The Destination

I keep an old television with a DVD player attached to it down in my workshop to keep me company. As a rule I stick an old movie in there or a Hogan’s Heroes, and once in a while, I’ll put an old Andy Griffith in and listen to Barney rant and rave for a while. Well the other day I was down in the shop working on this and that, and I put an Andy in. As I watched the opening credits with Opie and Andy walking down that old dirt road chucking rocks in the lake, my mind went nostalgic, as it often does, and it hit me that that was my life during the summers when I was a kid.

I am a contemporary of Opie, you see. Old Ron Howard and I are close in age; so in actuality, when I was a kid, my life was not all that different than Opie’s.  

During the summer months when I was with Granny and Grandpa, I walked those old southern dirt roads down on the panhandle, kicking cans, chucking rocks and getting into all sorts of mischief.

I fished whenever I could and played whenever I couldn’t, and in the evenings, if a ball game wasn’t on, I would sit on the old front porch and occupy myself somehow. Yes there was life before video games and satellite television.

Sometimes I would just go out on the carport and sit silently beside my grandpa finding comfort in the glow of his Pall-mall cigarette. Listening to the night sounds and watching the toads make their way to the cool concrete for the night, I was content and at peace.

I slept on the old front porch throughout the summer. It had jalousie windows, for those who know what I’m talking about, and the bed was a door, laid flat, with makeshift legs and a bit of cushion on it. Hard as a stone, but familiar, so I rested easy on it.

I would lay out there on Thursday nights and listen to Dragnet. You see Granny’s next door neighbor, Irene, was hard of hearing and she kept her TV loud and her windows open. So when I heard “Just the facts, ma’am.” I would sit up and enjoy the show. It was a treat.

On Sunday afternoons, we went visiting. We would take off to Cottondale, Chipley or Crestview to visit great aunts and uncles, 1st, 2nd and 3rd cousins, and old friends. Being a child, I hated it then, but I miss it now.

Now that life has gotten so busy that visiting is out of style. That just dropping by to say “Hi” is an imposition instead of a pleasure. That sitting on the front porch in the cool of the day can’t seem to be tolerated by many folks anymore without some electronic gadget in their hands to distract them. 

I know I am sounding old, a little crotchety and way too nostalgic, and perhaps that is the case; but I miss the days when life was gradual, and relationships, real relationships, were cherished. To quote Merle Haggard: I kinda long for the days when “Coke was still cola and a joint was a bad place to be.”

When I was a bit younger, I would not have understood what I have just written. At that time I was in the midst of life, with children to raise, a career to tend to, schedules to keep and adventures to take. I would have never understood had I told myself then that running through life at a hundred miles an hour doesn’t augment life, it diminishes it.   

A laser focus may get you to where you want to be only to have you discover that you left what truly matters behind. Remember a hollow victory is no victory at all.

As your pastor and friend, please slow down long enough to experience the life God has given you. Don’t let your life be a blur on the side of the road. Enjoy it.

Take the time to love those God has given you to love. Take the time to be loved. Life is so much more than getting to a destination. Life is the destination. So slow down a bit and enjoy the ride.
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Love, Pastor Tony  

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