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Chris Knight's avatar

That was one of the very first thoughts that came to mind this morning.

My heart felt like it broke into a hundred pieces yesterday afternoon, upon hearing of the passing of my very good friend Tim Talley.

Tim was many things to many people.  I suppose the first aspect that comes to the minds of lots of folks is that he was an amazing photographer.  For more than forty years Tim made his mark not just in Reidsville and Rockingham County, but throughout the Piedmont region.  Tim was blessed with an incredible vision and sense of composition.  The man worked with light the way that the finest sculptors work with clay.  Tim came up with seemingly countless ways of staging photos and he would go to whatever lengths it took to pull them off.  He also had a way of bringing out the best of his subjects.  Everyone ...

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A short while ago I got the word from her daughter that Nell Rose, one of the most enthused and energetic and especially dynamic people who I have ever had the great pleasure of knowing, passed away yesterday.

Nell was the embodiment of model leadership.  She would see things that could have been better and she threw herself into it, no questions asked.  This was especially noted in her myriad of activities involving education.  She spearheaded a number of initiatives when she and her family moved to Charlotte.  And then some years later when they moved back to the Reidsville area, she brought that same vision to bear.  The woman was nigh unstoppable.

I knew Nell from a variety of situations.  The first time we met, it was during our high school swim team’s weekly meets.  Her two daughters were on the team and Nell often came to ...

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Hey gang!  Got something special for ya…

A very dear friend of mine, Laz A. Mataz, has been working on his first novel for awhile.  Dimensions of Essence is a science-fiction story about what happens when a mysterious disc of otherworldly origins suddenly appears in a field in Ohio.  I was honored to be one of the first to read Mataz’s book and I was thoroughly entertained and also made to think a bit deeper about some things.  Dimensions of Essence strikes me as being part Tom Clancy, part Philip José Farmer, and a dash of Christianity.  And it works quite well.

Well, today is the big day!  As of a short while ago this morning Dimensions of Essence has debuted on Amazon for purchase to read on Kindle and its associated apps.  Click here to purchase it for $5.99.

Congrats Laz!  And I’m really looking ...

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Had some very good news today!  Wish I could share it but I had to sign all kinds of non-disclosure agreements and whatnot.  But trust me, it’s awesome!!

During a discussion about how good a turn this is, a dear friend shared something that I thought was rather profound.  It’s a notion I’ve never considered before and it’s already greatly impacted my outlook on life.  Here it is, in his own words…

Stay humble, but let me tell you a story: When I first came into the Twelve Steps program, I was saying to my sponsor how bad a person I was.  His response was, 

“Wow. What an ego on YOU.”

I replied, “That’s the opposite of ego.”

He smiled and said, “No it isn’t. Do you know the Latin root of the word “humble”? It is “humus”.  To be grounded.  Humility is the act of being neither greater NOR

...
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…This post from April the 4th, 2005.  That’s just over twenty years ago.  It’s about the “midnight madness” that took place for the new merchandise related to Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.  For whatever reason a lot of visitors have been coming to that post over the past few months and especially this last several days.

Is it because this spring marks the twentieth anniversary of Revenge of the Sith?  Or is it another factor?  I wonder if there’s some sentimentality at work.  Twenty years ago we were a fandom united in spirit and purpose.  Star Wars was something that we shared and had common ground over.  It wasn’t what it has devolved into.  It was a purer, and more beautiful, work.  Star Wars was one of the few truly good things in this world that could bring almost everyone together.  The third ...

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Very good friend Matt Smith (no not the Doctor Who actor!) and I go back a few years, all the way to our time together at that very strange television station in Reidsville, North Carolina.  I learned a lot about video and broadcasting from Matt, and I continue to learn much from him since his becoming active with the online realm, sharing his talents and his calling as a minister.

For the past two or three years Matt has been maintaining a weekly series of “Sunday school” lessons.  Every Saturday he posts a new one on YouTube.  I for one have been benefiting from Matt’s devotionals and I think that others might will also.  Click on over to Matt’s YouTube channel and prepare to be edified, enlightened, and maybe even a little entertained.

Thank you for all that you do my brother!...

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Ghostbusters: Afterlife is the movie we didn’t know we needed right now, is better than we deserve, and blew away expectations.  It is a MAGNIFICENT tribute to the original film while standing on its own and setting the stage for more still to come.  Be sure to stick around until the end of the credits for two extra scenes.

And we had some fun with our going to see it:

Who you gonna call?

Some friends and I went to the theater wearing our finest Ghostbuster attire.  That’s my bestie since college Ed in the center.  The whole thing was his idea 🙂

Anyhoo, go see Ghostbusters: Afterlife.  It’s the perfect motion picture and quite fitting for this Thanksgiving season....

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Here I am, the day after Christmas 2014.  And I’m only writing this because a lot of people were praying for me yesterday, that I might get through this holiday.

Grief is hard enough already.  It’s especially heartbreaking when it comes so close to the holiday season and you see that empty chair at the table.  It’s not something that I haven’t experienced already.  Mom passed away three days after Christmas three years ago, and because of that there was already a shadow cast over Christmas and New Year’s.  On my 26th birthday we buried my grandmother: something that I’m always reminded of on that day of the year.

This year has been more excruciating than anything I was prepared for.  Because it’s so fresh.  Because it’s only now sinking in that Dad is gone and is not coming back, no matter how many times I keep expecting him to ...

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Okay, that’s it.  I give up.  I didn’t know how having a Christmas this year was going to be at all possible.  In light of everything that’s happened in the past nearly two months, yuletide joy was something that seemed way past feasibility.  Although, I haven’t begrudged anyone from having that.  Just feels like I’m on the outside looking in this year, is all.

But then before tonight’s performance of It’s A Wonderful Life: The Musical two young ladies who I’ve been working backstage with surprised me with a little something.  And as I told Joy and Makia, this has to be the sweetest thing that has happened to me since Lord knows when.

Look!  Dalek action figures from Doctor Who!

Joy and Makia spotted these in a nearby store and… well, words cannot possibly convey how touched I am to be given these by two such wonderful people.  ...

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Eleven months ago I posted this video following the death of my mother. It seemed like the song most reflective of the emotion that I was feeling.

In the past few weeks no less than five people who I had known for most of my life have also passed away. There are a few with us still, who are now being comforted in their final days.

Yesterday a friend for more than thirty years, a person I had known since kindergarten and came up through high school with, was taken from us.

I posted it on Facebook late last night, and some said that it was the perfect song for what a lot of longtime friends and family are going through right now. And since she was a huge fan of country music, it seemed all the more appropriate to use it here too, in her memory.

Michelle, we thank ...

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