Words of encouragement from Bob Greene

The first time I encountered Bob Greene's writings was during the late 1980's. He wrote, and continues to write, funny and introspective columns for the Chicago Tribune about slices of everyday life. The earliest piece I recall was a funny piece he wrote about the rising prices of movie tickets and parking in 1989 at the time of the first "Batman" film's release. He said, and hopefully I'll get his words right, "I don't mind paying $10 a ticket to go see 'Batman'. It's the extra $2 for parking that bothers me."

He also authored a number of great books, among them "Be True to Your School: A Diary of 1964" (a funny and heartfelt poignant look at his life as a teenager during the 60's) and his fictional piece "All Summer Long" (about three 40-something men who take one last trip across America to recapture some of their carefree glory days of their long-gone youths). Many of the books he wrote were compilations of his newspaper columns, among them "He Was a Midwestern Boy on His Own", taken from a lyric in the Bob Seger song "Hollywood Nights".

I picked up "Midwestern Boy" just a couple of days ago for the first time in years and found myself enjoying the many colums that compile this book. Among the columns reprinted in the book is "A Father's Words", a piece about a father who wrote Greene to ask for his help in finding his 33-year-old son a job. Greene described how the father did everything he could to help him, how the son was intelligent and talented enough to land any job he would apply for, but the responses were always the same: either "No" or "We'll keep your resume on file." And the son sank into deeper and deeper depression over not being able to land a job. When Greene questioned the father why he was going to this extent, the father's response was very honest:

"Because he's the only son I've got."

At the end of the column Greene wrote an extremely touching final paragraph, which says as follows:

"Things might not be going so well, and you might believe that your life and your luck will never turn around. There are a lot of jobs in this world, though, and a lot of people who take their jobs for granted. You have something that some people don't have, and that no one should ever take for granted - you have a father who truly loves you. On your darkest nights, never forget that. It's something that no one can ever deny you, and no one can ever take away."

When I read that column, I see myself in that exact same position, because I'm there right now. The only thing that would need to be changed is the father to a mother.

I don't know why I'm not getting any calls, even though I'm plugging away left and right in applying for job after job, talking with one job agency after another. And I've just left an environment where I faced the most impossible form of hell I could ever face in one false accusation after another from my mother-in-law. And I don't know what has hurt worse, her accusations that drove me to the breaking point, or the fact that April didn't stand up to her in my defense even after I tried valiantly to defend myself.

All I know is that coming back to Mississippi, I have felt broken inside physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. And I'm doing my best to pick up the pieces of my broken life by searching for a job so I can start over again. But I know this:

I've got a roof over my head, clothes on my back, and a mother who cares about her only son. Nobody can take that away from me, not even that damned Lois Howell with her false accusations.

And I will be going back to Alabama to bring my daughter Lily to live with me... mark my word.