Which lily leave: A 2017 Retrospective

Dear Family, Friends, and the NSA who, as we all know, reads everything that's ever been posted on the Innerwebs -

As the end of the year approaches, I like to reflect on the year's events to try and gain some perspective. I try not to classify events as good or bad; rather, simply as events that shaped my life as I launch into whatever the future may hold.
So here are the 23 defining memories and experiences in the Life of Joe, 2017 Edition (in no particular order): 
  1. Diane. (Ok...it's in some order, with the most important first and last.)
  2. 7/21/1996 is still a thing.
  3. 12/13/1997 is not.
  4. Twilight Tunes on the square in Denton, Texas.
  5. Finally saw a game at The Swamp. OK...half a game. The Swamp is, well...a swamp. Doak is a way better venue.
  6. Mom’s semi-annual heart replacements are getting more and more frequent. Doctors are now using hearts made from  LegosTM and partially chewed taffy.
  7. Malinda and Scotty.
  8. Lauren and Aaron in Gainesville.
  9. Grouper cheeks are real and they’re spectacular.
  10. Jolene became Joe-Joe-Ma before finally settling on simply “Joe.”
  11. I would pay to watch Brett, Stephanie, and Charlie (not that Charlie) put a jigsaw puzzle together.
  12. Seeing high school friends you haven’t seen in 4 decades is simultaneously disorienting and invigorating.
  13. I cannot imagine the emotional and psychological impact of losing literally everything in a fire. I love you, Craig and Stacey.
  14. The teachers at Brockett Elementary School in Aubrey, TX are the kindest, most welcoming people on Earth.
  15. Google “Texas Homecoming Mums.” The images you see are real. As in real wackadoo.
  16. Driving in three states in one day (Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida) is astounding to a Texan.
  17. One of life’s simple joys is just happening to be in Dallas, Texas the same time your son is passing through. (Complete with iHop.)
  18. Nebraska Furniture Mart has to be experienced to be believed.
  19. Roger was cheering me up while he was dying of cancer. I aspire to be more like Roger.
  20. While 4:44 was more emotionally vulnerable than previous releases, it can’t hold a candle to Magna Carta Holy Grail, the Black Album, Vol 3, or the Blueprint (1).
  21. Yes, I’m kidding. But I’m not kidding when I say this might be the greatest line in the history of music: “You know the type, loud as a motorbike but wouldn’t bust a grape in a fruit fight.”
  22. No way Lee Harvey Oswald made that shot.
  23. New love at 55 is just as exciting as it was at 15. And the best is yet to be...

Grow old along with me!
   The best is yet to be,
The last of life, for which the first was made:
   Our times are in His hand
   Who saith, ‘A whole I planned,
Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be
       afraid!’

   Not that, amassing flowers,
   Youth sighed, ‘Which rose make ours,
Which lily leave and then as best recall?'

R. Browning


May 2018 be the year your greatest dreams and aspirations come to life...

Peace,
J

Comments

  1. In response to #12 above, this is Michael Hall from Hahn High. I'm pretty sure this is a public forum so I am just going to leave a work email address. If this is the Joe Mayes I remember please reach out to bocasystems@hotmail.com. My daughter, Lyndsay may try to find you for me on Facebook. She won't let me have a Facebook account. Lol. As she puts it, "Dad it is the one place I can go and you are not there". I'm hip, I'm hip, I'm thigh.

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