STAIRWAY

Yogi called it fork and told us to take it. Frost called it a road, a pathway. I think the choices in life are more of a stairway leading upwards.

Where does it begin? Certainly with the family, which we're told we can't choose. But we still have lots of options. We can follow, we can rebel, or like most, we can do a little of both. Forks or roads are there for our choosing.

Friends? Well, it gets a little trickier here. For like a stairway, there are steps going up and down. Plus, we all know how we've started up the stairs, stopped suddenly and went back down them. That's the tricky part. Although I was of a generation that experimented or used drugs recreationally, as they liked to call it, and there was plenty of availability, only three times in my life was I asked if I wanted to smoke some marijuana. And two of those times were by some high school students of mine in the early 70's. Thankfully I declined all three times. Again, we can follow, rebel, or a little of both.

And maybe that's why I prefer the staircase instead of the fork or road. The stairway can, and does lead down, too.

SANTONIO TOES

Actually I guess his last name is Holmes and not Toes, but his toes on his right foot that he got down touching the end zone with just over a minute to play in last year's Super Bowl really hurt me. He clearly made a great catch. The pass was on the money from Big Ben and it was lights out for the Arizona Cardinals.

You see I go way back with the Cardinals. But I also go back with Kurt Warner when he guided the St. Louis Rams to a Super Bowl victory and another Super Bowl that they should have won.

But as the NFL kicked off another season this past week, I don't see good things for my two teams--the Rams and Cardinals in that order. They are not well run programs, unfortunately. More than any other sport it seems the same teams are powerhouses every year in pro football.

Once in awhile a new kid will jump up, play well, maybe even win a Super Bowl but then reality sets in. The good teams, like the good college teams just program you to death.

What makes a good pro organization? Good people. They all make money, so it's not to be confused with Major League Baseball which still has teams that try to buy a championship. But in pro football, egos get in the way. Division of labor causes rifts. And some, just don't know what they're doing. (See the Rams drafts of this decade and the futility of the Cardinals since 1947 which was their last playoff victory until last year.)

So while I love to watch the NFL, I feel more like the Pirates or Orioles knowing my teams have little chance of succeeding. But I'll be there flipping channels, rooting against the teams I can't stand. But even when the Patriots lose, it's not as fulfilling as a Ram or Cardinal victory.

CATHEDRAL GORGE IN NEVADA

Mother Nature is a term I don't like. It doesn't give credit for what God has done. Mother Nature didn't carve out this beautiful National Park. While she's as made up as the Tooth Fairy or the Easter Bunny, more people seem to honor her or at least have a reverent feeling for her.

Is it possible to worship God in nature? I hear a lot of people say that. I hear them say, "I don't have to be in church on Sunday morning to worship God. I can do it by a stream, in the mountains, at the beach, on the golf course, etc., etc., etc."

My question is can they?

For those who take the attitude that they can worship God without being in church, well, it's like it's a chore for them to be corporate worship in a church. So, no I don't think that kind of person can.

But someone who is focused, who is aware that God created that beautiful nature, and that they don't replace that worship of God with the worship of nature, yes I think that kind of person can worship that way.

"Be still and know that I am God," we are told in scripture. Sometimes with that stillness, with that solitude we can reflect, we can meditate, we can have quiet time with the Creator.

To that kind of person, worship is enhanced in nature. But it's not a substitute. We are not to worship what God has created: we are to worship The Creator.

TICKY TICKY BOOM BOOM

Ticky ticky boom. Repeated in just that order, followed by the circular motion of the finger around the ear was the sign that the Garrys always made as kids to indicate one was crazy.

"You are!" was the emphatic response of a Pipher twin when called a name by another. So if you said, "You are an idiot!" His response was always, "You are!"

Lee Ann and Janis called him Chinese Pickle Man after some obscure cartoon character of their generation. When he was drafted to go to Viet Nam, they seriously worried that he would be shot by Americans thinking he was Viet Cong.

"The Fowlers have germs. Don't go near them. Don't go in their yard." Another childhood fear. Another childhood memory. What must go in the heads of the young.

Fictional school teacher character Jean Brodie said "Give me an impressionable mind and it will be mine forever," or something like that.

So why the young picture of former Illinois Gov. Blagoyvitch? Well, it's really a picture of Desi Arnez, Jr. I just thought it looked like the deposed Guv.

GINKO

Our town's pubic library, a building expanded by a generous oilman donor, was originally a Carnegie building when another more famous, more generous man gave to erect libraries all across the country.

It was a stereotypical library, brick with lots of good smelling old wood. Also good smelling old books. Not like the dust in antique shops selling old books. Not like mildewed paper or whatever that universal smell of old book shops emanate. This smell was almost aromatic. It was the smell of knowledge.

I know that doesn't help. But sometimes great smells are hard to define. Hard to delineate, to separate from the not good smells. Campfires are another example. Just don't throw an old elm branch on it, if there's even one to be found anymore. Black oak is another wood that doesn't send off a good smell.

But besides that, the library had a ginko tree in the front yard. It was a gift from some Chinese dignitary that had visited years prior and had brought along a small tree. It grew into a whopper. Science classes all knew where to score a great leaf for their collection. Unfortunately a storm felled the tree about a decade ago.

The last time I visited the library, there was a different smell gone, too. It smelled more like an office with all the computers in the basement where they house a great genealogy department. Useful, I'm certain.

But something was lost. Besides the great tree.

ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE AISLE

sat Joe Wilson. A Republican from South Carolina. A former Marine. A fifth term Congressman.

And this relatively unknown politician became an overnight personality whose name is revered or hated. Kinda like Joe the Plumber.

"You lie!" became his calling card to the President.

Gasps could be heard from the Capitol Building. Comments ranging from how rude and disrespectful that outburst was to he must apologize from the other side of the aisle.

Over $200,000 poured into his coffers for re-election after the remark. His opponent claims he received $400, 000. Another lie? Who knows?

But again the Dems or again is it Dims (?) have selective if not short memories. Weren't they the party on the other side of the aisle who booed GW Bush during his last State of the Union speech? Was that ok? Where were the apologies for rude, borish behavior and disrespecting the office of the Presidency?

I guess it depends on which side of the aisle one is on.