Yesterday I posted a picture my daughter shared with me of a 1963 Buick Rivera. She took the picture in the parking lot of a restaurant in Henly. In the early evening hours I was driving back home from the grocery store, and in my peripheral vision, I saw that I was being passed on the left by the car I had pictured in my blog. Seriously, what are the chances?
In addition, a friend posted in response to the picture, that they were good friends of the owner. At least, I now also know what the guy looks like. He was less than 15 feet from me when he passed me on the left. The car was really nice.
I sat down at my computer this morning to chronicle a story about cars. I thought better of it because my younger brother in Oklahoma cautioned me years ago that I needed to keep the focus of my stories on things people what to hear.
For years now, I've posted my daily blog on three different platforms. I continue to use Facebook since that is where I started, but I also use Weebly and WordPress.
I started with WordPress at the beginning of 2015. At the end of the year, WordPress sent me a recap of which blogs were the most popular:
Only Secure Men Wear Pink (Note: My first adventure of receiving a pedicure as a gift for my birthday. Hint – Could I be too old to bend over and cut my own toenails.)
Good News/Bad News (Note: The grandkids didn't want to go home. They wanted to stay for a week. I mention that was both "good news/bad news" and would be blog worthy. The General was not happy that I mentioned their staying would be good for my blog. I resolved to "keep my blog ideas" to myself.)
Well Since This Is Not Motel 6 and You Aren't' Coming Home Tonight, I'm Turning the Porch Light Off (Note: My flight out of Washington D.C. didn't get me all the way home. I had a very long unplanned layover in Nashville)
Is it Patterned Behavior Or Is It A Ploy To Drive Me Crazy? (Note: I simply made reference to the fact that the General has a habit that I find somewhat frustrating. I find it frustrating to be told what to do while I'm already engaged in completing the requested activity. It happens all the time.)
If my writing experience has taught me anything, it is that the person that benefits most from my writing is me. Consequently, I don't keep a head count of the numbers of "likes" that I receive. I stopped paying for the extra feature of getting statistical information from WordPress concerning which posts are most read.
Don't get me wrong. It does make me feel better knowing others enjoy what I've written. I like the fact that my stories remind others of their stories.
The other freedom that I have given myself is the freedom not to have to write something every day. I mostly do, but sometimes I don't.
I will close with a story about a friend who occasionally posts a blog. He chronicled his day (or perhaps evening is more accurate) for his 252 Facebook friends to see.
Like a lamb being led to slaughter, he drew me in with his level of transparency. I had only read a couple of sentences before I was struck by his courage. They say, "Confession is good for the soul". Yet, honestly, I don't know many people that would take the kind of risk that my friend was choosing to take.
He obviously had bargained with God and was throwing it all out there for everyone to see. I wasn't sure that he wasn't making a bad mistake. For one thing, he's a Baptist. Some of the kindest, most loving people that I've ever known have been Baptist. Most of you have probably met Baptist who are loving and kind. Haven't you? ….Haven't you? Speak up! It really is true. Did I mention the General is a Baptist? Most folk's who've read about her think she's a saint to put up with me.
At the same time, it is equally true, that some of the most critical and judgmental people I've ever known are also Baptist. I bet you get the drift of where I'm headed with this.
My friend was taking an awful chance! It's not that Baptists are opposed to the concept of confession. Not at all! In fact, some Baptists are so enamored with the concept of confession that they often practice confession by highlighting someone else's faults instead of their own.
You know, the conversations that take place in the parking lot, the beauty shop and over coffee. After all, doesn't it make sense that you'd practice by putting someone else in the limelight before you risked sharing your own stuff?
Some of you are thinking, "That sounds a lot like gossip." Before you get too critical, look at it differently. "Baptist don't gossip"! There's a Biblical mandate agin' it. It may sound like gossip, but it really is confession, one-step-removed.
This is what he shared: "I would like to share an experience with you about drinking and driving". That is all I needed to read before I knew my friend was going to be in trouble from the very start.
I thought to myself, "There is no way this is going to have a happy ending". He went on to write, "As you well know, some of us have been lucky not to have had brushes with the authorities on our way home from the various social sessions over the years."
At this point, I hoped he knew what he was doing. I audibly gasped when I read: "A couple of nights ago, I was out for a few drinks with some friends and had a few too many beers and then topped it off with a margarita. Not a good idea."
My friend sharing his confession was right. "It was not a good idea". What was he thinking? Yet he'd already let the cat-out-of-the-bag, why not plow forward?
Maybe I processed the "it was not a good idea" wrong. He could have been talking about the margarita instead of the confession. He dug the hole deeper.
He went on to write: "Knowing full well I was at least slightly over the limit, I did something I've never done before. I took a taxi home. Sure enough, I passed a police road-block, but because it was a taxi, they waved it past. I arrived home safely without incident, which was a real surprise.
I guess I'm just slow. Perhaps I was so distraught knowing my friend was going to be in a world of hurt if some of his 252 Facebook friends were Baptist who fell in a category outside the "kindest and most loving people", that I didn't anticipate the punch line.
I broke into laughter when I read his last line: "I have never driven a taxi before and am not sure where I got it."
All My Best!
Don
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