Writin' Forty

While I didn’t think this, if I did think that receiving my blue belt in jiu-jitsu was the end to anything I would be sadly mistaken. I’m going to go ahead and say I don’t get why anyone goes through the trouble of earning a blue belt in jiu-jitsu and then decides to quit going to class. Of course, life happens and things come up so I’m not talking about those people. I’m talking about people who actively choose to stop going after blue belt, they could go to class, and just decided not to go. I’ve read somewhere that earning your blue belt is the equivalent of knowing who you are as a jiu-jitsu artist. So imagine if that applied to real life: you finally figure out your purpose, who you are as a person, then you just don’t do any of it.  It’s unlocking a door and then just walking away from the door without walking through it. That’s crazy.  Why am I rambling about this? If I figured out what I am in earning my blue belt it would be that I’m a big dude and I like smashing...

I think if I had a redo on what I went into college for it would be for journalism or broadcasting. I look at people talking about sports or being a talking head on TV and I think “Hey, I can do that” or “Hey, I already do this for free anyway, why I wouldn’t want to do it for a living?” And while oftentimes as a beat writer or broadcaster you often have to talk about whatever is placed in front you when you write a blog that only about 8 people read you can write about whatever the heck you want! Ah, freedom. Here goes a rant about the Iron Bowl, which is the yearly football game between Auburn and Alabama: The last time I looked, Alabama is a 24.5  pt  favorite to win the Iron Bowl this year and some other metric I saw said Alabama has a 91% chance to win the game , which Alabama is the home team for; the game is played in Tuscaloosa . Alabama is 11-0 heading into the game, they’ve already won the SEC Western Division and will be facing Georgia in the SEC Championship....

It occurred to me that I haven’t written about my trip to San Antonio, TX a few weeks back. Not sure how or why I forgot because at least two significant things happened to me, singularly, in that time: One, I put on a military uniform for the first time in almost 4 years and two, I had to shave  off my beard in order to put on that military uniform. I knew this day was coming and have known it for years. About 3 years ago I reacquainted myself with my buddy Sean and he told me then, authoritatively so, that he wanted me to preside over his retirement ceremony. Let’s pause here: The reason of Sean choosing me is important because there simply aren’t many people who make it from any branch of service to an official retirement, which is (normally) a period of over 20 years: when you get to that point you get to “call your shot” as to when you retire and who does it. People who perform these ceremonies usually are people of a high position or rank that the retiree respects. I r...

I joined a military support group at work. I figured it was a good way to meet people who have something in common with me in such a huge organization such as the one I work for.  The premise under which I joined this group was that I would join this course and also be connected with a mentor who is military or military friendly and talk to you during the duration of this course. Turns out I had a good rapport with my guy, Aaron, so after the course ended we have continued to have discussions. I’m glad for this. It’s nice to see someone outside of my regular day to day work people. Aaron challenged me to take better care of my spiritual growth. He firmly believes that you need to have work life, spirit, home life, and physical health taken care of. Aaron wasn’t even necessarily referring to going into a church every Sunday. To be frank, I’m kind of glad about that. I grew up in the church, Southern Baptist. My favorite lady on the planet, my mom, had trouble as a teen; going...

I’ve gone out of my way on this blog to not talk about politics. Trust me, I have friends and I have heard people very proudly proclaim how they don’t talk about politics. I’m not one of those people for a few reasons: there isn’t anything wrong with being aware of events in the world. As a minority, I think it’s even more important to state exactly where I am in my place in the world for so many reasons. So many. But I’ve gone out of my way to not talk about politics in this blog because I want this blog to be a place for me and for anyone reading to be free of, I  dunno . The world’s problems? That’s too heavy. How about this: in general I don’t give a good got damn about politics. I do care about common sense and I do care about people and so what I do is take politics and apply them to how I feel it would affect people in everyday life. I’m not saying that’s unique or  avant garde  or whatever. It’s just what I do.  All of this preface is leading up to me ta...

It was 2003 and the Auburn Tigers were rated in the top 5 coming into the football season. In what would be a disappointing season in a lot of ways, Auburn went 8-5 on the year.  The Ole Miss game was towards the end of the year. Trailing 24-20 against the Eli Manning led team, Auburn took the ball all the way to the Ole Miss 9 or 10 yard line, where one of our receivers dropped a wide open (and I mean wide open!) pass in the end zone for the go ahead touchdown.  I’ll have you know I’m a pretty big guy with a deep enough voice and I let out this yelp that did not befit a man of my stature; lik e some big, wounded animal. Auburn went on to lose that game but the lesson I learned more than anything, from that game in particular is: I had to stop taking Auburn football so seriously. Auburn football is not going to kill me. Since then I have leveled off my passion level that I’m not shouting and jumping up and down at all points of the game. Mostly. Majority of the time. ...

I had a hard time sleeping last night. That usually happens when something is on my mind.  And while I was going through any number of things that could have been on my head this was one was easy to figure out: I was sad. And the reason it was easy to figure out is because Mom was visiting and she was about to leave.  That’s a good reason to be sad. I may have said this before in the blog, I  dunno : my mom is my favorite lady on the planet. That is no sleight to my wife, by the way. She’s clearly top 2, number one in many important and special ways. But Mom is my favorite and I was reminded why on any number of times during this visit. I would listen to her talk and I would smile because I see where I get so many of mannerisms and behaviors from. I understand where my stubbornness and loyalty come from. I understand where my desire to be honest and truthful to my friends come from. I certainly have characteristics from my dad, but Mom seems to be my spirit animal in...