Aaron I Miss Our Morning Talks

 

I realize more and more how much I miss my daily father-son talks with my youngest son Aaron while taking him to school each morning.  It was fun sitting with him at McDonalds in Jemison munching on breakfast and listening to the morning conversations of the “coffee shop” old men.  Most of them have passed into eternity and Aaron eats breakfast somewhere around Mount Belleview, Texas.  On February 11, 1999, I had an inspiration to write a poem about the “coffee shop” men.

“OVER A BILLION TOLD”

Each morning they gather around the table, To tell jokes, lies, and fables.

Each man is an expert in solving the problems of life, But each one admits he does not understand his wife.

Yesterday they were the best, Today they cannot do very much without taking a rest.

Their topic changes each morning, It’s grandkids or the weather and how they change without warning.

Today it was fishing and the one that got away, Tomorrow it may be a friend or family member that passed away.

They discuss the younger generation’s tattoos, body piercing, and pants too far down, And they laugh of their youthful folly of stealing watermelons, drinking rotgut whiskey, and drag racing through town.

It’s fun to know each man and share the start of the day, Realizing one morning I will be that way.

They have paid their dues and earned respect, To spend each morning talking in retrospect.

There is Mr. Blankenship, Seymour, and Mr. Thrash, Sharing friendship with Bobby, J.W., and Mr. Glass.

Many more will come and with their joy be entertained, Whether the day starts with sunshine or whether it has rained.

So in the morning if you want a smile from the men of old, Go to the restaurant in Jemison where lies, over a 100 billion, will be told.

 

“Coffee Shop” conversations are scattered all through God’s Word.  There is the conversation of the Angels with Abraham, Balaam and his donkey, Jesus and the woman at the well, and Jesus and Zacchaeus. One of my favorite television programs, The Andy Griffith Show had Floyd’s barbershop.  The favorite coffee shop at the cement plant was the kiln control room.  There are plenty of conversations, inspired sometimes by the scandal sheets, at the Walmart checkout, both lanes!  Another great place was Papas’ Meat department in Linden.  Now that I spend in conversation with Lisa’s dog Loci and my dog Rocko.  It is a master/dog conversation usually about their wondering over to the neighbor’s house and digging holes in their pen when doing solitary confinement for wondering.

Most conversations will have God in them regardless if it is the latest on President Trump and the great election steal, Alabama’s own honorable Jeff Sessions who lost out to an Auburn football coach, the latest piece of juicy news, a spicy novel, or whatever. 

Each day, when Director of Missions before retirement, I was engaged in conversations.  Some people kidded me about having banking hours when I arrived late at the office.  I tell them that I have been working and receive pay to talk and engage in conversation.  A preacher friend of mind once told me concerning the small town of Linden and everyone knowing me.  He said, “You are a big fish in a small pond.”

The inspiration for this article was one by Dr. Timothy George, one of my professors of Beeson Divinity School at Samford University.  In an Article, “Can We Talk?” Dr. George writes:

 

Conversations can be deep or shallow, casual or serious, but they invariably take place as an encounter between an “I” and a “thou.” They happen at a level of verbal engagement when we have moved beyond the formal courtesies of cordiality—Good morning! Have a nice day! How’s the weather looking?—and reached the point of listening and responding to another person. One-way monologues are not conversations. They are soliloquies.

 

Dr. George said that Pope Francis has recently identified dialogue and listening as two essential components in breaking down walls of misunderstanding:

 

Problems grow, misunderstandings and divisions grow, when there is no dialogue. A condition of dialogue is the capacity to listen, which, unfortunately, is not very common. … The attitude of listening, of which God is the model, spurs us to pull down walls of misunderstandings, and to create bridges of communication, overcoming isolation and closure in one’s small world.

 

We cannot fully understand the impact of our conversations.  That is the reason as we share the Great Commission of Matthew 28:18-20, the world is coming to us.  Let us share God with those we meet.  The example of a maidservant is a great inspiration for us to share.

 

Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honorable, because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria: he was also a mighty man in valour, but he was a leper.  And the Syrians had gone out by companies, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid; and she waited on Naaman's wife.  And she said unto her mistress, Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy. And one went in, and told his Lord, saying, Thus and thus said the maid that is of the land of Israel (2 Kings 5: 1-4 KJV)