Hello to my friends. Once again my busy life has consumed much of my free time. I have been blessed with two trips with customers on a quail hunt in South Georgia. Hunting quail in a southern pine Forest is a wonderful experience. The beauty of massive oaks draped in Spanish moss is something you don't see every day. In the midst of this traveling I completed reading a new book by William (Bill) Bennett, titled "A Century Turns".
This book is a true history book. While I must admit that I don't spend a lot of time delving in historical writing. This book however is a history of our country through the Bush One presidency all the way to our present leader Barrack Obama. I truly can say that each day I looked forward to my time with this book. I learned many things about the nineties that slipped by me when I was living during this time. Each presidency was analyzed with insights that few of us have the opportunity to hear during the actual time in which they take place.
I learned that I truly liked the Bush One presidency far more than I realized. President Bush made decisions that were right for our country and for this he was relegated to only one term. I also learned that Bush Two was not quite the man his father was. Perhaps it was the situations that he found himself in that caused some decisions that were not the best for the country. Each President during the nineties and the turn of the century are looked at from a historical perspective. It is also interesting how decisions made in early 2000 to 2008 will affect each of us for years to come.
I felt that Bennett writes from an unbiased viewpoint and really tells the story of a twenty year period of turmoil, terrorist attacks, economic disaster, social ills and all the good bad and ugly of our country during this time. His book will be used as a source of history recorded during these turbulent years. He also tells of where we are today and the challenges we face.
Did the book encourage me as an American for the days that lie ahead? I am not sure as I write this review that I know the answer to this question. He did help me understand how some decisions, good and bad are made during times of crisis. Mr. Bennett served during the Reagan and Bush One presidencies and has enjoyed a seat near great men who served our country. He writes from a perspective that few have experienced.
I think anyone that will take the time to read this book will walk away with a better understanding of where we have been as a country and where we are heading. I think that any serious student of history should read this book and even the person with a casual interest will find this book rewarding and enlightening. It is well worth the time spent and the person will be rewarded with much knowledge of our history and the future.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
A Million Miles in a Thousand Years
I just finished a new book by Donald Miller. The title is "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years." The author said this book is about what he learned while editing his life. The book describes a situation where a company was making a movie about the author's life. The author realized early on that his life was not worthy of writing a book about or making a movie. He realized luckily at a young age (mid-thirties) that he was not writing a very good story about his life. He did something about it and began to take on various challenges, such as climbing mountains in Peru and riding cross country from Los Angeles to the East Coast ( a two month bide ride). He also begain his greatest work....starting a mentoring program for fatherless children.
Miller points out that we all have a story to tell. Some are exciting some rather bland. He describes in the book that "a story is a character who wants something and overcomes conflict to get it." He goes on to say "if I have a hope, it's that God sat over the dark nothing and wrote you and me, specifically into the story, and put us with the sunset and the rainstorm as though to say enjoy your place in my story. The beauty of it means you matter, and you can create within it even as I have created you.
This book is not an action packed adventure, but a man pouring out his heart about his place in this life and the story his life will tell. Yet I found myself unable to put the book down. I read this book in a few nights and know that I must reread it for all the nuggets hidden in it's pages. While this is the first book I have read by this author I know that I will read his other works.
Now to my problem with applying this book. The author as stated is in his mid to late thirties. I am in my late fifties. Am I too late to edit my story and make it an exciting life? I believe that God writes a story for each of us. The question is do we live the story? Or do we live aimless lives, rolling with the flow and taking life as it comes? Can we make our latter years more exciting than our early years? My faith tells me that we can start where we are, today. We can make the most of the time God has given us.
I can say unequivocally.....buy this book....buy it today. It will change your outlook. It will change your life. I believe with all my heart that God ordains books such as this in the hopes that His children will live their stories as he wrote them. It is never too late to start. Today is the first day of the rest of your lives. Again the book is titled....A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller.
Miller points out that we all have a story to tell. Some are exciting some rather bland. He describes in the book that "a story is a character who wants something and overcomes conflict to get it." He goes on to say "if I have a hope, it's that God sat over the dark nothing and wrote you and me, specifically into the story, and put us with the sunset and the rainstorm as though to say enjoy your place in my story. The beauty of it means you matter, and you can create within it even as I have created you.
This book is not an action packed adventure, but a man pouring out his heart about his place in this life and the story his life will tell. Yet I found myself unable to put the book down. I read this book in a few nights and know that I must reread it for all the nuggets hidden in it's pages. While this is the first book I have read by this author I know that I will read his other works.
Now to my problem with applying this book. The author as stated is in his mid to late thirties. I am in my late fifties. Am I too late to edit my story and make it an exciting life? I believe that God writes a story for each of us. The question is do we live the story? Or do we live aimless lives, rolling with the flow and taking life as it comes? Can we make our latter years more exciting than our early years? My faith tells me that we can start where we are, today. We can make the most of the time God has given us.
I can say unequivocally.....buy this book....buy it today. It will change your outlook. It will change your life. I believe with all my heart that God ordains books such as this in the hopes that His children will live their stories as he wrote them. It is never too late to start. Today is the first day of the rest of your lives. Again the book is titled....A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller.
A Boring Life??
Dear friends,
It has been many days since my last post and for this I apologize. It seems that things were so busy for a while that I got out of the habit of writing on a regular basis. I also began thinking that nothing really significant was going on in my life, so why bother with taking your time to read rambling from a boring life. I sat back today and realized that I really have been lazy. It is easier to sit in front of the tube than to share with friends via my blog. I also realized that I have in fact had a rather eventful life for the past 30 days. I will try to recap my life and forgive me if I get a date wrong, etc.
December 22nd: Drove straight through from Cumming, GA to Dallas, Tx to spend the holidays with my family.
December 24th: Witnessed the first white Christmas in Dallas since 1910.
December 25th: Enjoyed Christmas with my daughter and her family. My first Christmas with our newest "Baby Mary".
December 25th: Drove part way to Oklahoma City in slush, ice and snow. We spent the night in Gainesville, Tx. and enjoyed IHOP for dinner. I realized that I had eaten breakfast three meals in a row.
December 26th: Arrived in Oklahoma City. OKC had an all time record snowfall 14". My son's driveway had 4 to 5 ft. snow drifts. Temps were in the teens for a high. We celebrated a late Christmas with my son and his wife Jama and daughters Avery and Reagan. It was a time of joy. My daughter Holly and husband Mike and daughters Mary, Anna and Ellie joined us. It is a rare treat when all my kids and grandchildren are together at one time.
December 27th: My power window became inoperable (in the open position) while paying a toll at the toll booth. Drove around OKC in frigid weather with the windows open.
December 28th: Spent the day trying to get the window fixed. I finally was successful.
December 29th: My sons car had recently been pushing snow during the blizzard and lost a serpentine belt. To get to the belt the bumper had to be removed as well as a front tire and wheel. This was all done in cold temps. We finally decided we did not have the tools to do the job and had to reassemble the bumper and wheel and called a wrecker and paid a mechanic to fix the problem.
December 29th continued: My son's sink stopped up. We crawled on the roof and tried to unstop the vent, then tried to unstop the drain outside (in frigid weather). My son's father-in-law joined the fun and we disassembled the sink trap and unplugged one drain. In the process we broke a compression ring. Luckily there was a spare in the garage. We put it all back together and discovered the same problem with the other sink. Again we broke the compression ring...this time no spare. Drove 25 mile round trip and bought several compression rings and we cleaned the drain, reassembled and all worked well.
December 29th Continued: Celebrated my wife's 60th birthday and daughter-in-law Jama's (not sure how many) birthday at a great restaurant in OKC.
December 30th: during the evening I contracted a stomach virus. We had two rooms at the Hampton Inn in OKC (long story why we had two rooms). My wife and granddaughters were thankfully in one room and I was in the other. I spent six hours on the throne with a trash can in my hands (and read a good book in the midst of this problem). I don't need to describe what was going on but it was not a pleasant experience.
December 31st: We left for Springdale, Arkansas with clear roads to visit my dad and his wife. It was an uneventful trip. We had a nice dinner with dad and my brother and a nice visit with Dad and his wife. We spent the night in the Hampton Inn and were both asleep well before the new year.
January 1st, 2010: We celebrated the new year by driving straight through to our home in Cumming, GA. This was about 800 miles.
January 2nd/3rd: We crashed to get over the trip. Watched a few ballgames and slept.
January 4th: Back to work in order to get some rest and of course to get caught up on projects after being off for two weeks.
January 7th: Off on a deer hunting trip with customers in South Alabama. Up every morning at 4:30 and to bed at 10:00 PM. No deer were present on the 7th or the morning of the 8th.
January 8th: Shot the largest deer in my life. 11 Point buck. The deer had a lot of character. The rack told stories about the battles this buck endured to reach a ripe old age. I actually dreamed the night before about this deer coming out of the woods. The reality was exactly like the dream. I felt a spiritual connection with this animal. It took a couple of hours to regain my composure after taking the deer.
January 9th: Back home again
February 3rd-4th: Preparing to go on an annual Quail Hunt.
Other than all these events it has been kind of boring. Sometimes we need to sit back and think about our lives and how really full they can be. It is a shame that we neglect to tell our stories.
It has been many days since my last post and for this I apologize. It seems that things were so busy for a while that I got out of the habit of writing on a regular basis. I also began thinking that nothing really significant was going on in my life, so why bother with taking your time to read rambling from a boring life. I sat back today and realized that I really have been lazy. It is easier to sit in front of the tube than to share with friends via my blog. I also realized that I have in fact had a rather eventful life for the past 30 days. I will try to recap my life and forgive me if I get a date wrong, etc.
December 22nd: Drove straight through from Cumming, GA to Dallas, Tx to spend the holidays with my family.
December 24th: Witnessed the first white Christmas in Dallas since 1910.
December 25th: Enjoyed Christmas with my daughter and her family. My first Christmas with our newest "Baby Mary".
December 25th: Drove part way to Oklahoma City in slush, ice and snow. We spent the night in Gainesville, Tx. and enjoyed IHOP for dinner. I realized that I had eaten breakfast three meals in a row.
December 26th: Arrived in Oklahoma City. OKC had an all time record snowfall 14". My son's driveway had 4 to 5 ft. snow drifts. Temps were in the teens for a high. We celebrated a late Christmas with my son and his wife Jama and daughters Avery and Reagan. It was a time of joy. My daughter Holly and husband Mike and daughters Mary, Anna and Ellie joined us. It is a rare treat when all my kids and grandchildren are together at one time.
December 27th: My power window became inoperable (in the open position) while paying a toll at the toll booth. Drove around OKC in frigid weather with the windows open.
December 28th: Spent the day trying to get the window fixed. I finally was successful.
December 29th: My sons car had recently been pushing snow during the blizzard and lost a serpentine belt. To get to the belt the bumper had to be removed as well as a front tire and wheel. This was all done in cold temps. We finally decided we did not have the tools to do the job and had to reassemble the bumper and wheel and called a wrecker and paid a mechanic to fix the problem.
December 29th continued: My son's sink stopped up. We crawled on the roof and tried to unstop the vent, then tried to unstop the drain outside (in frigid weather). My son's father-in-law joined the fun and we disassembled the sink trap and unplugged one drain. In the process we broke a compression ring. Luckily there was a spare in the garage. We put it all back together and discovered the same problem with the other sink. Again we broke the compression ring...this time no spare. Drove 25 mile round trip and bought several compression rings and we cleaned the drain, reassembled and all worked well.
December 29th Continued: Celebrated my wife's 60th birthday and daughter-in-law Jama's (not sure how many) birthday at a great restaurant in OKC.
December 30th: during the evening I contracted a stomach virus. We had two rooms at the Hampton Inn in OKC (long story why we had two rooms). My wife and granddaughters were thankfully in one room and I was in the other. I spent six hours on the throne with a trash can in my hands (and read a good book in the midst of this problem). I don't need to describe what was going on but it was not a pleasant experience.
December 31st: We left for Springdale, Arkansas with clear roads to visit my dad and his wife. It was an uneventful trip. We had a nice dinner with dad and my brother and a nice visit with Dad and his wife. We spent the night in the Hampton Inn and were both asleep well before the new year.
January 1st, 2010: We celebrated the new year by driving straight through to our home in Cumming, GA. This was about 800 miles.
January 2nd/3rd: We crashed to get over the trip. Watched a few ballgames and slept.
January 4th: Back to work in order to get some rest and of course to get caught up on projects after being off for two weeks.
January 7th: Off on a deer hunting trip with customers in South Alabama. Up every morning at 4:30 and to bed at 10:00 PM. No deer were present on the 7th or the morning of the 8th.
January 8th: Shot the largest deer in my life. 11 Point buck. The deer had a lot of character. The rack told stories about the battles this buck endured to reach a ripe old age. I actually dreamed the night before about this deer coming out of the woods. The reality was exactly like the dream. I felt a spiritual connection with this animal. It took a couple of hours to regain my composure after taking the deer.
January 9th: Back home again
February 3rd-4th: Preparing to go on an annual Quail Hunt.
Other than all these events it has been kind of boring. Sometimes we need to sit back and think about our lives and how really full they can be. It is a shame that we neglect to tell our stories.
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