{"id":1953,"date":"2007-09-20T14:05:57","date_gmt":"2007-09-20T21:05:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=1953"},"modified":"2007-09-20T14:09:46","modified_gmt":"2007-09-20T21:09:46","slug":"ave-atque-vale-bidding-farewell-to-ben","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1953\/ave-atque-vale-bidding-farewell-to-ben\/","title":{"rendered":"Ave atque vale: Bidding farewell to Ben"},"content":{"rendered":"

My father-in-law, Ben Collins, passed away Monday afternoon. I’ve been dealing with our work since then while Cathy worked on the preparations for the funeral. Starting this afternoon we’re both tied up for a bit.<\/p>\n

I hadn’t intended to write about this, but I also hadn’t intended to cry for the man. He was a warhorse, a giant among men, a champion of every virtue I admire on this earth. I’m very proud to have known him. Even so, I thought I would be practical enough to be phlegmatic about his death. It turns out I was wrong.<\/p>\n

This is for Cathy, because she loves it:<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

And this is for Ben, may he rest in peace:<\/p>\n

A Cowboy’s Prayer<\/p>\n

by Badger Clark<\/p>\n

Oh Lord, I’ve never lived where churches grow.
\n        I loved creation better as it stood
\nThat day You finished it so long ago
\n        And looked upon Your work and called it good.
\nI know that others find You in the light
\n        That’s sifted down through tinted window panes,
\nAnd yet I seem to feel You near tonight
\n        In this dim, quiet starlight on the plains.<\/p>\n

I thank You, Lord, that I am placed so well,
\n        That You have made my freedom so complete;
\nThat I’m no slave of whistle, clock or bell,
\n        Nor weak-eyed prisoner of wall and street,
\nJust let me live my life as I’ve begun
\n        And give me work that’s open to the sky;
\nMake me a pardner of the wind and sun,
\n        And I won’t ask a life that’s soft or high.<\/p>\n

Let me be easy on the man that’s down;
\n        Let me be square and generous with all.
\nI’m careless sometimes, Lord, when I’m in town,
\n        But never let ’em say I’m mean or small!
\nMake me as big and open as the plains,
\n        As honest as the hawse between my knees,
\nClean as the wind that blows behind the rains,
\n        Free as the hawk that circles down the breeze!<\/p>\n

Forgive me, Lord, if sometimes I forget.
\n        You know about the reasons that are hid.
\nYou understand the things that gall and fret;
\n        You know me better than my mother did.
\nJust keep an eye on all that’s done and said
\n        And right me, sometimes, when I turn aside,
\nAnd guide me down the long, dim trail ahead
\n        That stretches upward Read more<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My father-in-law, Ben Collins, passed away Monday afternoon. I’ve been dealing with our work since then while Cathy worked on the preparations for the funeral. Starting this afternoon we’re both tied up for a bit. I hadn’t intended to write about this, but I also hadn’t intended to cry for the man. He was a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1953","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-general","8":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1148,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1148\/buyer-representation-fells-another-one\/","url_meta":{"origin":1953,"position":0},"title":"Buyer representation fells another one","author":"Greg Swann","date":"March 14, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Ya see?! We should be listening to Russell Shaw. You can list all day and all night, and never be too busy to scratch your nose. It's that chasing around with buyers that downs perfectly good Realtors. Cathy had a buyer-rich day. A final walk-through on a new build. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":938,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/938\/podcast-local-results-in-real-estate-weblogging-will-come-from-making-local-connections-not-seo-results\/","url_meta":{"origin":1953,"position":1},"title":"Podcast: Local results in real estate weblogging will come from making local connections, not SEO results","author":"Greg Swann","date":"January 24, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Cathy and I spent about four hours with the incomparable Russell Shaw last night. We recorded around two hours of our discussions for podcasts I will be putting together in the coming days. I have been planning for a week to do a podcast on the movement toward local content\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1316,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1316\/casting-a-wider-net-hungry-ipods-crave-content\/","url_meta":{"origin":1953,"position":2},"title":"Casting a wider net: Hungry iPods crave content","author":"Greg Swann","date":"April 18, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Russell Shaw held his second Sales Success Seminar last night. For the moment we don't know if there will be a third. So far, we're sitting on about seven hours of new audio and perhaps four hours of new video. All of this will be released in bulk, but its\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3152,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3152\/bloodhoundblog-unchained-commencement-news-and-then-to-bed\/","url_meta":{"origin":1953,"position":3},"title":"BloodhoundBlog Unchained: Commencement news, and then to bed","author":"Greg Swann","date":"May 20, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I've already been to sleep once, briefly. After Unchained broke up this afternoon, we came home to knock out the essential work. Teri Lussier cranked out a solid hour of video clips today, so I started pumping those into the YouTube mill. I've got a lot more to talk about,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2216,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2216\/day-of-the-delay-of-the-odysseus-medal\/","url_meta":{"origin":1953,"position":4},"title":"Day of the delay of The Odysseus Medal . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 12, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm getting ready for the BloggerCon event at the NAR Convention and I've run myself out of time. I'll post the judging for The Odysseus Medal tomorrow morning. I'll leave the voting open for The People's Choice Award until I'm ready to post. In the mean time, although I've shown\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Carnivals"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Carnivals","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blog-carnivals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1874,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1874\/have-a-great-labor-day-but-dont-leave-town-without-submitting-your-odysseus-medal-entries\/","url_meta":{"origin":1953,"position":5},"title":"Have a great Labor Day, but don’t leave town without submitting your Odysseus Medal entries","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 31, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Cathy just made me think of this, bless her beautiful soul. Deadline for this week's Odysseus Medal competition is Sunday at 12 Noon PDT\/MST. The People's Choice voting is Sunday afternoon as usual, so take a break form your end of summer reveling to cast a ballot. But take care\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Carnivals"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Carnivals","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blog-carnivals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1953\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}