On the “Vicissitudes of Life” and death …
“And what is it to cease breathing, but to free the breath from its restless tides, that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?” ~Khalil Gibran “The Prophet”
How many times have we read about a person who has influenced our lives though was not close to us as we so define that term.
Bill Baxter was that Influence. He was a couple of years older and a couple of years ahead in school: Shannondale, Central High School, University of Tennessee Law School. We worked together in the 1980s to support Fountain City in our Town Hall.
One of my memories was taking the court for the Bobcat varsity basketball team in my sophomore year. I had just finished football and coach Conrad Majors had called me up from the B Team squad. In the huddle before my first appearance, Bill looked me in the eye and said, “Now is the time to do something special, Tom.”
Though “special” can run a gauntlet of endeavors, I’ve never stopped pursuing that dream, through failures and successes, through disappointments and accomplishments.
“Special” these days for me encompasses a Third Act of expression of creativity through photography. Like last Friday’s dying moments of sunlight being resurrected into a magnificent sunset, we who seek and persevere are and can be rewarded with awe inspiring vision.
Thanks, Bill.
Thomas Mabry – Honey Badger Images
Many of the HoneyBadgerImages are on display at instagram.com/honeybadgerimages.