The Simple Truth was another Christmas gift as was Why The Smile; only this one was for BroBob. The Christmas before, Bob had my name and presented me with a magnificent pencil and pen sketch of a Sea Turtle. It is proudly displayed in our living room. After receiving that gift and then drawing his name for the year following; the pressure was on.

There is so much about Bob to talk about: He is a gentle, loving soul with a quick and seasoned wit, a devoted father and a loving husband to his beloved, Phyllis. As I thought about him, three loves in his life sprang to mind; his love of fishing, being in nature, and Phyllis (and their dogs).

One of the regrets in my life was that I didn’t become an annual member of the Firth Fishermen and travel to “wherever” to spend a week with the brothers, brothers in law, and Papa fishing on a beautiful lake. I joined them once and was very bored. But I saw in my brother the passion and transformative pleasure of all simply being in nature together, fishing.

One night as I was falling asleep, I slipped into (what I thought was) Bob’s mind and imagined how precious his time with the Firth Fishermen is but also, no matter how glorious the experience for him, it did not compare with the everyday moments with Phyllis.

The Simple Truth is a song written as if Bob wrote it to Phyllis. That may sound odd but at least Bob loved it.

Thanks: My deepest thanks to Jim for providing an excellent piano arrangement from which I could tell the story of The Simple Truth. It is exactly what I hoped he would create.