For a couple of months last spring, I despaired of ever composing again the living, breathing journalism that I hope readers have come to expect from this corner.
An in-house fall, brought about by recurring mobility losses, stopped me cold. Undergoing rehab treatment, I did not write from mid-April until returning home in June. That was by choice, realizing that my recovery hinged on eliminating distractions.
That meant putting Oaklawn on a never-used back burner since coming aboard in 1980. I did not know of Skelly, a two-time stakes winner at the track, for several weeks. Before my episode, I dutifully covered the Arkansas Derby, though viewing the April 1 race from home computer. Not writing about the Triple Crown races represented drudgery, although the one time I really yearned to write in that time came after the death of Jim Brown, who transitioned from pro football to the movies like a snap.
I got around to writing about Brown and a great deal many more topics (even about Taylor Swift). I have basically not stopped writing since coming home, where tended by caregivers assembled by a family member, who accepts that printed allusion rather than public mention. In case you're interested, I still undergo rehab treatment on my lower limbs, hoping to walk again without it becoming an adventure.
Let me say that I have never enjoyed writing more, taking on extra duty as turf writer for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, whose Oaklawn correspondent Pete Perkins last year was himself felled.
I look at it as God slowing me in some respects but enhancing my mind. Truthfully, I can say that certain things are seen in clearer focus, although dismayed by the University of Arkansas' sorry showings in football and men's basketball this school year, plus the ambivalence expressed toward our two presidential choices in November. And that comes from someone who lived through, even backed, Nixon.
(Somewhere our churches have fallen on the job, like me on the bedroom floor one night last spring. I hear more about church attendance and building programs than saving souls. Too much time, I fear, is spent on filling the collection plate instead of preaching the Great Commission as outlined in the New Testament. This rant over, you may return to regular programming.)
Not for a minute since putting pen to paper have I wished to be pigeonholed as a sports writer. My mind works along broader sweeps with a keen interest in movies and show business, for starters. Subscribing to pay cable after all these years, I was engrossed by recent series about author Truman Capote and country-music stars George Jones and Tammy Wynette. Renting, and from the comfort of my home, I watched "Oppenheimer," named Best Picture at the recent Oscarcast, over the holidays. I caught up with "The Sopranos" and restored my passion for producer Dick Wolf's Thursday-night "Law & Order" trilogy on NBC.
Editor Mark Gregory has been gracious enough to print certain op-ed pieces on the editorial page. Deaths of actor Andre Braugher and directors Norman Jewison and William Friedkin were noted. Watching "Shane" one night on Turner Classic Movies inspired a review of the George Stevens-directed Western masterpiece from 1953 starring Hot Springs-born (since deceased) Alan Ladd. I may write something about "The Regime," current HBO series starring Kate Winslet as ruler of an unnamed European country, if I ever make sense of it.
Oaklawn and the Razorbacks, two evergreens, occupy most of my time. With delight I covered from afar, often through streaming video, Lakeside's best football season in years and the senior year of Lake Hamilton basketball all-timer Ty Hamilton.
I was saddened when Krishnan Collins, our sports editor, went elsewhere. Happy to report that Bryan Rice and Braden Sarver are getting their names before the public in jobs that I once held, and they have my full support. I was rocked by the recent death of former newsroom colleague Mickey Doyle.
Oh, another candle went on my birthday cake Friday (do not ask for specifics, although Glenwood High classmates have my blessing to tell more). Many stopped by the rehab center on Pittman Road after celebrating our 50-year reunion last May. GHS is under rubble but, like it says in the alma mater, purple and white will prove ol' Glenwood High is best.
I have lived to see the meek inherit the earth -- Harding University's NCAA Division II football championship. Kudos to Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a Ouachita Baptist university alum, for welcoming the Bisons to the state Capitol the other day.
In closing, I can with assurance that God is not finished with me yet. From a writing standpoint, as ever, we shall see if the quality improves.