Family, History, News, The Future, Uncategorized

On His Way to the Glory Pasture

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I was reading the obituaries in the local paper this week and the following caught my eye in an obituary of an older man who had been a rancher and avid rodeo participant : “___________   went through his Last Chute Number on his way to the Glory Pasture.” It was surprisingly poetic for our paper and certainly spoke of the unwavering faith of the cara defunto.

Billy Graham went to the Glory Pasture this week. I had no idea he was still alive. My paternal grandfather was very insistent  in the days before his death to remind my dad and uncle to make sure their mother “didn’t give her money to any of those TV preachers.” He viewed them as charlatans.  Grandma was raised Baptist and joined the Methodist Church because there was no Baptist congregation near their farm. She was happy as a Methodist but loved watching TV preachers in her later years.  Grandpa didn’t like it and never gave money to any church, much less anybody on the TV.

The Reverend Graham’s  brand of salvation never appealed much to me, being perfectly happy as a Lutheran, but it certainly did to others. In 1978, 70,000 people showed up over three days to see him in Fargo.  He must have spoken to some need in their beings, and I certainly am not being a critic of him or them. I like to think of my grandparents and Mr. Graham and the bronc buster all in the Glory Pasture having a real nice time.

What do you hope your  Glory Pasture is like? 

 

 

59 thoughts on “On His Way to the Glory Pasture”

  1. pain free
    I have a playlist of Paul Winter’s two Grand canyon albums, four cds of native flute music from the Americas, some Loreena McKenna, some Phil Coulter, two forms of chant, rain, surf. Like that play list

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    1. Bible says white and gold/milk and honey. (It also says fat running down your chin into your beard.
      I would go for colorful hot air balloons, rainbows, the Arb in mid-July, the paint on the floor of an atelier. Warn turnovers, crepes, broiled trout, lutefisk and I would not get sick.
      And doctors would keep appointments. (Same clinic canceled an appointment on the day of the appointment and which I had awaited for 7 weeks.)

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        1. That’s easy for the men to say. :-0

          Doesn’t the Bible also say something like there will be no marriage in heaven (which with Bible morality would preclude pregnancy and birth)? Jacque and I can hold out hope for something like that in our glory pasture.

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      3. One of many unanswered questions out of childhood: if Adam and Eve started this whole thing (populating the world), then there would have to have been generations of inbreeding. I do tend to take things literally, though1

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  4. I would be able to talk to all my ancestors and get the real low down on their lives. There would be lots of cats snd terriers, and thw telling og stories

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  8. Rise and Shine Baboons,

    Surely the phrase “Glory Pasture” qualifies as Cowboy Poetry.

    Rev. Graham was never a person I felt much affinity for. My parents, especially dad, loved to watch his nighttime TV shows way back when. He was the only TV preacher that they ever allowed in the living room. Watching it with them until I was old enough to excuse myself and find something else to do, I could never figure out WHY they wanted to watch that. It never seemed to have anything to do with our lives or our flavor of religion.

    My Glory Pasture will have an absence of Billy Graham and any other TV evangelist or obsessive religious zealot. I hope it is populated by beautiful flower and vegetable gardens, flexible joints without arthritis, kindness, and good stories.

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  9. I’m not comfortable with folks who are 120 percent sure they have the truth on life’s imponderable questions. Billy Graham was that kind of guy, at least for me. The best I can offer him is forgiveness for his anit-Semitism (as recorded on the secret Nixon tapes). RIP, old dude, and try to be less judgmental.

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  10. “Sunshine, lollipops and rainbows, Everything that’s wonderful is what I feel when we’re together”. That pretty much sums it up.

    There was a great movie called “Defending Your Life” with Meryl Streep, Albert Brooks and Rip Torn with a hilarious cameo appearance by Shirley Maclaine. Meryl Streep and Albert Brooks characters die young and go the next place and each have a “trial” to decide if they can move on or go back to Earth for another life. While in this limbo, it’s like a regular city except all the deceased souls wear long, white robes. Restaurants serve all kinds of amazing food, it’s all free, you can eat as much as you want and not gain weight. Meryl Streeps’ character is totally enjoying this. The waiter even gives her 9 of her favorite pies to take back to her hotel room. That sounds like a Glory Pasture to me!

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  12. i have a little group i play guitar in a circle meeting where we go around and play one when it’s your tune and the others play along and when they are playing you get to join in on theirs that’s kind of my idea of heaven now if i could do that next to a trout stream in the mountains and have an old oak shading the sun on a 73 degee day with a gentle breeze and a whiff of clover and lavender in the air a couple of morels over their next to the fallen elm and some honey from the bee hives out in the sun… i’d be pretty happy to hang out i’d probably contour up interesting people to play and chat with geeze who would you contour if it were snap your fingers possible? abe lincoln, michelangelo, da vinci, mr rodgers jimmy stewart, jesus, george gershwin peter o toole, captain kangaroo , ginger rogers, shakespeare, degas, wouldn’t it be fun putting together guest lists? setting up snack tables with your favorite stuff all the way around i don’t know why you wouldn’t want to go…

    i think there would be a baboon corner where i’d check in regularly jim ed and bill holmes and jean redpath alreadt there more on the way everyone soon to be there unless….. the other option of burning and hating fingernails on the chalkboard into eternity is enough to make me repent and thank the lord for the beautiful sunrise, the mild weather the knowledge that the hoped for result is a possibility and that we are all in this together gives me hope thanks for the nice perspective i saw a film clip about 1950’s riders at the calgary stampede and thought about all those cowboy kind of folk i’ve known and how much i enjoy that going through the chute mentality that goes with the hat and boots. something to admire. if only those damn heels didn’t screw up my back so bad

    tim jones

    >

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  13. Diane Keaton directed a very amusing (in my opinion), very strange collection of interviews and old clips called “Heaven”. It’s available to watch for free on Amazon Prime and can be had cheaply as a dvd.

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  14. OT: I’ve been missing from TB for a while because I’m trying to deal with having been defrauded twice in two months. It’s a mess and I’ve lost several hundred dollars. As hard as the monetary loss is, the greatest loss is my trust and confidence that I’m not easy prey. Both occurred as a result of googling for technical help phone numbers which were listed right under official domains – Amazon and Canon Printers. Just let me warn other sitting ducks: never call a number other than found on official sites!!!

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  15. I expect it won’t be a surprise that my Glory Path will lead to a huge library craft room, where the books are always available for check-out and when I craft, as soon as I use something it will magically go back to where it belongs. And a fireplace. Oh, and no bathroom scales!

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  16. I’m sort of agnostic on the possibility of an afterlife. If there is something beyond, my take on it is that it would be much like the life you lived before your death, but without a strict linear time schedule, so that you would be able to be in the pleasant moments of your life, but not have to endure the moments that were painful or stressful. All the beauty, pleasure, comfort, and joy, without the work, boredom, and nastiness of ordinary life.

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  17. Update on my day:
    I started trying to get attention for my spine in mid-October.Delays, not taking appointments. I forced them to give me appointment with back surgeon’s physician assistants, who I have seen before. Got appointment for early Dec. Day before they called because she had medical emergency. I could see a different back surgeon the next week, but it covered an appointment we had waited for two months for Sandy to get. Could not make an appointment for my surgeon until early January, made for today. Called this morning. he was to be out for the afternoon. But I could see, guess who, the PA. She walked in wearing the sort of head scarf people wear to cover missing hair from cancer treatment. That shook me up. Was sad. We of course did not discuss that. She is sure I will have to have surgery on neck and lumbar. I have great trust in her. So have double MRI for neck and lumbar Wed. afternoon. I have to take valium to get through MRIs so cannot drive. Have no on to drive me as of yet. It will work out.

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    2. hope this works out clyde. glad to have you back and all the updates and views on lifes challanges.
      uber a possibiity in kato? how about reaching out to a mankato state student or church group. is there a meetup network there? check meetup.com

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