my heart wrapped up in a photo

Happy Wednesday :)

andy griffith (sniff)

I'm a child of the 60s/70s and I love television.  

Now I know all the reasons why I probably shouldn't.  I know all the arguments I give to my family about ditching cable and protecting my grandchildren from being inundated by all the terrible that is TV in 2012.  But still.  I love me some television.

I enjoy all manner of TV offerings, but some things never change, like ever.

Like my love for Andy Griffith.

I imagine if my back were against the wall, so to speak, I would have to say my very favorite television show in the history of ever would be The Andy Griffith Show.  

Andy Taylor was one of the kindest, gentlest, most patient dads/friends/nephews/bosses ever portrayed and I might have loved him just a little bit, in spite of the, you know, fictionality of his existence.  

Even when I was small I somehow understood AG's genius in making the character so multi-layered and interesting in the face of the never-ending silliness going on around him.

Many years later, when Matlock came along he seemed to slide into that role effortlessly, and if felt as if he had always been Ben Matlock, and I loved his curmudgeonly, cranky-but-lovable Ben nearly as much as Andy!  I loved how he would break into hymns on both shows, and in Matlock he would be shown at choir practice and what-have-you.  My mom said if he didn't love Jesus he surely was an excellent actor ;)

(I suspect both to be true.)

I'm sure to some of you this might sound lame, but AG really did feel like family in some way.  I didn't have grandparents active in my life, but he seemed like he'd be a good one ;)  I might have teared up a bit the day he died. 

Not because I'm nuts, mind you.  

(Although of course I am!)

I suppose it was because we've lost a lovely man who reminded us that there is great beauty to be found in simply loving those around us & living our lives with quiet dignity and contentment.

Or something like that.

Anyhoo,

It's been a difficult, and arduous, and somewhat difficult process, but I finally have my top five favorite Andy Griffith episodes of all time whittled down...to six.  

or actually seven.

It's the best I could do. 

And they're in no particular order, because again...the best I could do.

Since we're remembering Andy, I decided to omit the episodes that focused specifically on other cast members because SO MANY.  These, of course, would include anything Barney (PERFECTION), and the ever-delightful Ernest T. Bass (OHMYWORD!) and Aunt Bea playing the warden or Goober taking the car apart.  

The line had to be drawn somewhere people, and today is all about Andy.

So without further adieu, here are my top favorite memories from The Andy Griffith Show:

The Pickle Story

"I don't know how I can face the future when I know there's eight quarts of these pickles in it."  (Barney)

A Feud is a Feud

"Their daddies could have saved themselves the expense of a double funeral if they just would've let them had a cheap wedding."  (Andy)

Alcohol and Old Lace

"And this booze you've been sellin' ain't legally recognized either so I've gotta take this ax and pow, pow, pow!"  (Barney)

Andy, the Marriage Counselor

"Good mornin' Dear."  

"Good mornin' Honey."

(Ha!)

The Loaded Goat

"Andy, are you sayin...?  "Yep, somewhere wandering around Mayberry is...a loaded goat." (Barney/Andy)

"You would have to show up today Otis; about one loaded goat at a time is all we can handle!" (Andy)

Dinner at Eight

"Yes, I know that already.  Now I'm goin' over to Helen's to eat my third supper, and then I'm comin' back...and I'm gonna kill you."  (Andy)

And because it's as intertwined with my Christmas memory as the cupcakes we eat, likely because I've seen it every Christmas Eve since, well, birth...my favorite ever episode of The Andy Griffith Show is Christmas Story.

"Do you mean to tell me that you're gonna spend Christmas in jail for two measly dollars?" (Andy)

(As Ben sings along to Away in a Manger while he peeks through the bars of the window at all the happy, I have this powerful urge to go hug a cranky person.  True story.)

 Thanks for the oh-so-sweet memories, Andy!

p.s.  Vote for your favorite episode in my sidebar & I'll post the results next week :)

nothing to prove

Well I threw it all away.

I've been going through the house and purging like nobody's business.  It seems the right thing to do given all the changes coming with The Move that's looming in the near future.

I haven't even blinked during most of the trashing of my former treasures.  It's fascinating how something can seem un-lose-able one day and a few years later it holds virtually no value at all.  I imagine there's a life lesson or deep insight there somewhere, but I'm kind've into skimming across the top of things right now.

One doesn't trash her former treasures without doing a fair amount of skimming.

Anyway, I've been trashing willy-nilly for weeks now, but today seemed just a bit different.  I knew it was there somewhere, and had already decided its fate, but didn't come across it until now.  I had considered not even looking inside and just tossing it straight out, but fear of losing something still valuable forced me to peek inside.  

It was all there.  The details likely wouldn't matter so much to you, but the not-so-great memories evoked by mere glimpses still take my breath clean away.  

(Interesting, isn't it, our ability to be transported to another place by snippets.)  

I tried to stick close to the surface and not dive straight in, and resolutely I continued to chuck things in the ever-growing pile of the discarded.

But still...

Somehow in a way that's difficult to explain, this bit of no-longer-relevant continues to have some manner of value to me.

I'm reasonably sure it isn't a healthy value (is that possible...unhealthy value?) but it still stung.  

Today I threw away evidence of a storm that was real and hard and terrible, and also full, and rich, and productive.

Today I threw away "proof" that it was just as big as I thought at the time and that I was as sincere as I believe myself to have been.  

Validation, if you will.

Somehow it feels terribly dangerous to just. let. it. go.

What if I need to prove something to myself some day?  

What will I do then?

I suppose I'll just have to remind myself that with God's grace I have nothing at all to prove, and then leave it all where it belongs...

Long-gone, with all of the other out-of-date, no-longer-treasured treasures.

Life is for the living, after all, 

and apparently, for today, God has some living left for me to do.

(A Thousand Gifts #1190-1199)


projected breaks in miserable heat & promises of raindrops

freedom from what was 

sweet new pictures

growing piles of the no-longer-necessary

easy access to effective meds

just...sitting, all together

little boys falling asleep in the middle of the visiting

the delicious peace that comes with realizing there's simply no proof required :)

Happy Monday!