Thoughts of a Common Man

I was driving along through New York State when I saw a barn with a painted message. In 5-foot high letters the message read - Beware! Jesus is Coming! I had just experienced one of them days - a day when there was so much coming at me, and my mood wasn't good. In my head were the ideas that I need to start writing again - courtesy of my wife. My publisher was talking about promoting the books and making appearances. Work was about 15 hours long. "Jesus is Coming! Where the hell is He?" I shouted. As I drove the second photo showed itself - I took a snapshot of the dark, ominous clouds that were weighing down on me. I was waiting on the heavy rains. A funny thing happened though - they didn't come. Over the next half hour, I worked everything through my mind - I was a little ashamed of yelling for Jesus to show himself. The 1st photo shows the sky as the darkness cleared as I drove towards Buffalo. It was hard to miss the message from above. Just before I pulled into ...

Yeah, yeah, I know the story. The amazing courage to beat cancer. I watched an inspirational film of his life and read his life story. I actually used one of his films for an inspirational story in one of the classes that I was teaching. Then I read more about how he left his wife and family after they helped him win his inspirational battle with cancer. How he dropped Sheryl Crow when she needed him during her treatment for breast cancer. How he supposedly hooked up with one of the Olsen twins. How he allegedly used steroids, or skipped the test, and bashed the whole bike-riding federation. I was thinking about it today because I just saw a commercial about how he didn't care that people think he's arrogant, or a cheater, or a fraud. It ended with the Nike logo and the Just Do It slogan. In other words, it doesn't matter who he left shattered along the way - after all - it's Lance's world and we're just living in it. And the greatest athlete ever? He rides a bi...

Started Saturday morning off with a trip to church and most of the time I am able to catch a couple of sentences that catapult me through the next week. I also enjoy the community of church and everyone singing and praying in unison. I better say that or there are about thirty-five nuns from the past who will be lined up to beat me with their ruler. Yesterday the line that caught my attention was "Do this in memory of me." Of course they are the words of Jesus at the Last Supper, but yesterday they rang a true chord. My brother Jim had been asking me all week long to help him make Italian sausage. It's a task that we've shared as a family since I was just a kid, but one that we hadn't yet attempted without the family chef. Of course we had the recipe and the know-how, but it wouldn't be easy by any means. Believing that Jim didn't have anyone to help, I made the drive, and Bruce on E-Street radio got me there. Sad, but determined to do it in memory. To my ...

...on Michael. If the guy who lived next door to you weighed 95 pounds, wore a hockey goalie mask over a respirator, continually grabbed his crotch, slept in a chamber, held hands with a chimp named Bubbles, dyed his skin, re-shaped his nose until it almost fell off, and hung around with little children, allowing them to sleep in his bed - Would you call the cops? Man oh man, what a long fall.

My brother John, out of the blue one day, said: "Only in America can a poor black kid grow up to be a successful, rich, white woman." He was speaking of Michael Jackson, of course, and it used to make me laugh every time I thought of Jacko. Yet his sudden death kind of makes his life a pure tragedy, doesn't it? What a mess were made of things when all was said and done. The trappings of fame are ridiculous when you get that famous - it killed Elvis, killed Anna Nicole, killed Marilyn Monroe, and now killed Michael Jackson, I suppose. I wasn't ever really a fan on Michael Jackson, but how could you escape it? I even tried to moonwalk one time at a frat party - not a pretty picture. Yet I did watch the Thriller video when it debuted, right along with a million others. The reason I didn't love his music - although I appreciated his talents - was that I love rock and roll - and girls were into Michael - and he danced - and I dance like Grape Ape. Yet I certainly was d...

Why the hell do I know who these people are? Why is every newspaper in the country following the break-up of their marriage? I heard that Jon said that he needed to get on with his life. Don't they have 8 children? Get on with your life? That is your life, nitwit. We finally found that Governor, huh? Turns out he wasn't out trying to find himself by hiking along some mountain trail, or writing down all of his deep thoughts - he was having an affair with some woman from Argentina that he met on the Internet. He has four kids who he is currently begging for their forgiveness. A spokesman for the governor explained that every once in a while a man needs a break. I never saw the show that features Jon and Kate, but word on the street is that he was feeling stifled with his responsibilities. A long time ago I wrote a blog about what every man should repeat to himself when he feels those urges to wander away from the life he'd set up. BAM - yes - Be A Man. There are 12 more kids ...

I'm thinking that the streak for waking up before six in the morning is at about two years now. I'm not patting myself on the back, but I never miss work. I hardly ever have a day that would be considered lazy. I feel guilty when I don't write. I feel guilty when I don't spend some good time with the family. I know a whole bunch of working slobs like me. Working hard - day in and day out - for enough money to have a decent family. A-Rod is making $204,700 a game - he's 0 for 3 tonight. Insert me into the clean-up position and I'd have the same sort of day and I'd look fetching in the pinstripe uniform. Which isn't to say it's easy, but the announcer frosted my ass when he mentioned that part of the problem is that A-Rod is fatigued. Oh really? Was it the long line at the buffet after sleeping until 4 in the afternoon that did him in? Was it the seven times he swung and missed? Was it those late nights with Kate Hudson? Was it that long plane ride fro...