About Me
- Netagene
- I am a member of the church of Christ. I have been writing things since I was little. Some have been printed, some posted. I write to teach or encourage; to blow off steam; and for fun! I had my own motorcycle in my 40s; I was a bluegrass music DJ for about 13 years; I've performed some. I am a member of the NRA. In 2003 (age 59), I became high partial legally blind; in 2005, I had to get hearing aids! Franklin Field said: "Poor eyes limit your sight; poor vision limits your deeds". And no kidding, the picture was made April, 2012!
Saturday, May 22, 2010
SIZE and ATTITUDE
... or David and Goliath. The Bible story is what I thought of about 6 this evening when something happened. As usual, I was on my front porch, crocheting, even though it was about 90 degrees. I heard a bird really start squawking, and noticed a cardinal on the power line that goes to my house. (I can tell a cardinal because of the tuff on its head, and if it's close enough, by its bright yellow beak; with the sparrows and nuthatches, I can tell which is which because sparrows have long tails and short beaks; nuthatches have short tails and long beaks.) A couple of seconds after the racket started, I saw a yellow cat saunter through my yard, almost directly under the power line. I stomped my foot, the cat looked up then started to trot. The next several seconds were wild. I heard a mockingbird start to scream, the cat was running zigzag through my yard and next door and across the street, and the mockingbird was swooping and diving right behind the cat. Finally the cat ran into some bushes next to a fence across the street - and all was calm again ... a bird that weighs only a few ounces ... and a cat that weighed maybe 12 pounds ... Size didn't matter; attitude won the battle ... David and Goliath.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
A Few More Verses (poems completed)!
I just added one additional verse to "Crumbs from God's Table", and added the rest of the verses to "Rein Me In". I hope that you will look up the verses (for convenience sake, I use the King James' Version), and do as Paul told Timothy in II Timothy 2:15, which verse you can also look up! Luke tells us that the Bereans were more noble than the people in Thessalonica because they searched the Scriptures daily, to see if the things they heard preached, were so (and that's another verse you can look up and see where that paraphrased quotation is, and no, it's not in the book of Luke, though he, through the Holy Spirit, wrote it)!
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Rein Me In, part 2
At least one person is not only reading what I write, but when I asked for verses for "Rein Me In", which I wrote and posted a few days ago, this one person, an on-line young lady from Ireland sent me several verses! Thanks, Angel! She had some of the verses I have on my list, and some that I hadn't thought of! I'm still open to suggestions, even though, yes, I do have a list of verses for several of the lines. How about a "sword drill", y'all? Get our your concordances or look at www.bible.ca or www.biblegateway.com and see what verses you can find to go with some line or lines of "Rein Me In"! ... and thanks ahead of time!
Thursday, May 6, 2010
RELATIONS
And I don't mean kinfolk or relationships. So before I finish "Rein Me In", here's some history!
I was born in 1944 here in Birmingham. The first house I remember my family living in was on what might be called a dividing line between blue-collar whites and middle/upper class blacks. We had a small, 2 bedroom house, with siding. On one side of us, across the street, were apartments where other whites lived. Behind us was a house similar to ours. Seems like one of the men worked in a carpentry shop. Daddy had a paper route as well as worked in a steel mill. He worked 2 jobs so that Mother could stay home with my sister and me.
There was a vacant lot next to us, and the next house was owned by a black gentleman who owned a business. I don't remember his name, but I DO remember the black couple who lived across the street in front of us. They were Dr. & Mrs. Boykin. He was a dentist and had his office in the basement of their new brick house. She was a school teacher, so they both were college graduates. Mother had to take my sister to Dr. Boykin once that I know of. (Daddy graduated from high school, as did Mother, though Mother also attended business school afterward.)
Before the Boykins had finished building their house, it was bombed, though I don't think too badly. Of course any bombing is bad. And I remember waking up during the night when I was small - I'd guess 5, 6, or 7, to the noise of bombs and cross-burnings in the yards of others in the block where I lived.
I remember going to tent meetings in the ACIPCO area where Marshall Keeble, a black man, was the preacher. (You can look him up on line.) Usually blacks sat together, and whites sat together, but it had nothing to do with segregation - we just sat with people we knew! There was never any trouble at those revivals.
When I worked for the phone company as a long distance operator in the early 60s, guards walked us to and from our cars because of the potential for violence, as the operations building was next to the park where the infamous dogs and fire hoses were turned on people.
None of this made sense to me because I have always believed that everyone is alike in that we all are made by God (Acts 10:34-35). If you don't know "You've Got to be Carefully Taught" from the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical "South Pacific", look it up. It says a lot.
I bring this all up because the only 2 neighbors I know, where I live now, have skin not the same color as mine.
Phil and I met when she was walking her dog when I'd be waiting for my morning bus. She lives a couple of blocks away, is 40-ish, divorced, no children, retired Navy, now works at a bank. We have since gone to one party together, and she often calls to ask if I need to go to the store when she's going, and she bakes cakes on the side and often brings me not only a slice of cake, but stew, cornbread, etc.!
Anthony lives across from me. He's late 40s, disabled because of a work injury, divorced with 3 grown children. He won't take gas money when I ask him to take me places, but WILL accept food! Because I took today off work, I wanted to go to one store, and needed to pick up 2 scrips from the drugstore. "No problem!" he said when I called him. Of course I offered to buy lunch. Nothing was more than 5 miles away. So ... not only did we go those 2 places, but he mentioned a Mexican grill next to the one store, and including tip, we both ate real well for $18 (and he had enough to have for supper!) - and he mentioned a grocery with individual pizzas on sale for 50 cents each, so we went there, too! We were gone about 2 1/2 hours, and had a great time together. We got not one remark, derogatory or otherwise, made to us nor, to my knowledge, did we get any disapproving looks.
Years ago when I was living in Tampa, Florida, I remember going to Morrison's for Sunday lunch. I was alone of course. One of the preachers I knew came in about the time I was seated. He was also alone. I don't know if I asked him to join me, or if he asked if he could join me. Not only would he have made 3 of me, but he was dark, dark black. Even then, I don't remember any remarks or "looks".
Talk about positive changes in people's attitudes!
With Anthony and another friend, I call us not the "odd couple", but the "odd trio". Shane doesn't live far from me, is white, a bit taller than me, and legally blind. (We met on the bus 6 years ago, and now ride the same paratransit to work.) Anthony is black, tall, slender. Sometimes we go places together, often calling Anthony to be our driver. Then Shane and I pay for Anthony's meal - and we 3 take an hour eating a burger and talking and laughing!
I could tell you 2 funny ones, about skin color, involving my son when he was 6 or 7, and again when he was in junior high, but this is a lot longer than I intended, so I'll save those for another time!
Race relations? I'm not only legally blind, but I'm "color" blind. Are you?
I was born in 1944 here in Birmingham. The first house I remember my family living in was on what might be called a dividing line between blue-collar whites and middle/upper class blacks. We had a small, 2 bedroom house, with siding. On one side of us, across the street, were apartments where other whites lived. Behind us was a house similar to ours. Seems like one of the men worked in a carpentry shop. Daddy had a paper route as well as worked in a steel mill. He worked 2 jobs so that Mother could stay home with my sister and me.
There was a vacant lot next to us, and the next house was owned by a black gentleman who owned a business. I don't remember his name, but I DO remember the black couple who lived across the street in front of us. They were Dr. & Mrs. Boykin. He was a dentist and had his office in the basement of their new brick house. She was a school teacher, so they both were college graduates. Mother had to take my sister to Dr. Boykin once that I know of. (Daddy graduated from high school, as did Mother, though Mother also attended business school afterward.)
Before the Boykins had finished building their house, it was bombed, though I don't think too badly. Of course any bombing is bad. And I remember waking up during the night when I was small - I'd guess 5, 6, or 7, to the noise of bombs and cross-burnings in the yards of others in the block where I lived.
I remember going to tent meetings in the ACIPCO area where Marshall Keeble, a black man, was the preacher. (You can look him up on line.) Usually blacks sat together, and whites sat together, but it had nothing to do with segregation - we just sat with people we knew! There was never any trouble at those revivals.
When I worked for the phone company as a long distance operator in the early 60s, guards walked us to and from our cars because of the potential for violence, as the operations building was next to the park where the infamous dogs and fire hoses were turned on people.
None of this made sense to me because I have always believed that everyone is alike in that we all are made by God (Acts 10:34-35). If you don't know "You've Got to be Carefully Taught" from the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical "South Pacific", look it up. It says a lot.
I bring this all up because the only 2 neighbors I know, where I live now, have skin not the same color as mine.
Phil and I met when she was walking her dog when I'd be waiting for my morning bus. She lives a couple of blocks away, is 40-ish, divorced, no children, retired Navy, now works at a bank. We have since gone to one party together, and she often calls to ask if I need to go to the store when she's going, and she bakes cakes on the side and often brings me not only a slice of cake, but stew, cornbread, etc.!
Anthony lives across from me. He's late 40s, disabled because of a work injury, divorced with 3 grown children. He won't take gas money when I ask him to take me places, but WILL accept food! Because I took today off work, I wanted to go to one store, and needed to pick up 2 scrips from the drugstore. "No problem!" he said when I called him. Of course I offered to buy lunch. Nothing was more than 5 miles away. So ... not only did we go those 2 places, but he mentioned a Mexican grill next to the one store, and including tip, we both ate real well for $18 (and he had enough to have for supper!) - and he mentioned a grocery with individual pizzas on sale for 50 cents each, so we went there, too! We were gone about 2 1/2 hours, and had a great time together. We got not one remark, derogatory or otherwise, made to us nor, to my knowledge, did we get any disapproving looks.
Years ago when I was living in Tampa, Florida, I remember going to Morrison's for Sunday lunch. I was alone of course. One of the preachers I knew came in about the time I was seated. He was also alone. I don't know if I asked him to join me, or if he asked if he could join me. Not only would he have made 3 of me, but he was dark, dark black. Even then, I don't remember any remarks or "looks".
Talk about positive changes in people's attitudes!
With Anthony and another friend, I call us not the "odd couple", but the "odd trio". Shane doesn't live far from me, is white, a bit taller than me, and legally blind. (We met on the bus 6 years ago, and now ride the same paratransit to work.) Anthony is black, tall, slender. Sometimes we go places together, often calling Anthony to be our driver. Then Shane and I pay for Anthony's meal - and we 3 take an hour eating a burger and talking and laughing!
I could tell you 2 funny ones, about skin color, involving my son when he was 6 or 7, and again when he was in junior high, but this is a lot longer than I intended, so I'll save those for another time!
Race relations? I'm not only legally blind, but I'm "color" blind. Are you?
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
REIN ME IN
Sometimes I'd like to yell and scream
And stomp around and blow off steam
When things don't go my way.
But it won't help if I do that.
I'd just be acting like a brat,
And regret it later that day.
But when I know that I am right,
Would it help to put up a fight
To hope others open their eyes?
Salvation - or family - whatever's wrong -
Do I butt in? Do I even belong?
They'd rather just surmise.
Someone will come to me and moan
And ask what I'd do in my home,
If the same thing happened to me.
I'd say to them: "Don't call my bluff!"
I'd go the route of "love gets tough",
But then they don't agree.
Sometimes it's hard to not get mad
When friends and kinfolk act so bad,
And just keep getting worse!
You see them calm and acting meek
While selfishly, they hurt the weak,
And rob to fill their purse.
I know that vengeance is the Lord's. (1)
The Bible is His two-edged sword, (2)
But things still make me cry.
The meanness, hurting those who're old -
How can some people be so bold!
Please, God, I hope not I!
Where Spirit fruits are always shown, (3)
Where fleshly works have up and gone, (4)
The devil lurks outside. (5)
To think on lovely, good, and pure,
Where faith and patience do endure, (6)
Then God therein abides.(7)
God, guard me so I don't fall in
With others, leading me to sin, (8)
And watch my mind and heart. (9)
Please help me, God, to always pray. (10)
I know Yours is the only way, (11)
And from You, ne'er depart.
If other chose to act real mean
And taunt me, making me a fiend - (12)
Together, make a din ...
So that my temper makes me leap
And fire flies from my head and feet,
Please, God, rein me in!
(1) Romans 12:19; (2) Hebrews 4:12; (3) Galatians 5:22-25; (4) Galatians 5:19-21; (5) Luke 4:13, I Peter 5:8; (6) Philippians 4:8, I Peter 2:20, II Peter 1:3-9; (7) Romans 8:6-9, I Corinthians 3:16-17, 8:19-20; (8) Exodus 23:2, Matthew 6:13; (9) Job 14:16, Psalm 139, Matthew 12:35, Romans 8:5-6, Philippians 4:7; (10) I Thessalonians 5:17; (11) John 14:6, Ephesians 4:3-6; (12) Psalm 141:4,9.
I don't really like the word "surmise", at the end of verse 2, but that's what initially came to me, and when I looked it up, it fits what I was talking about - family and friends guessing, etc., about the status quo, then just letting it ride - "business as usual". It is about families, and it is about people who refuse to actually study the Bible for themselves. I wasn't real sure what to call it, so I just used the last 3 words.
- by Netagene, May 2-4, 2010 -
And stomp around and blow off steam
When things don't go my way.
But it won't help if I do that.
I'd just be acting like a brat,
And regret it later that day.
But when I know that I am right,
Would it help to put up a fight
To hope others open their eyes?
Salvation - or family - whatever's wrong -
Do I butt in? Do I even belong?
They'd rather just surmise.
Someone will come to me and moan
And ask what I'd do in my home,
If the same thing happened to me.
I'd say to them: "Don't call my bluff!"
I'd go the route of "love gets tough",
But then they don't agree.
Sometimes it's hard to not get mad
When friends and kinfolk act so bad,
And just keep getting worse!
You see them calm and acting meek
While selfishly, they hurt the weak,
And rob to fill their purse.
I know that vengeance is the Lord's. (1)
The Bible is His two-edged sword, (2)
But things still make me cry.
The meanness, hurting those who're old -
How can some people be so bold!
Please, God, I hope not I!
Where Spirit fruits are always shown, (3)
Where fleshly works have up and gone, (4)
The devil lurks outside. (5)
To think on lovely, good, and pure,
Where faith and patience do endure, (6)
Then God therein abides.(7)
God, guard me so I don't fall in
With others, leading me to sin, (8)
And watch my mind and heart. (9)
Please help me, God, to always pray. (10)
I know Yours is the only way, (11)
And from You, ne'er depart.
If other chose to act real mean
And taunt me, making me a fiend - (12)
Together, make a din ...
So that my temper makes me leap
And fire flies from my head and feet,
Please, God, rein me in!
(1) Romans 12:19; (2) Hebrews 4:12; (3) Galatians 5:22-25; (4) Galatians 5:19-21; (5) Luke 4:13, I Peter 5:8; (6) Philippians 4:8, I Peter 2:20, II Peter 1:3-9; (7) Romans 8:6-9, I Corinthians 3:16-17, 8:19-20; (8) Exodus 23:2, Matthew 6:13; (9) Job 14:16, Psalm 139, Matthew 12:35, Romans 8:5-6, Philippians 4:7; (10) I Thessalonians 5:17; (11) John 14:6, Ephesians 4:3-6; (12) Psalm 141:4,9.
I don't really like the word "surmise", at the end of verse 2, but that's what initially came to me, and when I looked it up, it fits what I was talking about - family and friends guessing, etc., about the status quo, then just letting it ride - "business as usual". It is about families, and it is about people who refuse to actually study the Bible for themselves. I wasn't real sure what to call it, so I just used the last 3 words.
- by Netagene, May 2-4, 2010 -
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
WRITING
I wrote yet another poem today, which I will wait and post in a night or two. It's called "Rein Me In". I am to a place where I wish my brain would turn off! A thought gets in my mind, and it seems that, like a leaky faucet, there is no way to make it stop dripping. Sometimes I can stem the flow a little. Once in awhile, a poem will come to me almost entire, and other times, something will come in spurts, maybe a verse or two, or some significant line or idea. A few have sat around for a few years before I have been able to finish them.
Here's one I wrote on August 30, 2007, after which I noted that it took me 30 minutes to write all of it.
CAN'T NOT WRITE
I wish I did not "have" to write. Sometimes I feel like it's a blight -
A scary thing like awn on rye, a plague that spreads and just won't die!
Like blood that spurts out from a wound, it oozes words and makes me swoon!
And that's what this is at this time! It comes unbidden and it rhymes!
Some are more like falling snow, touching softly, comforting flow -
And some are petals, like a rose - from ashes, Phoenix, lively prose!
Why do I pen these odd wordings? I guess it helps me handle things,
When I'm happy or if I'm mad, it rains the same for good or bad.
Random thoughts - I hold a pen - I write stuff down as my mind spins.
A couplet here, or maybe more, musing idly, what's in store?
I'll see what comes to mind today, before I send this on its way.
I'll look for some big word to use - enigmatic! I like to confuse!
Dictionary! Learn a word! Dr. Seussian! Fun! Absurd!
Several meanings, or semantically deep! Use one time or go for keeps!
A precious gift, a silly prize, Speedy churns on. The time just flies!
Let's see if I can make this end ...
.....................................................
as on its tottering way it wends.
Here's one I wrote on August 30, 2007, after which I noted that it took me 30 minutes to write all of it.
CAN'T NOT WRITE
I wish I did not "have" to write. Sometimes I feel like it's a blight -
A scary thing like awn on rye, a plague that spreads and just won't die!
Like blood that spurts out from a wound, it oozes words and makes me swoon!
And that's what this is at this time! It comes unbidden and it rhymes!
Some are more like falling snow, touching softly, comforting flow -
And some are petals, like a rose - from ashes, Phoenix, lively prose!
Why do I pen these odd wordings? I guess it helps me handle things,
When I'm happy or if I'm mad, it rains the same for good or bad.
Random thoughts - I hold a pen - I write stuff down as my mind spins.
A couplet here, or maybe more, musing idly, what's in store?
I'll see what comes to mind today, before I send this on its way.
I'll look for some big word to use - enigmatic! I like to confuse!
Dictionary! Learn a word! Dr. Seussian! Fun! Absurd!
Several meanings, or semantically deep! Use one time or go for keeps!
A precious gift, a silly prize, Speedy churns on. The time just flies!
Let's see if I can make this end ...
.....................................................
as on its tottering way it wends.
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