I had planned on sticking my head in the office door, introduce myself, offer up a business card, and get back to the truck. After all, I had done the same about a dozen times that morning in Cullman Alabama, and it seemed to be working quite well from a time management standpoint. A more personal follow-up call the following week was my game-plan to get my private investigator's foot into this new market of attorneys. But, this office turned out to be quite a different story. Although I was impressed with the very expensive looking doors at the entrance I hadn't a clue as to who he was, other than according to the sign, he was an attorney. My ignorance was soon erased.
Directly inside the door was a seemingly friendly lady who smiled as she accepted my card, and apology for interrupting her day - then back out the door I headed. That was until an elderly gentleman looking about 80ish, (standing all of about 5' 10” or so, and 190 pounds) stuck his nearly bald head into the room and questioned his secretary as to what I was doing in his office. I waited not, as I introduced myself to who I figured must have been the big cheese around the place. As Tom sized me and my modest business card up and down I commented on something or another hanging from his wall, and as they say, we were off to the races after that.
More than an hour passed and he had barely let a second or two go by without words. His downtown office was huge. Room after room all connected by a long narrow hallway with his personal office being up front with a view of the sidewalk and main street traffic. Each and every wall in the place was covered with memorabilia, photos of various kind, and bookshelves loaded with a little bit of everything.
They are photos of Tom with presidents, millionaire business men, dignitaries of all sorts, and sports figures the world over. As he put it, this is indeed a museum of sorts. We made our way from room to room and finally the tour concluded in his personal office. There he showed me various items from a lifetime of success and fortune. He showed me a video where one of the national television companies is working on a news piece about his amazing ventures. He has apparently lived a life so chocked full of experiences that three men could have shared them and been seen as above the norm.
The Cullman Comet as Tom was called, way back in his high school football days. Apparently, no one could catch him, much less tackle him. He was the hottest thing since sliced bread to come out of that neck of the woods he modestly admitted with a grin the size of Texas. He grew up a scrapper in the neighborhood, and there weren't nary a boy that could lick him. He was offered many opportunities to play ball in college, but his heart was set on playing for the Rolling Tide of Alabama. Yet, his only offer to play for his state's school came from an assistant coach that had traveled to Cullman to see him play one Friday night. He invited the kid to come to spring practice for the University of Alabama after his senior year in high school, with the guarantee if he didn't make the squad they would pay for his bus ticket back to Cullman. That was good enough for him to turn down all the other offers.
So he hitch-hiked the hundred miles or so, and showed up for practice just knowing he would make the team. Yet, as he put it; there's a big difference in getting knocked around by the boys in high school versus those big ol' college boys. Long story short, after about four days of hard drills he didn't make the team, so the next day he sucked up what was left of his pride and headed over to the head coach for his bus ticket home. The coach told him, that he had never even seen him on the practice field and he sure in hell wasn't going to pay for a bus ride to Cullman.
Devastated, the kid hitch-hiked all the way back up to Cullman hurt, mad, embarrassed, and determined. It wasn't long afterward though he accepted a scholarship to play football and wrestle at the University of Chattanooga, so off he headed. He told me he remembered thinking that the best thing about playing at U.C. was that they played the University of Alabama every year and he surely had something to prove to the folks in his home state. Now, never mind you that the University of Chattanooga had virtually no chance whatsoever of beating the power house team from Tuscaloosa, but he was determined that their coach would know he was on the field each and every-time they played.
Four years of college quickly came to a close for him with many, many accolades. He had become a multi-year All-American in wrestling and was unquestionably the most valuable player on the football team while there. The real reward for all his hard work and determination came after a hard fought ballgame with Alabama his senior year, as they held the Tide to only six points. When the teams met at center field after the game the Alabama head coach headed straight toward the kid and handed him, (an opposing player) the game ball for his outstanding play - the first and only time this has happened. The ball is sitting on a bookshelf in his office today, as I had the pleasure of holding it as he shared that story. The next year he joined the coaching staff at the University of Alabama for newly hired head coach Paul Bear Bryant. This I also believe, since I saw the team photograph, and sure enough there he was ginning like a possum.
After Tom's stint as the strength and conditioning coach at U. of A. he took to the road again as he became a professional wrestler and boxer. He showed me picture, after picture, magazine article, after article of the many headliner fights he had in both sports. Even at 5' 10” he was still considered a giant in the sport of professional wrestling for several decades, although I must admit he did look pretty small in the photograph standing next to Andre the Giant. He went on to tell me stories where he fought battles in some of the biggest areas in the country. Madison Square Garden in New York and the newly built Astrodome in Houston just to mention a couple.
Leaving that part of his life behind he took to the job of getting his law degree and afterward the townsfolk of Cullman convinced him to throw his hat in the ring of politics. It wasn't long before the ol' Comet became a highly respected member of the State of Alabama's legislative body, and was elected by his peers to hold the position of Speaker of the House. Yes, I saw the pictures, articles, awards, and certificates verifying all this this too, and much more. What an amazing story! I was absolutely mesmerized by this brisk walk through the highlights of his life that I completely lost track of time. I would've stayed two more hours, but just as it was getting good I remembered Dale was sitting in the truck waiting for me to take her to lunch. She wasn't nearly as impressed with his story as I was, but she finally forgave me for forgetting about her, and we moved on to eat a bite.
Today, Tom, his wife and all of their children are attorneys in Alabama, and I suspect a few of his grand-kids will follow in the same profession as well. Football player, wrestler, coach, politician, celebrity, legislator, attorney, husband, father, grandfather – boy what a life he's lived. He indeed appears to be a bright and shining comet moving slowly across the horizon of mankind.
I don't know if I'll still be around in 2061 when Haley's Comet returns for it's 75 year rendezvous with Earth, but I suspect even if I am my eyesight will be so bad that I'll miss the celestial spectacle. What makes comets so memorable for many is the length of time it takes them to pass through our solar system. It's not one of those things you have to be outside at a certain time and place to catch a glimpse of or you'll miss it. Reoccurring comet's such as Sir Edmond Halley's most notable one takes months to cross our pathway, so even the most causal viewer can take in it's splendor once or twice before it disappears again. Now, shooting stars are a whole other creature all together. They are only for the lucky ones that happen to be outside, viewing the night's sky when just by chance they get the opportunity to catch the sight of a one streaking across the darkness. In my life I've only seen a few, but apparently I've missed many, many more. Actually they're not stars at all, they're meteoric dust and debris burning away as it passes through earth's atmosphere. Most of this debris comes from the trail of a comet as it orbits close by sun. So in other words,' a so-called shooting star is merely a speck of quickly dying, flaming bit of dust in comparison to the magnitude of a orbiting comet which can last for thousands of centuries.
I think our lives can be seen in a metaphorical comparison in so many ways to comets and shooting stars. If I were to ask your family, friends, co-workers if your life could be described as a comet or a shooting star, what would their reply be? For most of us, I guess we would more than likely fall somewhere in between. As someone rightfully commented; life is brief, like that of a shooting star across the night's sky. As I get older I understand this more and more. Life is truly but a breath. So if by becoming a comet I get to last a little longer, I'm all for it.
The way we live our lives reflects in the memory to those we leave behind like the tails of a shooting star or comet. If we live out a life that truly mimics the one God designed for us to live, then I suspect our tails will be seen for years, decades, and centuries long after we're gone. The Bible is full of comets - Abraham, Moses, David, John, Paul just to name a few and their stories take up books, not chapters or mere versus to tell. Ever noticed how the lives of all the comets in the Bible are laid out before us in full detail. Their impact, their message, their good and bad habits, their wrongs and their rights, and we've learned through their stories what sets them apart from the shooting stars of their era was their willingness to obey God's calling for their life.
And, I might add, none more so than Jesus himself. The brightest and shiniest of all comets - the bright and shining star. The tail from His comet is still as visible across today's sky as it was two thousand years ago, yet He was a man that lived in a very tiny region of the world. The tail of His comet is called the Good News, and here's the Gospel in a nutshell. He wants us to accept Him as our Lord and Savior, then live out a life as only a comet can for Him. It's as simple as that.
Speaking of this, last year while in the city where the great Motown star, Wilson Pickett (one of my all time favorite musical shooting stars) was born I ran across a historical marker just outside a cemetery that not only caught my attention, but my heart as well. It read:
Almost two years after this man's passing the town's people still thought enough of him to have the memory of his service to his fellow man memorialized at a city council meeting. Now, that's a comet folks! That's having an impact on those around you! Just like Jesus, you don't have to fly half-way around the world to have a global impact on this world.
When I saw this sign I thought of how I'm living my life and I asked myself what if my hometown put up a sign saying how I treated others – what would it say. Will the city of Cullman do that for their favorite son, The Comet, I don't know but I think maybe they should. I do know this, through all I've learned, there is a distinct difference in comets and shooting stars. One lives out their days focused intently on trying to squeeze every ounce of life from the vines. The other lives out their days trying to squeeze every ounce of their own life out to offer up to others. One much more resembles Jesus than the other.
One's a comet, to be remembered and gazed upon for a long, long time, yet not for what they do, but for how closely they have imitated Christ. The other is a bright and shining star, or (speck of debris as NASA declares) crossing mankind's skyline, unfortunately soon to be forgotten. In my opinion, both are spectacular to witness, but only one will have a lasting impact on the lives around us. You see, (and I'm simply guessing here) I suspect comets don't waste a lot of time worrying about how they'll be remembered, they just go about their business doing what comets do – simply reflecting the (sun) Son toward all those that gaze upon it.
The photograph at the top of this article is an historical marker as well, dated September 28th 164 BCE in Babylon where the story of Haley's comet was written in cuneiform on a clay tablet. Thus, giving further proof that the tale, as well as the tail of a comet takes a very long time to fade away. Be it a comet named Haley, Jesus, Carl Stewart, Tom, or just possibly you or me......... doug
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