Here’s what you do: Put your music player of choice on shuffle, and write down the first twenty tracks that play, no matter how ridiculous or embarrassing they are. Ready, set, go:

1. The Doors: I Looked At You
2. John Kelley: Angeles
3. AC/DC: Shake a Leg
4. Dispatch: Cover This
5. Earth, Wind & Fire: Getaway
6. Heart: Little Queen
7. Jackson Browne: All Good Things
8. The Allman Brothers Band: Don’t Keep Me Wonderin’
9. The Doobie Brothers: Jesus is Just Alright
10. INXS: The Loved One
11. The Doors: Carmina Burana: Introduction
12. Jackson Browne: Enough of the Night
13. Ben Kweller: Hospital Bed
14. John Denver: I’m Sorry
15. Genesis: Jesus He Knows Me
16. The Eagles: Hotel California
17. Electric Light Orchestra: Wild West Hero
18. Jackson Browne: The Pretender
19. Heart: The Road Home
20. Linkin Park: Nobody’s Listening

I was just responding to a question on a forum I frequent. The questioned brought up something I learned a long time ago from a much wiser person.

I remember as a young teen Mom and I heading out in the car for some reason that I can’t now recall. What I do remember is her telling me that we needed to stop by Reed Brothers Dodge and have them replace a turn signal bulb. Being the young smart – individual that I was, I tried to explain to her that with dealership prices we were going to get screwed over by them for what amounted to be a .25 cent light bulb. Not only were they going to overcharge us but I couldn’t believe she thought she could just “pop” on out there without even an appointment. I knew were going to wind up waiting an hour for them to do a 5 minute job. She gave me the “you don’t know anything” look and so I just sat in the car thinking, just wait you’ll see that I was right.

We got to the dealership and she pulled up to the service bay. While I’m still thinking, here we go, a service manager comes walking out. Mom rolls down the window and very sweetly says, “Hi , I think the left turn signal is bad can you fix it.”

I couldn’t believe it when he just as nicely replied, “Hi Mrs. Requiest, I’ll have one of the boys take care of that right now.”

Mrs. Requiest? I’ll have someone come out right now? How the heck does he know Mom by name?

I sat there befuddled as a guy came running out of the shop as fast as the service manager had disappeared back inside and with bulb in hand had the work done in a minute. The service manager came back out and Mom thanked him and asked how much she owed. He just smiled back, waving her off and said, “Not a thing Mrs. Requiest.”

Pulling out of the dealership I incredulously asked Mom what the deal was. She smiled at me as if I were a complete idiot and told me that every Christmas she baked up a tin of homemade cookies and took it over to the “boys”.

Good ol’Mom had the service department wrapped around her little finger.

Wayne over at the Jolly Blogger is back, even if sporadically as he battles the big “C”.  This morning he has a short but powerful post titled “God is Glorified in Us, Not Useful to Us”.  As a man who is starting to see thru the veil of this life and onto the next, I believe  Wayne has an insightful grasp of reality that we need too take to heart.  Our problem in being able to do so will be the same problem we run into all the time and that’s because the deplorable fact is  it’s not about us.

As a guy who’s hit the half century mark and is feeling a bit more stodgy these days, I really appreciated this statement from Wayne.

Oh yeah, I think all of those old people we put out to pasture because they stood in the way of our passions, visions and missions probably could tell us a thing or two.

Thanks for coming back Wayne, we missed you.