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Much of my life I've been interested in following politics. But even I'm sick of politics right now! And you know what? Maybe you've OD'd on it. You know, all those pundits on the news. You know, they start to sound like indistinct blather when adults speak out on a Charlie Brown special. You know?
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My oldest son had saved up for this baseball card show for months. He was about nine at the time, and he was already good at knowing which cards to buy; he was really a sharp investor. One of his biggest frustrations was that all of my '50s vintage baseball cards had been thrown out when we moved during my childhood, so he never quite forgave his grandmother for that. But imagine what they could have been worth by now! But I shared with him that when I was a kid I liked to turn in Coke bottles and get deposit money, and I'd get baseball cards with that myself.
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I fell in love with a girl from Arkansas, and she informed me that the largest religion in the state was football; especially the University of Arkansas kind of football - the Razorbacks. So, guess who the most important man in the state would be? Not the governor. No, he'd be maybe number two. Probably the most important man is the football coach of the University of Arkansas. Now, years ago back in the '80s it was a man named Ken Hatfield; in this particular case, a follower of Jesus Christ.
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Sometimes you've got to wonder whoever thought up cell phone cameras? Oh, they're nice. You know, if something suddenly pops up that you want to capture. But how many times have I been looking goofy or just plain ol' ugly and some smart aleck quietly "permanent-tizes" that moment with his cute little camera? Is there somewhere where we are safe from the lens that never forgets?
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Teenagers are chronic procrastinators. It really shows up when you're trying to get them to register for a camp or a retreat, which I've done plenty of. Oh, they're planning to go, but you wouldn't know it by their registration. They'll wait until they hear the bus to start signing up. That happened at a retreat we had. There was this deadline, but many of the kids we most wanted to go, particularly for spiritual reasons, missed the deadline. Oh, we still had room. So did we take their registrations late? You bet we did. But you know, deadlines are often flexible, and it seems like you can usually get an extension. But don't count on that extension when it really, really counts.
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I was a little psycho about grades in school. Maybe it's a firstborn thing. I don't know. But from early grade school, I always wanted to get really good grades. I worked hard, made sure I was on good terms with the teacher, and I usually made the honor roll. When my wife and I were going to college together, I used to drive her nuts with my concern over getting a "B." I'm sorry, I know you hate me. But, you know, I told you I was psycho. It's a problem. Now, you probably hated guys like me, but just consider it a condition and cut me some slack, OK? I'm probably not the only person in the world who has this "gotta get a good grade" thing!
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These days when parents are expecting a baby, they put some care usually into picking a name. And one of the places they go is to these books where you find hundreds and hundreds of names and what is the meaning of that child's name. Now, my parents, I don't know if they didn't have books like that or they didn't care. But, well, when they were on the way to the hospital, I guess they had a name picked out for a girl. They didn't think about a boy, but I was. So, as they're going, they go, "What if we have a boy? What should we name him?" And they passed - now, listen, I hate to tell you this, because you're going to use it against me someday. I know you are - here we go, Ronnie's Used Car Lot. Okay, go ahead, laugh. Get that over with. So they named me after a used car salesman (don't say it!). And some of you who listen all the time go, "The way you talk, I believe it. I understand it was predestination that you should be named after a used car salesman." Well, listen. Picking a name? Put some thought into it please. I'll tell you this, there was one name that God came up with, and it just so happens it became the most powerful word in the world.
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Now, I've been to a few professional football games in my life. You know, people get angry at those things. It's usually aimed at the other team or their own players who messed up. But, you know, there was a time when the words that made us blush were reserved for the referees; the replacement referees, that is.
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When there's a primetime news special on TV, you expect it to be about some major breaking world event, or a disaster, or some sensational social issue. A while back I was surprised to see a CBS news special that was just on the subject of loneliness. It was called "On Lonely Street." They were quoted there as saying, "Social scientists are seeing an epidemic of loneliness.
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It's always kind of exciting to go to the mailbox. It's depressing however, when most of it is addressed to Occupant, Resident, or it comes with some computer label that calls me Don Hutchcraft. Or it butchers my last name, which is a very "butcherable" name, by the way.
