John Denver's influence...

While riding in the car today, Rocky Mountain High came on the radio. Instantly, I was taken back to a campfire in Yosemite National Park. The family sitting around it, Dad on the guitar and all of us singing John Denver. Those types of memories are the best ones I have of our childhood. Everyone together, singing, laughing and enjoying each other.

The next memory I had was driving to Colorado with 4 fraternity brothers to go fishing. The second we hit Colorado John Denver's Greatest Hits was put in the cassette player and we sang like there was no tomorrow. That led to another fraternity image of 30 guys whitewater rafting down the Rio Grande singing Take Me Home Country Roads and listeneing to the sound bounce off the canyon walls. Those were fun times.

The point of all this is there is something about John Denver and his sound when you are in God's country. There are those who get it and those who don't. I tend to want to be with those who get it. I have never gone back to all of the people in my life with whom I did not get along or about whom I just did not have a good feeling to see if they liked John Denver but I'll bet my instincts are right. Most of them probably did not.

It goes beyond Mr. Denver. He looked like a nerd and he was easily ridiculed for his folksy type of sound. But those of us who got past that, could see that he got it too. Mountains, rivers, valleys, the ocean, in short nature is a gift. To be cherished. To be revered. To be enjoyed. It is a gift from God. Some look at the majesty of the mountains and see upheaval of tectonic plates. Some see the hand of God. Some look at the oceans and see global warming. Some see the hand of God. Some see the vast expanse of space and see the Big Bang. Some see the hand of God.

All of the guys on that fishing trip who liked John Denver: their parents are all still married, their siblings are all still married and they are all still married.

I'm not trying to infer anything from that. Those are just the facts. But there has got to be something to that. I couldn't tell you about all of the guys on that rafting trip but I do know the ones I keep in touch with, still married. Again, I'm not saying. I'm just saying.

And by the way, my parents still married, my siblings still married, I am still married. Although I do think there is a hater among us but I can't remember who that is.