Try to remember

When was the last time you forgot something?
I don't remember.
Is that an oxymoron?
You can't remember when you forgot something.
To commemorate an iconic essayist Nora Ephron who passed yesterday, I'm reprinting one of her essays entitled "I Remember Nothing" with some of my jestful critiques, asides, besides and otherwise humorous aphorisms.
"Why do people write books that say it's better to be older than to be younger? she wrote in "I Feel Bad About My Neck"
"It's not better. Even if you have all your marbles, you're constantly reaching for the name of the person you met the day before yesterday."

"A couple of years ago, the actor Ryan O'Neal confessed that he'd recently failed to recognize his own daughter, Tatum, at a funeral and had accidentally made a pass at her.
"Everyone was judgmental about this, but not me. A month earlier, I'd found myself in a mall in Las Vegas when I saw a very pleasant-looking woman coming toward me, smiling, her arms outstretched, and I thought, Who is this woman? Where do I know her from? Then she spoke and I realized it was my sister Amy.
"You might think, Well, how was she to know her sister would be in Las Vegas? I'm sorry to report that not only did I know, but she was the person I was meeting in the mall.
"In 1964 the Beatles came to New York for the first time. I was a newspaper reporter and I was sent to the airport to cover their arrival. It was a Friday. I spent the weekend following them around. Sunday night they appeared on "The Ed Sullivan Show." You could make an argument that the '60s began that night, on The Ed Sullivan Show. It was a historic night. I was there. I stood in the back of the Ed Sullivan Theater and watched. I remember how amazingly obnoxious the fans were -- the teenage girls who screamed and yelled and behaved like idiots. But how were the Beatles, you may ask. Well, you are asking the wrong person. I could barely hear them."

I digress.
I remember watching that show on television and likewise I could hardly hear the singing from all the gaga girls screaming.
I also remember the movie "It's Been A Hard Days Night."
George Harrison became enamored with one of the cheerleaders in the movie. He approached her. And he boldly asked her, even without an introduction, "Will you marry me?"
Brusquely she retorted, "No!"
He responded, "Well, will you go out with me?"
She remarked, "No, I've got a boy friend."
When she related this to her friends, they rebuked her by saying, "George Harrison asked you out and you told him you had a boy friend! You fool!"
Ironically she later married Harrison.
Then, Eric Clapton, one of Harrison's best friends fell in love with her.
Clapton once asked her to elope with him.
In the same vein as her first encounter with Harrison, she told Clapton she couldn't because she was married to Harrison.
Discontantly Clapton told her if she didn't he would go off and do heroin for three years.
He penned "Layla" in memory of her and went off on a drug-binge.
Eventually Patty, aka Mrs. Harrison, found Harrison cuckolding Ringo Starr's wife and she divorced him and married Clapton.
Why is it I can remember stories like this, but I have a senior moment remembering what I had for lunch yesterday?

Back to Ephron:
"I went to stand in front of the White House the night Nixon resigned and here's what I have to tell you about it: my wallet was stolen.
"I went to many legendary rock concerts and spent them wondering when they would end and where we would eat afterward and whether the restaurant would still be open and what I would order.
"I went to cover the war in Israel in 1973 but my therapist absolutely forbid me to go to the front.
"I was not at Woodstock, but I might as well have been because I wouldn't remember it anyway."

I digress.
My 18th birthday coincided with the first day of Woodstock: Aug. 15, 1969.
In 2009 approaching my 58th birthday, I told interested friends it was the 40th anniversary of Woodstock and the 40th anniversary of my 18th birthday.
A man heard me talking about this and he bragged that his birthday was also Aug. 15 and his father took him to Woodstock on his 12th birthday.
I asked him about his recollections.
He said he didn't remember any of it because his father had him stoned out on LSD.
What a bummer!

Back to Ephron:
"I am living in the Google years, no question of that. And there are advantages to it. When you forget something, you can whip out your iPhone and go to Google. The Senior Moment has become the Google moment, and it has a much nicer, hipper, younger, more contemporary sound, doesn't it?
"The true Senior Moment is nightmarish. The long search for the answer, the guessing, the self-recrimination, the head-slapping mystification, the frustrated finger-snapping. You just go to Google and retrieve it.
"You can't retrieve your life (unless you're on Wikipedia, in which case you can retrieve an inaccurate version of it)."

So, if you can't remember something, just Google it.
But then will you remember tomorrow or will you have to regurgitate Googling?
Nevertheless, here's to you Nora Ephron!

Faith, endurance pays off

"Consider it all joy when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance, and let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." -- James 1:2-4.

Oh, ye of little faith!
So many naysayers were ready to proclaim the Razorback baseball team persona non grata after they lost to Baylor last week, 8-1, in the first round of the Super Regionals.
Well, relief pitcher Brandon Moore sported a wristband with that Biblical passage on it.
And the Razorbacks rallied to bop Baylor twice and burst into the College World Series with mounds of faith and their endurance paid off.
Sometimes a simple little passage can rally a team or an individual through trials and tribulations and that faith produces endurance and the endurance has its perfect result.
After the Hogs bested Baylor, 1-0, in the finals, Moore knelt and prayed before hopping on the Hogs' celebration.
Moore provided more inspiration for the Razorbacks and that bonding process produced the winning chemistry.
Now as the Razorbacks venture into the College World Series they face further enduring encounters.
Lets hope they persevere again.
But we don't need to pray, just root!
In another inspirational testimonial, a friend suffered a very painful motorcycle accident a few weeks ago.
One of his visitors related to me that he couldn't use his right arm.
Well, this man of faith called an inspirational friend and asked him to pray for him.
Lo and behold, following that prayer, he could move his arm again!
Hallelujah!!

Justice

"If you're poor and you commit a crime, the legal system works quickly and leaves you in pieces all over the highway. If you're educated and have money, the process becomes a drawn-out affair, like a terminal cancer patient who can afford various kinds of treatment all over the world. But eventually he ends up at Lourdes." -- James Lee Burke, "Heartwood"

For the uneducated, Lourdes is a Roman Catholic miracle-healing center in southern France, where thousands of wealthy Catholics sojourn.
The poor who get in trouble with the law can't afford an attorney and end up with a public pretender, er public defender, and they make a deal with the prosecution. They both work for the state of Arkansas.
Unfortunately, those with wealth can afford to hire an attorney who will do anything and everything to help them seek another form of justice.
They have a much better window of opportunity to make a deal which precludes the kind of "justice" the more unfortunate receive.
In other words, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, or are incarcerated because they couldn't afford that high, falutin' attorney.

Knock, knock

"suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him'
"Then the one inside answers, 'Don't bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can't get up and give you anything.' I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man's boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs.
"So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened...How much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" -- Luke 11:5-13.

Knock, knock. Who's there? It is I who is seeking the Holy Spirit and some bread for my friends.
How many of us pray for monetary benefits or just stuff?
God could care less whether you receive more money or a raise or stuff unless it's to benefit his kingdom on earth.
He will grant you his Holy Spirit and grace if you're sincere and desire to benefit others.
We must be altruistic when we ask for something.
Today I walked and walked and walked and then prayed.
A young lady at the University of Arkansas shot footage of me walking to the library and at the University of Arkansas and at Bible study.
We're coordinating our talents for a film contest at the Fayetteville Public Library.
The winner receives a $1,000 bonus.
We're going to donate anything we win towards the construction of a homeless shelter in Fayetteville.
I'm not a movie star, but there were some gawkers who were naturally curious about our film making today.
The executive director of the library was even curious and came to greet us today.
What is your legacy?
I hope my legacy is partially fulfilled in June when the contest concludes.
I've been dreaming and praying and writing since 2008 for the fruition of my legacy: a homeless shelter in Northwest Arkansas.
Please dream with me. Please pray with me. And I'll let you be in my dream, if you'll let me be in your dream!

London calling

2012 is a momentous year for London, England.
London hosts the 2012 Summer Olympics in July and also this marks the Diamond Jubilee of the crowning of Queen Elizabeth who garnered the crown in 1952.
Hallowed be the name of London this year.
In commemoration I'm going to revisit the album, "London Calling" by the Clash.
It's one of my favorites and the louder it sounds.
I remember when I purchased it and cranked up the volume, my roommate, Steve Kirk was flabbergasted at my taste in music.
Nevertheless, the rock and roll gospel, "Rolling Stone" proclaimed it one of the top albums of all time.
While reading "The Times" from London (er, I wasn't in London, I was in the UofA library reading the newspaper, I happened on a humorous pair of lines about London.
"London is full of parks and you can't ever park."

Indeed, Fayetteville similarly has oodles of parks but it costs to park in downtown Fayetteville which has depleted the business at such venerated establishments like the Dickson Street Bookstore and Flying Possum Leather because people  don't want to pay a $1 to buy a 50 cent book.

"A wise man once said that a man tired of London is tired of life, but everyone is tired of hearing about that."
Maybe, some of us might be tired about reading about London by the end of the year, but our hearts will be vicariously thrilling at the exploits of the U.S. Olympic team this summer.
I've never been to London, but to paraphrase W.C. Fields, I'd rather be in Fayetteville because that's where I call it my home, sweet, home.

Benevolence

"He (Mark Twain) had been deeply impressed during his stay in England by English benevolence, by silent acts of charity that seemed characteristic of the English upper class, even of English society as a whole, especially in comparison with tightfisted American sink-or-swim individualism or American charity as self-glorification."
In a dangerously turbulent storm, the captain of the Batavia had orchestrated the rescue of 10 surviving crew members of a wrecked ship.
The Batavia's captain wanted neither praise nor publicity for fulfilling his humane duty to help others in distress, even at great risk.
So, when we do an heroic deed do we seek fame and fortune? And we feel we deserve a pat on the back?
Americans are sink-or-swim individualists. We seek self-glory for our charitable acts.
Not everyone fits into that typecast.
I have friends who have helped me and didn't want publicity.
I disdain publicity.
While going through what I thought to be a job interview, I ended up being interviewed for an article on homelessness.
Someone wanted my input and opinions but not my skills as a writer.
Shucky darns!!
So do you seek a claim for fame when you're benevolent, or do you do out of the goodness of your heart?

Humility

"Humility is the most difficult of all virtues to achieve; nothing dies harder than the desire to think well of oneself." -- T.S. Eliot, "Shakespeare and the Stoicism of Seneca (1927).

"Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up." -- James 4:10.

If you don't humble yourself, God has a way of making you humble.
Indeed, pride goeth before the fall.
Just ask Bobby Petrino!
He was too proud to admit his guilt and he fell very hard.
I learned the hard way to humble myself.
God humbled me and now he's lifting me up.
Once I was a foolish too proud man.
I didn't heed those words of wisdom from T.S. Eliot and James, the brother of Jesus.
But thanks to friends along the way who intersected into my life in very significant ways I can survive.
Most of them prefer anonymity. But you know who you are and how you've lifted me out of my despair.
One man came up to me very sheepishly and said, "I want to help I just don't know how."
I can see clearly now because of his generosity!
One photographer wanted to take my picture and he's been a very generous friend ever since!
One lady saw me walking home in a Santa hat and she befriended me with pizza and other love offerings!
One man and his wife saw on Facebook that I needed a place to lay my head and they've been great neighbors ever since!
Thanks to my humility I've been lifted up by the generosity and love of God intersecting with those angels of mercy.
So, I'm proudly humble!!