Opinion Archive

For the last eight months, I’ve been immersed in the worlds of Navarre and Santa Rosa County.

It’s been fascinating and challenging to understand the smaller community of the area stretched along U.S. Highway 98 and the county, which includes everything from high-rise condominiums in the south to agriculture in the north.

It’s the summer of 2015. It’s hot and humid. The sun is unforgiving as it bakes the football practice field behind Bennett C. Russell Stadium.

I’m here to watch the Raiders put in work at one of their trademark intense summer workouts, and my focus is locked in on two players in particular. Michael Carter and Thomas Leggett.

Almost as soon as we moved to the area 25 years ago, we started getting occasional calls for “Dr. Rudman.” People wanted to make appointments or cancel them for this doctor who shares our name. At the time, he was in Walton County.

We didn’t know him or anything about him.

Folk wisdom can, in fact, be amazingly accurate.

Not because of some ancient or secret knowledge, but because it is attributable to generations of observation which has been confirmed time and again over the centuries.

In the musical, “The Music Man,” a slick traveling salesman concocts a scheme to sell musical instruments to the town of River City.

He presents himself as a band leader and a boys’ marching band as a defense against the corruption of youth.

We have been hearing a lot of stories lately about how fast real estate has been selling in the Navarre area.

Last week I heard about a home that was sold for $45,000 over the asking price.

Once upon a time, flag football at Navarre was merely a dream. The closest players came to it was the annual powder puff game between the girls in the junior and senior classes.

Things have changed. The dream has become a reality as Navarre has made a name for itself in the sport.
It doesn’t surprise me. It shouldn’t surprise you either.

A life fully lived is one where you have proven yourself wrong dozens, maybe even hundreds of times.

I’m not talking about giving a cashier the wrong change and then catching your own error. I’m talking about at every stage of life making pronouncements about how you’ll never do this or you’ll never feel like that and you’ll certainly never become THAT.