People

I was there and I saw what happened the night the Argento River reversed course and started flowing backwards. It was the same night we christened the Sam Houston Express.

If you ask the locals to tell you about that night and the things that followed you’ll hear all sorts of different stories but most of them won’t be true. They won’t tell you they are lying because you can’t lie when you think you are telling the truth.

But some of us know better because for one reason or another we weren’t affected by that thing, well at least not our memories. Whatever made the Argento River flow backwards didn’t do any sort of harm to our heads, at least none that I can tell.

Heck, it didn’t do much of anything at all to us other than turn us into people who never get sick, don’t age and seem to have lifespans that are ridiculously long.

Look hard at the picture above and you’ll find me and Bill Peebles looking back at you. Chances are you’ll look at the date, 1893 and then make a comment about how Bill and I look an awful lot like our great grandfathers.

It might be factually true to say Bill and I look like our forefathers but the reality is the reason those men look so much like us is because that is us.

I know, it sounds ridiculous.

People might live to be more than a 100 years old but they don’t do so without some significant changes in their physical appearance.

Well I can’t explain exactly how or why things turned out this way but when you have lived as long as we have you learn life is filled with much more of the “I can’t tell you why it happened but it did” than you realize.

Who Is Bill Peebles?

I suppose before I answer the question I should clarify that everything that came before the first subhead is part of ten minutes worth of fiction that I just threw together.

Bill Peebles is a real man but I don’t know him in person.

We met through a dad bloggers group on Facebook. Truth is I can’t tell you much about him. Sure, I can pull bits and pieces from his blog and things he has shared in the group but I think it is up to him to share more with you if he chooses to.

What I can tell you is that he is married, the father of two boys and he plays guitar. I can also tell you he is diligent in reading the posts the fellas share in the group and tat he often leaves a comment about those he has read.

My impression is that he does it because that is who he is. He is a nice guy who likes to let the authors know what he thought about their posts.

He has been doing it long enough that it has turned into a thing in the group. A Bill Peebles comment is worth something, it is meaningful.

I hope he understands the headline for this post is supposed to be playful and not mean or malicious.

Teasing and Friends

It is a timely topic for me, teasing and friends because the stories I am hearing from my son about middle school include a lot of tales of teasing.

The guys he hangs out with are doing a lot of the same crap we used to do when I was their age. Some of it is just silly and fun and some of it isn’t.

Or maybe it is more accurate to say it is not always taken as being silly and fun.

Every now and then I’ll hear a story from my son about how one of the guys did something that upset him. Thus far those are the exception and thus far he has handled everything quite well.

But I am wondering if any of this is going to transition into something less fun and more ugly. I hope it doesn’t but I remember that age and how crazy kids can get.

When I listen to these stories I think back and I remember how a few moments changed for me and well, I hope they don’t for my son.

But he has to figure these things out for himself so unless he tells me about something that sounds dangerous I’ll keep my mouth shut and let him figure out what temperature is comfortable and what isn’t.

Parenting isn’t for the weak.

Sometimes I like going to see or look at pictures of old barns. There is something about them that I find intriguing and interesting.

Maybe it is because every one of them makes my imagination start working overtime, maybe it is because I look at them and wonder who lives there and what their story is.

Maybe it is because I associate them with people who work with their hands and those are often people whose worth is misunderstood by those who don’t use their hands in the same fashion.

Social Media and People

Spent a few minutes today thinking about social media and what happens within it. Social media is about people but we have this habit of not treating them as well as we should. Instead of looking at people as people we talk about followers, fans and subscribers.

Instead of engaging with them we are collecting them like trophies.
What Is A Person Worth

It is well past 1 AM here in Texas and I am chastising myself for committing one of the biggest mistakes a writer can make, sleep deprivation.

Morning will come far too soon and I will nuke myself into a wakeful state with a barrel full of coffee and 198 pounds of eggs. Got a couple of days before Traveling Jack takes to the skies to head back to LA.

And here in the quiet of the night when the silence brings more clarity I wonder again about the direction of the blog and what I want out of social media.

I am not engaging and interacting the way I once was and I wonder if I really care. Does it bother me that I spent so much time trying to build things here and that now I am not giving it the same emphasis as I once did.

Have I stopped looking at followers and readers as people. Am I just looking at them as numbers and relying upon a ton of posts and links to consistently bring traffic to the blog.

Or is this just one of those momentary blips, a hiccup if you will.

Musical Intermission

Here are seven songs that have accompanied me this evening.

1. The Man Who Couldn’t Cry- Johnny Cash
   
2. God’s Gonna Cut You Down- Johnny Cash
3. (Ghost) Riders In The Sky- Johnny Cash
4. It Ain’t Me, Babe- Johnny Cash with June Carter Cash
5. Going to California- London Philharmonic Orchestra & Peter Scholes
6. Hero Of The Day-Metallica
7. Adagio for Strings-New Zealand Symphony Orchestra & Andrew Schenck

Sort of an eclectic mix, but it fits my mood and the moment and that is good enough for me. Haven’t seen my kids since Memorial Day on anything but Skype and I am ready to burst with excitement.

Sometimes the kids and I talk about those old barn pictures I mentioned above and we share our thoughts about who lives there and what their lives are like.

And I talk to the kids about why their education is so very important and tell them I want them to focus hard on it so that they don’t have to work with their hands for a living, unless they want to.

Those last four words stick with me a lot, unless they want to.

Sometimes I wonder if my role as a father includes pushing them to try and find careers based upon want or what will provide them with financial security.

Most of the time I come back to the same place where I push them to focus on their education so that they can gain more choices and opportunity because sometimes you have to work for a while before you figure out what you really want.

What Is a Person Worth

Almost 2 am, I have stopped writing twice to stare out  at the sky and to clear my head. My mind is racing about a million different things.

Received notifications about some new subscribers and notifications about unsubscribers too.

Don’t know why they left but they did. Maybe they didn’t feel valued or maybe they grew bored. Maybe they just didn’t see value in the content anymore, I don’t know.

Thought about trying to include some of my favorite posts here but I am finally tired so I have to wrap this up. What I am certain of is that the posts I like best are those that include some passion and personality. I like the ones where we share pieces of our lives because it helps build connections and keeps us from collecting people like trophies.

People power social media.

My inclination is to start this journey with a few words about the wisdom of stirring the pot but before I do I think my friend Mr. Twain has some words to share:

After all these years, I see that I was mistaken about Eve in the beginning; it is better to live outside the Garden with her than inside it without her.
– “Adam’s Diary”

Man was made at the end of the week’s work, when God was tired.
– Notebook, 1903; Mark Twain, a Biography

More than one person has accused me of being a scoundrel, a rogue and or worse. I haven’t always chosen to acknowledge or respond to these descriptions, sometimes because I knew my mood was dark and my inclination was to leave scorched earth and sometimes because it wasn’t worth it.

Other times it was because I knew with complete certainty that my silence frustrated them more than my words could and that was enough to move me to remain placid in their presence.

Some have accused me of being foolish for not caring enough about the feelings of others to worry about my words and deeds. Others have praised it and said they wish they could choose a similar path but that is not something I ever advocate because it is more important to be you than me.

The Arrogance Of Man

The arrogance of man might suggest that we act as we do because we know that our way is better than another.  I don’t necessarily disagree with that, at least not in its entirety. I don’t believe in moral equivalency and that every belief is equal in value because it was created by man.

Look at the behavior in the last post and you’ll see examples of behavior that is reprehensible and is definitely not something that should be promoted. Granted the advocates of those who follow those lines of thought might disagree, but they would be wrong. 😉

All of which leads me to a thought about some events from today and life in general.

Stirring The Pot

I was part of a group discussion earlier today in which someone asked if I had made a comment to be an asshole or because I wanted to be a troll.

The purpose wasn’t to be an asshole or a troll. It was to stir the pot and generate discussion about some things that I found irritating. It would be fair to suggest my words weren’t carefully chosen and that some people might react strongly.

I won’t take time to try and spin that. Even though I didn’t mention anyone by name I can see how some people would be offended but I am not going to apologize for their hurt feelings any more than I will refrain from trying to spin what happened.

Sometimes when you want people to think about why they think a certain way or adhere to certain ideals you have to do more than just ask.  Sometimes you have to push hard enough to get their attention and hold it.

What Happens When Someone Else Tries To Take The Spoon

Midway through the general merriment a newcomer to the discussion tried to take the spoon from my hands but they did so in a passive-aggressive fashion. They made comments that were clearly directed at me but didn’t call me by name.

Some years ago I would have welcomed their attention and responded with the written form of a mailed fist. I would be lying if I said I didn’t consider it but I chose not to because I didn’t see what would be gained from doing so.

It seemed smarter to wait and see if this individual really wanted to engage me. Poke the bear with a stick and eventually he will come out of the cave with malicious intent.

But things settled down and he refrained from continuing so I have remained silent.

Ultimately my focus isn’t to engage in the sort of written hijinks that I enjoyed when I was younger but to see if my pot stirring leads to any change or at least insight. I thought the discussion that resulted was pretty good and though I haven’t changed my mind I did hear some compelling reasons why I should and that alone is beneficial so I am grateful for it.

Zach Rosenberg has no idea that I am writing a post called the Zach Rosenberg campaign.  I am not being compensated for writing this post nor do I expect any thing in return here.

I know, that sounds like a back handed way of asking for something but you’ll have to take my assurance as one of the Top 25 sexiest dad bloggers that I am doing this for altruistic reasons.

You see Zach was attacked last April by some cretins who took his words and tried to twist them so they would fit some perverted image. They went out of their way to trash him and unfairly tarnished his reputation.

So today I decided to help fight back.

Link Juice

I am dedicating some link juice here to help defend the honor of a fellow dad blogger. Not everyone can pull off a pink robe, but he does it masterfully.

The bastards that went after him haven’t realized yet they just might have woken the sleeping giant known as the dad blogging community. People fear angry mommy bloggers but there is a reason you grew up hearing wait until your father gets home.

You never want to rouse us manly men from our slumber because we are a force to be reckoned with, especially when we are hungry, horny and irritated. And as many women can tell you two out of three of those things are our natural state.

So this is post is being written for the sole purpose of pushing those other links down.

What Happens Next?

Well I would promise you 8×10 glossies of Zach in his pink robe and guest spot on an 8 Bit Dad video but I can’t offer that because I don’t run those things. But I can tell you that I think he is a good guy and that the treatment he received was wrong.

It is not like he is a fake dad blogger who spends his time fabricating stories about what he claims to have done. Nor has he tried to abuse America by claiming the sox, the celtics and the pats are teams worthy of praise.

And that my friends is all I have to say about this.