So continue encouraging each other and building each other up, just like you are doing already.

1 Thessalonians 5:11

I do not, as a matter of practice, include any advertising in my blog. This space generates enough traffic that DerekMaul.blog could be a revenue stream, but I actually do the opposite: I pay WordPress (my hosting site) a good amount of money to keep these pages free from the advertising that supports them.

I guess, by way of compromise, I could instal a “payment processor” button that allows regular readers to contribute to something like, “Click here to help keep inspiration and photography ad free.” It’s actually not a bad idea – I will have to think about it.

All this is kind of an introduction to make sure you understand that today’s post is not advertising for my friends’ business, but me being enthusiastic about something cool and sharing it with you.

Sponsoring a good cause:

Once in a while I get to play in charity golf tournaments. Recent causes have included Mission, Military charities, and – yesterday’s – BSA (Boy Scouts of America).

This is where our friends come in. John – who was a Boy Scout executive for decades before his retirement – and Gayle have started a small business around the art (and it really is art) of making pens and crochet hooks. You can see some of my collection in this photo.

They turn the wood (or acrylic or something else interesting) on a lathe; hence the name of their enterprise, Lathe Life Creations.

Lathe Life Creations helped raise money at the BSA Golf Tournament by sponsoring the foursome I played in. Good for the Boy Scouts; good for those of us who played; good – hopefully – for our friends’ business.

It was a great way to say goodbye to such an active and interesting month (see October 2022 in 31 photos), and also a fun way to spend time with some good people.

Tournaments like this always attract a few highly competitive teams… but we were not one of them! We did our best, of course, and it is always fun to score well, but it took everything we had to put together a round matching even par.

But what a beautiful fall day it turned out to be. I saw a lot of great people from Wake Forest Presbyterian Church; I played with a highly entertaining foursome; the autumn foliage was on full display; we all hit a handful of great shots.

The Good Life:

Events such as this remind me that at its heart, life here in the United States is about good people using the resources they have been blessed with to do good things for others in the community… and have a lot of fun while doing it.

When we remember to celebrate what brings us together rather than what divides us; when we grant others the grace of trusting them and accepting them even when we have ideological differences; when we put having a good time – simply because we are a community – as a greater priority than anything else.

When we are being exactly what this amazing country purports to offer this broken world.

Peace, and more peace – DEREK