It’s All in the Family

Hello folks, let’s chat… The experts say our attention spans are shrinking and our ever present smart phones are partially to blame. They warn that the common goldfish now has a greater attention span than the average adult. I’m not sure what a goldfish has to focus on, but I’ll move along on the outside chance that I haven’t already lost y’all.

The thing is, I found that news quite interesting in light of a condition I’ve recently identified. I’m calling it Squirrel Story Syndrome and I’ve been using myself as a test case. It’s really quite simple. People with Squirrel Story Syndrome have difficulty finis­­­­hing one story in light of a hundred more they feel compelled to tell. I suppose one could conclude that my Squirrel Story Syndrome and your diminishing attention span doesn’t bode well for my storytelling career, but did I tell y’all about Uncle Rod and my prayer garden?

Uncle Rod’s daddy was my late Papaw, Reverend Marvin Stone. Remember Papaw? I introduced him on this porch as a fun-loving Baptist preacher with a penchant for pranking. Well, many years ago Papaw built an altar of twelve large stones in the woods behind his house and the memory of that hallowed place is very special to me. When I discovered that not only was Uncle Rod in possession of those stones, but he was willing to let me have one of them for my own prayer garden, I was like a goldfish on caffeine. I couldn’t focus on anything but getting by Rod’s house to collect my stone.

Later that same evening Rod called to remind me not to try and get the heavy rock out of the car by myself. I promised him I was waiting on Phil to do that.

“Good,” Rod said. “And. by the way, you do know the meaning behind the twelve stones, don’t you?”

I told Rod I wasn’t sure if they represented the twelve tribes of Israel to Papaw, or the twelve disciples.

“The twelve disciples,” Uncle Rod replied. And then, because he is his daddy’s son, he added, “I gave you Judas Iscariot.”