Doing the Right Thing

Firstly, you should know that I am a card-carrying curmudgeon. This includes a sarcastic sense of humor, a limited amount of patience, and deep down inside a caring heart. Find inside these pages my attempts at self-expression. Poetry and short essays fill the pages. The ramblings include religion, genealogy, and mostly, me chasing the ghosts of my past, trying feebly to rid myself of them. I was born, raised, and have spent my entire life living in Genesee County, Michigan. My family is from Pennsylvania on my mother’s side and Missouri on my father’s. After high school, I was hired into the ‘shops’, working for General Motors. I worked on the line and drove fork truck before I started an apprenticeship and learned the trade of Die Maker. I retired from GM with 37 years of seniority; a fact I thank the United Auto Workers for. I come from a long line of union members and am proud of that heritage. As a small child, I wanted to become a preacher, something that later in life I did accomplish, becoming ordained in 1987. I served as a bi-vocational pastor at a small church in Flint, Michigan, and after that, volunteered my services to other local churches. I was raised in a liberal Baptist denomination. But even their somewhat narrow views weighed heavily on my mind and spirit. At some point, I think I became too liberal for even them and acquired a great distaste for the operation of most churches and the men who lead them. Books and literature have always been my life. Rather than play outside, I would lie in my room reading. Most of my early books were bought at the Goodwill. There, you could get a Whitman hardcover novel for nineteen cents. I devoured those books. In high school, an elective English class titled Cause and Effect introduced me to Butterfly Revolution, The Car Thief, 1984, Animal Farm, and Hiroshima. In my American Literature class, Mr. Fisher shared the joy of Vonnegut with us. My tastes grew from there to include Stephen King, John Steinbeck, Ayn Rand, Tennessee Williams, Chuck Palahniuk, and yes, Tolkien. So settled back, follow the paths I lay and Journey (as The Amboy Dukes said), to the Center of your Mind. June 2023