OUR VIEW OF THE PRESENT

is based on our past. Not the past. Or we would all have the same views, the same opinions.

But who or what shapes our past?

There's the aha! moment. There's that teachable moment. When they come is a mystery. Why did something one day soak in when on the day before it was foreign, forgotten, or rejected?

Why do we accept the ideas of one person and not the other? What determines what we gravitate to? What determines what we shun?

If you haven't figured it out yet, I have only questions. Not a single answer.

Furthermore, I'm completely puzzled how two people who were raised in different communities, shared only a few acquaintances growing up, had diverse interests and backgrounds can be so similar in ideologies, can see the same things, can be so agreeable, as my wife and I. It's more than spooky; it's scary.

And it's not that it just got that way after years of marriage. It's been that way almost from Day One.

Neither of us tries to conform to the other's beliefs. They are simply shared. And I can't figure it out.

But it makes filling out surveys easier. We don't have to talk as much. We don't have to ask the other what one wants for supper because it'll be the same. We concur on movies, almost all tv shows, etc.,etc., etc.

No wonder I love her. She's my clone. Only she's a whole lot better looking.

THAT'S AS FAR AS I GOT

You see, I was making this woman the other day. I didn't want to leave the HOV lane on the 101, but I was alone in my car, and I thought of those people who prop up dummies or inflatables just to allow access to the fast lane.

As mechanical as I am, I knew it would be no problem constructing the female form, sitting her in the passenger seat, wrapping a seat belt around her and driving fast without the threat of discovery.

I started with a Freudian slip (pictured left). I knew no self respecting woman would be caught out in public without one.

From there it got a little harder. I couldn't get lips that would move to tell me where to turn. I couldn't get a flexible finger to wag at me. On the bright side, though, I could create that steely look, that wrinkled brow, and teeth bared in my direction.

I think she'll pass inspection. If I get pulled over by the police, they'll look at her and me, they'll see how angry she is, they won't want to spend any more time with her than I do, and they'll let me go. Probably even without a warning.

That's my plan and creation. I'm sticking to it.

DO ALL OLD PEOPLE THINK THEY'RE NOT?

I'm a little perplexed lately. I really wasn't sure if the sun would come up on Wednesday morning. You know, The Day After. I guess you have to be kinda old to remember that old movie. But Barry OB isn't the only thing that puzzles me these days.

For one: my age. Oh, no, here he goes again. Yeah, you're right. It all started with an additional guy added to our elder board. I, too, thought we needed some younger guys. But when I was lumped into the older guys, I thought, now wait a minute, Pastor. A 40 year old guy with jet black hair. And, as usual, he was right. I just had a memory lapse, or lacked the ability to judge my own age.

It happened again on our BSF small group when one member announced that he was by far the youngest. I thought, well, I'm not sure about that. But, again, I re-thought. You see, he still works, he has high school and college aged kids. Now, I'm 0 for 2.

Yesterday, while reading my old hometown newspaper, I saw in the obits the picture of a guy I'd gone to junior high and junior college with. But I thought to myself,"I guess Carl's dad died." Wrong. It was Carl himself, whom I expected to look the same as when I last saw him.

But maybe it's not an age thing afterall. I remember one time when I first started teaching. I was trying to make a point to a class of high school freshmen and I said something like, "Have you been at a party and someone started talking about Viet Nam?" Heck no I realized when I got no response. So maybe it's a mental thing.

Maybe I should have entitled this entry "Do all dumb people think they're not?

TAKE THE FORK IN THE ROAD, YOGI ADVISED

Adventuresome? Unorganized? que sera? Let It Be?

I've always been intrigued by what's on the other side? What's just around the corner? Over the hill? Just out of sight. What magic is there beyond what I could see? What awaits me.

Maybe that's why I love to travel. To see the new. The uncharted, at least by me. Maybe a little of the grass is greener syndrome. I really don't know.

I also don't know how long I've had it. I think its genesis arrived when I got my driver's license. There was always something about that freedom. While most of my other buds liked organization, I chose wait-and-see. Some really good times I had were the result of spur of the moment. Even though that attitude cost me relationships with girls and high school and college buddies who wanted to know "what are we doing this weekend"?

But so it goes. Or in my case, so it went. But even today, there's still that aura, that attraction, that almost gravitational pull. To that fork in the road, that road less travelled, that just beyond the unseen.

INAUG DAY

Today's the day I've dreaded since November 4. Somehow I don't feel quite as comfortable. Change I can believe in? How about change I don't want to accept? That's more like it.

But before he goes, I want to thank President George W. Bush. For keeping me safe. For fighting them over there instead of over here. For Gitmo. I don't want them on American soil. For his reliance on God. For restoring respectability to the White House. For continuing to make me proud to be an American. For his courage. For not backing down from a brutally unfair media with a socialist agenda. For the tax cuts. For most of his 8 years, an economy which soared. And for helping America to stand tall.

I'm sure before Mr.Obama takes the oath today, he won't have to find a White House in disarray as the Clintons left it. Remember how all the W's on all the keyboards somehow were missing when the last change of occupancy occurred? I'm certain that all the O's will be there for the new chief.

I not only wish Mr. Obama the best, I'm also praying for him. I fervently hope he is re-elected. That will mean he's done a good job, he's moved center in his ideology, our country has been safe, and we've prospered. But most importantly, it means he has gone to God for guidance prior to making even the smallest of decisions his job demands. May God bless you, Barak Obama and the USA.

WHAT A DAY!

The second lowliest sports franchise in America, the Chicago/St. Louis/Arizona Cardinals are going to the Super Bowl. And our town is going nuts.

Only at the last minute just a few short weeks ago, literally, did the Cardinals sell out their first home playoff game since 1947. Otherwise, a tv blackout would have occurred bringing a big embarrassment to the team and organization.

After an upset win against the Falcons and another at powerful Carolina, the Cardinals had no trouble selling out for the NFC Championship game played yesterday. The poor old bandwagon is tilting after a stunning win over the Eagles.

But you know what? A fan is a fan is a fan, or something like that. It's great to see the city pumped up. Cardinal red everywhere. Cardinal jerseys selling like hotcakes.

A town that once got excited about the Phoenix Symphony and Dale Chuhuli's art exhibit at the Botanical Gardens. A city who once embraced the FBR golf tournament, the Caviglia horse show, the P.F. Chang's rocking marathon, the Barret Jackson car auction. Now Phoenix has its sights set firmly on the Cardinals, and that's nice. It's feel good.

Especially since Kurt Warner, a terrific Christian is the leader, followed by, yes, I'll anoint him as the best wide receiver in football, Larry Fitzgerald. Throw in another aged creature, The Edge, and a newbie with a long name--Dominic Rogers-Cromartie; top it off with a great coach, The Wiz, and Offensive Coordinator, Todd Healy, and yes, you have a Super Bowl team. Who'd a thunk it.

Oh, yeah the Suns and the Diamondbacks both play here, too. But they should have been mentioned in the Chuhuli paragraph. That's right: taking a back seat to Your Arizona Cardinals.

ONE MORE TIME

or THIS IS MY NOW. Remember that dippy song, sung and made popular by Glendale, AZ, American Idol winner Jordan Sparks? (Who father Philipi was a former Cardinal player, by the way.)

Well, this is it. Game On! And the Big Red can't let this get away. Or as Shakespeare said in Julius Caesar, "when comes such another?" As in chance.

I don't even want to hear talk of how if the Cardinals fail to win today's game, that the future is bright, they'll be back, ad infinitum. The chance is now. One more time.

There are simply too many variables not under any team's control. One injury, one defection for greener pastures, one blown official's call, one shift in management or loss of coach(es) can all lead to a season of no playoff games. I could have added one cheating coach (NE Patriots), one lousy commissioner, one quirk in the schedule, too.

So One More Time may not happen. It took 61 years for them to get where they are. So don't, repeat: please don't offer condolences with optimism if the football team in Arizona loses today. I'll take the condos (opposite of the kudos), but you can keep the optimism. Besides, after the loss, I'll be a Ram fan again. Or wherever Kurt Warner winds up.