET ON IT. But I'm enough of a realist that I can see it on the road ahead; I just don't have the depth of field yet to judge the distance involved. So If I turn you down when you ask something of me, PLEASE don't take it personally. It's not you...REALLY.

It's me.

Lessons Learned From A Pork Loin

These days, groceries are expensive. I usually shop for bargains, which are sometimes hard to find. Lately, I've been foregoing most beef products, because the price per pound would deplete the food budget too quickly. So I've been turning to other protein sources. And one of the less-expensive of these has recently been pork loin.

The loin is the part of the pig along the top of the rib cage, according to Wikipedia. I've recently been buying boneless pork loin for around $1.88 a pound, on sale. A 7 to 12 pound pork loin will yield a good number of pork chops, which is what sliced pork loin often becomes. Or a larger section of the loin can become a roast, which we usually cook in the crock pot with carrots, potatoes, and some various seasonings.

So when you strip it all down, a pork loin can be said to be "loin from a pig."

Now, when I was a kid, television was in its infancy. A lot of comedies were shown on TV, and it seems we got to see a lot of the old "movie shorts" featuring the Three Stooges. Curly, as we all know, spoke English with a distinctive accent...and words like "turn" became "toin," "burn" became "boin," and "learn" became "loin." [Some of you may already see where I'm going with this.]

So if pork loin can be called "loin from a pig"...putting this into Curly Howard's voice, just what CAN we "loin from a pig?"

First, pigs like mud. But the reason is, on those hot summer days, the water and the mud form an insulating layer around the pig's skin, helping to keep them cooler. If you've ever seen pigs in the mud, they lie down in it; they roll in it; they immerse themselves in it...often from their piggy snout all the way to their curly tail. So if there's one lesson we can "loin from a pig," that's to totally immerse ourselves in subjects that we love. Roll in it...enjoy it to the fullest. WHY? Because it's cool.

The second lesson we can "loin from a pig" has to do with breakfast. Ever hear the explanation of the difference in the terms "involvement" and "commitment"? When it comes to breakfast of ham and eggs, or bacon and eggs, or sausage and eggs...we can say that the chicken that lays the egg is INVOLVED in your breakfast...but the pig is COMMITTED. The chicken can, after all, walk away after breakfast; the pig cannot. So the second lesson we can "loin from a pig" is to always be fully committed to any projects we take on. We need to go at them "whole hog," as the saying goes, and be committed to their completion and to the perfection of the job at hand. Just being slightly involved, and then walking away...is just plain chicken.

Those are the words of wisdom I have to impart to you today. I hope that when you return to the grocery store and walk by the meat case, you'll be reminded of these lessons you can "loin from a pig" whenever you see the packages with pork loin on sale. I really hope that you'll "loin from a pig" and put these lessons to use in your daily lives as well.

Now...about that bacon that's "fully cured"...was it really sick to begin with?

Christmas 2013

So Christmas is here again...some folks are waxing nostalgic, some folks are waxing philosophical, and yet others are waxing areas I don't even want to talk or hear about. No matter which group you fall into...if you'd lighten up on the spiked eggnog, you wouldn't fall as fast or as hard. Many of you will claim that the fat man with the beard came to visit your homes while everyone was sleeping; the truth is, I never left the house after 7 pm...and I have witnesses.

May everyone who reads this have a wonderful day, no matter what you're celebrating. As for me, I'm going back to bed and hoping I sleep through the rest of the night. Morning will find many of you eating candy you found in your socks...which, any other time of the year, would be a quite disgusting concept. And if you don't end up getting what you want for Christmas, I'd like to ask everyone to focus instead upon all we have, and give thanks for that. Or simply give thanks for the negative things you DON'T have, such as cancer. Others--some of them friends--aren't quite as lucky. There, but for the grace of God, walk you and I.

Appreciate what you have; appreciate as well what you don't have. And may peace be in your life from this day forward.

Just How Big is YOUR God, Anyway?

I see a lot of hand-wringing from folks whose candidate didn't win election this past Tuesday. Many of these folks are upset that the "more Godly" candidate didn't win the election, and that the candidate who won will have destroyed our nation by the time his term in office is over. Yet these people also claim to be people of faith.

So that prompts me to ask them: "Just how big is YOUR God, anyway?" It seems that He's big enough to have created the heavens and the Earth, and all that's in them...yet you seem to think He's not "big enough" to thwart the supposedly "evil" schemes of politicians? Think about that for a moment. You have a God who's big enough to build the universe, who's big enough to put it all in motion and keep it in motion...yet you have worries about His ability to stop a few mere mortals in their quest to perpetrate evil on our land?

Maybe you should try MY God. He's big enough to handle anything. Just because He allows things to occur that aren't in accordance with YOUR will, that doesn't necessarily mean that events are not perfectly in alignment with HIS will. I have faith that MY God can overcome anything that men try to accomplish, and that His will is going to prevail against everything up to and including Satan and Hell itself.

Or maybe it's not your God who has let you down...maybe it's your own faith.

Now, THAT part I can relate to. Being human, sometime my faith wavers. Satan sends his followers to create doubt and fears in our minds and in our souls and in our spirits. He does this much the way God works, through the acts of men and women, and through storms and weather phenomena. But this only occurs to the extent that God ALLOWS it to occur. Consider the story of Job, a man richly blessed by God. Satan was allowed to take all those blessings away, and to even send physical afflictions upon poor Job, just to test his faith in God. But even Job was only allowed to suffer to the extent that God allowed it.

Was it the will of God that Job should suffer? My view is that it was not; God's will is that we follow His words and His ways, and that through doing so, we prosper. But God also tells us, in I Peter 1:7, that our faith will be tested, as gold in the fire. So at times like these we should NOT be filled with despair, as many seem to be. I've read the Book; God's side WILL prevail in the end.

If we dive deeply into despair at what was simply the outcome of a single political election, do we have strong enough faith to prevail when the times of TRUE trial and tribulation are upon us? Let us pray instead, not "for" or "against" any political candidate or party; let us pray for our own faith to be strengthened enough to withstand whatever lies ahead; and let us pray that God's will, and not our own, be done throughout our lives, and even for evermore.

So if YOUR God isn't big enough to handle the results of a single election...maybe it's time to re-examine your God, and your relationship with Him. My guess is, it's not your God that's lacking, but perhaps your faith in Him. I, too, have been guilty of allowing my faith in God to waver...so I'm not placing myself above anyone here. But I'm also praying that my faith will be strengthened daily...and that yours will be, too.

May His peace, that which passes our frail human ability to understand it, be upon you.

OBITUARY: Mary Ellen Knight Plue

from THE CORYDON DEMOCRAT, Wednesday, June 29, 1949

MRS. SCOTT PLUE DIES IN ILLINOIS
REMAINS BROUGHT TO ELIZABETH FOR BURIAL

Mrs. Mary Ellen Plue, 93, widow of Scott Plue, died last Wednesday morning at 5:30 o'clock at her home at Normal, Ill., following a lingering illness.

Mrs. Plue was the daughter of the late Ebenezer and Rebecca Knight and was born and reared in Harrison County. She was a member of the Methodist Church at Elizabeth. The remains arrived at Gehlbach and Resch's Funeral Home last Friday afternoon.

Funeral services were held last Saturday morning at ten o'clock at the Methodist Church at Elizabeth. Burial was in Rose Hill Cemetary.

Surviving are two sons and five daughters, Walter Plue of Meriam, Kansas, Ernest Plue of Peoria, Ill., Mrs. John McWhorten and Mrs. Richard Prido of Normal, Ill., Mrs. O. E. Anderson of Terre Haute, Mrs. Robert Spencer of Louisville and Mrs. C. E. Baker of Jeffersonville. She also leaves one brother, Charles Knight of New Albany and one sister, Mrs. Ida Glaze of Louisville.

Class of '72 40-Year Reunion This Weekend

In some ways, it was a whole lifetime ago...but it sure doesn't seem like it's been 40 years. Tonight we're going to have dinner at Nathan Blank's brewpub in downtown Corydon, on the Square, before its "official" opening...so our class will be their first paying customers. Plans are for all the classmates to sign a T-shirt; then a professional photographer will be there to get a group photo, which will be framed and hung on the wall with the T-shirt, giving our Class of '72 a moment of low-level fame, such as it is. The class isn't charging admission; you just pay for your own food and drink tonight.


Then tomorrow, we plan to have a get-together at Camp Cedarbrook, with a cookout and pitch-in dinner. The class had money left over from the last reunion, so there's also no admission charge for this event...and the class is providing the burgers and the hot dogs, as well as buns, condiments, plates, cups, and utensils. Last time we had a get-together at the camp, the conversations and laughter went from early afternoon to late at night, and it was fun hearing tales told that some of us had never heard before...some of the incidents we saw and heard of while in school suddenly made sense, after hearing the classmate equivalent of Paul Harvey's "Rest Of The Story."


And after our big weekend, we get 2 whole years to plan for our next event. Since most of our class will turn 60 in 2 years, we're making plans to have a "Senior" prom...hopefully we can book the Belle of Louisville for a cruise, as we did for our junior prom back in '71, and again for our 25-year reunion in '97.


Unlike a lot of high school classes, most of our class got along, and we enjoy each others' company. Or maybe we're so old now, we've forgotten enough that it's easier to forgive one another. Whatever the case, I'm looking forward to getting together with the old gang once more.

"Take Our Country Back"??--From WHOM??

I'm still trying to wrap my mind around a lot of what's going on in the political world, at least in America, today. There's a large hue and cry to "take our country back!" that makes me ask...from whom? When did they apparently "steal" it? If we're looking at election results, the "whom" MUST be...the majority of voters. After all, it is the MAJORITY of the voters who have elected our President, our Senators and Representatives. Since one of the basic premises of our constitutional form of government is that the person who wins a plurality of the votes is entitled to hold the office, how is it that our country was "taken" from anyone? If anything, the score is that we voted, somebody won, and somebody lost...simple as that. Nothing was TAKEN from anyone. Just because your candidate or party didn't win, it doesn't mean that anything was TAKEN from you. It wasn't a palace coup, it was an election...and the majority of those who chose to exercise their right to vote simply didn't find your candidate more appealing than the candidate who won. So be adult enough to admit that, and let's drop the pretense that anything was TAKEN from anyone.

Then there's the people who are following candidates such as Republican Rick Santorum, who apparently want to put Christian values into our laws. I suppose that Mr. Santorum and his followers believe that laws abridging the rights of non-Christians to follow THEIR religious beliefs would somehow pass coustitutional muster...yet I fail to see how. In fact, there are state legislatures these days that are considering laws that would ban Muslim "sharia law" form being effective in America...and yet these same folks would want us to live under THEIR religious laws. I believe that the Constitution's first amendment provisions forbidding any laws that would abridge an individual's right to exercise their religious beliefs should be sufficient to cover then needs of our nation.

Conservatives rail that the right to pray has been taken away from our school children. Actually, the "right" of a teacher to FORCE any child to pray in school has been taken away; that's all that has been "lost," and I believe that to be a GOOD loss. Look at it this way: Why is it "right" for a teacher to force a child to pray to a Christian God, but yet it's not "right" for a teacher to force a child to face Mecca and pray to Allah? Because "we" are right and "they" are wrong? If that's how you look at the issue, then you apparently don't truly believe in religious freedon in America. No I don't condone stoning women, nor do I condone cutting off hands or other appendages from people; in fact, I think the Bill of Rights' protection against "cruel and unusual punishment" covers that area already.

Don't get me wrong. I have Christian-based religious beliefs, and I, too, think the Muslims are "wrong." But since I have the right to exercise MY beliefs and possibly be "wrong," why shouldn't others in our great land have the same right to be "wrong?"
I believe that's how our Founding Fathers meant for our nation to operate. And I don't believe that the idea of "taking back our country" [with the subtext of imposing "our" religious ideas on others who--for now,anyway--still have the right to believe as they choose, even if it IS something different from our own beliefs] is something that will bring America back to its ideaological roots.