My friend Sharon McDonald used to delight in telling of a former pastor of Maynardville Baptist Church who was scandalized by the increasing trend for people to wear less clothing on television and in public. He would occasionally exclaim from the pulpit, “Oh, the nu-did-i-ty of it!”
Another element of our society that many times goes unappreciated is irony. Irony is defined by Webster’s New World Dictionary as “a way of being amusing or sarcastic by saying exactly the opposite of what one means” or “an event or a result that is the opposite of what might be expected.”

I was checking Facebook the other day and came across this “hook”:

Meet the Waltons: The Bizarre Family Behind Walmart

There followed two comments:

“Hated Grandma on that show. She was so grouchy.
And why didn’t John Boy just come out of the closet?
Like we all didn’t know!”

“I remember the first Walmart open
in Rogers, Arkansas on July 2, 1969.”

The old cliché says that a picture is worth a thousand words. Actually, an email from a friend revealed to me that thanks to current inflation, a picture is now worth only two hundred words, and as the price of everything else rises, the word value of a picture drops daily. Soon, words will be worth pictures!

A former teacher of mine recently gave me several books. One of them was titled The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom. I believe this is the second time I have read the book, but if so the first was so long ago that I remembered none of the plot.

Occasionally in life the stars align themselves, sometimes they don’t. Sometimes I can see the alignment, sometimes I cannot.
I remember several years meteor showers were predicted. I got out of bed around 2:00 a.m., the reported best time to see them at my location, to witness this wonder of nature. For whatever reason, I did not see the expected phenomenon.

I begin with some questions for thought—Do you ever give advice? Do you like to give advice? If so, what does that say about your opinion of yourself? Do you ever receive advice from others, either solicited or unsolicited? How well do you receive advice from others? Are you better at giving or receiving advice? Are you one of those who could care less about either giving or receiving advice?

Last week I attended the monthly senior citizen luncheon at the Baptist church where I am a member. The pastor announced that next month that we would be doing something different—playing BINGO.
I leaned over and told one of the gentlemen sitting at the table with me, “We’re turning Catholic! Next thing you know we’ll be using real wine at the Lord’s Supper.”

The word “addiction” almost always has a negative connotation. I have a theory that everyone is addicted to something. While I believe that not all addictions are bad, I believe that any addiction can be both good and bad.
Take me, for example. I love to collect books. I also love to read them, but I find as much or more joy in the collecting. I learned on Jeopardy! there is a Japanese term for this—“tsundoku”.

At the time I am writing this article, it is the Tuesday afternoon of Easter Week. For Christians worldwide, Easter is the epitome of the Gospel story, as the resurrection of Christ from the dead makes it possible to inherit eternal life in Heaven.

I attended the Union County Opry this past Saturday evening. I was not there to enjoy the music, but to sell concessions for the Union County Lions Club with my nephew Joe. There was a gentleman there who once dated a member of our family. In the course of conversation, Joe asked this fellow who he married. He told his wife’s name, a name that was unfamiliar to both Joe and me. Joe said, “So you didn’t marry a Union County girl, huh?” The man replied that he was afraid to, as he might unknowingly be marrying his cousin.