Needless to say, I could write an entire entry into my blog on the sweetness of Auburn’s victory over Ole Miss. Yet, no matter how much I articulate and memorialize the victory while sitting around the blogging campfire, it is not the subject for today.
Today, I want to discuss Auburn’s upcoming game with the Furman Paladins. Yes, that same Furman from Greenville, South Carolina. From my home, the drive to their beautiful campus is just over half an hour. It is a great school with high academic standards, and one of my wife’s best friends (as well as work colleague) graduated from there. Her name is Kim.
Kim is one of the dearest Christian women I have ever met. Her faith is real. Her opinions are well thought out. She is smart. She has an almost dry sense of wit and humor that I find not only funny, but also refreshing. The things she loves, she loves with passion. She is a great mother to her two children, one who is at Presbyterian College and the other at The Citadel. And her husband, Jeff, couldn’t have asked for a better wife.
Kim is a cancer survivor. Unfortunately, her husband Jeff was not. The two of them suffered through more physical difficulties, virtually at the same time, than any family should ever have to. This past July 20, Kim’s soul-mate Jeff passed from this life to the next after a long battle with colon cancer. She had undergone her own surgery and therapy for breast cancer. (By the way, whenever I wear a pink bow, I wear it not just for women in general, I wear it for Kim).
Frankly, this blog could have been about Kim’s husband, for you see, Jeff was an All-American at Furman, who went on to coach there and at N.C. State. He eventually was the athletic director at Boiling Springs High School when three of my daughters were there. In fact, one day, while it was POURING rain, he went to my second daughter’s car and turned off the lights….getting drenched in the process. That was just the kind of guy Jeff was.
But this is about Kim. Although she tells me that she is o.k. and plowing through, I can’t imagine how difficult the last three months have been. I’m sure there are times when she would say that she isn’t much of a fighter OR survivor, but that just isn’t the case. Kim is both. My wife has witnessed it much closer than I, but even from my distance I have seen it. I am proud to say that she is my friend. I am proud to say that she is one of my wife’s closest friends. I am proud to see her faith in action. And if Kim Snipes is anything like what a Paladin supposed to be, then she is the truest Paladin. And because of Kim, I can’t help but be a fan of the Paladins….even if I will be rooting for my Tigers this weekend.
WJLaneSR
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Friday, October 30, 2009
Drugs and Keys
I have been on some really good drugs this week. After spending the better part of a day in the emergency room with a kidney stone, and trying to get some relief with lesser drugs, the E.R. Doc finally had the nurse give me morphine. After that, I didn't feel the pain of the stone any longer, the pain of getting taken to the woodshed by LSU, or any other pain. In fact, I felt no pain at all. Morphine was the key to giving me some much needed relief. And thank God for that key.
Speaking of keys, there must be hundreds of books, pamphlets and DVD’s on the subject “Keys to Success.” I did a google search and came up with “Keys to success in marriage”, “Keys to success in business”, “Keys to success in life.” There were keys to success in dieting, financial management, attitude, career, motivation….the list goes on and on. Whenever I hear a phrase beginning “here are the keys to success in….” I think to myself, “does this mean that the answers were always in the box we carry around? Do we already have the answers and someone else just needs to open them up for us?” Sounds kinda metaphysical to me.
Rather than opening up a box today, I want to look around the box. Maybe it's the remnants of the morphine keeping my head a little fuzzy, but rather than giving you what I think are the keys necessary for Auburn to be successful against Ole Sis on Saturday, I am going to give you some non-essential skeleton keys that MIGHT just make the difference. Here are my skeleton keys for success:
Ole Miss is known for their cheer “Hotty Toddy”. A hotty toddy, according to Exquecher Rolls of Scotland, is a mixed drink of Scotch and water served hot so that it is more palatable to women. The word “toddy” comes from the Scottish “Tod’s Well”, which supplies Edinburgh with water.
Auburn, on the other hand, has “Bodda Getta”. Let’s be honest, here. You can’t really shout “bodda getta” without a belly full of Blue Ribbon Beer or Jack Daniels. There ain’t any “hottie toddy….hootsie tootsie” at Auburn. And at the end of the day, which one would you rather bring with you to a bar fight?
Next, Auburn has the champion mascot, “Aubie”. Aubie has been the College National Mascot Champion six (6) times since 1980. He has finished in the top five another seventeen (17) times. Aubie has made appearances on every major television channel, and is an ambassador for Auburn University.
Colonel Reb, on the other hand, died an ungraceful death. Ole Miss doesn’t use him anymore. He was bringing disgrace to their hallowed school for learned Mississippians. You might remember him: the white bearded old man wearing a wide-brimmed hat and carrying a cane. He was the mascot that caused websites to pop up everywhere calling for a boycott of “everything Ole Miss” because he was too much like a plantation owner. Unlike James Dean, Colonel Reb became “a rebel without a cause” and he became “Ole Dis-Missed”.
Finally, isn’t it interesting that the University of Mississippi is found in a town called “Oxford”? Somehow, those two words just don’t seem to go together….Oxford…Mississippi. As I recall from my grade school education I received in Alabama, this would be called an oxymoron. Two words of contradictory meaning used together for a special effect, such as “wise fool”, or “legal murder”. Another would be “Oxford, Mississippi”. Of course, it would probably be safe to say that most people in Mississippi wouldn’t know an oxymoron if it hit them, and in fact, probably think it is a stupid beast of burden who needs to be yoked and plowed.
Again, you just don’t have that with “Auburn, Alabama”.
And which one would you rather take to a bar fight. Someone from "Oxford", or someone from "Auburn"??
Call it drug induced dillusions, or call it guessing, I am tossing these skeleton keys on the floor.
I am boldly predicting an upset on the early afternoon Plains. The keys, when scattered on the floor, say “Auburn 27 – Ole Miss 24”.
And that’s as scientific as I can get it.
WJLaneSR
Speaking of keys, there must be hundreds of books, pamphlets and DVD’s on the subject “Keys to Success.” I did a google search and came up with “Keys to success in marriage”, “Keys to success in business”, “Keys to success in life.” There were keys to success in dieting, financial management, attitude, career, motivation….the list goes on and on. Whenever I hear a phrase beginning “here are the keys to success in….” I think to myself, “does this mean that the answers were always in the box we carry around? Do we already have the answers and someone else just needs to open them up for us?” Sounds kinda metaphysical to me.
Rather than opening up a box today, I want to look around the box. Maybe it's the remnants of the morphine keeping my head a little fuzzy, but rather than giving you what I think are the keys necessary for Auburn to be successful against Ole Sis on Saturday, I am going to give you some non-essential skeleton keys that MIGHT just make the difference. Here are my skeleton keys for success:
Ole Miss is known for their cheer “Hotty Toddy”. A hotty toddy, according to Exquecher Rolls of Scotland, is a mixed drink of Scotch and water served hot so that it is more palatable to women. The word “toddy” comes from the Scottish “Tod’s Well”, which supplies Edinburgh with water.
Auburn, on the other hand, has “Bodda Getta”. Let’s be honest, here. You can’t really shout “bodda getta” without a belly full of Blue Ribbon Beer or Jack Daniels. There ain’t any “hottie toddy….hootsie tootsie” at Auburn. And at the end of the day, which one would you rather bring with you to a bar fight?
Next, Auburn has the champion mascot, “Aubie”. Aubie has been the College National Mascot Champion six (6) times since 1980. He has finished in the top five another seventeen (17) times. Aubie has made appearances on every major television channel, and is an ambassador for Auburn University.
Colonel Reb, on the other hand, died an ungraceful death. Ole Miss doesn’t use him anymore. He was bringing disgrace to their hallowed school for learned Mississippians. You might remember him: the white bearded old man wearing a wide-brimmed hat and carrying a cane. He was the mascot that caused websites to pop up everywhere calling for a boycott of “everything Ole Miss” because he was too much like a plantation owner. Unlike James Dean, Colonel Reb became “a rebel without a cause” and he became “Ole Dis-Missed”.
Finally, isn’t it interesting that the University of Mississippi is found in a town called “Oxford”? Somehow, those two words just don’t seem to go together….Oxford…Mississippi. As I recall from my grade school education I received in Alabama, this would be called an oxymoron. Two words of contradictory meaning used together for a special effect, such as “wise fool”, or “legal murder”. Another would be “Oxford, Mississippi”. Of course, it would probably be safe to say that most people in Mississippi wouldn’t know an oxymoron if it hit them, and in fact, probably think it is a stupid beast of burden who needs to be yoked and plowed.
Again, you just don’t have that with “Auburn, Alabama”.
And which one would you rather take to a bar fight. Someone from "Oxford", or someone from "Auburn"??
Call it drug induced dillusions, or call it guessing, I am tossing these skeleton keys on the floor.
I am boldly predicting an upset on the early afternoon Plains. The keys, when scattered on the floor, say “Auburn 27 – Ole Miss 24”.
And that’s as scientific as I can get it.
WJLaneSR
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