Tag Archives: bonanza

Breeze

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Breeze: (n) a gentle wind.

I had absolutely no right or wisdom in hopping into a brown Dodge van and heading off from Ohio to Oregon.Dictionary B

I was twenty-one years old, had a music group and was convinced that the only way to prove to myself or anyone else that this was a viable occupational choice was to go out and try to make money doing it.

In my not-yet-formed brain, the logical step was to drive to Oregon, where two people had promised us a place to perform–as long as we understood there would not be much money.

Who could pass up such a bonanza?

I have mercifully had most of the trip wiped from my memory and relegated to oblivion–but I do remember driving through South Dakota, where the temperature had soared well over 100 degrees, and being so hot in our un-air-conditioned confines that we stopped in a small town at a public pool to cool off.

Even though the sun was blistering and scorched our skin, the water was ice cold, so we were a little deceived by the fact that we were actually being poached.

I got the worst sunburn of my life.

It was so bad that when we went to the drug store and bought one of those spray treatments, my hot skin turned the liquid into little scraps of paper.

I was miserable.

On top of that we had no money–procuring lodging in a motel was completely impossible.

So we found a park just outside that little town, pulled the van over, opened up all the doors, perched on some bean bag chairs we carried with us, and lay there, broiling in our burnt flesh, surrounded by humid air.

I was so miserable that I prayed.

I didn’t know if I wanted God to kill me or peel me like an orange.

About twenty minutes after I finished my little supplication, a breeze came up.

I will never forget it.

Because my skin was ablaze, the air was chilly–and felt so good. That breeze stayed with us all night long, so we didn’t swelter in our van or die of sunburn.

Now, some people probably would say that wind was a natural phenomenon of the South Dakota wilderness.

Others might insist there were three exhausted angels blowing in our direction all night long.

It doesn’t really matter what you believe, because God made the breeze … just as surely as He made the angels.

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Bonanza

Bonanza: (n) a sudden increase in wealth or good fortune

My parents would not allow me to watch the Beatles’ first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, but I was allowed to view episodes of Bonanza.Dictionary B

Now, many of you reading this article may not know what Bonanza was. It was a show about a father and three adult sons, the Cartwrights, who owned a huge ranch, the Ponderosa, in Nevada and their struggles in trying to maintain their opulence.

I loved the show when I was a kid, but when I started watching it as an adult, it was a little bit terrifying. Why? Because a lot of people got killed so all of the family who lived on the Ponderosa could be proven right.

It was just the mindset of the time.

In our country, once we had established that something was “an American thing,” it had to be justified. So we condoned:

  • A Cold War
  • Racial inequality
  • Killing Vietnamese
  • And even brutalizing in the press scrawny rock-and-roll singers from Britain

As I watched the reruns of Bonanza, I realized that I was required to root for Dad and the boys in every episode, no matter how faulted their motives might be.

Bonanza?

Yes, I guess so–if your name was Pa, Little Joe, Adam or Hoss.

 

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Around

dictionary with letter A

Around: (adv) 1. all about: e.g. the mountains towered all around

It was my mother’s undying philosophy that her children were immeasurably affected by what was around them.

She felt it was necessary to protect us from all forms of perceived evil and dangerous attitudes, which often sprouted from unknown cultures and energies that had invaded our community.

I think I was twenty-three years old before I watched an episode of Twilight Zone, because my mother deemed it to be full of foreign ideas which she did not desire to be around her son.

Yet I was always allowed to watch Bonanza, with the death toll of strangers to the Ponderosa ranging from three to five people per episode.

It appeared that it was all right to be around killing–as long as it wasn’t spooky or science fiction.

I must tell you that this particular attitude has not diminished in the parents which occupy the planet today. I’m especially amused when actors and actresses who appear in television shows refuse to let their children watch television because they feel it’s dangerous to be around.

But having been the father of many sons, I will tell you this: there is much more evil that is hatched between the human heart and brain than can ever be conceived in the storyboards of Hollywood. Otherwise, all children who are Bible-trained, morally upstanding and free of worldly contact would be happy, fulfilled and absent guile.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Matter of fact, it would be hard to find a serial killer who had not earned a badge for attending Sunday School.

It’s not so much what we’re around that makes us evil as how impressed we are with the sweetness, intelligence and power of good. If we are convinced that good is weaker than evil, we will find the darkness within our own hearts.

But if we have an abiding faith that the blessings will outweigh the cursings, we can walk anywhere with confidence …and not need to be afraid of what is around.

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Anticipate

dictionary with letter A

 

Anticipate: (v) to regard as probable; to expect, predict

 

The key to life is to possess a treasure of optimism, which is pilfered sufficiently by your pessimism, to welcome realism.

In other words, if you lead with pessimism and pilfer with optimism, you never actually become realistic, but instead, cynical.

If you try to lead with realism, you usually end up favoring either optimism or pessimism, tainting your original adventure.

This makes the word “anticipation” nearly obsolete in the lifestyle of those who want to move forward with a sense of achievement and good cheer.

Because quite honestly, if I anticipate that my family and friends will continue to love me with the intensity I desire, I am always disappointed with the natural human drop-off.

If I anticipate that my next business foray is going to be a bonanza, I will be only adequately impressed if it reaches my wishes and greatly despaired if it doesn’t.

Anticipation, unfortunately, is what people believe faith is meant to be.

The thought is that rallying behind the concept that having hope that a certain conclusion must be achieved is the best way to trick oneself into excitement and intimidate the universe into compliance.

But faith is actually an optimism which is adequately interrupted by pessimism, thus creating reality. For after all, faith is the substance of things hoped for (optimism), the evidence of things not seen (pessimism).

I get very nervous when I get around people who anticipate that the project we are pursuing is going to be a roaring success.

The wise steward of all good things is always joyfully stacking up boxes … while simultaneously perusing the room for additional containers.

 

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Antarctica

dictionary with letter AAntarctica: A continent around the South Pole

Somebody just wanted seven.

I am convinced that some guy putting together the map of the world thought that seven continents looked better than six, so he peered down at the South Pole and said, “Hey! There’s a continent!”

(Obviously, he didn’t think that eight was as poetic as seven. Otherwise, why leave out the North Pole?)

It must have been a real public relations bonanza for all the penguins and polar bears, even though I cannot truthfully tell you that I am positive there are polar bears at the South Pole.

Actually, what I know about the South Pole has gone south in my intelligence level.

I know this: I have no desire to visit it.

Matter of fact, when it occasionally comes on the television set with some sort of special about it, I turn the channel because I get cold.

I don’t like to get cold.

I grew up in the Midwest in an area where we weren’t even blessed with an abundance of snow–only the dreariness of gray clouds and the damp, bitter Jack Frost nipping at your ass.

So as I have aged (beyond twelve) I yearn for a place where you can walk out the door without having to display half of your wardrobe to stay warm.

So obviously, I am not a fan of Antarctica.

I don’t even like penguins that well because I think they’re making fun of how I walk.

And I was disappointed the first time I saw a polar bear, realizing that they’re really not white. They’re kind of a sickly beige.

So hats off to those who want to explore this mysterious seventh continent, including it on their bucket list of things to do before they die.

Just realize that if you do go … everything in your bucket will be frozen.

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