A Month? Are you kidding me?

Wow. It has been a day or two past a month that I have been setting up show on this screen now and again. In fact, this will be my 30th entry so far. That just doesn’t seem possible.

I put a counter on my dashboard…something I can look at every now and then to see how many people are so dang bored they actually tune into read what it is I have to say.

Well…let me say this: I jest when I say you are bored. You’re not. You just want to know what is going on with speaking the rights. If I could read this, I probably would too. I hate to sound ostentatious. I just miss my friend, I suppose.

I never met Lewis Grizzard. I do know I have read every book he ever published. He tried to make people think and laugh and get riled up all in one sitting, at times.

Here’s the thing…one of my high school teachers is a wonderful lady I have kept up with and still visit with her and her husband on occasion. She, like Mrs. Miller (I wrote about her earlier), were very instrumental in helping me believe that some day I could do something like this. No…blogs did not exist thirty years ago. Words and how to put them together, however, was in full flower for me. I just liked to write.

Mrs. Lincoln reinforced the belief that Mrs. Miller held. They both enjoyed reading what this 16 year-old had to write about and how he wrote it. I am forever in their debt.

When I graduated from college, Mrs. Lincoln gave me a series of books to take heed in as I was preparing for my career as an educator. Many of these books were historical and anecdotal. She placed a post-it note on the first page of each book giving me the rationale behind their intent. The book she gave me by Lewis Grizzard has a post-it note that says : “Just to Enjoy!”.

Lewis was a columnist for an Atlanta newspaper and was syndicated all over the country. Given my southern roots, I did take a liking to Lewis’ work. He died twenty years ago this past March at the age of 47…one year older than I am today.

While I was in high school, Mrs. Lincoln said my writing style reminded her of Lewis Grizzard. This meant nothing to me. I did recall the name. I knew I had seen his column in The (Jackson, MS) Clarion-Ledger and The Shreveport Times when I visited family in those places. I didn’t read them. I just knew who he was.

When Mrs. Lincoln gave me that book of Lewis Grizzard columns, I read it and fell in love with his word choice, his tone, and his pace…not to mention a great deal of his subject matter.

Have I ever tried to emulate Lewis Grizzard? Honestly…no, I have not. If you are going to “speak the rights” you better do it on your own terms. That is exactly what I have done. Have I been influenced by Lewis Grizzard? You better know I have. The points of reference we accumulate always have a degree of influence. The greatest influence in all this was/is Mrs. Lincoln. She helped me gain confidence in my written voice…and she introduced me to someone who would become much like an old friend I never met. That is pretty cool. Thank you, Paula Lincoln. You are a Great American, just like Weyman C. Wannamaker, Jr.

To whomever is reading these pages, let me say thanks. I do know you are out there…even though I do not know who you are everyday.

So far I have had folks look in on speaktherights.com from the USA, England, The Netherlands, and Canada. I thank you.

So…where do we go from here? Down the same old road, I suppose. As long as folks are coming along for the ride, what is the need to reinvent the bloggical wheel?

Maybe Jack and Jill in New Hampshire will hang out by the pool and listen to The Mill (the greatest radio station of all time, by the way) before the summer is out. Maybe they will just go fetch a pail of water. I do know Jack’s mother is faithful to read speaktherights.com.

A month of speaktherights.com? Are you kidding me?

Wow. What can I say? Of course…speak the rights!