Meeting Mac Brunson at the St. Louis Arch was… awkward. This brief, embarrassing encounter became a family story—and a reminder of how much time, patience, and perspective are needed to truly communicate. In this post, I unpack the humor, the discomfort, and the surprising lessons that come from “meeting” Mac Brunson.

After the death of my grandfather, our family gathered at the home place to clean out his home. The house was where my grandparents had lived and raised their family and before them, it was the home of my great-grandparents. It was an old house lacking most of the modern conveniences of technology. Originally constructed without electricity or plumbing in the 1890s, it eventually boasted these necessities, yet it always lacked the accouterments of modernity such as satellite TV, high-speed internet, or air-conditioning.