Ale for the Soul

Yesterday was my last day off till next Wednesday.  I was scheduled to have a day off on Saturday, but I agreed to work for a fellow co-worker.  (Plus, I really need the extra money.)  At least it was a beautiful day.  Mother Nature has yet to make up its mind as it transitions from Fall to Winter.  I can handle almost any type of weather.  What I do have a hard time with is all the "in-between" temperatures and precipitation: hot one day, cold the next, raining the day after, and so forth.  After two personal obligations in the morning, I visited a local city park I had never been too before.  What's sad is I formerly lived blocks from here but never took the time for a visit.  Unity Park is the name of the city park.  This was formerly named Jeff Davis Park, but historical revisionists have decided to rename it for the sake of sanitizing history.  (To these people, if you don't see or hear about it, the event didn't happen...and you can go away not having

          By age sixteen, George Washington had copied out by hand, 110 rules of Civility & Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation. They are based on a set of rules composed by French Jesuits in 1595. Presumably they were copied out as part of an exercise in penmanship assigned by young Washington's schoolmaster. The first English translations of the French rules appeared in 1640, and are ascribed to Francis Hawkins, the twelve-year-old son of a doctor.           Richard Brookhiser, in his book on Washington wrote, "all modern manners in the western world were originally aristocratic. Courtesy meant behavior appropriate to a court; chivalry comes from chevalier - a knight. Yet Washington was to dedicate himself to freeing America from a court's control. Could manners survive the operation? Without realizing it, the Jesuits who wrote them, and the young man who copied them, were outlining and absorbing a system of courtesy appropriate to equals and nearequals.

Last year I wasn't able to travel for the holiday due to the type of job I held at the time.  This year I was blessed to spend two days with family in Yoakum, Texas.  As soon as I clocked out from work on Tuesday, I took to the interstate for the five-hour trip.  Since it was fairly late in the evening once I arrived, I didn't stay up very long but conceded to the desire for sleep.  Overall, Mom and I had a good visit.  There wasn't anything new or exciting to share; however, the simple fact of spending time together was important.  She accessed the situation accurately when stating, "We are too accustomed to living by ourselves."  The observation was made in the context of not having much substance or subject matter to our conversations.  Regardless, the trip was good, and I look forward to the next time I can visit.  Of course I can't revel in my holiday experience without declaring what I am thankful for: family and friends, fairly good health, a job that

Seems to me I am making a regular habit of travelling to Dallas.  This previous Saturday I had made arrangements to meet a friend for an hour or two of fellowship.  Not wanting anything to go to waste, I made a day of it after bidding farewell to my friend.  With smartphone in hand, Siri gave me directions to the Historic West End.  To honestly confess, I have visited this area a few times before; however, I always seem to find some new twist during my excursion.  It is in the Historic West End that Dealey Plaza, the place where John F. Kennedy was assassinated, is located.  People are continually mesmerized by the allure of the "who-dunnit" mystery.  (If Lee Harvey Oswald had anything to do with it, he was only a small figure in the greater cover-up and conspiracy.)  After walking around snapping numerous pictures, I found another memorial to JFK.  Satisfied with my adventure, I grabbed lunch at The Spaghetti Warehouse.  Fond memories soon began to flood my consciousn

We're here to mark that day in history when the Allied armies joined in battle to reclaim this continent to liberty. For 4 long years, much of Europe had been under a terrible shadow. Free nations had fallen, Jews cried out in the camps, millions cried out for liberation. Europe was enslaved, and the world prayed for its rescue. Here in Normandy the rescue began. Here the Allies stood and fought against tyranny in a giant undertaking unparalleled in human history. We stand on a lonely, windswept point on the northern shore of France. The air is soft, but 40 years ago at this moment, the air was dense with smoke and the cries of men, and the air was filled with the crack of rifle fire and the roar of cannon. At dawn, on the morning of the 6th of June, 1944, 225 Rangers jumped off the British landing craft and ran to the bottom of these cliffs. Their mission was one of the most difficult and daring of the invasion: to climb these sheer and desolate cliffs and take out the enemy gu

Thursday seemed like any other day as I headed in to work.  About an hour after I arrived, one of the owners showed up asking what I was doing at the shop.  Gently responding I was there to work as scheduled, he told me to take the day off.  Well, to have the day off at that point was irrelevant as I had already invested an hours' worth of work.  Considering this is how my luck usually runs, I simply took it in stride as this is an example how quickly things change in my life.  The day was not a complete loss as I had made arrangements to meet a friend at Noon.  My friend, Randy, wanted to meet for a smoke, see the shop where I worked, and to catch up on old times.  We formerly worked together downtown at Tobacco Lane on the Square and hadn't seen each other in well over two years.  Up till today, we would briefly chat via Twitter, but today we had agreed to meet for a time of fellowship.  What a time of blessing this was for us.  God was kind enough to bring me to an oasis, a