Giving is Living

The alarm went off; I climbed out of bed.

 Was gunna take a shower,

But I made coffee instead.

 It always helps to clear my head.

Life is good, oh yeah, life is good.

Turned on the news to find out,

What were all the politicians shouting about?

The same old thing, all still fighting.

 I decided to see if the fish were biting.

Life is good, oh yeah, life is good.

Went to the lake to get my boat, 

I was grateful to see it was still afloat.

Picked up some bait and put it on my hook.

I caught some bass and a big one to cook

Life is good, oh yeah, life is good.

I laid down my rod and took a look.

I had more fish than I could cook.

It was okay that I had more than I need.

 I know others who have families to feed.

Life is good. Oh yeah, life is good.

Cleaned those fish and put them on ice.

Then filleted them out real nice.

Took them to some homeless ready for the pan,

Gave them to the lead man.

Life is good. Oh yeah, life is good.

He gave them to some folks,

That were doing without.

They were so happy 

You could hear them shout.

Tonight, we don’t have to do without.

Life is good. Oh yeah, life is good,

If we do what we know we should.

Giving is living, and that is true.

It makes Life better for both me and you.

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A Friend Missed

 I was living on a 40-foot sailboat that I rented for a year and had the opportunity to make a friend I didn’t take. It is one of the few things in my life that I would change if I could.

The boat I lived on was kept in a slip in Newport Beach, California. I was renting it for only $50 a month because the owners had two full-size, standard poodles aboard that I was looking after, while they were on a year-long teaching assignment out of the country. I took the two dogs for a walk at 6 AM every morning before I went to work at Santa Ana College.

One morning, as the dogs and I were finishing our walk. A man came out of his house and picked up his newspaper from the lawn. He was in a bathrobe and slippers. I knew who he was, and I knew that he lived there; everyone knew he lived there.

He was only 15 feet from me, so I said, “Good morning, John.” He looked up at me, and I could tell he was trying to figure out who I was, so I continued the conversation with, “I thought about saying good morning, Duke, but I didn’t know you well enough to do that. I also considered good morning, Mr. Wayne, but I’ve seen all your movies, and that seemed too formal. The only thing left was John.”

He broke into a real belly laugh at that and said, “Come on in and have a cup of coffee.” Then I made the only big mistake I ever made in my whole life.

I said, “Thank you, but I have a class waiting for me at the college. I must be there by 8 o’clock.” We spoke a few more words back and forth and laughed a little bit. Then I took the dogs back to the boat and went to work.

 My mistake was entirely my father’s fault; he’s the one who taught me my work ethic.