The Old Man's Awakening

   I have fond memories of watching The Andy Griffith Show as a kid. I mostly watched it on a little 12-inch black and white Panasonic television that sat atop a chest of drawers in my bedroom. The telescoping rabbit ears on that TV were massive, nearly reaching the ceiling if I pulled them all the way out – but I didn’t do that unless it was storming or something. Anyway, two back-to-back episodes of Griffith used to start around five o’clock, I guess, just before dinner time. Now, this was the 1980s, so these were re-runs. They only had twenty years on them at the time.

   I grew up on the edge of Appalachia, and most of the characters, stories, and situations on Griffith seemed pretty real to me, pretty honest. I know now that they filmed this stuff out in Hollywood with contract writers and actors and all the rest, and that it was Andy Griffith’s personal will and attention to detail that kept things on track, at least during the early seasons. But this is neither here nor there. I’d put up dollars against donuts that it’s one of best put-together television shows of all time.

Boundaries
   Anyhow, there was an occasional character on Griffith by the name of Ernest T. Bass, a half-wild mountain man who would come down into the peaceful town of Mayberry once in a while to throw rocks through windows, chase women, cause trouble and what-have-you. One time he came to town to “get an education” so he could impress his girlfriend back up in the hills. To him, getting an education sounded no different than getting some groceries, and he expected to make quick work of it. Andy, knowing different, but being the compassionate sheriff that he was, figured he could help ole Ernest T a bit, so he set about trying to teach him some basics. You can see a clip of it here.
 
   Andy begins with geography, and starts by laying out a map of the United States. With a indicatively wandering finger on the map, he describes to Ernest T how the U.S. is bounded on the north by Canada, on the south by Mexico, on the east by the Atlantic Ocean, and he then invites Ernest T to answer “and on the west by ____, ah, would you happen to know that?”
 
   After a thoughtful pause, Ernest T replies confidently, “Old Man Kelsey’s Woods.”
 
Cat’s out of the Bag
   There you have it. The direct inspiration for this website and blog. You might rightfully expect someone to cook up something more original than that, eh? Well, I suppose I could have done so. But I’m going to stick to my guns on this, and here’s why: Sure, it makes for a zinger of a sitcom punchline, but I’ve convinced myself that there’s some hidden depth in Ernest T’s reply that aligns with my pen-in-hand intentions.
 
   Sure, it's easy to laugh at Ernest T's limited perceptions and let it go at that. But if we take the time to think about it, we all have a set of boundaries that effectively shape our lives. Some of them have been taught to us and we’ve come to believe them without question. Some have been imposed upon us against our will. Some we’ve come to discover on our own. Some are outside our current awareness. Some are "something that we're working on." Some are ridiculed by others. Some are celebrated. Some are necessary. Some are not. Nonetheless, we’ve all got ‘em. And assuming we're not scared shitless by the experience, bumping into our boundaries can be useful, rewarding. It may even be that our spiritual journey depends upon it.
 
   So I’m taking action and answering a Call by opening up this channel of writing. I’ve been resistant until now. Heck, my darling wife has been pestering me to do this for about a hundred years. Where will it lead? To Boundary Country, I suspect.
 
   Call me Old Man Kelsey. It is here that I write.
 
- O.M. Kelsey