June 7, 2022 – Click here to listen
Well, it’s looking like I’ll be moving to a small community near Madison MS in about thirty days – Lord willing. It is the nicest place to live in MS according to Google. Lowest crime, churches galore, highest income, medical, restaurants, grocery stores you name it. I put a contract on a beautiful little farm which was promptly accepted by the seller. It is loaded with big whitetails, turkey, waterfowl, and the two lakes on the property are well-stocked with big Largemouth bass and bluegills. The land consists of hardwood ridges and bottoms, towering pines, fields, and streams. It has a stunning view as you drive through the gate and a small but comfortable home built overlooking the largest of the two lakes.
The owner is including all kinds of equipment including tractor, disks, bush hog, ATV buggies, a Ford pickup truck, and even a backhoe. I’m sure I will be doing my Green Acres routine in no time.
So yesterday a lady asked me why I’m leaving the Florida Keys and why would I choose to live on a farm in Mississippi of all places. I have enjoyed living in the Keys but with all due respect, it is rapidly changing for the worst. Hordes of folks from New York and New Jersey are flocking down there to escape the high taxes and deplorable living conditions in their overcrowded cities. I hate to stereotype, but most seem loud, rude, overbearing, and arrogant. The traffic has become a nightmare, good churches are difficult to find and far from my home, there are long lines at the grocery stores, and restaurants, and developers are building on every available inch of land down there. It is a gorgeous paradise, and everyone wants a piece of it, but it “ain’t” what it used to be.
This lady asked if I had given up on Costa Rica. I told her not at all, but I have changed my mind about living there year-round and being so far away from my family all the time. I will visit during prime fishing times for a few weeks and then return home. So, it’s off to Mississippi and the quiet life where everyone knows everyone, and the people wave at anyone driving down the road. God, family, and wholesome living is the direction the Lord is leading us.
Many folks have written and remarked how blessed I am to be able to travel to beautiful exotic places. I have found that there are beautiful places to be found near every community. I have also discovered that the people I love to be around live in rural areas and suburbs and not the jet-set spots and fast-action cities. Of course, I’m not into dancing the night away in some bar and ripping around town all night and into the wee hours or visiting Broadway shows.
I love the wholesome life. I prefer to be around folks who appreciate wildlife and the beauty of the forest and always have a rod and reel and a varmint rifle in the old pickup. They help their neighbors when they need it, rise with the chickens and nest up at dark. Call me a redneck and I don’t care. Obama tried to insult people like me a while back talking about us clinging to our Bibles and guns and I’m proud to say I’m among them with the possible exception that you could add rod and reel to it as well.
Recently I told my friend in Charleston who is even older than me that it is a shame that we learn so much over a lifetime only to get old and not be able to take full advantage of it. If only I knew what I know now when I was young enough to build businesses and spend my leisure time wisely; instead, I’m playing in the last inning with a world of wisdom and not much time to effectively use it. Wouldn’t it have been cool if we were born knowing what we know now and as we get old perhaps lose it instead of vice versa?
All I know to do is use what little I have learned to share with others who may not be as far along in their maturity. I have lived a full and rich life that began literally in the gutter to the board room and my advice is the same as Solomon who was the best biblical example of what I’ve been writing about. When he wrote Ecclesiastes, he had tried most everything the world had to offer, women, wine, music, every material thing one could imagine, power, great achievements, royal pomp, and ceremony, and most anything one can think of. And yet in the end he simply said about life:
Eccl. 12:13
Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.