The Muse is Loose

The Hydrocotyle umbellata is a prolific plant here in South Texas. It is actually an edible weed that can be used in salads. It loves the water and does well in wet, sandy habitat. You probably have some growing in your yard or flowerbed if you water. You know this plant as DOLLARWEED.

I think DOLLARWEED is a pretty plant! It's white roots appear to be veins running just below the surface. They are easily broken. The plant is plucked with no strain at all. To me it is an ideal flower bed plant or ground cover. In my eye it is beautiful. Not so with the other member of our team. Ann has no use for dollarweed. she threatens it constantly with Roundup, or anything else that might cause it's demise. It is an endless battle to eradicate dollarweed, especially when it is wet, or watering is taking place.

Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 3, "He has made everything beautiful in it's time.". Does that include dollarweed? There is a mixed opinion on that!

What about the human species God made? Are they all beautiful? Are what they practice, or become, lovely? Is their language fresh and pure like a spring breeze? Do they dress the way folks think they should? Are their beliefs grounded in truth, or are they man-made for the convenience of the lifestyle they choose to practice? I am sure we have differing opinions on each of these questions.

What I often see in our prolific dollarweed is that some decide to grow beyond the size of a silver dollar. I pulled one the other day that was as wide as my hand. It had chosen to become much more than dollar- size, so it crowded out the true dollar weeds. That doesn't seem fair.

To we who are older these times are extra stressful and confusing. There are so many changes and issues we did not face. We sometimes struggle with the dollarweeds that appear in our gardens of life. Some want to pull them or spray them, while others try to see their worth and beauty. We do know this; Every human on God's earth is a child of His and He created them for a purpose. Many never seek or come close to finding that purpose. You and I may well be here to help those "dollarweeds" find theirs.

It is Friday. I am not in an intellectual, historical, scientific or athletic mood. I want to write about some crazy stuff you probably won't want to read....so go do the wash, iron, or take out the trash!

Hello! I see a few stayed to hear my tirades. Pills! To some they have the dignified status of medications or "meds". They are all PILLS to me. I have so many pills it is incredible! Do any of them help me? I don't really know. I do know people have heart attacks, stroke, stomach problems, etc. while they are TAKING pills. I do know some people in older years do NOT take pills and continue to live a normal life. So do they help....a little....a lot.... not at all? Peddling pills is a lucrative business. I have some friends who do it. I don't blame them. It is a legitimate business. It is also a BIG business. I have been in waiting rooms around noon and watched as some of the well-dressed women and handsome men who sell the use of their pills to doctors, who prescribe them, bring all kinds of nice "gifts", from full meals to whatever. That's the way the game works.

Then, there are the non-accepted supplements. Do you get any of their slick advertisements? They proceed to tell us how BAD the pills are and how good the supplements are! None of the supplements, however, are given any credit by food and drug gurus. Supplements get no help from our insurance. Figure that one out.

Bacon! My dad ate bacon until he died at near 90. Why wasn't it bad for him? Have you eaten any lately? It is good stuff. Salty? Yes. So are peanuts and popcorn. Lots of fat? So are most every thing else that has taste. Do you know what is really good in the morning? A couple of cups of coffee, orange juice, BACON and eggs, home-made biscuits, gravy. I will put that up against any cereal out there.

So I have ruined your diet. You are scrambling for a skillet, and digging a moldy slab of bacon from your frig. Sorry about that, but it is Friday. Gotta run! I think the bacon's burnin'.

This true event is a classic example of a good deed going bad. Robert Edwards saw it happen earlier this week, so you have to believe it.

Robert had gone to The Birding Center in Port Aransas where the affluent water is treated. It makes a large, shallow, freshwater lake. Birds love the place. Since the migration had slowed there wasn't many. Robert and two others were there. They soon left and he had the pier for himself. He climbed the observation tower to look into some other small ponds beyond reeds.

He saw a man come on the pier carrying a large turtle he had found crossing a road. The Good Samaritan came to release this turtle in the lake. Other turtles live there. As Robert watched, the man carefully dropped the turtle over the side of the pier to splash into the safety of the water below. There was suddenly a huge commotion and thrashing about under the pier. The rescued turtle had unknowingly been dropped into the lair of a fourteen-foot ALLIGATOR, who makes this lake his home! Robert scurried down the tower to see the event. The gator would crunch this hapless turtle with his powerful jaws again and again, crushing the shell, while the Samaritan stood in distress watching his good deed go bad......for the turtle!

Were these two creatures able to think and reason like humans, (which they can't), the gator would be thanking the man for his generous meal served up under the pier, while the turtle would be screaming, "You call this a good deed? This guy is going to kill me!"

Good deeds often turn sour. I had a friend stop to help change a flat for a stranded motorist and was hit by a speeding car. His leg was amputated from the accident. When we reach out to help others there are risks involved. Jesus knew that when he told the Samaritan story. It does not change it's application for us. Good and well-meaning deeds can sour and even be
tragic.

Risks often accompany good deeds. We must accept that and keep doing what we know is right.

I have been captivated by a book that came to me yesterday. It is from William R. (Bill) Pogue, a retired astronaut, and distant cousin (we think). My sister, Dorcie, got it for me. The book is entitled, "But For The Grace Of God" . It is an autobiography written by Pogue. Bill Pogue was growing up in Oklahoma when I was doing the same in Arkansas. His family was without the luxuries of life in the thirties and forties, as we were. He knew about rubber guns and collecting scrap metal for the war effort (World War II). He had a paper route as I did. He attended a Baptist school in Oklahoma as I did in Arkansas. After that our life trails separated. He was obviously brilliant in math and science. With grit and determination he had an air force career that led him to be a member of the Thunderbirds, an elite team of talented pilots. From that he would try for NASA and eventually become an astronaut. He was scheduled to fly to the moon on Apollo 19, but missions 18,19,and 20 were cancelled. He would finally get to fly to Skylab (space station) and spend eighty-four days in space!

He wrote in the front "To Dale & Ann, Warmest regards, Bill Pogue". The note was nice to two "relatives" he has never met. What was even more special was to discover he signed the book with a Fisher ball point pen from Skylab. The pen was aboard Skylab from May 14, 1973 to February 8, 1974 and traveled over 110 million miles through space as it orbited the earth 4100 times!! The ink bearing our names is ink from the heavens. Think about that!

I thought about it all and picked up my Bible this morning alongside the book. In that Book is words written by the pen of God from the heavens He created. There is a personal note in it for Ann and I. It says, "For God so loved the world (Us) that He gave his only Son that whosoever (Us) believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

Bill Pogue wrote on page 41: "While we lived in Perkins,(Oklahoma) the event that I am most grateful for was when I accepted Christ as my Savior. The personal sense of security of knowing that Jesus loves me unconditionally has been a source of great comfort throughout my life."

Today Bill Pogue is 82 and lives near Fayettville, Arkansas.

I am writing today about a death on this date, May 13, 1932. It is not about some prominent man of politics or literature. It was the death of a farmer and preacher, William Penn Hall, who was my mother's father.

My grandfather died exactly one month before I was born. That means I went to Grandpa's funeral, but I never saw him or heard him speak or preach. My mother was eight months/plus along and would have a thirteen pound boy born to her a month later. I have no proof of that weight, but it is what I was always told.

Grandpa Hall went to the churches he served in a buggy. It was the time, out in the country of Arkansas, where one man might preach at four different churches, each one once a month. My Dad told me he would go with Grandpa on some of those trips, driving the buggy while the exhausted old preacher would sleep. Daddy wasn't even married to my Mother yet. Think of a dark country road in a buggy at night, traveling as much as ten-fifteen miles in the rain or snow. Daddy always loved to tell of hearing a panther screaming very near where they were traveling one dark night. He was real good at stories and scaring us kids!

Grandpa preached at one church where a young man shot and killed a former preacher while he was in the pulpit. That is another story.

I figure we will meet up some day in Glory. We will know each other and have plenty to talk about.

Those living in and around Rockport know already how the storms and rain of yesterday somehow snaked around us. I was watching the radar and finally called Ann from outside, for the storm would hit in about five minutes.It never did. The patio was barely wet. The huge storm that deluged Corpus Christi and then headed for Rockport slid gently into the Gulf of Mexico.

Last night was a different story. The flashes and booms permeated the sky and reverberated off our roof. Winds roared like....well, like wind roaring. Once a strike nearby turned the living room TV back on! I told Ann I heard voices in the front of the house. The sound was blaring without a picture. This morning I drove around the neighborhood and saw grown trees lying in yards, and in one case, blocking a street.. Leaves and small bits of tree limbs are everywhere. It was our turn for sure!

Storms are humbling experiences. There is a sort of helplessness that accompanies a severe one. Our thoughts and prayers turn upward, beyond the churning skies.I think of hymns, whose words say things like, "My hope is built on nothing less that Jesus' blood and righteousness.".
"When the storms of life are raging, stand by me." "The winds and the waves shall obey my will. Peace be still. Peace be still." "I've seen the lightning flashing and heard the thunder roll. I've felt sin's breakers dashing, trying to conquer my soul. I've heard the voice of Jesus telling me still to fight on. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone."

This morning the winds are calm. The sky is clear. The storm that lashed us is in the Gulf of Mexico. Others, however, are building and expected later today. That is the way of life. We go through one storm and another begins to build. That is why it is comforting to say and pray, "Jesus, Savior, pilot me over life's tempestuous sea. Unknown waves before me roll, hiding rocks and treacherous shoal. Chart and Compass came from Thee. Jesus, Savior , pilot me.

We in South Texas know now what is in that name. Money and oil. Fracking sounds like some crude redneck slang. We are learning about it also. The name Eagle Ford comes from a little town in West Dallas that has been gobbled up by the city of Dallas. It was there geologists first discovered this hidden oil, of which I know very little.

What is it's meaning for South Texas? First the good news: The Caller Times in an article May 10 say the economic impact is 47,000 full-time jobs. Many more are available. This fifty mile by four hundred mile strip has been producing oil and natural gas since 2008. In 2011 some estimate an economic impact on the area of 25 billion dollars. Twenty-eight million barrels of oil and 271 billion cubic feet of natural gas have been harvested. Other condensate and liquids that can be extracted and sold is more than 21 million barrels! This is happening over an area severely hit by drought, so that cattle raising and farming have been at a standstill. Some folks have gotten incredibly rich by it all. Others are getting there fast.

The not-so-good news is the roads are tearing up under the weight of heavy trucks. Small-town life in some places has disappeared. Those seeking to rent or buy a place are getting a shock. Money always brings the potential of problems and they are out there. The good, the bad, and the ugly are all tied to Eagle Ford. It is too late for those who say, "I should have bought some of that old land years ago". "Too late" are oft repeated words these days. That is not tragic in this case. It is desperately tragic when it comes to the spiritual "I should have" of life and eternity.

If you follow baseball or the Texas Rangers you know who Josh Hamilton is. You may also know about the walk his life has taken, from the bottom at times. His great athletic skills were being sacrificed to alcohol. Through the help of a Christian wife and others Josh battled back. It had appeared he was total victor, but one never is completely with those addictive powers. He took a long and humbling fall earlier this year. He came battling back.

Yesterday Josh Hamilton tied a major league record with FOUR HOME RUNS in a single game. He also had a double. His fourth was over the center field wall in the Baltimore stadium. He was quoted as saying, "I've never hit three in a game before, and what a blessing that was. Then to hit four was just an awesome feeling to see how excited my teammates got. You never know what can happen. It was just an absolute blessing." That is a truth with impact. We don't ever know what will happen. It was an absolute blessing......the greater blessing, to me, is that he has battled back, with the Lord's help, to be WHERE he is today. I pray for him that he will remain strong more than at the bat, but in his resolve and commitment to the Lord.

It isn't mine, heaven forbid. That one is more than a month away and already out of control. People as far away as Kenya are making plans to celebrate.. They may do the cobra dance or feed a retired Missionary to the lions, I don't know

The Birthday I refer to belongs to our son, Everett Lee Pogue. He is forty-eight today. Lee was born in Sinton, but never lived there! He was born in the Ewing Hospital that no longer exists. His delivering physician was not Ann's own. Her doctor, Y.S. Jenkins, was on a trip to Europe. Another Taft doctor, Tasch, delivered Lee. We lived in Taft where I was youth,music,and education minister. We lived in a house that was rented for $60,00. a month. It is still there at 812 Fetick. May be holding up better than we are!

Lee was always an active and curious child. When he was just beginning to talk he was in our little fenced back yard. He said something like snake! Pretty snake! It was beautiful. Coral snakes are as colorful as they are deadly.

Lee played football in Wharton although he never weighed more than 150. He made the starting lineup as a guard his junior year. They lost two games by a total of 14 points. Wharton had a running back who would scholarship to Rice and make all-southwest conference. I remember a block Lee made in a game at Katy that broke Antonio loose for a touchdown. I also remember Lee trying to tackle a freshman back playing on the varsity at Sugarland. He never touched the boy. That happened to a lot of other players through this player's college and pro years. The running back was Thurman Thomas who made all-american and later all-pro with Buffalo. He is ranked by many as the best running back in their history; that includes O.J. Simpson, who made all-pro five straight years. I would say if you are going to miss a tackle that is the kind to miss. One more football story of Lee: Wharton was playing Brazosport at their stadium. I bought a program and got seated to check out what we were up against. I also looked at our own team players, as if I didn't know them. Our son was listed at 310 pounds! That is still big today but REALLY big for high school in the seventies. It was fun to watch Brazosport folks around us start looking for this giant. He never showed.

Lee is a successful businessman today with a large heating and ac company in Dallas. His wife is Ranell. He also has a daughter by his first marriage, Courtney, who is in college in Missouri. Happy Birthday Lee. Sorry I will miss your eightieth birthday but Ann and I will be on a cruise.

I know it will surprise some of you, but I was in no way or fashion consulted by my wife and children about a birthday bash to celebrate EIGHTY! I was simply told it was happening on Saturday, June 9. (Birthday is the THIRTEENTH. I will be unavailable on that date).

Please feel no obligation to come. It won't hurt my feelings at all. Come up with any kind of excuse or reason to not be there. Some folks are going all the way to Kenya to miss it!

On a more serious note, it is a kind gesture by my wife and kids to honor me with a special afternoon with them and friends. I will enjoy it and do appreciate any and all who can drop by or who cannot.

Psalm 90 always gives to me a perspective on life a bit different from that of the world. Listen to these words: " A thousand years in your sight are like a day that is just gone by, or like a watch in the night. You sweep men away in the sleep of death; they are like the new grass of the morning---though in the morning it springs up new, by evening it is dry and withered....the length of our days is seventy years...or eighty if we have the strength, yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass and we fly away.......Teach us to number our days aright that we may gain a heart of wisdom....May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us." A-men.