Never Alone

Hope DW doesn’t find me starting this post by reprinting his column from a couple of days ago

You know folks, I have had my ups and downs in life, my racing, my marriage, my businesses – pretty much in everything I have ever done. One of the things I learned over the years is that I had to surround myself with people that tell me “I can” and not people who tell me “I can’t.”

I learned pretty quickly that I didn’t want to be around people who constantly give you reasons why you can’t do something. I like being around people that say, “Well, it might be difficult, but let’s see if we can figure out a way to get it done.” So I learned in my career that I performed at a higher level by being around people that encouraged me and gave me hope. You’ve heard it before, but it’s still true – without hope, we have nothing.

Sure, there were times in my career when I just about ran out of hope. Those are the times when my wife Stevie, who has been my biggest fan, encourager and cheerleader for 39 years, would step in and say, “DW, you can do this. We just need a plan.”

So in some of our darkest hours, we would get out and read through our Bible and find scriptures that would apply to the obstacle we were facing at the time. That’s actually how she began putting scriptures in my racecar every Sunday. They were scriptures of encouragement. Like I have mentioned to you before, starting back in 1994 in Daytona after Neil Bonnett was killed, Dale Earnhardt wanted scriptures to put in his car every Sunday from Stevie, too.

Lake Speed, myself, Bobby Hillin and some of the other early members of Motor Racing Outreach always had a signal. We would hold our hand in a shape of a cup and hold it up. If you hold your cup up, then the Lord could fill it with his blessings. Naturally, if you held your cup sideways or upside down, then the Lord couldn’t bless you.

There are scriptures that always seemed to pull it together for me in difficult times. One of the scriptures is in Ecclesiastes. It talks about when times are looking really bad. It’s easy to watch the news every night and hear about the wars, foreclosures, layoffs, etc. It’s pretty grim out there right now. The scripture says, “Two people can accomplish more than twice as much as one. They get a better return for their labor. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But people who are alone, when they fall, they are in real trouble.”

So I learned that in my most difficult times I needed a good support system. I needed my wife, family and friends around me. I needed Christian friends that I could rely on. They were normally older men that I could call for advice or a kind word of encouragement like my father-in-law, my dad, Bill France and yes, even Dale Sr. at times. There would be times when we both would be struggling so we would have these conversations and encourage each other.

Our oldest daughter was born in 1987. I wanted to set a good example for her and I never wanted her to see her father drink. So I gave up beer, wine and alcohol of any kind. You know what? I quickly learned I could live without all of it. Looking back, some of the worst decisions I ever made were when alcohol was involved. There’s another scripture in the Bible in Proverbs that talks about the perils of drinking. I read Proverbs every day. There are 31 Proverbs so I can read one every day of the month. I read them over and over again. I never get tired of reading them, and they always seem to be applicable to something that may be going on in my life at the time.

So words of encouragement, hope, faith, love, family – when things are going bad, like the name of this story – always choose right. That’s the main thing. Yes, if you look around you see things look pretty bleak. But if you have a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, then you can endure and get through anything. Trust me, it’s made a difference in my life and many of my friends’ lives.

If you read about Job in the Bible, you’ll read that he lost everything he had, but he never lost his faith. The Lord rewards those that are steadfast and true. I know its tough, especially with the holidays here, but my message to you is don’t give up. Hang around with good people. Hang around with good people that love you. Take advice from people who have experience and know what they are talking about.

One of my good buddies who is a football coach once told me, “DW, if I am going to take advice, its going to be from someone that has accomplished something.” So remember that. Be encouraged with the fact that even though we go through tough times, it just makes us stronger. Tough times really develop our character and we find out who we really are and what we stand for.

My Christmas wish for my racing community is that despite how bleak it looks right now, that in a very short period of time the economy will turn around and in fact, and this period of hardship will make us all stronger. It will make us better. It will cause us to rely on each other more and on the Lord and when you do that, he will never let you down. Take it from me, I know that from my own experience. It’s easy to find people who tell you that you can’t do something, but always find the people who encourage you and tell you that you can.

You are never alone when you have family and friends supporting and encouraging you and when you have your faith. God Bless and Merry Christmas!

I’ve really struggled with what to do about this blog for many months.  I left SBN because I felt the need to get back to being me, tangents and all, like I was before I left here to do Restrictor Plate This.  Yet since making that decision I’ve hardly been here at all.

It reminds me of the surgery I had in 2006.  I had come down with a vicious case of carpal tunnel, yet although I’m right-handed it was affecting my left hand.  Why?  I was born with ulnar nerve entrapment in my left arm, specifically the elbow, and my decades of playing guitar and attempting to compensate for the lack of strength in my left hand by squeezing tighter had taken its toll.  For a few years before the surgery I had pretty much stopped playing for different reasons, and when I tried to pick up the guitar in 2005 I found that without the constant playing of decades at least partially alleviating the nerve problems what little strength I possessed had deteriorated to the point where I no longer had sufficient strength to press a single string down to the fret.  Actually, that was the least of my concerns.  My hand was constantly both numb and in pain — an oxymoron, I know, but that was the case — so I finally asked my doctor about it.  I still remember the shocked expression on the face of the specialist he sent me to, a veteran of not a few decades in the field, who after barely a couple of preliminary tests looked at me and said, “This is one of the worst cases of carpal tunnel I’ve ever seen.”  She finished the tests, wrote up the results and sent me off to a neurological surgeon who discussed the options.  Carpal tunnel surgery to be sure.  My elbow?  Well, that was up to me.  I could live with it if I wanted to.  The carpal tunnel surgery would relieve the pain and numbness.  All the elbow surgery would do should I opt for it would probably increase the hand strength.  Not necessary for normal activities.  My call.

“I want to play guitar again.”

So, after the surgery and the resulting lengthy scar on my arm, you’d figure I’ve have a guitar in my hands pretty much 24/7 the moment the stitches came out, right?  Wrong.  I’ve seldom played a note since then.  Too busy writing was the biggest reason.  Not wanting to deal with the memories of how much I wanted to be a full-time musician and how it never came to be also played a part.  So even though I could play again, I didn’t.  Thought about it, yes.  But actually sit down, tune up and make music?  Once in a blue moon.

Until last week, when something snapped and the light snapped on about how much I loved doing this so why was I denying myself.  I dusted off my guitar — literally — and started the process of getting back to where I could play suitably well enough to make myself happy.  I’m never going to give Phil Keaggy anything to worry about, but if I continue to work on it I can at least resume my once held status of being acceptable.

Which leads back to this blog.

I used to have one fantastically terrific time writing this blog, relishing the time spent spinning opinions and commentary and striving toward entertaining folk.  Even more than this, I loved talking with the people I met along the way.  That gradually went away when I was with SBN.  It wasn’t its fault by any means; it was me gradually admitting the truth to myself that I’m not a sports blogger in the generally accepted sense of the word.  Sure, I wrote about NASCAR.  However, I wasn’t interested in reiterating facts and figures, telling everyone what they already knew.  As I said, I wanted to entertain people.  I wanted to find people of like mind and heart and soul.  This wasn’t happening with RPT.  So I quit.

And I haven’t done a blasted thing here since reviving the site.

Hopefully, prayerfully, just as I’ve picked up the guitar again I’ll pick up this blog again.  Although a massive cloud of uncertainty hangs over NASCAR at the moment courtesy of the Not So Much Anymore Big Three’s tenuous perch on the edge of oblivion, the sport itself should survive.  There will be a season starting next February in Daytona.  I certainly hope I’m here writing about it.

Thank you to everyone for their patience and encouragement as I continue to wallow in angst.  May I get it together ASAP.  And again, thank you.  It’s good to know I’m not alone.