There is some story of life etched in those lines on the face of Tim. A story of a time that is quickly passing in America. A time of fond memories and legacy, tinged in tears.

What a encounter.

Thank you, Gerard.

A wonderful person. It was hard not to get emotional when he spoke of his son's passing.

Contrast Tim with this fool:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P36x8rTb3jI

I had to keep fighting the lump in my throat. My Lord, when I think of all the politicians, the slick hucksters and parasites in our society who aren't worthy of tying this man's shoes (including myself), it breaks my heart. The rewards awaiting this fine man will be amazing and unimaginable.

That was just a little bit of real, straight from the heart.

Real really stings sometimes. Burns. Hurts. But you always know it when you see it.

For real.

About twenty five years ago I helped build the state highway between Green River and Hanksville. Always loved that part of my state.

Working 6,000 acres. What do you do for fun? Work. I love this guy.

Sweet, Nutnfancy on the Digest!

WORD! Thank you!!

We sang, "Come, Labor On" today at the funeral of a good man. Right up until his failing heart failed him fully, he would say, "we got work to do." An Army veteran, a Church veteran, a man who never stopped loving, feeding, and caring for his community. We were hundreds of folks there, saying good bye to a man who convinced each of us that we were his favorite. He, too, was a farmer, a builder, a father, a man convinced that his work was to love, and his love was his work. And we were all just a part of his building project. Lively stones, jointly fit together. The loss is great.

And now this man, this man Tim, made of earth and Spirit-breathed, has borne a loss no man should bear and yet, and yet... No cynicism, no bitterness except that private gall which he doesn't allow to pass his lips, no dramatic railing at injustice, just pure grief and love and loss... and work.

Men. They are incredible people, and women shall never match them in heart.

Is it better for people like Cobb to come "late to the party, than not come at all?" or to be like Tim who created everything?

Who issued the invitations to the other 49% ?

Who is being rewarded and who is paying ?

Weary.

There is more misery within your earshot that a human heart can carry. Most of it is unsaid and buried beneath what men can cover it with; women have a different method and I understand it even less well. The resonance from that story, and the debris left after the tragedy, is more common than many of us understand.

Love one another, children. Take each other into your lives and help. Be patient and kind. Reject greed, envy, jealousy, and bitterness. Be thankful.

Dammit. I wish it were just that easy.

Decent, salt of the earth, a hard worker, and so much more. In Tim we see the spirit that built this country into a place of opportunity and freedom. In his valiant struggle with grief we see the grief that so many have born as we have given our sons to defend freedom. Tim is the embodiment of what is good and true in this country. Thanks, Tim, for lifting me up.

What Jimmy J. said...

Thank you, Gerard, for sharing this.

I think that Tim and I are about the same age. I am not a farmer, but I have worked most of my life. I see in him the bone-weariness of work and life, yet, he doesn't give in, and doesn't give up. There is a lesson in this for anyone. Being true to your own heart and spirit, and never giving up.

Someday, his body will betray him, and he will break, and have to stop. I hope his second son finds his way. I hope he finds some redemption in this world yet, from the pain and heartache and sweat and blood. Yet maybe not. After God piled on all the troubles on Job, yet who was Job to question the Almighty?

Love hopes for all things
Love renews all things
Love endures all things
Hope, faith, charity and love
But love is the greatest of these
It will last beyond the breaking of the foundations of this world.
***
It's a slow turnin'
Not fade away
Not fade away

"Is it better for people like Cobb to come "late to the party, than not come at all?" or to be like Tim who created everything?"

@Grace

Our perspective being mortal and fallible, we should just be happy when people show up, period. We talk about the Left as if they treat their politics like a religion. There's some truth to that. But I suggest that most major personal political shifts in any direction are akin to religious conversions, and as the parable goes, you don't stint the new servants on their pay even if they signed on later than the other servants, because they're here, now, ready and willing to work. They see it. They've figured it out. Welcome, brother. Let's get some work done.

"Better" implies a viewpoint reserved for people who know everything about everyone. Theoretically, sure, it would be better for all of us to have started out as a Tim and stayed that way. But that's not our society. Modern culture is the antithesis of that.

Perhaps when we ask "who's better," what we're really doing is asking who should impress us more, or for whom we should be more happy.

As to that, all I can think of is to point towards folks like the Prodigal Son, or doubting Thomas, or Paul on the road to Damascus. These three approached from completely different directions, but they get here eventually, and I suspect God was no less happy with them when they finally arrived than He would have been had they not needed their respective late conversions in the first place.

And so if ol' Bob down the road has a mid-life crisis that turns him from being an aging leftist hipster to a conservative salt of the earth, we don't need to know whether it would have been better for him to never have become a leftist aging hipster at all - he's already figured it out. Being intelligent he'll busy with his own regrets and we don't need to add to them. What's the point?

We should just be happy that he's at the party, because, frankly, it was pretty hard for him to make it at all. In today's culture, in fact, the odds were against it.

Just my two cents, of course.

Gerard, here's what you're to do.

Find a place to stay in that town. Stay there for a month.

Visit, chat, gab, talk, interact with the people there.

Make friends, pet animals, see things you haven't seen before.

Write about it.

There's no such thing as a worthless location.

Thank you Gerard, for American Digest and all the wonderful articles, images and video you post. And thank you Tim, for reminding me of where I'm from and how far I've strayed. God Bless you both, God Bless us all.

I bet none of you watched the video to its bitter end.

Try tuning it up at 11:50 then letting it roll.

"I had insurance for seventeen years and when I lost Jace, my insurance didn't cover nothing. I paid $187,000 to a hospital and I didn't have a kid, so that sucked."

Doesn't this large, overwhelmingly brutal fact of Tim's already difficult life make any of you angry or even slightly irritated?

The guy gets fucked over by every large corporate factor he comes in contact with and you people get all teary-eyed with this rah rah Go America salt of the earth shit.

Big, corrupt government isn't the only fox in the hole we have to worry about reaming us three ways to next Sunday.

Well, actually Daph, there's another video brought in by nutnfancy about a month or so later that;s an hour long -- you can find it on youtube -- that shows what a lot of people actually did about/for this man. I commend it to yhou.

Well, actually Daph, there's another video brought in by nutnfancy about a month or so later that;s an hour long -- you can find it on youtube -- that shows what a lot of people actually did about/for this man. I commend it to yhou.

Daphne I haven't had insurance for more than six months in my entire life. I watched the whole video and his perseverance in the face of a life visited with tragedy and loss brought a tear to my eye.

Life isn't fair...And yet he keeps on plugging away finding joy in living it.

I'd rather be a Tim than some "Julia".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ERbtBaVeQc

... follow up vid

Nice - Thanks G

Tim Vetere, while saying it sucked that the insurance company didn't cover the expenses for the time Jason was in the hospital, wasn't bitter, though God knows he could have been. He took it as another bump in the road of life. The point of Tim's life is "do what you have to do." We could all follow his example, and if we did, we wouldn't have to worry about insurance companies OR the government.

One major difference between corporations and government is corporations can't force you into anything, while the government can force you into everything.

*oof*