This tale has been told before, but after 20 years, maybe it's worth telling a last time. I suspect, though don't know, I won't be writing these things 20 years from now.
Twenty years ago today, according to the book One Man, One Cross, wasn't so much different than today except for locale.
"Spending time during the summer in New Orleans is like being outside the gates of hell. You might not be in the hottest part of the world, but you're close enough to smell the sulfur. You can imagine clean, cool air being breathed somewhere in this country. But in the Crescent City, the air is so thick that you can part it with a comb."
My, my how things have changed.
I've obsessed lately on a tune I didn't know till Friday was written by Bob Dylan. I knew it, vaguely, as a Byrds tune. Some of the strange words are these:
Half-cracked prejudice leaped forth'Rip down all hate,' I screamed
Lies that life is black and white
Spoke from my skull, I dreamed
romantic facts of musketeers
Foundation deep, somehow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I'm younger than that now
Seems appropriate. Bugs has arthritis. Mick, well, Mick looked 50 when he was 30.
And I'm not getting any younger, still.
Twenty years ago, the Braves won their only World Series championship. Three of those pitchers are now in the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame.
Twenty years ago, a truck bomb devastated the Oklahoma City Federal Building killing 168 people.
Twenty years ago, the U.S. imposed economic sanctions against Iran.
Twenty years ago, there was a 7.3 magnitude earthquake near Kobe, Japan that killed 6,433 people.
Twenty years ago, terrorists released Sarin nerve gas in Japan.
Twenty years ago, an unprecedented heat wave struck the Midwestern U.S. with temperatures exceeding 104 degrees in the afternoon for five straight days, killing at least 3,000.
Windows 95 was released. Toy Story was released as well as Batman Forever, Die Hard with a Vengeance and Braveheart.
Oh, and O.J. Simpson was found not guilty.
So, twenty years have glided by like a space shuttle to its final destiny (seen any of those lately?), and here we are today. Whitney Houston is gone and Alanis Morissette might as well be. Garth Brooks is making a comeback, and the Deep Blue Something isn't anything any more.
And on a Thursday morning, my 42nd birthday, I went to the HR director of The Times-Picayune and told them I had a drinking problem and, well, couldn't stop.
I was wrong. Though I was never as strong as I thought I was, turns out this was something I didn't have to do. God has changed everything ever since. He introduced me to Rich Mullins, who introduced me to Contemporary Christian music, which, well, now I'm 17 years into a ministry.
Thanks to everyone who has ever been of help to me in this journey, Wednesday is my 20th sobriety anniversary, but today is simply my birthday.
Have a good one, and wish Bugs one.
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