They Named it ‘Grand’ for a Reason. By G. E. Shuman

 They Named it ‘Grand’ for a Reason.

By G. E. Shuman

 

          If you are like me, there are places and adventures in the world that you would like to see or experience, but that for some reason or other you haven’t been able to. Little things like holding down a job, paying the bills, and raising kids seem to get in the way of most of us being able to do those ‘extra’ things that we would love to do. I’ve never been hang gliding, scuba diving, or motorcycle racing, but I still intend to. (Please don’t tell my wife that I said that.)

          Words have been my thing for a long as I can remember, but I learned from something Lorna and I experienced a few weeks ago that there are some things that simply defy an accurate description. Words just don’t always cut it, at least the words that I know don’t. It dawned on me during that experience, that this is likely the reason people who do or see some super thing cannot always seem to relate that experience to the rest of us, at least not to the point that we truly understand what it was that they experienced.

          For family reasons unrelated to the point of this column, Lorna and I had the great pleasure of spending a few days with her late dad’s wonderful wife Olivia, at Olivia’s home in Arizona. While there, we took a two-day trip. We had never been to the Grand Canyon and Olivia thought that we should see that enormous natural wonder. Boy, was she ever right!

          A few days into our visit we started on our little excursion north and did visit the canyon. When we first approached the site and viewed that massive, beautiful part of God’s creation, I was pretty much dumbfounded. I hope my mouth didn’t actually hang open, but it might have. If it did, I hope no one took a picture of that.

          I do know that I stood there on that precipice, (behind a sturdy guardrail, of course. I’m not stupid.) and could not find words fit to describe what my eyes were seeing. I really could not. I simply repeated AMAZING!  AMAZING! AMAZING! over and over, with a few exclamations of AWESOME! mixed in.

          Yes, the experience was truly amazing, but, as I said, the words of man, in English or likely in any other language, have no ability to truly describe that Grand Canyon, or probably many other things that God has created on our earth to proclaim His great majesty and power.

          You know, life is short, and riddled with labor, trials, and many other things that consume the short time we are allotted here. I hope you will love your family every day that you have, do good to others whenever you can, and, if you have the time, visit some of the wonders people have not been able to accurately describe to you. That is not their fault. They may have only stood their gawking and repeating the words amazing! amazing! amazing! just as I did.

          The Grand Canyon is, truly, one of the most indescribable and amazing places I have ever visited. They named it ‘Grand’ for a reason.  Please see it if you can. Thank you Olivia, for taking us there.

         

 

Our Country, Our Flag, Our Fireworks!

 

By G. E. Shuman

 

I am, without a doubt, married to the most patriotic person I have ever met. Lorna has always been that way, and I have to say I am immensely proud of her for her stand for our country. I do mean stand, as she has great pride in our nation and would never hear our national anthem sung or played without standing; she would never let the American Flag pass by in a parade without standing also.

In this age of difficult changes in our country, including coming to grips with racial discrimination and violence from all sides of that issue to pressure to tolerate just about anything that can be said or otherwise expressed as freedom of speech, my wife, and hopefully I, am standing rock solid on our Christian and traditional national values.

Lorna loves all things American. Remember the old Chevy ad that repeated the words: “Baseball, Hotdogs, Apple Pie and Chevrolet?” My wife could have written that ad from her heart. One recent summer, (although this could have happened in any season, at our house,) our son in law Adam saw Lorna enter a room wearing one of her many flag-emblazoned tee shirts and sets of earrings, and he simply said: “Here comes old glory.”  What a hoot that was! Also, what a blessing, as Lorna wore that joking remark as a badge of honor for a long time.

The red, white, and blue, patriotic songs, and fireworks seem to  top the ‘pride’ list for Lorna. She especially loves those fireworks. I do not know how many lines of cars we have waited in to find a good space to park to watch fireworks over the years, or how many stifling, buggy, windy, rainy, or chilly late evenings in how many past Julys we have spent watching what I have never genuinely appreciated as much as does my wife. (I am not exactly bored with all the flash-flash-boom-boom shows but will admit that a lot of those fireworks seem pretty much like the ones we saw last year, to me.)

You know, maybe that is the very point of fireworks, and of Lorna’s everlasting love of them. Maybe the unchanging, memory-jogging fireworks and the emotions of love and respect for the spirit of our country are exactly what Lorna needs to be reminded of around Independence Day each year. This thought makes me feel that many more of us should start paying closer attention to fireworks.

A while back Lorna told me that she had read about a company that would put a portion of a person’s cremated ashes in a firework so that they could be launched toward the sky. That may sound a bit crazy to you, but, if you’re around many years from now at Lorna’s passing, please make it happen.  It’s perfect for her, the most God-fearing, patriotic, traditional, family-centered person I have ever known. I’m very proud of her!