Your Big Red Car is traveling to Savannah to see My Perfect Grand Child. This is a slightly old pic, but it is a favorite because it captures that Southern girl’s mischievous personality. So, we go for a splendid trip to Forsyth Park and romp in the grass because all of us know how to walk these days. And we do some thinking.
A pal of mine and I exchange emails in which he poses to me: “Tell me some stuff you’ve learned. Not deep stuff, but stuff.” It is a corollary of “Tell me stuff you believe in.”
So, here is some stuff I have learned.
Nobody is managing your career today in America. We have become a gig economy and YOU are responsible for you. It is going to get worse.
The world is made up of 2% doers and 98% bullshitters. Sometimes they have a good camouflage working, so look carefully.
You will never get to your destination if you stop to throw rocks at every cur who barks at you along the way. Keep focused and ignore the barking dogs.
The victors write the histories and they are biased.
Newspapers are no longer the first draft of history. Journalism, if you are old enough to knew what that means, is dead. There hasn’t been a journalist spotted in American in forty years.
Successful business partnerships are more fragile and rare than great marriages.
The only normal people are the one you don’t know very well. People are carrying things inside you can’t imagine. Smile at strangers.
It is a very rare friend who will hold your head out of the toilet when you are sick or drunk.
Sometimes the prom queen’s soul is every bit as lovely as her aura.
You will never meet a man who has met the expectations of his dog. Hang with men who strive to make that so.
Nobody really knows their values until they are confronted with the price tag. Only a few men reach for their wallet. The ones who do are the only ones who really have character. Your values are what you live, not what you talk about.
Nobody’s character is revealed without the friction of life which both reveals and polishes them.
When you do hard things as a young man, you can do really impossible stuff when you’re full grown.
There is nothing sexier than good manners and knowing how to dance. Dancing is vertical foreplay.
Burying a good dog taps the depths of sorrow, but you can get over it.
There is nothing crueler in life than burying your own child. You will never get over that. Don’t even try.
Your children will surprise you. You think they weren’t paying attention and you find out they were taking notes.
You think you know yourself and then that first grandchild comes along and you discover this strange person occupying your body. And, you like him.
All the wise men, the pollsters, the pundits, the pretty people, the know-it-alls, the experts — they forget to factor in the magic. Magic is real.
Nobody has ever drowned in their own sweat.
Failure, slings, arrows, insults, hard times — they’re called “tuition.”
People are good. Not all the time, but most of the time.
You can quench the fires of Hell with half a thimble of warm water if you just never, ever, ever give up.
Regardless of how successful or wealthy you become, you will never exceed the grandeur of swimming in Barton Springs and having a cheeseburger at The Tavern on your way home.
People who tell you over tipping is declasse are wrong.
A couple of summers spent digging ditches, washing dishes, in construction will prepare you better for life than a course in Money & Banking.
A man who cheats at golf will cheat at anything.
Karma, juju, mojo, and lagniappe are all real and have sharp teeth.
Any man can learn to tie a Monkey’s Fist/Paw, but few can remember it. Learn how to do it,
You are way stronger than you have ever imagined.
The only difference between brave, courageous men and the rest of the world, is they keep “doing” when the rest of the world is petrified by fear. They aren’t fearless; they just don’t stop,.
There is nothing that has been made more clear by raising your voice while a smidgen of profanity is useful to provide emphasis. Know the difference and use it appropriately.
We usually call it a day at thirty, but I slipped in a couple of extras for y’all cause I’m travelling. Be well, amigo. You deserve it.
