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After the trimmings of the tree have been put back into their boxes awaiting the passing of another year and after the last exchange of Christmas gifts at the stores where business has slackened a bit perhaps, it is time to bring out this classic assortment of words once again. These are, of course, a human attempt to explain the Life of Christ but they are words that surface as regularly as Christmas itself. The unknown author has succinctly written reminders of some of the facts students of the Bible have studied for centuries. I hope you will enjoy and appreciate this classic of the Christmas season.
More than two thousand years ago, there was a man, born contrary to the usual laws of life. This man lived in poverty and was reared in obscurity. He did not travel extensively. Only once did He cross the boundary of the country in which he lived--that was during His exile in childhood, as we are told.
He possessed neither wealth nor influence. His relatives were inconspicuous and had neither training nor formal education. In infancy He startled a king; in childhood He puzzled doctors of the law; in manhood He ruled the course of nature, walked upon the waves as if pavements, and hushed the sea to sleep.
He healed the multitudes without medicine and made no charge for the service.
He never wrote a book, and yet all the libraries of the world could not hold the books that have been written about Him.
He never wrote a song, and yet He has furnished the theme for more songs than all the songwriters combined.
He never founded a college, but all the schools put together cannot boast of having as many students.
He never marshalled an army, nor drafted a soldier, nor fired a gun; and yet no leader ever had more volunteers who have, under His orders, made more rebels stack arms and surrender without a shot fired.
He never practiced psychiatry, and yet He has healed more broken hearts than all the doctors far and near.
Once each week, the wheels of commerce cease their turning and multitudes wend their way to worship in assemblies to pay homage and respect to Him. The names of the past proud statesmen of Greece and Rome have come and gone. The names of past scientists, philosophers and theologians have come andgone, but the name of this man abounds more and more.
Though time has spread two thousand years between the people of this generation and the scene of His crucifixion, He yet still lives. Herod could not destroy Him, and the grave could not hold Him.
He stands forth upon the highest pinnacle of heavenly glory, proclaimed of God, acknowledged by angels, adored by saints, and feared by devils, and is the living, personal Christ, the Savior, Son of God -- the Incomparable Christ.
--Author Unknown
THANK YOU, whoever you are, for these excellent thoughts about the Christ,
the Son of God. THE WORDWRIGHT
Remembering our country's heroes honored at Arlington
T. J. Ray, Guest Essayist
As T. J. Ray writes about visiting Arlington National Cemetery and shares the words below, hopefully we can catch the echoes of thoughts many hear when they visit the places where veterans lie--their lives mutely represented by words and dates etched in stone. It is so sad that many treat service people as nobodies or forget so soon what prices they paid to join the army of those who have died for our freedom. Could such forgetfulness be the essential sickness of a great nation? The blood of a lot of men and women paid for that greatness.
Should you find yourself sightseeing in Washington D.C., please take the time to visit Arlington National Cemetery, perhaps grave sites 656-77. The soldier buried there was born in August 1938 and died in May 1979. A few graves away lies a soldier born in June 1926 and died in May 1971. And just across the well kept grass is one more (of many) soldiers of distinction. He was born in December 1887 and died in September 1964.
Dates, of course, don't tell us very much about a person. These three men all lived through days so significant to many men around them that their final rest pales in comparison.
YORK'S STORY
The oldest of the three, Sgt. Alvin York, performed a deed that led to these words in his Congressional Medal of Honor Citation: "After his platoon suffered heavy casualties and 3 other noncommissioned officers had become casualties, Cpl. York assumed command. Fearlessly leading 7 men, he charged with great daring a machine gun nest which was pouring deadly and incessant fire upon his platoon. In this heroic feat the machine gun nest was taken, together with 4 officers and 128 men and several guns." The great day in his life was Oct. 8, 1918.
The second of the three heroes was Sgt. (later Major.) Audie Murphy. These words conclude his CMH Citation: "... then made his way to his company, refused medical attention, and organized the company in a counterattack which forced the Germans to withdraw. His directing of artillery fire wiped out many of the enemy; he killed or wounded about 50. 2d Lt. Murphy's indomitable courage and his refusal to give an inch of ground saved his company from possible encirclement and destruction, and enabled it to hold the woods which had been the enemy's objective." This action from a soldier who had been refused by the Marines and paratroopers, who said he was too short! His day of supreme courage was Jan. 26, 1945.
IRONIC TWIST
The last of the three noted above served as one of the pallbearers at Audie Murphy's burial, surely not knowing he would one day return for the same honors, was Sgt. (later Captain) Joe Hooper. Having served in the Navy, he joined the Army and found himself in Vietnam as a staff sergeant. The close of his CMH Citation reads thusly: "He then established a final line and reorganized his men, not accepting medical treatment until this was accomplished and not consenting to evacuation until the following morning. His supreme valor, inspiring leadership and heroic self-sacrifice were directly responsible for the company's success and provided a lasting example in personal courage for every man on the field. His actions were in keeping with the highest tradition of military service and reflect great honor upon himself and the United States Army." His outstanding deeds happened on the very long and bloody day of Feb. 21, 1968.
NOT JUST A HOLIDAY DEAL
Our Nation "celebrates" Armistice/Veterans day on Nov. 11, and you will probably think these words are almost a month late. Let me assure you they are not because every day there are men and women in an American uniform who may well rest one day in Arlington.
At this moment we can't know who will be the most decorated soldier of this rotten war, as the above three were the most decorated heroes of World War I, World War II, and the Vietnam War. And now, all those airmen, soldiers, sailors, and Marines are volunteers, volunteers who too often come home to a place where no one but their loved ones even know what they have experienced, too often returning to a nation that no longer needs them and can't seem to find the resources to give them the support they earned on the battlefield.
But for a moment, think of the hillbilly from the Tennessee hills, Alvin York, the short guy who would become a movie star, and the soldier who kept enlisting in the service. And if you happen to be in Section 46 in Arlington National Cemetery, give pause and remember that many of us are here now because people like them were there when it mattered most.
##### THANKS for this stirring reminder, TJ. THE WORDWRIGHT
HELPFULNESS
T. J. Ray, Guest Columnist
One of the 12 points of the Boy Scout Law is "A Scout is helpful." The Scout Oath includes "I will do my best to do my duty to God and country and to help other people at all times." And the Scout Motto is "Do a good turn daily."
In a world that so needs as much help as it can get, such encouragement as boys get in Scout troops is important. These days we see many versions of the Pay-It-Forward philosophy that was the theme of a movie about a boy several years ago. Now it shows up in commercials and other places. One who noticed another helping someone goes on to help a third person, and a chain is formed. An afternoon television show recently showed people who had been given a big chunk of money giving that money away. Then the givers were allowed to express how good they felt about helping another person.
And just over a week ago the nation took a day off (except for the many thousands who had to work and will likely be at work Christmas Day and New Year's Day) to give thanks for the blessing we have received. My unscientific guess is that for most people it was nothing more than another holiday - not holy day, holiday. Schools even shut down for the whole week, as though kids need that long of a break just before the Christmas break.
One has to wonder how many individuals spent any of the last Thursday in November contemplating how much they have to be thankful for. Giving thanks would certainly detract from huge meals (for the lucky ones) and hunger (for so many others). Thanks giving would most definitely be out of the question after the kickoff.
Perhaps the emphasis needs to be shifted. Perhaps we should stress how wonderful it would be for someone to be thankful for us and things we had done. Scouts are told over and over not to do a Good Turn for reward or recognition. The goal is to be an invisible benefactor for someone else, very much like the Pay-It-Forward folks. Would it not be a better place to live if somewhere, for some reason, and without our knowing about it, someone paused to think of us, to say aloud or to himself "Thank you" for some deed, however grand or incidental (or even unconscious to us)?
Yes, this is being written days and days after Thanksgiving, but the point is to suggest that we need to do things for other people that triggers unexpressed gratitude in them. One day is simply not sufficient to encompass all the help we can give others. And the caring aid need not wait for another special day at church or a one-day clean-up in some part of town.
Could we not adopt the attitude of that unknown Good Samaritan who did the good turn and went on about his business? Perhaps that spirit would slow us down near a Salvation Army kettle or a Pantry appeal for extra food for needy families at Christmas.
(T.J. Ray, a retired professor of English at the University of Mississippi, can be reached at tjmaryjo@bellsouth.net.)
THANKS TJ, THE WORDWRIGHT
WE HAD OUTDOORS
by Robert J. Tinsky
Copyrighted 2008
Recently my son, Rick, sent me a story about a grandfather who was watching his grandson play with one of his new electronic toys. The grandson said, "Isn't that neat, Grandpa?" The grandfather replied by saying that he didn't have anything like that when he was growing up. He said "We had something even better." The grandson asked, "What was that, Grandpa?" "We had what was called 'outdoors,'" the grandfather answered.
That made me think of my childhood days. We did not have TV and the multiplicity of electronic games children have today. This morning in church our preacher mentioned that children today spend an average of 45 hours a week just sitting. Instead of being outdoors playing, they are indoors watching TV or playing on one of their electronic gadgets.
Those of you who have gray hair (or no hair) remember what we did as kids. We spent a great deal of time roller skating on the streets and sidewalks. We also played tag, hide and seek, kick-the-can, a game we called "refrigerator," checkers (regular and Chinese), and mumblety-peg. Anyone remember that last one? The way we played it was by using a stick to draw a circle on the ground. Each boy had to throw his pocket knife so it would stick in the circle. The one who got closest to the middle was the winner. Another version, which I never played, involved flipping the knife into the ground from various positions to make it stick in the ground. The boy who was the loser in this version had to pull a small pole out of the ground with his teeth. The pole was often driven so far into the ground that the loser had to literally "root" with his teeth to dig it out of the dirt. I might add here that all boys who were "real boys" in those days had to have boots with a pocket to carry their jackknife. This, of course, would never be allowed in our public schools today.
We did not have any organized sports for young children in those days. Instead we organized ourselves into teams and played baseball or footfall in one of the empty lots in our neighborhood. A lot of our free time was also spent playing cops and robbers or cowboys and Indians. During recess at school we played a lot of marbles. Everyone had to have a large marble that was known as his "shooter." The game was played by drawing a circle on the ground. Each player placed several marbles in the circle. The object was to use the "shooter" to shoot out of the circle as many marbles as you could. These were then yours to keep at least until the next game.
We also spent a lot of time playing by the river that was just a few blocks from our house. I remember that a group of us boys worked for hours trying to build a raft so we could, like Huck Finn, float down the river. Thankfully we were never successful at that endeavor. Another pastime was playing on the rafters in the new houses that were being built in our neighborhood. That fun time came to an abrupt halt when one of our playmates fell through the rafters of the second story and landed on the concrete pad in the basement and suffered a broken leg.
Still another game that occupied a lot of our time was the brand new game called Monopoly. This game was originally invented in the early part of the 20th century by a lady named Elizabeth Magic. She called it "The Landlord's Game" and the game was originally played a lot by college professors and their students. A later version was called "The Fascinating Game of Finance." A man by the name of Charles Brace Darrow, who was an unemployed domestic heater salesman, further developed the game and sold it to Parker Brothers. In 1935, the year I was nine years old, Monopoly was the best selling board game with 20,000 copies being sold every week. Someone in our neighborhood must have been one of the first kids to get a copy of this exciting new game. I have fond memories of spending hour after hour playing Monopoly.
Even though we did not have TV during my childhood days we did have a fairly new invention called the radio. I remember listening to such important programs as Buck Rogers, Tom Mix, Jack Armstrong (the all-American boy), the Lone Ranger and Orphan Annie. I drank a lot of Ovaltine so that I could get a secret decoder badge. In the evenings my brothers and I would sit in the living room with our parents and listen to Fibber McGee and Molly, Amos and Andy, Lum and Abner, Jack Benny, Fred Allen, The Shadow, Inner Sanctum, the Saturday Night Barn Dance and Major Bowes and his Amateur Hour.
Every Saturday my brother Bill and I were allowed to go to the movies. There was usually a double feature plus the cartoons and the serial that was continued from week to week. It cost us ten cents for admission plus another five cents for a bag of popcorn.
I guess I must close this article by confessing that we did not spend all our time as kids playing outdoors.
CHAPTER TWO of Outdoor [games] by Bill Venrick
Bob has certainly reminded me of "outdoors" and I must add something to his memory trip.
MARBLES - I was never very good at that game but I look back with marvel for the lack of organization as Bob has aptly mentioned. No adult supervisor called a meeting for the kids to "start playing marbles" or for the "girls to get together and 'jump rope'..." the kids just did it! One thing Bob said was "drawing a circle on the ground" -- this was more specifically taking a sharp rock or a stick and scratching a circle "in the dirt" but not before smoothing out the area and making sure it was smooth and without any imperfections like a little rock being in the way.
MUMBLE-DE-PEG -- Just another way of pronouncing the knife game. Some of the jargon maybe have been: Back hands, Fisters, Ear Logers, In Hand, Shove Head and Fingers Up & Down, just to name a few. As Bob said, if the boys tried to get away with this today they would find themselves being interrogated by the FBI or no less than local policemen and a school psychiatrist. One story I heard years ago when a boy tried to conn his mother into getting him a pair of high-tops boots (with a pocket for his knife) after he told her "all the boys were getting them". Finally she caved in bought him a pair and she asked him, "Now that you have a pair, how many neighbor boys really have high-top boots?" And he boy answered:. "If Johnny talks his mother into it, that will make two of us." Sound familiar?
GIRLS JUMPING ROPE -- When the girls jumped rope I always enjoyed hearing them call out a rhyming cadence as they jumped and when they really got going with "double-dutch" using two ropes (turning simultaneously) instead of one. Now that was real timing to see the girls "jump into" that maze of flying ropes and get into step with the swing of the long ropes. Sometimes more than one girl would end up being in between those flying ropes and when one girl jumped out another would jump in! Talk about timing and getting into step. I also remember the girls alternating their feet instead of just jumping up and down on their two feet." Hot pepper" and "Double Dutch" with fancy stepping were the crowd getters with the girls jumping rope at the school grounds or on the sidewalks in the neighborhood.
Only rarely would a boy dare to interrupt such "girl games"--and I always thought one of the girls jumping rope was a sister to that boy as most boys would be afraid of being called a sissy.
Today, the school psychologist would have to become involved, maybe the school nurse and set up some kind of endorsement by the American Heart Association. Back then (in the 1930's and 1940's) the special exercises for the heart were not the reason--the girls just did it because it was fun.
AND LET'S NOT FORGET YO-YO'S -- In recalling some of these events with my wife, who by the way, went to another elementary school across town (West School) and we compared activities mentioned above at East School or Fifth Ward School as it was once called, I remember when the Duncan Yo Yo Company used to visit our playgrounds and hawk their toy, YO-YO. The way I recall it they had field representatives in the form of young Filipino men who were experts with the YO-YO. Boy, could they make those round disks walk the walk and almost talk! Sometimes they would have a YO-YO in each hand. When those young men got through showing their skills with the YO-YO, you just had to go to a nearby grocery store and buy your YO-YO.
YES, Bob, we did have OUTDOORS and even though I have taken the liberty of making some lateral switches to school games in addition to the neighborhood games, they were still "outdoors".
I have a confession to make though. Obviously there was some kind of "organization", at least in Cleveland, Ohio. In my research, rummaging, or "dumpster diving" as it might be called, I came across an 84 page mimeographed book published by the Cleveland Public School, Bureau of Physical Welfare, Division of Playgrounds, dated 1929. Within that interesting historical publication might have been the genesis of ORGANIZED ACTIVITIES or else the school systems Bob and I attended were very covert about how school activities got started, but I seriously doubt that. This 8-1/2 x 11" mimeographed book even told about schools getting harmonicas and teaching children how to play one; as well as "How to make a Cigar Box Ukulele" with special instructions: "how to master the common strokes, stressing how to 'Press fingers of left hand firmly in places shown'..." (poor left-handed kids obviously had to switch rather than fight--yeah). OOPS, ALMOST FORGOT - today, the police would probably confiscate the cigar box and get the school lawyer to write up a law suit against the parents who gave their kids a CIGAR BOX!!
Well, Bob, I couldn't resist adding my "Chapter Two" to "WE HAD OUTDOORS"..
THE WORDWRIGHT
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