There were three things my father would discuss: work, sports, and television/movies. Most of these topics arose during his inebriated period each night. How he could down 2 quarts of Schlitz and get up and go to work at 5am the next day still amazes me.
Thanksgiving of 2009, I decided to start a new family tradition. All this time we’ve been living within a stone’s throw of Plymouth (formerly Plimoth before the settler’s learned proper English) the very birthplace of English colonization and what would eventually become the United States. Being the father of a five-year-old, I thought it would be a great opportunity to give her a history lesson – my least favorite subject.
Do you ever find yourself coming to a conclusion about somebody you’ve never met? Do you ever fear things that, logically, just don’t make sense (as in, “I’ll give you anything, just put the clown down!”) The reason is the same reason Donald Trump returned from bankruptcy, and the Underwear Bomber thought he was doing something worthy (albeit painful.)
The internet has become a collective of the human mind including the dark, lint-like fuzzies that inhabit it. Whether obscene or inspired, mindful or mindless, baking or half-baked, the internet has grown into some kind of living ‘thing’. Less like an ordained being, it’s more like an amorphous blob of mostly useless and/or false information. But that’s what makes it exciting.
It’s all bull. Totally. There’s no difference between today and New Years (except Dick Clark is still in stasis at the moment.) We have a habit of saying the I’m-gonna-some-days which only turn into shoulda-woulda-couldas. Not to go new-agey on you, but we only have now. Except now is gone in the last sentence. And with each word, we creep into the future. And then you’ll click something else, and go get a coffee….time keeps on ticking, ticking, ticking, into the living room. And your same life is still there.
There’s a lot of mis-information floating around out there about Christians and what we believe. One of these beliefs is the mythical list of ‘do nots’. The belief that by becoming a Christian in any sense, you are then supposed to not smoke, not drink (I love a Sam’s once in a while,) not party, [...]
I was a paperboy growing up, a career path that no longer exists for preteens. I remember having to ride past the bad-kid’s house. You know the ones, or maybe were the ones. They had a penchant for flannel and work boots though they never worked or seemed to have any responsibilities. Their face was etched with a permanent snear that only flickered into smiles and laughter and somebody else’s expense. Their hair never seemed to be combed or washed for that matter. When pets would go missing, though nobody blatantly accused them, everyone had their suspicions who may have been involved. They had a reputation and it was not undeserved. Now I realize that the mischief makers didn’t deserve what created them.
Saving the world is the new battle cry of business. Marketing execs are holding hands, singing Kumbaya, and pursuing polar bear photo ops. But what caused this ‘rush’ and is it really a good thing? Consumers are more involved with the process than you may think.
*James Cook is a dapper, thinking-man’s man who enjoys the simpler things in life mainly because, like him, they’re cheap. Born at an early age, James enjoys his life in Southeastern Massachusetts where he has spent most of his sane life (except for winters, wet springs, rude drivers, and liberal democrats.) When not writing, which is most of the time, James enjoys acting, writing music, spending time with his wife & daughter, reading, outdoors, thinking, thinking, thinking, golfing, and writing bio’s about himself in the third person. A majority of his time is spent at work, but he does not enjoy that. James is also a born-again Christian who thumps his Bible, but with a humorous, jazzy-type rhythm.