Jack Pelham

I learned it from Opie
In the very first episode
That you can hate Aunt Bea—
Not on account of who she is mind you
But on account of who she is not:
Dear Rose who got married
And simply had to move away.

To the question:
“Did you ever love your camp more than the truth?”
How shall they plead?

My wife tells me—
And I’m inclined to believe it—
That I have strong traits of both
Introversion and extroversion—

I have always loved the land
And am grieved to this day
That I must live smothered
In the soulless city.

And still there lingers the hope
However faint
That somehow
It will be made right
Some time before I die.

But either way
I still hope for a place in
That country not my own
Which shall be better still by far.

When my life here is done
And God and I get to talk it over
Whatever shall he make of all the good
Things I might have loved here
But did not want to love?

I do not believe that
A thousand preachers
Having set out to use the Bible
To change this ailing world
Could extract from its pages
Even a tenth of the treasure
That can be extracted by
One man listening
Intently to what it says
Simply because he wants
To understand his Master.

The motive for reading affects
The message received.

If you ask the world whether
It loves lies or hates them
It will want to know first
Just which lie you’re asking about.

NOTE TO THE READER: I was picked on in school, not so much for who I was, but for who my Dad was! Hence, the “surrogate” in the title.

I certainly don’t want to overstate it, but I was bullied somewhat during my middle school and high school years (in the late 70s and early 80s). And while bullying is not all that unusual an injustice to suffer, mine was at least a little bit off the beaten path because of the particular circumstances. Now that I’m in my late 50s and interested in how I’ve turned out as I have (so far, that is, as I’m not done turning out yet!)—and as I’m quite interested in what I can do from here on out to improve myself—it seemed worthy to spend some time thinking through what happened in those early years.

1. The powerful effect of a good-example parent on a child who’s willing to learn it.
2. The powerful effect of the bad-example parent on a child who’s willing to learn it.
3. The powerful effect of the unwillingness of a child to follow the parent’s example—whether good or bad.

To me—
The one who
Actually lives it—
My life is not about
The color of my skin.

How intriguing
Then that to you
The mere spectator
It it about nothing but!