By MONTE DUTTON

From time to time, the world is perfectly described by a three-word Jackson Browne song title from the 1970s.

“Before the Deluge.”

From time to time is gradually becoming all the time about everything.

Thirty years ago, jaded newspaper hands used to laugh about every day’s paper having a section front that was “the shame” of something.

THE SHAME OF OUR SCHOOLS!

THE SHAME OF OUR ROADS!

THE SHAME OF OUR FOOD!

Over time, shame gave way to shames that were shocking and the grinding heartbreak of psoriasis. Nowadays, all the shame, shock and heartbreak leaves us with too much anger and too few laughs.

As John Prine sang, “blow up your TV, throw away the paper, go out to the country and build you a home.”

Let’s face it. Most of the deluges have hit.

Right now, though, is before a regular, yearly deluge. High schools are already playing football, American style. The colleges begin playing for dear old alma mater and money soon. The pros are well into their play-toy games.

Next week this time, I will not be watching pickup trucks racing in New Hampshire. Trump will have his IndyCar Peace Prize. Looking ahead through my crystal ball, I see me, really tired, watching The Citadel play Wofford, secure in the notion that one will lose.

Right now, when it’s late, I’ve been writing and I can’t sleep, I’ll watch an Andy Griffith Show episode for the umpteenth time since I was five. In coming weeks, I’ll rely on Oregon State versus New Mexico to make me drowsy.

It’s been so long since I’ve visited Fansville.

With their hearts they turned to each other’s hearts for refuge

In the troubled years that came before the deluge

A good bit of my time these days is spent writing a script for a movie. It’s a free-wheeling tale called The Graduate Transfer.

Wellpilgrim.com takes its name from John Wayne, who liked the phrase, and the Kris Kristofferson song “The Pilgrim: Chapter 33, Hang on, Hopper.” The title of the site comes from my favorite song, Michael Burton’s “Nightrider’s Lament.”

I can be reached at Adventure Village #6, 15 Adventure Ridge Road, Brevard, N.C.    28712.

I’d appreciate it if you’d consider buying one or two or five of my books, which are available on Amazon and at other bookseller sites. Two novels, Cowboys Come Home and Lightning in a Bottle, are available in audible versions.