It Pays To Pluck Chickens

A friend of mine recently sent me a story I’d like to share with you.

“Jesse was a chicken plucker. That's right. He stood on a line in a chicken factory and spent his days pulling the feathers off chickens so the rest of us wouldn't have to.

 It wasn't much of a job. But at the time, Jesse didn't think he was much of a person.

His father was a brute of a man. His dad was actually thought to be mentally ill and treated Jesse pretty rough all of his life. Jesse's older brother wasn't much better. He was always picking on Jesse and beating him up. Yes, Jesse grew up in a very rough home in West Virginia.  Life was anything but easy.

And he thought life didn't hold much hope for him. That's why he was standing in the chicken line, doing a job that darn few people wanted.

In addition to all the rough treatment at home, it seems that Jesse was always sick. Sometimes it was real physical illness, but way too often it was all in his head. He was a small child, skinny and meek.

That sure didn't help the situation any. When he started to school, he was the object of every bully on the playground. He was a hypochondriac of the first order. For Jesse, tomorrow was not always something he looked forward to.

When he got old enough, he joined the military. And even though many of his hypochondriac symptoms persisted, the military did recognize his talents and put him in the entertainment corp. That was when his world changed. He gained confidence.

When he got old enough, he joined the military. And even though many of his hypochondriac symptoms persisted, the military did recognize his talents and put him in the entertainment corp. That was when his world changed. He gained confidence.

You know, folks, the history books are full of people who overcame a handicap to go on and make a success of themselves, but Jesse is one of the few I know of who didn't overcome it.  Instead he used his paranoia to make a million dollars and become one of the best-loved characters of all time in doing it!

Yes, that little paranoid hypochondriac, who transferred his nervousness into a successful career, still holds the record for the most Emmy's given in a single category. 

You know, folks, the history books are full of people who overcame a handicap to go on and make a success of themselves, but Jesse is one of the few I know of who didn't overcome it.  Instead he used his paranoia to make a million dollars and become one of the best-loved characters of all time in doing it!

Yes, that little paranoid hypochondriac, who transferred his nervousness into a successful career, still holds the record for the most Emmy's given in a single category. 

Yes, that little paranoid hypochondriac, who transferred his nervousness into a successful career, still holds the record for the most Emmy's given in a single category.

But, he had dreams. He wanted to be a ventriloquist. He found books on ventriloquism. He practiced with sock puppets and saved his hard earned dollars until he could get a real ventriloquist dummy.

He found that he had a talent for making people laugh, and laugh so hard they often had tears in their eyes. Yes, little Jesse had found himself.

The wonderful, gifted, talented, and nervous comedian who brought us Barney Fife was…

 Jesse Don Knotts”

How many truly talented people do we have in our community standing in chicken lines? Sweeping our floors? Bagging our groceries or answering our phones? Do you know what their dreams are? Do you know what they are afraid of? Is there someone you can think of right now that you could ask today “how can I help you”?

Who knows, you may be the link that lights a fire under Jones County’s next shining star. Take the time to get to know the people around you and those you interact with every day. 

When you invest in others, you will only be blessed with so much more and our community will be better because of it!

Words of Wisdom

“When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years.”

~Mark Twain

Happy Father’s Day! I hope you are having a great day enjoying friends, family and the fathers in your life. If you are fortunate enough to still have your father in your life, make sure you tell them just how important they are to you.

Father’s Day and Mother’s Day, Grandparent’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Boss’ Day and the like are always difficult days for me. They are supposed to be the one day of the year when you remember to tell that special person just how important they are to you.

Well… I just wasn’t raised that way. I was taught you tell the ones you love just how much they mean to you as often as you can because we never know how long we have to share together.

This has been a great philosophy for me and served me well over the years as I have lost friends and loved ones along the way. I hope my love and respect for my friends and family never goes unspoken.

As I have been preparing for this Father’s Day I have thought a lot about my dad. I know I write a lot about my family but it is because we have always been so close. Even now I speak with my parents almost daily. They always know what is going on with Ethan and they usually know what Rebekah and I are up to. I still use them for sounding boards of ideas of things I am thinking of pursuing and I am always looking to them for advice; especially from my dad.

I think daddy really likes giving advice, although he never just comes out and says what is on his mind. Some of my favorites he has given me over the years are: “Bad company corrupts good morals”, “Lay down with the dogs and you wake up with fleas”, “Nothing good happens after midnight” – (and for my family members who will read this story online, you don’t need to comment on that story), “You can’t soar with the eagles if you stay out with the owls”, “Keep it between the ditches” and many, many more.

My favorite advice I’ve gotten from my dad was the day we had “The Talk”. We were riding back to town from our cabin across the levee on the river. He said, “I want to talk to you about something” – as he sometimes did. I said, “Okay”. He turned the radio down and said, “Son, keep your pencil in your pocket.” There was a moment of silence. Then he said, “You understand?” I said “Yes sir” he turned up the radio and we never spoke about it again. – Of course now we laugh about it all the time.

Fathers are good for giving advice, they are good for teaching life lessons and they are good for helping us grow to better ourselves and those around us. As I am preparing to raise two little boys in the coming weeks (Noah is expected to arrive in July), I read a lot of articles and blogs online to help me be a better father and raise our children the way Rebekah and I were raised. I heard this great story the other day. I hope it helps you too.

There once was a little boy who had a short temper. His father decided to teach him a lesson by giving him a bag of nails and telling him that every time he lost his temper he was required to hammer one nail into the backyard fence.

Over the next several weeks the little boy had driven in 47 nails! As the weeks progressed he was driving in fewer and fewer nails as he learned to control his temper.

Eventually the boy had learned how to control his temper most of the time. His father was proud and suggested that he pull out one nail for every day that he had completely controlled his temper.

Many days had passed when the boy went to tell his father that all of the nails were gone.

The wise father took his son by the hand and they walked to the fence. He said, “Great job son, you have done really well, and I am very proud of you! But I want you to notice the holes. This fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, you leave a scar just like you have left in this fence.”

From that day forward the boy was determined never to lose his temper again.

Great fathers know how to allow us to learn without having to spell out everything we need to hear. Just like the lesson this little boy learned from his father, I have learned many lessons from my father. I am still learning from him.

I sincerely hope that you have a father or a father figure in your life who constantly challenges you, loves you and teaches you. If you are the result of having a father teach you to be a better person, repay the favor. Teach your children, teach the kids in your neighborhood, teach the kids in your church and in your community. Let’s be a community of positive role models who build each other up and grow the next generation better. I am sure that if you take the time to invest in others, our whole community will be better because of it! I know it will!

Love you pop!

---* This article was originally printed in the Sunday, June 16, 2013 issue of The Chronicle's "Planting Seeds" column.

Our Members Are Good For Nothing

Wait, wait, wait… before you pick up the phone to call or start to fire off a nasty email, hear me out.

I was in church… that’s right, I said church… when my pastor, Mike, shared this nugget of wisdom with me. Mike was talking about how he, as the pastor, gets paid to be good (figuratively) and we as the congregation have to be good for free, with no compensation. Hence, our members are good for nothing!

Now I realize, and I hope you do too, that Mike was just joking. He does not think that just because he gets paid to be the pastor that it means he is any better than anyone else or that he is any less a sinner than any of the rest of us. (Sorry Mike). But this story is not about Mike. This story is about you, our Chamber members.

The reason why his statement resonated with me so much is because the same could be said of you our members and of our community. I guess you could say that I as the Chamber Director get paid to be good and am paid to be the cheerleader of the community. But you, however, don’t necessarily have to be good. But you are. And you are in such a way that the effects of your good behavior, your generosity, your hospitality and your love of this place called Jones County is seen and witnessed all throughout the state and throughout the southeast.

I can’t tell you what a joy it is for me as I travel to different parts of our state or to our region of the Southeastern part of the country and hear people exclaim, “Oh, you’re from Laurel? I love Laurel. You have a great museum!” Or to hear them talk about our quaint downtowns, Landrum’s Country, Boga Homa Lake, watching their kids play baseball at the Sportsplex, swim at the Natatorium, play a round of golf on “one of the toughest courses” they have ever played, or they have enjoyed some of our beautiful parks during family gatherings or other events.

In addition to having been to Laurel, many either are from Jones County, lived in Jones County, know someone in Jones County or have known someone from here. There used to be a popular theory called six degrees of separation in which it was stated “that everyone and everything is six or fewer steps away, by way of introduction, from any other person in the world, so that a chain of ‘a friend of a friend’ statements can be made to connect any two people in a maximum of six steps.” Of course in the South, and more specifically in the case of Mississippi, I think we can change that theory to “two steps away from ya’ mamma and them”.

But my initial statement stands true; it’s because of you and your love for this place we call home, that people know about Jones County. We don’t say it enough to each other, but THANK YOU. Thank you for promoting our community. People are hearing about all the good things taking place in Jones County. People are interested and people want to come see what we have to offer. It’s because of you.

So I would like to leave you with this final charge. Keep doing what you are doing. Keep telling people about our local restaurants. Keep telling them about our new and unique shopping opportunities. Keep telling them about our cultural attractions and the historical significance Jones County has played in the development of our state. Tell them about our robust and thriving economy. Tell them about our schools. Tell them about our events.

But, don’t just tell them… invite them to join in the fun! Together, if we continue to share our message, others will come to experience our hospitality and how great Jones County is. They will come and they will love it too. Then they will help us share our story with others and our community will be even better because of it! We have a lot of great things happening in Jones County, but I know the best is yet to come!

PS – Now if you want to call me out on my title, go ahead.  – I deserve it.