~ MY OFTEN PLAIN-SPOKEN Grampa George was the founder & card-carrying member in good standing of the Proud and Noble Order of The I.O. of the I.O.B.™
The wut?
Why, The International Order of Ignorant Old Bastards™, of course. He had a card in his wallet and everything– I wish I’d found it after he died, only a few days after his wife, my Grandma Thelma. He died looking after her at home for several years, in her final illnesses.
They were my second parents, and I miss them very much. I wish very much that life had given him another 20 years– he could have then met my wife, my twin boys, and shared in the adult lives of people who would love him very much– and he had so much to teach, about fishing and hunting and business and Land Rovers and ATVs, and plowing for family and neighbours, and giving quietly to people in need, and being on friendly terms with anyone who would be befriended….
George & Thelma In London, More Than Partly Responsible For Teh Binks
By the I.O. of the I.O.B.™, he was not advocating mere complaining, aged surliness, cantankerousness, or curmudgeonly crankiness– rather, he was saying– in his own way, that He Had No More F***s To Give about what people (including my Grandmother) thought of his particular and cheerfully outspoken ways and views, bad jokes, and laughing and cheerful ways. After a certain age, you have a kind of natural right to speak up & speak out.
Now that Binks is 1/2 way to 100, I find myself in much the same way of braining, with a Christian twist. Provocation? Only in the cause of beauty, truth, and goodness. Speaking the truth? In love. Wild amusement at the follies of mankind? Starting with me, first. Saying what you think, and meaning what you say? Yes, and a gentle answer turneth away wrath.
Little Binks, my brother “Bubba”, and Grampa George.
Not only that, but there is a dearth of spines and voices speaking back to batsh*t crazy, stupid, and evil. Is a gutless life worth living? Is silence in the face of injustice or evil an admirable quality? Should only the voices proud of their intolerance and cluelessness have the floor, or the public square?
I miss you, dear Grandparents, and may you rest safe in the Everlasting Arms. Thus, I hereby do re-activate, establish, and declare the I.O. of the I.O.B.™ to be operational, Binks Grandson Of George, Son Of Dugald, Grand Master and inheritor of all the rights, duties, and appurtenances thereunto appertaining, type thing.
