Those who know me and there is only one who really knows me (Good morning, Shirlee), know that I am semi-addicted to TV, not the TV that has all those new stations, new this and new that, just "old fashioned" TV as I started loving it back in the 50's. You might remember that I was stationed in Japan in the late 40's and learned about TV when new guys would come in from the States and try to explain this new phenomenon that was starting to show up, everywhere.
Anyway later on, I had just got married, we could not afford TV as I was a student at what has become Georgia State University and then we learned, the Today program (NBC) was coming to Atlanta and they would be broadcasting from Hurt park, across the street from our newest building, after years of occupying a former parking garage. Wow! "We" were going to be on TV. For some reason I was chosen to be one of the students to be interviewed, so I was there from day one. Dave Garroway was the host and had a chimpanzee whose name I have long since forgotten, was the star. And what an obnoxious star he was! He was, in a word, nasty. There was a female co-star and I seemed to be of interest to her - mainly because, I was a veteran of the Korea war. And she invited me to her hotel room for an interview, she said.
Remember now, I was married, somewhat bashful, a former farm boy who was trying his best to learn how "city folks" lived. She was about to demonstrate one version of that scenario. All I had to do was look at her attire and there wasn't much to see and I knew I was in the wrong place, about to do something that was beyond my ability to imagine. "No,.. excuse me, but I am a married man." She laughed. "You might be missing the opportunity of a lifetime." I guess I did. With an apology, I was out of there and wondering, should I tell anyone about that experience? I finally have, if my fading memories don't tell me otherwise.
All of that to explain why I have a long term attraction to the Today program. I have tried others, I like the crew on ABC's competitive effort, but I keep going back to Channel 4 here in Middle Tennessee.
And this morning, they were interviewing Kyle Chandler who will be starring in a new program, Bloodline. on Netflik. Is that how they spell it? I have no idea. Only time I have ever seen or recall hearing about this "new" programming phenomenon was when friends suggested we watch one of the Netflik movies on their latest entertainment gadget - and it didn't work as they had promised.
Anyway, I was attracted to one of the lines I recall from the promo. A straying son had just returned home and the elder brother says, "You have to be responsible for the family name."
Did that ever strike home! I still recall my grandfather telling his only son, those very words. I had no idea of what he meant at the time. His name was Cheeseman and he was the only other Cheeseman I had ever known. My birth name said McRae and I was the only McRae I knew of other than my sister until she married a Bell. My mother of course became a McRae until she became a Joy and I will stop there. Eventually, I would get an idea of what my grandfather meant when he allowed me to take their family car on a date. "If you have an accident, they won't blame you. They will blame me for letting you use my car. So you be careful!"
I had never met a McRae, nor a MacRae, which I prefer. I knew my father had been married before he met my Mother and I had heard that he had two sons. Years later, I was sitting next to another man at a Bible study and he told me he had known two McRae brothers in Saginaw, MI, where he had lived previously. I asked for their first names and it turned out to be, Don and Ed, the names I had heard of earlier in my life. To make a longer story shorter, we discovered they were, in fact, my half brothers and I had the opportunity to talk with one of them on the phone. They knew about me, but more about my sister as they had heard, one of the reasons for their parent's divorce was his desire that they have another child, a daughter. The whole truth was, they really did not want to know about me as it merely opened old wounds they had suffered in losing their Dad.
So much for my bloodlines. You need to know, that knowledge stuck with me for years and when I would try to blame God for some of my misfortunes, I would wind up blaming my father - and, my mother. I lived in that world for a long time, longer than I care to recall. One of the reasons I married my first wife was because she had a intact family, father, mother, three brothers and a sister. Then, the mother died suddenly but left my wife with a curse that eventually destroyed our marriage, not that I blamed her openly, but it became a convenient excuse.
My "family" would eventually become my sister and she and I have helped each other to heal. It was not by intention, simply that I needed a new home one day, I thought of her and she welcomed me in and we didn't need to talk about the pains involved, all we did was love one another.
The miracle is not complicated, as we learn to love each other, we learn to love others as it was meant to be, in the beginning. I have never heard this mentioned before. but it seems to me that God knew that today you and I and seven plus billion others would occupy this place we call earth. To me it ought to be obvious, that as Shirlee and I learned to love one another, we can all learn to love one another. If you don't believe me, then you have never observed the actions of babies as they meet for the first time. There might some apprehension at first, but then as they learn to share, they learn to love with no understanding of how the process works. Is it any wonder then that when God decided to visit our planet, He came as a baby out of the womb of His earth mother.
Think on this until I get back to you......
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