Soap Box

 I am not a very organized person, I'm not the kind to take notes in a meeting or read the fine print or have the patience to go through instructions thoroughly.

I'm apt to leave my shirttail out when I'm getting ready to go to work or forget some essential item when I'm leaving the house or get schedules goofed up and have been known to fly all the way to Atlanta for an event a day before it happens.

The folks who work in our organization have, over the years, become accustomed to my organizational shortcomings and allow for them.

For instance, Paula always calls me about 15 minutes before my weekly slate of media interviews begin, just to make sure I haven't forgotten and Bebe always makes two copies of any speech I'm making, one for me and one for somebody who is accompanying me, just in case I leave my copy somewhere along the way.

The folks at the office are used to getting two or three emails from me concerning the same subject because I can't remember if I've sent it or not.

And no, I don't have dementia and my advanced age has not adversely caught up with my mental processes, because I've always been that way.

I think it's a matter or priorities.

I have close to a phobia about being late. Barring traffic accidents along my route, mechanical problems or inclement weather, I am never late and usually get there so early, it may take a few turns around the block to arrive at the proper time.

I also cannot abide the tardiness of others; to me being late is tantamount to telling somebody that you don't consider their time to be as valuable as yours, so you think it's all right to disrespect them by being late.

I remember the lyrics to the current set of music the band performs, still remember the preamble to the Declaration of Independence with all it's stilted Jeffersonian verbiage and flourishes that I learned in the sixth grade.

I actually think that the major causes for my disorganization is, as I said, priorities and preoccupation. I have always got several things on the front burner at the same time, two or three songs I'm writing, a piece of prose I'm working on, a trip, a musical arrangement, a letter I need to write or any of the myriad of thoughts and actions I deem necessary to stay at the top of my game.

I keep a guitar and a fiddle within easy reach of my favorite chair at home and on the bus and try to spend some time most days running scales to keep my fingers limbered up.

I try to spend an hour to an hour and a half exercising five or six days a week, read my Bible every day and always tweet my daily morning scripture, prayer and semi words of wisdom.

I have tried to develop a habit of, before I get our of bed in the morning, thinking about what I have to do on any given day, interviews, doctors appointments, board meetings, etc� and it helps me to remember to get the things I'm obligated to do, done.

That is, if I don't get sidetracked by something else and forget it.

What do you think?

Pray for our troops, our police and the peace of Jerusalem.

God Bless America

� Charlie Daniels

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