PlainSpeech Messages | Find YOUR way to GRACE.
I recently read a message I’d given in 1984 and felt a mixture of embarrassment and surprise. Embarrassed because it seems inadequate now, and surprised by how much my worldview has changed. Twenty-five years from now, I might read these messages and have a similar reaction. I offer no guarantee that my work or words will endure the eroding effects of time. I can only assure you these thoughts have been helpful to me, and perhaps a few others, today. With that qualification, I offer them to you.
~ Philip
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Stuff I Want to Do Before I Croak: A Geezer’s Manifesto (11)
VIEW VIDEO Our granddaughter Madeline, who’s in the second grade, has a schoolmate who wears an Apple watch, which his parents use to track his whereabouts. When I was a kid, your parents tracked you the old-fashioned way, mothers calling one another to rat you out....
Stuff I Want to Do Before I Croak: A Geezer’s Manifesto (10)
VIEW VIDEO The year I turned 21, the television show Cheers aired on NBC. I was working at Public Service Indiana and several of my co-workers wanted to take me to a bar. I had only been in one bar my entire life, the Green Lantern in Danville, when I was 8 or 9 and...
Stuff I Want to Do Before I Croak: A Geezer’s Manifesto (9)
VIEW VIDEO We had a wonderful Christmas. I am the proud owner of a new shirt and a book on architecture, given to me by our younger son, Sam, and his wife, Kelsea. I’m like George Costanza, in my dream life I’ve wanted to be an architect, designing lovely places for...
Christmas Message 2022
VIEW VIDEO I was browsing through a book recently and saw a picture of a Black Santa Claus, which seemed unusual, since all the Santa’s I’ve ever known were white as chalk. Technically, since Santa isn’t real, he could be any color, or a she for that matter, but...
Stuff I Want to Do: A Geezer’s Manifesto (8)
VIEW VIDEO I was recently over in the old meetinghouse, snooping around the meetingroom, imagining what it was like to have been there in 1892, 130 years ago, when it was built. Just as an aside, our old meetinghouse had a good run. According to architects, the...
Stuff I Want to Do: My Geezer’s Manifesto (7)
VIEW VIDEO Good morning, friends. Well, it’s a week for celebrations. We’re gathering this evening at 6:30 for our children’s program and our candlelight circle, a rich tradition here at Fairfield. The joy continues for the Gulley family, with Madeline turning 8...
Stuff I Want to Do: A Geezer’s Manifesto (6)
VIEW VIDEO It is good to be back with our friends at Fairfield. We were in North Carolina last week for Thanksgiving, at my brother Glenn’s home. Thirty-five Gulleys in one house, studiously avoiding any mention of politics. Then on Saturday, we attended my nephew...
Stuff I Want to Do: A Geezer’s Manifesto (5)
VIEW VIDEO When I was a kid, there was a family who lived in our neighborhood with kids our age, so we played together. A lot of times when kids play together, the parents come to know one another, which is what happened to our families. Occasionally, they’d come to...
Stuff I Want to Do: A Geezer’s Manifesto (4)
VIEW VIDEO In preparation for this week’s message, I was reading a list put out by the Recording Industry Association of America called The Songs of the Century, and noticed, perched at #5, Don McLlean’s song "American Pie," which debuted in 1971 when I was 10 years...
Stuff I Want to Do: A Geezer’s Manifesto (3)
VIEW VIDEO Growing up, my family observed an odd little custom concerning Christmas and birthdays. Because we could sit on Santa’s lap and tell Santa what we wanted for Christmas, my parents, within reason, would give us what we asked for at Christmastime, provided...