Me and Mo
A Texas Tale
by
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Now, we kids did learn what it meant to keep the Sabbath holy. Boy did we ever! Keeping the Lord’s Day holy meant, basically, that you couldn’t do one thing that amounted to pure-D old fun. Not on the Sabbath you couldn’t. It was church all morning and more church all evening. In between dad allowed that a good nap was likely ok because that was rest. And you either rested or worshiped all the live-long day. I hated to see Sunday’s a’comin round. Later, when I went off to seminary, the first thing I learned was that Sunday wasn’t even the Sabbath. That was Saturday. Don’t know if dad ever realized that all that keeping the Sabbath was done on the wrong day. And I wondered if God even counted it if you did it on the wrong day. I’d a’thought that was a bigger sin, but by then I’d hollered “calf rope!” That’s a Texan’s way of lying by pretending his giving up. Invented by Texans for Texans. No Texan I ever heard of would even think about ever giving up anything. Except his chair to a lady. We were all taught that in the Lone Star State. Finding out whether she was a lady or wasn’t was the hard part of that.
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About the Book
The author’s upbringing in the Baptist tradition and the inculcation of that tradition in him by a Baptist preacher father, resulted in major conflicts in his life, particularly the tradition’s shortcomings off which Claybrook bounces his ideas. The novel touches bases with theologians from the likes of Mark Twain to Claybrook’s teacher, Jürgen Moltmann, “the world’s foremost Protestant theologian” (Church Times), to philosophers as disparate as Blaise Pascal (also a mathematician), Socrates, and Shakespeare. Poetry has been used to reinforce his philosophy and heart-felt emotions. All the poetry contained herein is the author’s.
About the Author
I am a native Texan and hold three masters’ degrees, two in theology and a law degree. I also hold a Ph.D. in Systematic Theology and have pastored six churches in three states, California, Indiana and Texas. I’ve been a school teacher, coach and an investigative reporter for the Fort Bragg Advocate-News and The Mendocino Beacon, both in California. I have four adult children and four adult grandchildren; and, the last 22 years have lived on the beautiful Mendocino Coast in Northern California. Although my novel is fiction, it is also autobiographical and is reflective of my life’s story from birth until the present time. The only place it is brutally honest is when I discuss my own shortcomings. All others in my tale have been dealt with generously and lovingly. My tale will evoke the full range of emotions; however, its primary shtick is centered around humor (which abounds in Texas!). But, tears will come as will a bit of anger, reflection, self-examination and awareness. In the end, Me and Mo: A Texas Tale is all about redemption and the will to move on.