College Town At Christmas 2024: Making A Gratitude List Does Not Cost You A Dime

 What is free in life?

Air, water (sometimes), the ability to walk around in public places or freedom of speech? Now, let's look even more deeper.  With Thanksgiving approaching fast, what do you have gratitude for in your own life this holiday season? Your spouse, your children, your dog, your cat, your home, your cars, your job, your community or your church? What about your freedom to worship in a particular church or having faith in God? How about your local government, leaders, police force or fire department? Or what about our country (America), our national leaders or our military? How about our schools, college and universities across the country? What about our doctors, hospitals and have access to medicine? What about food, grocery stores and retail stores? But remember money is not everything in life (I know. But it sure helps to have a job and money of course). As the old saying goes (which is very true) having lots of money will not buy you happiness, that's for sure. We have all heard stories of people making millions and then losing it all.  Or people who win the lottery and they get the lottery curse loosing it all or something bad happens to them. I think you get the picture.

Yes, having gratitude does not cost us a dime when we begin to do our own inventory of what we are thankful this holiday season.  To be honest, I have had a tough 2024 this year already especially since my wife was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in April.  As her full-time caregiver, I have had to learn to take a daily inventory of my own gratitude list. I always come to the conclusion that I am very blessed.  Oh, I could sit around and feel sorry for myself for many different reasons.  And I have to admit some times I do have bad days just like my wife does.  We are fallible human beings. But that's part of life.  Nothing will ever make you totally happy.  It's the little things in life that make you happy. Nothing is permanent either.  Everything changes sooner or later.  Nothing stays the same. When life throws you a curve ball, you learn to adjust.  It's in our DNA as human beings to learn to adjust and make changes.  We are always adjusting to new things and new situations whether we like it or not.  We learn to make the best of it-one day at a time. We are always striving to find routine in our lives day in and day out.  Routine is the key to what helps us survive in this world.  Just like holiday traditions, It is a time to be together as a family and a community in order to be thankful for what we do have in our own lives.

So with that said, do yourself a favor and do your own gratitude list this season.  Think of what you are thankful for-big or small.  And I bet that you will find that you are blessed like me.  And it will definitely take the burden of stress off your shoulders. God Bless and Happy Thanksgiving as well as Merry Christmas!

My Thoughts On The Homeless in Bowling Green, Ky.

I think the older I get, I have more empathy for the homeless in our city of 80,000 in Bowling Green, Ky. But on the other hand, I have more gratitude and appreciation for what I have too in my life (my home, my family, my dog and my car among other things in my life). It makes me think how lucky I am to have the life I have had at age 62. I think about the homeless in the path of Hurricane Helene down south right now. I hope and pray that they did not get swept away into the Gulf of Mexico. There are ways of helping the homeless in Bowling Green and other towns across America without even leaving your home. You can give to the Salvation Army or Goodwill online. Or give to your local church. I am sure they have a mission to reach out to the homeless. I think two positive things that Bowling Green has going for right now is that a brand new intake center is being built with several agencies involved including law enforcement as a place they can be taken to instead of jail when picked up off the streets. They will be evaluated and then determine what the next step is for them. And the other great thing that has happened recently is that the Salvation Army has remodeled one of their older buildings across the street from their newer one where the homeless can take a shower and wash their clothes. They probably have some other things that the Salvation Army can do to help out at that point also. When you see the Homeless on the street corner holding up a sign or panhandling people for money, don't roll down the window and yell "Get a job!" I admit, I am guilty of that many times through the years. Instead of giving them money to them on the spot, give them food items, bottled water or clothing items according to the season. As far as money goes, give to your favorite charity who has a mission to help the homeless. (Disclaimer: Recognize that there are some people on the street corners posing as homeless. They are not homeless. They treat it like a job and they are scammers. I have been scammed before. That's why the experts who work with homeless or government officials say there are better ways to give to them such as giving online to your favorite charity who help the homeless directly in our community).

Reptile Brains And The Road Ragers In Our Midst

     I have to admit, road ragers make me nervous.

    Actually, I call them "Reptile Brains" because they are not thinking rational by taking high risks and driving extremely dangerously using their vehicle as a 3,000 lbs. weapon.  I have been seriously road raged a couple of times in my 47 year driving career (I have been driving since I was 15 years-old).  Both of them have happened in the last ten years of my life.  The first time that I remember was down in Nashville probably about eight or nine years ago.  My wife and I were going to eat at a restaurant in Madison, Tenn., and my son and his girlfriend were following us in his car. Apparently, I pulled in front of somebody at a red light.  But when I looked into the rearview mirror, I did not see a car coming my way.  I know is that he must have been speeding and because he was on my tail before I knew it. All of sudden, he was honking his horn, cussing me, giving me the finger and edging up to my bumper.  The red light turns green and then he swings around the side of my car and does the same thing.  I just ignored him and kept looking forward trying to stay calm. But my heart began racing and I was trying not to have a panic attack or react.  My wife, fortunately was looking down at her phone and I did not tell her what was going on. That's what I was trained to do in all my years of taking professional driver training courses in my 27 years of working in the pest management industry. Mainly, we were trained to stay calm and not react. Then the road rager pulls in front of me and slams on the breaks a couple of times.  Again, I did not react and stayed calm.  Finally, I guess when he realized that he was not going to get a reaction out of me so he decided to move on.  I was incredibly relieved but shaken up.  I didn't tell my wife about it until we arrived at the restaurant parking lot.  My son pulled in right behind us and jumped out of his car. He was concerned about me and asked if I was okay.  I told him I was but it had shaken me up and he said he understood.  It took me a little while to relax even to eat my meal. My son said that it would have done the same thing to him.

    Then last week basically the same thing happened to me again in Bowling Green.  Except this time, I was slowing down to see where a pothole was so I could report it to the city in order for it to be fixed.  I looked into the rearview mirror and there were no cars behind me.  Again, all of sudden, this particular driver in a car was on my tail, honking his horn, cussing, giving the finger, swerving and trying to go around me. In my neighborhood, drivers have a bad habit of speeding, driving 50 or 60 mph in a 30 mph speed zone.  It's scary sometimes to witness this especially when I am sitting on my front porch or walking the dog on the Greenway. Finally, I pulled off on a side road in order to get home.  If he followed me, I had a Plan B.  I would drive away from my house and start heading toward the police station or call 911 on the way there.  
Thank God, he went on.  I was shaken up again. However, I used my training by remaining calm and not reacting.  That is your best defense when being road raged.  There is a couple of other things that you can do also. (Please watch the video below that I have posted).  Thank you for reading and be safe out there!

The New "Bob Marley: One Love" Movie Is Jamming While Bringing Back Good Memories For His Fans

 Nowadays there's so much to watch on TV. Actually, there's really too much to watch in my opinion. 

We got internet streaming flat

screen TV's with built in apps that have taken the thunder out of me watching my large collection of DVD movies that I have been collecting these last several years.  We have Dish Satellite TV also.  And I am really scratching the surface on that too.  Half of the buttons on the remote, I don't even know how to operate. Lol. To be honest, I think I have gotten too lazy to get up put the DVD's in the machine lately.  It's just much easier to flip on the TV and start pushing buttons on the remote and began chipping away at the tip of the iceberg on the tons and tons shows, documentaries and movies available to watch on the internet streaming TV apps and Dish Satellite TV. 

But every now and then a new movie comes along that is being shown at our local theatre.  And usually if it's a rock music biopic, I am very interested in going to see it.  In this case with this latest biopic, it's a movie about reggae music legend "Bob Marley" which is currently being shown here in Bowling Green. The movie is called, "Bob Marley: One Love." My wife (Patty) and I went to see it last Monday and I thought it was a great movie and really enjoyed it.  And course, I always have to sit on the outside seat in in the theatre just in case I have get up to use the restroom. And we always purchase a large popcorn with butter and a large Pepsi at the concessions stand beforehand that we share together to enjoy our movie with.

I won't spoil the details of movie by talking about what happens or how the movie is portrayed.  However, the movie brought a lot of good memories back to me while watching it. It reminded me when I was in college at Ole Miss in Oxford, Miss., in the early 80's and I was in the Sigma Pi Fraternity.  We played a lot of Bob Marley back in those days at the frat house especially during parties.  Also, Patty and I owned a Bob Marley greatest hits CD and we wore it out playing it over and over in the car in the 90's and 2000's. Especially when we would drive down to Pensacola Beach at the Gulf of Mexico where we go on vacation for several days at the beach.  I thought the movie was well done and I loved the music.  Patty and I have started getting back into Marley's music here at the house on the Amazon Prime Music app on my Android phone with the JBL bluetooth speaker lately I have noticed. 

One major thing about the movie I will say, Bob Marley and his band members definitely loved their "Ganja" (marijuana) down there in Jamaica. I supposed that was to be expected. He and his family and some of his bandmates were members of the Rastafari religion. The smoking of "cannabis" is part of their religious ceremonies. It is legal for their religion in Jamaica to smoke it but illegal for others on the island. If someone is caught with a small amount of marijuana is not a criminal offense but they do have to pay a fine. And if it's over a certain amount, it is considered a criminal offence. In just about every scene of the movie, Marley and his bandmates had several joints of Ganja lit up and passing it around.  The only thing that I didn't like about the movie, is that I had to go use the restroom and unfortunately I missed the scene where the Rolling Stones met Bob Marley backstage.  Just my luck, right? Lol.  Oh well, I am sure I will catch the movie again next time on a streaming internet channel app or Dish Satellite TV very soon. No doubt.

The Man Who Made Me A Kentucky Colonel: The Late Dr. Lee E. Elias

Every once in a while I think we all come across one of those particularly amazing individuals in our lives.

I met once such man several years ago when I was working for a national corporation here in Bowling Green, Ky., when I was a sales and service professional.  I had met him once before in town prior to him coming work at our place of employment. But I didn't really know him or much about his background. Needless to say when he came to work for us, I got to know him pretty quickly and I witness him "set the woods on fire" as they say in the sales and service industry. As a service professional, he took me into new places that I knew what they look like from the outside but I had never been on the inside of them before. Because of his astonishing connections with people in our community and incredible sales capabilities, he made those things happen.  A lot of those places were government buildings and entities where the general public was not allowed. One such place was the TVA Paradise Fossil Fuel plant in Drakesboro, Ky., in Muhlenberg County. That place was daunting! I was overwhelmed when I entered the gates to service. I had no clue where to go or what to do because that place was humongous. Plus the workers always seemed preoccupied with their work and seemed to be bothered in order to take time help out a third party service person. Another place was a dynamite manufacturing plant in Muhlenberg County also. I had to have a security clearance to get in there plus wear booties on my shoes while I was escorted around because I go into rooms where they had top secret high tech water jet laser cutters and things of that nature. Once there was a scientist from Israel there inspecting products as I was working.  I was always the one man in a uniform driving a white Ford Ranger pickup truck around Bowling Green and Southcentral Kentucky entering these places on a mission.  He was able land some high dollar service accounts and quickly rose to be one of the top sales person in the company. He won all kinds of sales awards in his short career with us.  In the meantime, he helped me make a lot of money during those years he was employed with us I remember.

His name was the late Dr. Lee E. Elias. The following was taken from his obituary in the Bowling Green Daily News. "He was originally from Atlanta and was a highly decorated Marine and Army Vietnam veteran.  He served three tours of combat duty with the 3rd Marine Division in Force Reconnaissance. He later entered the Army as medic in Korea and Hawaii.  Among the many honors head had received was the Soldier's Medal for saving a life at the risk of his own.  He was also Southern Baptist Minister and for many years he ministered to college students on the campus of Baylor University, Texas Christian University and Western Kentucky University."  I remember Dr. Elias fondly and I remember we had several civil debates on being a Protestant vs. being a Catholic since I was a former Baptist and then Catholic convert. But I stood my ground with him and he respected my beliefs about being a Catholic. I also tested my faith too during those conversations. One day he offered to make me a Kentucky Colonel.  He said he had connections with the charitable organization in Louisville since he was a Kentucky Colonel himself and that he knew the Kentucky governor personally. I thanked and then asked him why he wanted to do that for me. He said he respected me and that I was a hard worker for our company. He also said I had helped him achieve his sales goals.  I thanked him again and a few weeks later, I received my certificate in the mail.  I had it framed and it still hangs on my wall in the den at home to this day where I have lived for 25 years now. And proudly tell them world that I am Kentucky Colonel thanks to Dr. Elias.

The last time I saw Dr. Elias was the parking lot of where we worked in 2005.  He had just gotten back from ministering to the people in need in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina had hit down there in Louisiana and along the Gulf Coast. He was a solid man of God and fearless. He was also a highly educated man with a keen sense of intellect and humor.  Apparently, he passed away about four years later in 2009 from complications of an illness that had lingered on for years after the he time he spent in the Vietnam during the war. R.I.P. Dr. Elias. I am sure you are missed by all who knew and loved you.

College Town At Christmas 2023: The Holiday Season Is For Dogs

    I am a dog walker and dog lover.

     And I also an observer of dogs. Especially when I'm walking my eight year-old Red Merle AKC Australian Shepherd named "Jude." on the Greenway close to my house. I pretty much walk him every morning. I think a lot and wonder about everything especially dogs. Mainly, I watch Jude walk and sniff.  I see him smiling and how happy he is when he goes for a dog walk with his human. He loves to go for walks on the Greenway. (A dog's sense of smell is 10,000 to 100,000 times more acute than a human's. According to Wikipedia 'For every scent receptor a human has, a dog has about 50.')  As I walk Jude in his harness and a retractable leash, I can keep a close eye on Jude and close to me.  The street that the Greenway is located next to the CSX railroad tracks and is very dangerous because vehicles tend to spend up and down the road and they do not obvisouly go the speed limit of 35 miles per hour as posted with the proper signage. It is very dangerous if a dog is not on a leash. Plus we have a leash law in the city of Bowling Green.

     However, as Jude walks, he keeps his nose close to the ground sniffing the grass and blades of long grass stems that have turned brown and dried out from the fall weather not far from the railroad tracks.  He always sniffs the dried leaves too laying on the ground and the remnants of dried out dog poop too from other dogs as well as their markings of dog pee I am sure.  I wonder what Jude is thinking and what calculations are adding up in his little doggie mind. Is he thinking about the time period that the other dog was just there? Are the dogs sending him some sort of signal or message?  Those are the things I wonder about.  Just what is Jude thinking? I wish I knew.

  I have read that dogs can communicate by other dog's poop and pee left on the ground. (Again, according to Wikipedia, "Dogs have a keen sense of smell and use their urine and feces to mark their territory and communicate with dogs. This marking behavior helps establish their presence in their environment.) Jude thinks he owns the Greenway apparently just like he thinks he's the boss of our house.  I admit, we have spoiled him rotten.  He probably owns more dog toys than any other dog in Bowling Green.  And he always gets the best vet care, dog food and doggie daycare and overnight boarding that money can buy. Remember, "The Puppy Rules!"

   Dogs have a strong sense of belonging. Especially to a human family or to "a pack" as I like to say.  Jude gets extremely excited when the Christmas season arrives.  The day after Thanksgiving, I go to the attic pulldown stairs in the hallway of our house and pull the stairs down.  Then I climb up into the attic and take down the artificial Christmas tree and decorations. He starts to run around the house huffing and puffing and begins to bark. He gets real excited! Then we play Christmas music and he gets even more excited. I made the mistake that of telling him early this year that Santa Clause was going to bring him some Christmas presents like he always does and he started looking to the top of the book shelf where we always try to hide his presents.  He kept looking and whining. Eventually, he just laid down on the floor and kept looking up at the top of the book shelf and whining into the evening.  But there were no presents to be found. This went on for several hours. Poor little fella. Now my wife and I have agreed not to bring it about the presents again until it gets closer to Christmas. 

   We treat Jude like he is our child.  Our only grown son is grown and lives in Nashville plus he is married now.  So Jude came into our lives eight years ago and filled the empty nest syndrome. This Christmas season be sure to share the Christmas spirit and joy with your pets whether you have dogs or cats or any other critter. Be grateful for them because they know too when you are happy because they can sense how you feel. They feed off your vibes and energy.  If they sense when you are happy or not. If you are are happy and feel happy and loved.  Plus they feel safe and secure in the furever home. God Bless you and Merry Christmas to all from Galen, Patty and Jude!


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Jesus Revolution Reminds Me Of My Own Christian Faith Journey

     Yesterday as my wife, Patty, and I sat in a dark movie theater among many other moviegoers here in Bowling Green, Ky., tears started to well up in my eyes as I watched a man in a wheelchair on the big screen screaming "I'm dying, I'm dying" from a bad LSD trip.

     Lonnie Frisbee, the longhair Jesus looking young man and assistant pastor of Calvary Chapel in Southern California comforted the man in the big tent next to the small church that they had outgrown.  Frisbee said a prayer over the man in the wheelchair and then asked the congregation to also to get close to the man and pray over him.  He was afflicted with drug addiction as many of the young people in the congregation who had been addicted or experimented with drugs at one time or another in the late 1960's and early 1970's. Some of them had been a part of the Haight-Ashbury hippie scene in San Fransisco where the counterculture movement started and the Southern California acid rock music culture began.  The new movie "Jesus Revolution" starring Kelsey Grammar as Calvary Chapel Pastor, Chuck Smith, Jonathan Roomie as Lonnie Frisbee and Joel Courtney as Greg Laurie among many others is a great movie in my opinion. It's about the true story of a national spiritual awakening in the early 70's and its origins within a community of teenage hippies of Southern California.  The story and message of the movie is based on a book by one of the movements leaders called "Jesus Freaks" written by Pastor Greg Laurie. Laurie is currently serves as the senior pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship based in Riverside, Calif.

     Even though, I did not grow up in Southern California back in those days, the movie hit home for me. I grew up down South in Memphis, Tenn., and North Mississippi. I was just a kid when the Jesus Revolution or Movement was happening.  I remember when I was eight, nine or even 10 years-old watching the Vietnam newsreels on the local news, the Moon landings, the Manson murders, the Watergate trials involving President Nixon and I remember, of course, the hippie movement and the rock & roll drug scene and culture of its day. Mainly because of mainstream media such as television, newspapers and magazines, I was able to keep up with what was going on the world like most Americans did back in those when we only had three television channels, one telephone line and Saturday morning cartoons.  However, I was personally affected by the Jesus Revolution when its tentacles stretched all the way to the American South in the early 1970's and early 1980's. My older brother had attended a big revival somewhere in Memphis where the Jesus movement speakers appeared and he brought home a printed t-shirt home with a hand on the back of it with a finger pointing up with letters that stated, "One Way." I used to wear it all the time while riding my bicycle on the streets of Memphis and he did not know about it. Lol.

    I was not much of churchgoer while growing up in Memphis in the 1960's and early 1970's. Also, neither when I first move to North Mississippi as a teenager in the late 1970's.  However, I did get a taste of the Catholic faith in 1980 when I lived with my sister and brother-in-law in Savannah, Tenn., for six months. Then I was baptized as a Baptist at my mother's church in Memphis but I did not make a full commitment to the faith.  I attended some but not regularly. However, when I attended Ole Miss (the University of Mississippi) in Oxford, Miss., for five years in the early 1980's, I joined Campus Crusade For Christ for a semester in the fall of 1983 which is now known as just simply "Cru." Campus Crusade For Christ had joined forces with the Jesus Movement in 1972 and organized a week-long International Student Congress on Evangelism at the Cotton Bowl Stadium in Dallas known as Explo '72.  It featured evangelism and discipleship training and contemporary music events. It was attended by more than 80,000 college and high school students and was nicknamed as the "Christian Woodstock" in the media.  At the end of 1983, I attended KC 83, a Christian conference organized by Campus Crusade For Christ where 27,000 college students had gathered under one roof at a convention center in Kansas City to hear Billy Graham, Josh McDowell and Bill Bright among many others speak as well as attend contemporary christian music concerts on New Years Eve.  We even went out into the City of Kansas City to knock on doors in neighborhoods to share our Christian faith with city residents. Later on, after I met my wife in 1986 while at Ole Miss, we were married civilly and later married in the Catholic faith when I converted to Catholcism.  I have been a faithful Catholic and married to the same woman for the last 37 years.  Sacramental marriage is an institution in the Catholic Church and I honor this with high regard with Jesus Christ being in the center of our marriage I can honestly say. "Til Death Us Do Part"-1549 Book of Common Prayer.

     Needless to say, the memories from growing up down South came flooding back to my mind while watching this movie at the theater reminding me of every step of my faith journey throughout my lifetime. I highly recommend this movie regardless if you are Christian or not.  It might just reignite a spark in you.