charlesbreland.com

it’s MLK day. i have nothing monumental to say, but i do remember the first time i ever saw video of him speaking. i was about 6 and my father was fixing a movie projecter for my mom’s high school. the reel that was in there was of the “i have a dream” speech. i remember thinking i had never heard or seen anything like that before in my life. i don’t remember even having any understanding whatsoever of what he was talking about. i just remember feeling the emotion with which he spoke. i wasn’t necessarily a paragon of morality at the time (though in my defense, how many six year olds are), so i distinctly remember that i wanted to not return the reel.

anyway, if anyone has never listened to a couple of his most famous speeches, it’s worth a listen. both are amazing. “I Have a Dream” is of course his most famous. certainly most chilling, however, is “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” particularly when you realize that he delivered this speech on the night before he was killed. when i had my wreck, the last word i said before impact was a rather unseemly curse word. i remember thinking afterwards, i should probably see to it that if anything serious ever happens to me again, i have something better to say. i can’t listen to that speech without feeling that he was somehow prescient of his impending demise. what an amazing benediction of his own life. seriously, i dare you to listen to that, with the full knowledge that 24 hours later he would be dead and not get the chills. at a minimum the last 8 minutes or so are worth hearing, starting with his story of “the good samaritan”.

well, it was a bit of a rough Christmas as my family passed a virus back and forth around the household. actual quote from my dad, “if that’s what a virus feels like, then i’ve never had a virus before in my life.” i had to step in and read the Christmas story due to his inability to perform on Christmas eve.
everybody did feel ok Christmas morn, though, and i did get a flexible keyboard and a cow that sings “tis the season” entirely in moos. later ronnie, katrina and madison showed up and we got to have our annual football punting competition in the backyard. i was able to take ronnie and jeremy out, one of my proudest sports moments.
anyway, the highlight was that ronnie received a remote control airplane. This is the story of that plane. The video tracks the planes from its nascent begginings where we learn that two heads are better than one and that i’d rather video tape them putting the plane together than help them put it together(“where’s the fuselage?”), through flight training (determining the launch angle), on to its first timid steps at flight, to its untimely demise (“land it, land it!!”).
ronnie was pretty bummed afterwards so we bought him some fireworks to cheer him up. those we proceeded to shoot off in the backyard (again this is Christmas night) for an hour or so (and no todd, there was no breaking of sticks). i am just bummed that i somehow didn’t capture video of our firework tank races. oh well, next time. a highlight of the video is jeremy setting the backyard on fire and having to take off to put it out. good times. and that’s Christmas in satsuma, Christmas in dixie.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year. actually….to be completely honest, christmas has more or less snuck up on me this year. as many of you know, i’ve been working early and late and weekends lately and have been struggling to stay afloat. i haven’t even had a chance to watch “christmas story” or “christmas vacation” yet, but i hope to rectify that in the next few days. it really has been a wonderful year though; empirically it’s been one of my most difficult, but for some reason it hasn’t felt that bad. i’ve learned a tremendous amount and had a ton of amazing times, and i am so filled with hope for next year. i’m starting to get back into helping out a little with girls volleyball, my rehab on my shoulder and neck is almost done (from my wreck) and i’m running and playing a lot of sports, and i’m looking forward to us really ramping up our involvement in Nicaragua this year. i actually included a few pictures i took in Nicaragua in the video. i’m hoping to make it back down there before march and we’re just finalizing plans to commission a study there.

aaaaaaand it goes without saying that i am SOOOOO looking forward to finishing up my project for the state of oklahoma and moving on.

i hope this post finds you all well and that you have every happiness this christmas. i’m about to get of town and spend some QT with the fam.

Click this link for my ’06 video Christmas Card.