Writing Life

A periodic record of thoughts and life as these happen via the various roles I play: individual, husband, father, grandfather, son, brother (brother-in-law), writer, university professor and others.

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Location: Tennessee, United States

I was born on Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter, South Carolina, then lived a while in Fayetteville, North Carolina, before moving, at the age of 5, to Walnut, NC. I graduated from Madison High School in 1977. After a brief time in college, I spent the most of the 1980s in Nashville, Tennessee, working as a songwriter and playing in a band. I spent most of the 1990s in school and now teach at a university in Tennessee. My household includes wife and son and cat. In South Carolina I have a son, daughter-in-law and two granddaughters.

Friday, September 21, 2007

Play


This morning I reluctantly rolled out of bed at 7:00ish and headed out to Willow Springs Park to walk and run and watch the sunrise. No, I didn't see Tunesian men playing sand hockey. This image comes from the web site credited below. I'd loaded a recent Speaking of Faith program on my mp3 player, and I listened to it during the hour or so that I was going uphill and down and all around. The particular program I was listening to was titled "Play, Spirit, & Character," and it was all about the value of play in human life, not just in the days of youth but throughout, from the cradle to the grave, so to speak.

According to Dr. Stuart Brown, the guest on this program, play takes many forms in life. In children it's most obvious in their imaginative games and their rough-and-tumble physicality together. Much of the program deals with this kind of play, and it has a good bit to say about organized play--kid sports and such--and the difference between play and contest or competition.

In adults, play rarely has that rough-and-tumble quality of children's play, but it is just as important to our continued development and our internal and external dealings with the world around us. We can be playing at more intellectual pursuits such as reading and writing and painting and blogging. But a certain component of physicality seems necessary for adults as well.

My friends play. One tears some stuff apart and builds other stuff. One gardens and cooks. A couple play with young baseball players. Others play racquetball or dance.

I walk. I run a little. I shoot a little basketball from time to time. One of these days I might buy a bicycle or take dancing lessons with my wife or take up wrestling. My major source of physical play, however, is probably making music. When I play music, I like to play, whether I'm making music alone or with my friends. It's intellectual. It's spiritual. It's physical. It's my most perfect form of play.

The program suggests that one of the most important elements of pure play is a timelessness. This is not to say that the things we play have been played in all times. Instead, the suggestion is that we move outside time when we really give ourselves over to play, when we stop, in a sense, watching the clock, when the activity we're involved in completely absorbs us in the moment.

Hmm, I've heard prayer described in similar terms. Let's not say, however, that prayer is a form of play; rather, let's say that play might be a form of prayer.

http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/play/index.shtml
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/4569134.stm

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

The Reunion Is Over



This is a picture of about half of the "old folks" that showed for the 30-year reunion of Madison High School's Class of 1977.

Back in 1987, when I was living in Nashville and having fun on the fringes of the music business, the class had its 10-year reunion. I remember having a good time, but the event wasn't as successful as we all imagined back then that it might be. We were still in our late 20s, and most of us--although I can speak only for myself--were still trying to figure out who and what we were. Some were struggling to raise new families or find better jobs. Some were moving hither and thither, and some were staying right where they were--Madison County, North Carolina. Anyway, whether too few were ready for reunion after only 10 years or the plan at the time--dinner and dancing, if I remember correctly--didn't suit folks, only a handful of us were there. It fell to me to organize the 15-year or 20-year.

I didn't do either. When the 15-year passed, I was in the middle of trying to get my BA and trying to be present for a wife, a teenager and a one-year-old. When the 20-year passed, I was in the middle of Ph.D. studies, and I had no mind for much of anything else. I hardly even thought about it as the 25-year marker passed.

Anyway, I planned this one, with a little help from my friends.

The Plan: I wanted to keep it simple. The Homecoming football game at Madison High was scheduled for Friday night, 14 September. I decided we'd meet an hour or so before the game to socialize and then sit together in the stadium. For Saturday the 15th, I reserved a section of a Mars Hill pizza parlor, where we could eat cheaply from a buffet and spend two or three hours just hanging out and visiting with one another.

The Event: Early on Friday afternoon, I received a call from my wife. She'd just heard from the high school. The Homecoming game had been postponed because of rain. Never thinking that something like this would happen, I had no back-up plan. After some calls and some going back and forth about what to do, I set it up for a group of us--all we could contact quickly--to meet at a deli near the high school, a place called Moochie's. The group in the picture made it that evening.

Saturday evening at the Pizza Roma went off pretty smoothly. We had 27 folks, and I think a good time was enjoyed by all. I don't have a big group photo, but as soon as somebody sends me one, I'll post it.

Saturday, September 08, 2007

Reunion Couples

Just off the top of my head, I can think of five marriages that came out of the Madison High School Class of 1977. All five marriages are still intact. I'm pretty sure that beats the crap out of our national average, and I think we might be able to draw some interesting conclusions from this fact.

I'm blogging from Madison County this morning. The sky is white with heat, and the mountains are ghosted with haze. Given that Mom's house isn't air-conditioned--and that my entire life is air-conditioned in Tennessee--I slept fairly well, except for the onset of head cold.

Early this afternoon, I take Mom to the Walnut School reunion, where she was a member of the class of 1949, I believe. I went to Walnut School from first grade through eighth, and, believe it or not, Mom and I had the same first grade teacher. And believe it or not, that teacher, Miss Guthrie, is still with us!

On with the day. . . .

Thursday, September 06, 2007

More on the Reunion

My wife and I graduated high school together, members of the Madison High School Class of 1977. I see my cousin Donna W S every Christmas Eve and my distant cousin Reta B once every month or so at my mom's church. We all graduated together. As for the rest, some 130 of them, I've completely lost touch, and to be quite honest, that doesn't surprise me at all. They had their roads to travel, and I had mine. Many stayed close to where we grew up; others, like me, strayed away. Once a month I'm at my mom's for the weekend and in the local Ingles getting her groceries for the week. I see people I recognize from time to time. I have no idea of their names and coudn't tell you we were in the same class, but I at least recognize the faces.

The faces. I've had the '77 yearbook out and open for a couple of weeks now, and I'm learning about the current situations of many I didn't know then and wondering about the current situations of many I knew then and thought I'd always know.

The first picture under the "Seniors" section of the 1977 yearbook is a shot of the class officers, taken, if I remember correctly, at the house and in the yard of the folks who are now my brother's landlords. (My brother lives in an apartment that was once occupied by my aunt and uncle and closest male cousin. Madison County is that kind of place.) First, on the left, is the vice president: yours truly. My hair is long and blowing in a breeze. I'm young and clean shaven and smiling. I wear a jacket that I remember and a shirt I don't. I think it was cold. At the other end of the line is the president, Mark C (same last name as mine). I saw him a couple of days ago in the Wal-Mart in Erwin. I was with my wife and he with his, also one of our classmates, and we had a good time talking there in the aisle near the pharmacy. Between Mark and me are the girls: Dora Ann B. F., Reporter; Penny M, Secretary; Judy F, Treasurer. I spoke to Dora Ann on the telephone recently, and she was able to give me some addresses I didn't have. Penny lives here in Tennessee too--Erwin, I think. She was a good friend, one I thought I'd know forever, but I don't know that I've seen her more than once these thirty years. Judy also lives in Tennessee, down in Greeneville, but I hear that she's not much interested in the reunion.

I'll wander through this yearbook over the next few days leading up to the Homecoming football game on Friday the 14th.


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