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If you object to this notion, STOP READING NOW AND DIE YOUNG! Otherwise, keep reading because I can definitely tell you stuff.
This particular issue is about balance, so knowing I was having lunch with Lori Phelps, I suggested she bring her checkbook along so I could help her balance it. (Ha-ha-ha-elbow-in-the-ribs-ha!)
Lori was baffled as to why I’d be offering to do that, but happy for the help. She had no idea I hadn’t balanced my checkbook in years. Thank you Jesus for online banking where you can keep track daily.
Lori is an amazing lady. She truly
balances more china plates than a circus
performer, and she looks fabulous doing it.
She manages four children with a zillion
activities each, church work and community
service, not to mention being wholeheartedly
involved in David’s ministry.
She handles all merchandise-related items,
such as website sales (davidphelps.com),
road sales, ordering product and keeping the warehouse stocked and organized.
AND I’m sure she has to hand wash those
beautiful silk shirts David wears.
The day we met up for lunch, she was gathering items for a school raffle and I was donating some of my books.
This week has been my “Buddy Greene week.” And a great week it’s been!
Long ago I witnessed the fact that Buddy is something of a split personality... No! Make that a multiple personality.
On the one hand he is “Rufus,” who
writes and sings what he calls “Rufus
music.” His “roots music” is named for
the person who most shaped his life, his
dad, Lee Rufus Greene Jr., a man of God
who owned a commercial air conditioning
and plumbing business and had a great
love for music. Buddy was his biggest fan.
Buddy’s other persona is the one you know best — a lover and writer of songs that praise and bless...the Buddy who immerses himself in scripture, theology and hymns. I would call that person “Buddy the Celebrator” (much like John the Baptist) because he does, like none other, celebrate his faith wherever he goes — not just in churches and Homecoming concerts, but...well...uh... hmmmm...other places...OK, Sue spit it out...CLUBS!
Last night, Roberta (editor) and Melissa and Tim Duncan and I went to the famous Station Inn, where Buddy and his band (including Jeff Taylor, whom we all love) played to a sold-out house. The Station Inn is THE place in Nashville to go to hear bluegrass music, and yes, Buddy played a lot of that, including songs like “Darlin’ Corey,” “Sally Goodin”and “Shenandoah” but interwoven were “Twelve Gates to the City,” “What Are They Doing in Heaven Today?” and “Talk About Suffering.”
Buddy has this talent for pulling other musicians up to the stage with him. Here’s a picture I took
with my iPhone. I know!
I know! It’s a crummy picture, but I was so
excited to be there, I was shaking. It’s all I
have; get over it.
It’s Buddy-personality-number-two that I meet sometimes for breakfast at the famous Loveless Café, as I did last week. The topics and books we review are all over the charts, and no subject is offlimits when it comes to discussion. I feel as though I have to pack a lot into these get-togethers, because Buddy is such a wealth of knowledge and...I am not.
This meet-for-breakfast-Buddy is not too high-and-mighty to have a silly picture taken just for YOU, my dear inquisitive readers.
‘Renaissance Redneck’ all the time! He’s like a Renaissance Man at times, and then, like a fl ash, can turn into a total Redneck. It cracks me up constantly.” Go to buddygreene.com NOW!
Meet my new friend Teresa. I don’t know where she got her haircut, but I’d pay big money for one just like it. I met Teresa’s parents on a cruise, and they were full of stories about this cute 40-year-old gal with autism.
Teresa is
non-verbal but
understands
everything. She
has no trouble
at all making her
thoughts known:
she pinches her
nose to say “you
stink,”and waves
her hand to
say “get out of
here.” She does
both with big
smiles and it’s her
way to joke and tease. When her nieces
and nephews tell knock-knock jokes she
knocks on the table
and giggles.
There’s a lot of giggling at the Smith house in South Lyon, Michigan. And a lot of music! Mostly Homecoming music. Teresa can’t handle a crowd and hasn’t gone to church with her parents for 25 years, so her collection of DVDs IS her church. She has almost every single one of the Homecoming DVDs, and her mother laminates pictures from Homecoming magazine, which she carries everywhere. (Laminates, because otherwise they’d be in shreds.) She always has a picture (on her person) of Bill and Gloria. She kisses it often, and says to them (via her mother Suzann) “I love you and someday I’ll sing with you in heaven.”
It’s interesting that the only word Teresa can say is Papa...it’s her word for Jesus.
I’ll be keeping my ear to the ground FOR YOU MY PRECIOUS AND VALUED READERS! I don’t want to complain, but it makes for a very uncomfortable position.
