Opinions

Every year, about this time, I recall with great anxiety the one time I owned a reeeaaal Easter rabbit.

I'll Tell You What

When she walked through my back door, the 93-year-old aunt’s first question was, “Did you grow those camellias or steal them?” I smiled sweetly and explained, “I borrowed them.” “That’s what I thought,” she said. “Aren’t they pretty?” Back at my homeplace in Alabama, which I frequent for solitude as well as repartee, I visit the cemetery where my two parents and my other aunt are buried. Magnolia Cemetery provides a lovely setting with a wrought-iron arch over stone pilings at the entrance, and a row of 50-year-old magnolia trees down the main drive.

It was June in 1993, my thirty-seventh year, and beating a path to get movie tickets, I was as fast as a lottery winner making new friends. Having seen trailers of a large green Brontosaurus roaming the countryside, you know, the docile, 70-foot mascot of Sinclair Oil, I was anxious. The early scene when Sam Neill (as Dr. Alan Grant), Laura Dern (Dr. Ellie Sattler), and Jeff Goldblum (Dr. Ian Malcolm) got their first glimpse of live, recreated dinosaurs, Ellie’s jaw drops, she discards her sunglasses and rises through the open convertible roof, sees Dino, and I was smitten. But it was really when Sir Richard Attenborough, playing the antagonistic (at least he was in the novel) Dr. John Hammond, the founder of InGen, explained how they brought the extinct T-Rex and his clan of lizards back to life. It sounded believable. Sort of, well enough for gullible audiences to buy in. The Col. Sanders look-a-like in a Panama hat graphically showed how scientists created dinosaurs by extracting preserved dinosaur blood from prehistoric mosquitoes trapped in amber.

“Why don’t we plan a trip to Maine?” I asked the husband one night, after plying him with steak and potatoes. “Hmmm,” he said. “We could do that.” His fishing buddy called and suggested the Aucilla River. “Let me get my hat,” he said. Weeks passed, and I made a meatloaf. “Have you thought any more about that trip to Maine?” “Hmmm,” he said. “We could do that.” His fishing buddy called and they decided on Herndon Landing. “I’ll pick up some shrimp,” he said, not to me but to the man who needed bait.

The primary election in Ellis County is now behind us. Campaigns bring strong opinions, spirited debate, and passionate supporters, and that is part of the democratic process. But once the votes are counted, something more important must follow - unity. Ellis County has long been a strong conservative community. Republicans here share far more in common than what divides us. We care about our families, our faith, our schools, our local economy, and the future of our county. These shared values should always outweigh the disagreements that arise during campaign season.

When I can find 10 minutes to call my own, I go to the grounds of my church and sit.

If you have wondered what happened to normal discourse, you were likely born before 1990. The advent of social media, which followed the popular Blackberry device that hypnotized young adults to the point they were often incapable of leaving the house, has done great harm to the daily dialogues that drew people together. Separated from their electronic lifeline, the dependence tied to mobile phones has crippled adults, college-age students, teenagers, and even elementary children. The good is that information, music and video have been therapeutic entertainment. Too often, parents have yielded day-to-day conversations to whatever keeps their kids from bothering them.

He is a grandfather, and as such, he wishes to introduce his granddaughters to the simple pleasures of life. Like riding to the dump in the truck. “We’re going where?” the girls asked, with an overabundance of sophistication. “To do what?” they wanted to know, with some impatience. “Hop in,” he said with authority. The truck has no air conditioner so the girls were told, “Roll down those windows so we’ll catch a breeze.” He nearly slammed on brakes when the girls then said, “Do what? How do you roll down a window?”