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Chickasaw storyteller and actress Mary Frances “Te Ata” Fisher was the first person to be declared an “Oklahoma Treasure” by the state.
My Great Great Grandmother Irene, a full blood Chickasaw Indian, told me this in 1973 as she prepared to depart this earth. I think of it often and I hope you appreciate the beauty of this prayer.
“Hold on to what is good, even if it’s a handful of earth.
Hold on to what you believe, even if it’s a tree that stands by itself.
Hold on to what you must do, even if it’s a long way from here.
Hold on to your life, even if it’s easier to let go.
Hold on to my hand, even if someday I’ll be gone away from you.”
~A Pueblo Indian Prayer
I recently had to terminate my Sprint mobile phone service after 14 years. My Sprint account was a wonderful asset for the first ten years and then things rapidly started changing. My service was really bad, especially the 4G broadband modem I subscribed to for $59.00 per moth for unlimited data. The main issue was poor signal strength and intermittent outages.
Then it was time for me to get a new phone. I decided I would upgrade my Samsung Rant to a full on smartphone and that is when the trouble really escalated.
Sprint rewards customers with credit towards a new phone every 1 or 2 years. 2 years and you get most phones for free, or at least it appears that way. I had waited past the 2 years because I like the Rant and really did not want to go through the changing phone process. SO Sprint started sending me offers and reminders that I was eligible for an upgrade. I noticed the Google Nexus S, I had read about it and it was available.
The list price for the Nexus S was $531.00 but with my discounts the final price was $31.00 pretty sweet and I was stoked. Well that was the point were things went really bad.
They switched my unlimited data on my broadband card to a limit of 5GB per month. I am a Internet power user, I use a lot of data and that is why I added the data card to my Sprint account in the first place. I did not get a warning of this change, not by email and Sprint never stops emailing, but no email, no letter, nothing. So it came as a complete shock when I logged in and saw I had a $1331.00 Sprint bill!
Ronnie Lane
In a conversation with my friend Big Al. who is a real life angel I was reminded of my friendship with the great musician Ronnie Lane who sadly left us in the Summer of ’97.
I have had many brushes with fame in my life but meeting Ronnie had a profound affect on me and has to this day.
How I came to know Ronnie is a life lesson; we never know who we might encounter as we live our lives but sometimes people enter our lives to teach or show us something, I think that is what Ronnie did for me.
It was right after I had moved to Houston in the mid 1980′s. I rented an apartment on San Felipe and I had landed a job at a pizza parlor across the street. One day a nicely dressed young guy knocked on my door and I answered he introduced himself as Ronnie Lanes assistant and explained that Ronnie had seen me around the complex and wanted to know if I would like to have some tea with him.
I said sure and he took me to meet Ronnie Lane.
Ronnie Lane Live
I would like to fill in some details here. Ronnie Lane was the founder of an English band called The Faces. You might know their singer Rod Stewart who would claim his own fame as a solo act. Guitarist Ronnie Wood was also a member of the Faces he would later join a group called the Rolling Stones.
I am slightly disabled well I feel it is slight others may not. I was born with a birth defect called Spina Bifida. I have had numerous operations on my back, legs, and feet. I wore corrective shoes & braces on both legs until I was 14. At the time I met Ronnie I was doing fairly well health wise and walking with a cane.
I met Ronnie in his apartment which was upstairs and catty corner from my apartment. His apartment was nicely arranged yet modest in furnishings. His guitar and bass collection were arranged in a ring around the living area, placed on stands, facing us as we sat upon two nice chairs. Beautiful photographs surrounded us many of them were band and performance pictures some from his numerous studio sessions.
This was the beginning of our relationship which would only last for that short period, that Summer when he had traveled here from England to get treatment for Multiple sclerosis at the Texas Medical Center the best in the world.
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