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Please read this all the way through because I am not sure who is responsible.
I would like to think "Washington" (not George) is responsible for all the merchandise, products and even apple juice shipped in from China. Here in Ohio, the biggee KROGER store (started in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1883. I believe it was Barney Kroger who started in the grocery business near the corner of 8th & State. When I went to college I probably drove by his store every day and never realized that's where KROGERS started. I doubt if anything in Barney Kroger's store was made, produced or grown out of the United States except maybe for bananas but I could be wrong.
I have become a nut on reading labels but it is becoming harder and harder to believe America makes, grows, manufactures anything any more. I first discovered apple juice in one of my favorite stores was imported from China when I was comparing prices. Believe me it isn't easy to find that little electronic image on a curvaceous colored plastic bottle but there it is, somehow they can image hundreds of bottles flying through a product line, "...concentrate from China..." Funny, I thought OHIO was a great apple producer. Jackson, Ohio, is THE place where apples are touted like bourbon is in Kentucky. Right here in Fairfield County (Ohio) we have at least three fruit orchards. The state of Washington is another great apple producer.
I just looked on the Internet and found 44 (forty-four) states have apple orchards. Funny, you would think the 2,500 varieties grown in the United States would be a sufficient resource, and OHIO is third on the list of those 44 states with apple orchards. But that store I mentioned in the first paragraph wrote me saying simply they could not get the supply of apples needed unless they go offshore. OK, let's change the subject slightly.
"Made in China" is not the problem. A few years ago I heard a former government worker admit he got in trouble "because he didn't know what he didn't know". At first I thought that was just more mumbo jumbo but the longer I considered his confession the more sense it made. If you read my friend, T. J. Ray's essay which recently appeared on THE WORDWRIGHT ("What we have become"), this could well be called a sequel to Professor Ray's article. What is the problem?
We are the problem. When I was a kid (I was born in 1932) you could number the Holidays on one hand. Today you have to take off your shoes to count the holidays and they are all PAID holidays. Alright, not for everyone but the government and businesses lead the pack for paid holidays, let's face it. And as I write this the Post Office is trying to convince us they want to cut back to five days to carry the mail. Again, looking back to "when I was a kid" we had residential mail delivery TWICE A DAY and the businesses down town got mail THREE TIMES A DAY. Yeah, I know we've gotten bigger but we haven't gotten BETTER even with high speed OCR machines that sort mail. Gone are the days, well, almost, when someone would holler out at the Post Office in Lancaster, Ohio, "Who knows Venrick?" For fifty years my Dad was the only VENRICK in town (his household included his wife and two boys). As recent as a couple months ago I got a letter with a wrong street address but fortunately our carrier recognized the family address and "we got the mail".
How many paid holidays do you get? Once a fellow employee of mine was griping because we did not get a certain holiday. Being the nerd that I am I asked him, "Did you every stop to think how much our company spends to pay all the employees for NOT working?" The conversation came to an abrupt halt. I must have hit a nerve.
What about the auto industry? Wonder why we have automobiles from ten or more foreign countries? Oh, a few English autos might have been seen 50 years ago but the Big Three concept is history. Wonder why? When the employee insists his employer give him this, and that, in benefits it is no mystery to me why the industries got tired of so much pay out and simply caved in to getting the job done cheaper. Note I said "cheaper" and I am talking about CHEAPER rather than less expensive! I have a pair of shoes that I recently purchased from a former ALL AMERICAN shoe company (you will have to guess the name) and one pair before my last purchase are still around - I bought them 25 years ago and have had them half-soled and heeled three times. The last pair of shoes I bought from this company is the last pair I will buy from them. I got a good price, sure, but I had to send the first ones back because "that shoe is 'sized small'" whatever that means---nothing was said in their catalog. Of course it meant "Size 11 D has to be ordered as 12 M."
Name any industry folks, and it isn't Washington who is at fault. Pogo had it right: "We have met the enemy and he is us." When our grandfathers were the wage earner there was no such thing as "benefits" past the overtime pay. Benefits do not come cheap and neither is it cheap for the employer to "keep track of our money" until we retire. We are in a financial mess today in America because we trusted the wrong people and unfortunately some of those people were banks.
Solution: PRAYER will help, but the most important response we need to see is an improvement in is ourselves and what we need to do--NOT our employer or the government. Some might say, "The government's already done enough." And I rather think I agree with that conclusion but I don't think we can get off Scott free without admitting to contributing to the problem.
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SOME AFTER-WORDS relative to the above..."Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself." - Leo Tolstoy --- Only "old people" know what it used to be like and the young(er) people simply have no knowledge of how it "used to be" and unfortunately do not know how hard their fathers and grandfathers worked to get and keep what they had. It was a Spaniard who observed: "We either learn from history or we are condemned to repeat it." George Santayana. Sorry, Mr. Santayana, no one was listening when you wrote those words. THE WORDWRIGHT
T. J. RAY, Oxford, Mississippi
In the summer of 1944 our neighbor in the government housing project had saved enough gasoline rationing stamps for a trip. We loaded three families into his 1940 Ford and went to Gulf Shores. The weather was chilly as I recall; the sand was very gritty; the wind was stout. Despite all that it was a glorious day, except from finding a crate of pineapples from a ship that had been torpedoed somewhere in the area.
The next day mother made her weekly trip to Delchamps, the big food chain near Mobile, for groceries. That was a three mile walk, one way with ration stamps, the return trip with several sacks of stuff. One treasure was a bottle Coke syrup. At home she mixed a little of it with tap water, shook it, and handed us a Coke. Flat though it was, it was delicious, especially with the Bit-O-Honey bar dad had gotten from a fellow ship worker.
At Christmas mom, my brother and I went home to Louisville, Mississippi, on the Gulf Transport bus. The weather was frigid in Louisville, and rather than forcing us to walk across town to grandma's house, Pat Tomlinson drove the bus over and let us out in front of the house.
No, this is not the start of an autobiography. In fact I'll carefully refrain from listing all the things I did to get in trouble in those days. It is an observation of how time and conditions can be so different. Wartime conditions required all sort of adjustments by families and schools and businesses. For instance, there were those uncomfortable air raid drills at school that forced us to our knees under out desks. And there were those nights that were Stygian dark because the Air Raid Wardens would give fines for uncovered lights in the neighborhood. I've read enough things about the war to know that things were not so placid for people over seven years of age. I know there were riots in some cities. And there were even strikes at some war plants. But we survived.
After that survival we flourished, made more and more goods, built larger and larger dwellings. Corporations grew and gave us so many "good" things that we became addicted to having whatever we wanted. Of course, this condition was carefully preserved by ignoring people with painful needs. They lived somewhere else, certainly not in our fine new suburbs.
Now we find ourselves heating and cooling homes with far more space than any of us can productively use. The houses are crammed with stuff that we must have--if only to keep up with the Joneses. And corporations have figured out that to sell us more of this or that, they can make larger profits by moving manufacturing "over there," leaving us with fewer jobs but the addiction to thing. It seems our national motto has become "If It's Good for Business, It's Good for America."
And the very heart of our addictive nature is sitting out front. It rides comfortably down highways that our governments spend inordinate piles of money to maintain. And no one except a few do-gooders really get serious about car-pooling or riding a bus. At a conference this week to discuss how to make Oxford a more desirable and satisfying community, much of the discourse centered around the automobile, the need for fewer and the problem with rising costs.
In a TV survey last week, the reporter polled folks on the street. She began by saying how many million gallons of gas would be saved if every driver in the country gave up 40 miles of driving per week. The number was astounding. Yep, you guessed it: among the responses was "I ain't giving up anything." And that, my friend, is what we have become.
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THANKS TJ, for shaking us up from our lethargy. THE WORDWRIGHT
At the time of publishing T. Joe Eggebrecht's, essay, "Whom Do You Trust?", the following thoughts of former President Thomas Jefferson had been sent to me and it is fitting to follow up Joe's ssay with those Jefferson comments. Someone has accurately stated, "The only constant is change." America has changed, or haven't you noticed? THE WORDWRIGHT
Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States (1801-1809) is described by the Wikipedia Free Encyclopedia as a polygraph or, so most of us could understand it better, "A person knowing much; or a person of great and diversified learning." Specifically, Jefferson achieved distinction as a horticulturist, political leader, architect, archaeologist, paleontologist, inventor and founder of the University of Virginia. When President John F. Kennedy welcomed 49 Nobel Prize winners to the White House in 1962 he said, "I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent and of human knowledge that has ever been gathered together at the White House - with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone." To date, Jefferson is the only president to serve two full terms in office without vetoing a single bill of congress. Jefferson has been consistently ranked by scholars as one of the greatest of U. S. presidents. (Attribution hereby given to Wikipedia free encyclopedia for the above description of Thomas Jefferson.)
The sales slogan of the tobacco industry, "You have come a long way baby" seems a fitting expression about the condition of our country compared to the principles laid down in our constitution and other papers in the chronicles of our country. As a citizen of the United States I cannot but yearn for the principles and concepts of Thomas Jefferson. Consider each of the following quotes and mentally review the principles and concepts that are being pandered (like "the gospel") by our country's leaders today.
The following are quotes from the writings of Thomas Jefferson:
"When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe.
The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.
It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.
I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.
No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical."
And finally, in light of the present financial crisis, it's interesting to read just one more comment from Thomas Jefferson in 1802:
"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."
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THE WORDWRIGHT asks, "Do you see anything in Jefferson's quotes that give you second thoughts about the direction our country is going or has gone?" In the 201 years that have passed since Thomas Jefferson was our president it is obvious some virtues and principles have been compromised.
WHOM DO YOU TRUST?
By T. Joe Eggebrecht,
When I am driving on a 2-lane highway, I trust the approaching driver will keep his vehicle in his lane. But it does not always happen that way. I put money in savings and checking in a local bank, but the many bank failures in the past few months would indicate all the banks cannot be trusted. I purchase stocks or mutuals with the hope that they will make money for my future use, but there seem to be too many Madoffs out there. Can I trust every broker?
We learned in Civics class decades ago that the U.S. Constitution provides you and me protection by having checks and balances with three branches of government, namely, Legislative, Judicial, and Executive. The Legislative writes the laws for our country. If there is a challenge to the law the Judicial determines if the law is constitutional. The Executive is to make sure that the laws are carried out. There is always the problem of ideology and agenda, so sometimes laws are written for the whims of the legislators and not to benefit the general public. The Court is so often made up of ideologues who interpret the law and the Constitution according to their ideology. The Executive also has an agenda and ideology so he refuses to see that the law is executed. Examples of this are the refusal of the Attorney General to even consider some cases as in the case of the armed threat of voters by the Black Panthers. The President has not executed immigration laws because of his personal beliefs. And his chief immigration officer says he will not prosecute illegal immigrants who are arrested in Arizona. We have the U.S. Constitution, but whom in the government can we trust to see that it is followed.
One day you stood before a clergyman, JP, or other official and vowed that you could be trusted to be faithful to your spouse. We have! Do you? During the Hitler regime in Germany many Jews arrived at a place they were not sure whom they could trust even among their fellow Jews.
Thus we see that sometimes those who have sworn to abide by the Constitution, don't so abide. And, those who are sworn to take care of our money and investments cannot be trusted. And, the driver who has been given a driver's license on the agreement that he will abide by the laws of the State and the nation chooses not to do so. Sometimes the driver even uses the vehicle as a weapon to attack. Even our money with "In God We Trust" thereon has been wasted by our Legislative and Executive Branches till it is nearly valueless.
So, in whom do you trust? Who is really trustworthy? The obvious answer is Jehovah God and His Son Jesus the Christ. Let us say, as did the Apostle Paul, "For therefore we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those that believe." [I Timothy 4:10]
As the songwriter wrote: "Trusting as the moments fly. Trusting as the days go by; Trusting Him whate'er befall; Trusting Jesus, that is all."
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THANKS, JOE, for a thoughtful reminder as to where and in whom we can really trust.
"I DID NOT!-it wasn't MY fault!"
Unless you have lived a perfect life or never had a sibling on which to blame things you will not see the purpose of this article. Even the one who had things perfect (GOD being Adam's father), Adam found fault with "the woman you gave me." Adam blamed Eve for their problem. (Check it out for yourself in Genesis 3:12)
The oil spill down in the Gulf of Mexico is serious but not quite the pandemic transgression of Adam and Eve. But strangely enough the blaming and fault-finding is no different than mankind has known since man and woman inhaled the free breath of life. An English friend of ours once told us, "When America sneezes, we Brits get a cold." So goes yet another spice of life wherein even a smidgin of fault is found among friends. Within the family of believers (the church) it is relatively simple to say all our problems are theological. And even when biblical principles are bent or nearly broken, whether the transgressor is a believer or not, the consequences come as no surprise. Sand does not a good foundation make. Nor is a successful foundation for a house found in a muddy slope of a mountain. And water has always sought its own level - and gravity rules as always.
The inhabitants of Holland should have settled the middle southern central coastline of the United States. For the past 700 years Holland has used dikes and windmills to pump water reclaiming land from the sea by continuous drainage. The landscape of Holland is still dotted with windmills which became a logo or symbol of Holland. Some parts of Holland are several meters below sea level. Whatever wisdom was Holland's evidently never made it to Louisiana. Maybe the inhabitants of Louisiana and its water etched neighboring states didn't care for windmills (or perhaps prevailing winds had something to do with it). But it is certain, the principles used in Holland to keep the sea from flooding were from great wisdom. Some biblical wisdom might be in order by reading Matthew 7:24-29 - "The Wise and Foolish Builders". Matthew's comment about the crowds being amazed at Christ's teaching--they shouldn't have been, he was truly God in the flesh and had perfect wisdom of all things.
In our technological world (with purported "perfect knowledge") we persist in building on muddy ledges of mountains and on lands precariously close to the water's edge and when disaster strikes out comes the cries and shouts of who is to blame. Even though the off shore drilling is not exactly a proper juxtaposition example of sliding muddy ledges or flooded land it does involve a predicament of working beneath "miles of water" where normal maintenance is simply impossible. When oil drilling is done on the land it is quite accessible to service any problem that arises. Man chooses to think he can "do whatever he chooses" without consequences but nature wins out in the end. We need to cooperate with nature rather than trying to circumvent timeless principles and precepts of wetlands or fickle mountain ranges.
BP (British Petroleum) has fallen prey to the most harsh criticism and the bully pulpit of the media hurling vicious darts and arrows at them without mercy. Before the April 20 (2010) explosion Gulf oil spill the victim under fire was Toyota until another crisis (or "virtual terrorism") came along. The undersea explosion and its blast got the press(ure) off Toyota's back. There always has to be something to write about but unfortunately truth is bartered for press deadlines and front pages. This is not to say there is no problem because truthfully the oil spill is serious. But have we considered other disasters that could be termed "natural"? The Iceland volcanic eruption. The Mount St. Helens volcanic eruption. These two disasters are truly "nature in routine operation" and regardless of the tons of debris dumped for miles and miles, no one could point a finger to "another man" who was at fault.
The moral of this article is ACCIDENTS will always happen whether man is purportedly at fault or not. We have "become so perfect or sophisticated" that we just cannot accept bad luck or accidents--someone has to be "at fault".This catastrophe for BP has created jobs for thousands! Maybe another catastrophe will come along and give BP a break or maybe someone will get smart and work at this problem with simple principles of physics instead of litigious motives. Movie star Kevin Costner has made millions reclaiming and recycling similar oil polluted waters but the shouting of politicians seems to drown out Costner's simple solutions, so we're told. .
There are specific facts of life that are negative but have positive affects. One such fact relative to the Gulf Oil Spill is "oil and water do not mix". That is so obvious and has been graphically pictured on every TV screen in the world. Wonder why no one has caught the specific drift? "Why not capitalize on this fact?" The millions of gallons of oil floating around "all over the place" is usable - why is it we never hear about that on the news? Could it be the (new) American way is to soak up that usable oil in high tech sponges and discarded instead of using the technology of centrifuges? Kostner's cry, "I can help" can't be heard over the dismal delirium of crying "BP has ruined our coastal waters!"
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Don't any congressmen care about the text in [food products] labels?
Several months ago I wrote to the headquarters of a large supermarket chain regarding their importing apple juice concentrate. I received what I should have expected, "Juice Concentrate Letter #37" -- one of an assortment companies use to reply to disgruntled customers, it's easier than writing a real response, and gets the irate customer off your back momentarily.
Well, I still shop at that supermarket but I haven't given up on reading labels or trying to decipher the electronic imaging on containers--and believe me, that is not always easy--try it for yourself.
Apple juice is one item - now meat products have been added to our import list. Here is the copy of some meat packages (labels) in the stores: "May be a product of U.S., Canada, Mexico." Fine! Now I have to be concerned about what might be improper slaughtering and processing technology in a foreign country. The track record for governmental quality control is scary and now we are seeing the meat packaging industry enlarged to include Canada and Mexico. Botulism may be our next crisis if meat packers become careless or too casual.
Upon seeing this label at my big-time store, I gave the meat cutter my disappointment speech about buying imported products, put the package back in the case, and went to another store. I knew the next store would have good meat! I didn't even bother to read the label -- I was that sure. Wrong! The same story in my second choice of a smaller chain grocery store. Today we found another large food chain using the same identification: Product of U.S.A., Canada or Mexico on some meat products. This may be honest and legal packaging information. Apparently no one knows which country any one package comes from, and it gives no choice to the buyer to approve or disapprove of the product's origin - at least if we see grapes marked "Product of Chile" we can take it or leave it on the display! Sounds something like "three bullets may be in the chambers, but which chambers is not known."
Now I ask again, "Don't any congressmen care about the text in food labels?" Could it be that our government has also become bedfellows with food markets all around the world?
I didn't believe the excuse (Response Letter #37) about apple juice concentrate, and I don't believe supplier products, meat or apple juice is that unavailable right here in the United States. It is hard enough to tie down lax regulation of infractions in America without involving a foreign country whose sanitation procedures and product performance principles alone may be light years behind our sanitized country. So this is global economics! I vote for more local farm markets and meat packers! We have a little "country meat shop" that still wraps up the meat in paper and uses a pencil crayon to write the price; yep, they buy their meat locally, right here in Fairfield County, Ohio.
At one time in recent history America was producing more wheat than we could use and we were the one selling agricultural products offshore. Now the tables have turned, and it is America who is buying products "grown offshore". Apparently America is becoming a third world country and we are dependent upon any foreign country who can obviously beat our hourly wage standards.
Again and again we are told our congressmen are concerned about our country - how deep that concern unfortunately stalls once those senators and congress persons assume their Washington offices and get their plans in gear to become re-elected. Our local purported concerned representative has failed to respond to at least three requests for simple yes and no answers, but he does continue to have telephone conference calls.
I recommend American citizens become discriminating shoppers. Read the product labels. For good reason, the law requires point of origin, production, processing information on all the products on the shelves. Apparently our elected servants are hoping we are as apathetic as they and feel safe we will never notice apple, pear, prune, cranberry juice by the zillions of gallons being unloaded regularly at shipping docks.
Don't we have enough beef cattle, apple trees, and anything else in our land of the free, and home of the brave? Is this what "global economy" is all about?
Are we to believe America is not big enough to take care of itself?
Are our congressmen being paid off, or have they been paid off, along with our president(s) for the past several decades and America has been sold out and some kind of deal with foreign nations that forces us to accept food products from countries, period, no exceptions? Seems to me we are leaving ourselves wide open to every kind of stray ingredient that exists. What if something turns up in our tri-country processed meat products? The word "sabotage" is no stranger to terrorists. Are we to believe we are supposed to trust every country to be as concerned as we claim to be? The next "bomb" could be spelled "botulism" -- it won't make a lot of smoke but it will be just as devastating. It is a fair observation our elected representatives would pay more attention to us electorates IF their loved ones died from tainted imported meat.
An American insurance company claims, "You are in good hands with [their name]." Can that be said about every foreign country we buy from? REMEMBER -- we have a right to know.
Count me one dejected and demoralized American citizen!
William B. Venrick
aka Bill Venrick
Lancaster, Ohio
RESPONSIBILITY and LIABILITY
Contributed by T. J. Ray, Oxford Mississippi
Imagine a news story reporting that a fellow committed suicide by shooting himself witha Glockenspiel .45 automatic. The surprise in the story is that its purpose is to tell aboutthe liability of the pistol's maker. In its negligence the company produced a device with which an individual is able to harm himself. A jury of good and true citizens take almost an hour to convict Glockenspiel and award the family of the "victim" 17 gazillion dollars.
If that supposed story doesn't exist, think of a recent one in which a South Florida juryordered Philip Morris USA to pay $300 million to a former smoker. In their judgment, the company's negligence caused her emphysema. Now $300M is along way from 17gazillion, but the premises of these two cases are identical. In one, a man puts a pistol into his mouth and pulls the trigger once. In the other a woman puts a cigarette in her mouth and smokes it, over and over and over and over again for 25 years by her own admission. A mere $300M, of course, is small change compared to the $145 BILLION fine rendered in a tobacco class-action case in Florida in several years ago.
Very recently a jury in Oregon awarded a 19 million judgment against the Boy Scouts of America for negligence in not preventing a pedophile for molesting one of Scouts. Five more trials have been requested, which will likely result in millions more being paid by BSA. Granted the former leader should be punished, but to require such a fine--in fact, any fine--from the organization is arguably wrong. In recent years when child molestation cases have become prominently reported, I can't recall a single case in which a city has been given a punitive fine for the actions of one of its officer. Nor can I think of a single school district being fined for negligence after one of its teachers has been convicted of pedophilia. How then does such punishment of BSA make any sense?
And just last week came a ruling that opens the floodgates for settlements by the folks at Walmart--a class-action suit filed on behalf of six women. One thing is certain: the millions reaped from this suit will not go into the pockets of all the women who join the suit, but many lawyers will get rich. Until our courts and legal system are reformed, it will continue.
As with most sensational and deplorable situations, this one has many facets, not least of which are (first) the linkage of an organization to the criminal acts of an individual and (second) the astronomical size of the fines. Of course, if reason prevailed in the first place, the second would be null.
Sadly, our country faces two extremes, exorbitant penalties against organizations or corporations and slaps on the wrist for many, many elected officials. My poor memory can't recall the name of any Senator or Congressman who has actually gone to prison because of malfeasance and milking the public money cow.
Probably I must over-tenderize the dead horse I'm beating. Too many Americans feel and in fact KNOW they are entitled to such settlements. Greed and a quick buck will continue to drive our system. Until our courts and legal system are reformed, it will continue. And service and products will cost the rest of the public more and more.
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THANKS T. J. RAY, for your tenderizing a subject all too familiar in our litigious society. May we, somehow, find a way to pick more sensible judges who will do more than throw good money into greedy hands. THE WORDWRIGHT
After getting words on paper for the most recent essay, "Have we got it right, yet?" and the near dismal consensus uttered in the introduction, "One wonders if we will ever get it right under the Sun." it compels me to express one more thought - namely, I join the millions of believers who are able to say, "Praise the Lord, I am saved by grace!" Yes, admittedly there are doubtless many hundreds of "routes" mankind has tried to open up, dig out, plow open or whatever other kind of effort to have some kind of assurance, approval and contact with the Almighty.
"Favor and blessing" are words used to define "grace". Isn't it coincidental that the little prayer many Christian and Jewish believers (there may be other beliefs unaware to me) offer at the table is called "grace". Certainly no less than three times a day we are confronted with visual beneficent favors and blessings from our Creator God; we would be remiss in not "saying grace" at the table.
Sure, we were the ones who toiled at the job (in the field, in the office, at the plant, in our cars) to be paid monies that made it possible to provide the food on our tables but let's never fail to remember our body, with its awesome mind, its wonderful parts and learned abilities are God's creations. All this becomes a cooperative effort in the biblical principle the Apostle sets forth in 2 Thessalonians 3:10: "If a man will not work, he shall not eat." As God provides abilities and circumstances for our toiling we therefore cooperate with Him in the divine plan.
We even have visual examples of severely handicapped individuals born without hands or feet and are prone to say, "What about them God? How are they to take care of themselves?" Those same people do not even let God have a second to explain or comment. One person, seen by many on TV and on You Tube: Nick Vujicic, of Melbourne, Australia, has overcome what appeared to be impossible obstacles. He is a happy man, not a complainer. He has even become an ordained minister and travels worldwide to testify of his acquired blessings and the abilities he has developed in order to be just about as normal as many despite his physical losses. In fact, many almost feel ashamed of their oft complaints or grumbles when they see him on TV or in personal appearances. He can "kick a ball", swim, walk and nearly run - the only appendage he has like a leg or foot is a small movable part that somehow developed and his mind took over (the matter) and that little part of his body (he calls a "chicken drumstick") became the flipper he uses to move or walk about. When he swims he moves his body in a "snakelike" movement that impels him through the water, perhaps more like a seal swimming (but without flippers)!
http://www.lifewithoutlimbs.org/
Desperation should never be claimed or leaned upon when thinking about our position in the kingdom of God. The Old Testament is explicit with example after example of the holiness of God and the sinfulness of humankind, therefore some religions feel compelled to refer to our condition or position as having original sin and therefore doomed because of our "sinful nature". That in itself is a complex subject but that too has explainable concepts when we read the Bible with an open heart and mind. The prophet Isaiah compared our righteousness to filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6) and the Apostle Paul picks up that thread as he writes Romans 3:9-12; 22-24. -- "ALL have fallen short..." so no one is without guilt or sin but our situation or position is not desperate or without hope because God provides GRACE.
A comment included in the previous essay, "Nothing has ever occurred to God," is a truism that explains God was not destining us to Hell or any other horrible place or abode without making available a "way out" or a "different path". This subject too is plenteous even in the Old Testament, even though most like to think the Old Testament philosophy is a "works related" plan - Grace was greatly manifested long before Christ was born. When Abraham and Sarah tried to hurry along God's promise to give them a son to begin their seeds that were to match the sands of the seashore, they involved a gentile woman and Sarah, like any wife, did not like the competition and demanded Abraham send her away. God showed grace on that gentile woman and her son - and remember, she was not of the chosen race. Hagar said, "You are the God who SEES ME." (Read about this in Genesis 16:7-14) Doesn't that at least hint that God's grace reaches further than most of us think it does? Just who are we to limit anything God chooses to do? Further along in the events of the civilizations around the Israelites, God chose to offer grace to a nation as undeserving as any probably on the face of the earth. The Ninevites were extremely wicked people but God wanted Jonah to preach to them. And for a time, the great city of Nineveh turned their backs on their idolatrous gods and worshiped the God of Israel. We can never outguess God as to whom he chooses to bestow blessings and grace.
The Scripture teaches God is the same yesterday, today and forever. Man (and woman) have always thought themselves to be "in charge", a trait that goes back to the Garden of Eden. Whether we believe in an actual Garden of Eden or the mere principles of "that great day of decision" when Eve chose to obey the Serpent instead of God marks the beginning of something much of Christendom calls the depravity of man, at least the essence of depravity. One five letter word is intentionally left out in this situation I am referring to: "total". To be "totaled" anything is serious. Totally under the water, without air or oxygen is to drown if submerged long enough. Totally naked is just that, not a thread of clothing. Totally blind, no light of day is recorded on the retina of our eyes. But the God of grace does not allow man to be totally depraved, unless man chooses total depravity. We do have a choice in the matter and that is the essential or deciding point of this argument. To those who claim God punishes sin in an everlasting Hell and all the "Hell-fire damnation bit" preached with such positive assurance, there is no contradiction: let there still be a Hell and the degree of its intensity and longevity. Quite simply, if man (or woman) is so determined to refuse or reject God's grace they have chosen their own consequence, not God!.
Some biblical scholars have reduced Hell to the simple lack of the presence of God, and that would be horrible enough in anyone's eyes. That is if we are correct in acknowledging it is God who allows the rain to fall on the good and the bad. That is if we are correct in acknowledging that ALL GOOD THINGS come from God. That is correct in acknowledging that GOD IS LOVE--and an existence without love and goodness is Hell enough for me.
As long as man exists, someone, somewhere will always be coming up with "another" creed or dogma. It matters not how simple or involved dogmas of men are, there will always be the circle that "includes" or "excludes". May the God of grace enable us to be grateful simply to be able to say "THANK YOU God for your inexplicable Word, that became Flesh and dwelt among us and those who believe call Him Savior." God is infinitely capable of sorting out the chaff from the real seeds of worship and beliefs.
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This is a far deeper subject to expect or try to settle in fourteen hundred words--so do not think I can explain it satisfactorily to everyone's approval; but do let God be God--He is completely capable of taking care of choosing or excusing without our help.
THE WORDWRIGHT
DO WE HAVE IT RIGHT, YET?
Sometimes I wonder if it is "in the cards" for us to ever get it right, on this earth, or "under the sun" as the writer of Ecclesiastes makes reference to our earthly abode.
Articles in assorted church periodicals indicate or admit the church-world at large is aware, subtly or not, that people have aversions about "the church" as man has seen it for centuries. Anomalies and downright bewilderment during recent decades supports this concept. Consider the many generic names of church groups: "New Life" "Faith Memorial" "Heritage Community" "New Beginnings" "Living Word". These church-names have sprouted up almost like unidentifiable weeds instead of a Baptist, Methodist or Holiness churches and Churches of Christ in Christian Union. These new descriptive generic names are chosen in place of their former denominational names. Has the former "denominational name" been intentionally obscured for some reason? The prefix "Community" has been chosen by many to tone down preconceived concepts people could have because of the "old" or former denominational names.
There is also a widening or all-inclusiveness in the publication of the Bible. For example, not only are there study and devotional Bibles but one wonders if the next one might be: "Bible for Dog or Cat Lovers" or maybe even "A Bible for Owners of Newfoundland Long-haired Field Dogs". To animal lovers out there--be assured, I like all the animals our Creator has provided for our accompaniment, companionship, etc.; I am simply "filled up to here" with the way editors and publishers feel every genre of humanity must be provided a specific version of the Bible.
The "Early American Life" magazine, August 1991 issue, carried a rather shocking account of the inner workings among the pious Puritans. "Seating the Meetinghouse" by Diana Ross McCain enlightened her readers in regard to merely SEATING of the saints in a building. If you never believed in a caste system in the United States, you're in for a big dose of it when you read Ms McCain's article. "Mechanics" (manual laborers, blacksmiths, and their ilk) "went far beyond more annoyance at rubbing elbows with men...clearly considered less-than-congenial companions." "...the central event in Puritan life, was a weekly pronouncement of his rank in the social pecking order."
If you think this is strange, odd, or funny, look around you when you "go to church" this week and notice where people sit. People, haltingly, often refer to "their pew" at their church. Serious? Usually not, but don't be too sure in some cases. Ms McCain expressed it honestly, "Popular tradition has distorted the nature of Puritan egalitarianism." Further, "Just as some seats were evidently much better than others, so were some people considered superior to their fellows, and it was the essence of the Puritan's social philosophy to give the best men the 'foreseats' and to reserve for lesser individuals those that were farther back or less desirable in other ways," explained Edmund Sinnott in his book, Meetinghouse & Church in Early New England. One feels almost overly informed after reading Ms McCain's article but it was very informative and very interesting. Clearly people considered themselves special and left no doubting in the minds of their "fellow worshipers". I wonder how God and the angels regarded that in their regular observations from the galleries of Heaven.
DO WE HAVE THE DOCTRINE RIGHT?
IF you answer, YES, then, how many doctrines are there anyway? I have lived long enough to discover every church (or denomination, synod, parish, etc.) has doctrines and dogmas that are unique to their brand or creed or Christendom, and unfortunately there seems to be a circle around most of them, and that circle in essence stands for exclusiveness. Edwin Markham once wrote, "He drew a circle that shut me out, Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout. But love and I had the wit to win; we drew a circle that took him in."
Oddly enough, children are born into a world without having been asked approval - of those in the family, that is. And those (unapproved) children, of course, are simply automatically included in the midst of a family. The aphorism, "Be careful of the people you choose to be your parents." succinctly stating the illogical possibility of this kind of thinking. Nobody asked us if we wanted to be born.
Biblical content is surely important in getting our doctrine right. Opinions of biblical doctrine are essential as well. The Bible, especially the New Testament is explicit in this concept and sometimes even the Apostles, specifically, Peter and Paul had a few words (some even harsh) proving they had diverging opinions! Peter even admitted some of Paul's writings were "hard to understand"--perhaps he should have said, "hard to accept". Especially the thirteenth chapter of I Corinthians is extremely important when we consider the subject of "love." The Apostle Paul said "...if we have not love, we are nothing" (I Corinthians 13:2) Someone has said, "LOVE is being willing to make ourselves uncomfortable for the benefit or the sake of others." The very word "mother" is a living example of this fact. What man (the male of this business of human kind) would "make himself uncomfortable for 9 months like his wife does in order that "a child might be added to their family"?
Let's be sure we are biblically right and not end our inclusions with the words "except" or "unless". You fill in the qualifying conditions with those two words and let's see if we all can agree with what you have written as a creed or doctrine. Many of us can talk about "the church" and only include believers of our own "brand" or denominational beliefs. Wonder how God feels about this kind of thinking?
Do we really know who all is in God's Kingdom? And, if we think we know, could it be that God's list might be a little different than ours? And one other rumination - wonder why God considered animals important enough to include in the last verse of the book of Jonah (among the reasons to preach repentance to the Ninevites)?
Have you ever heard or read that our life on Earth is a testing place?
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THE WORDWRIGHT, Lite
Sometimes it is good to indulge in some silliness instead of the somber and sober news and events of the day to bring us back to the reality that life needs to be filled with some smiles as well as frowns of concern. Cartoonists have plied their trade for centuries and this site of serious articles and essays wants to pause for a laugh or two on the subjects that claim "center stage" for the most part of our lives. These stories may be something you have read in e-mails but in case you have missed one of these, sit back and enjoy a laugh or two. THE WORDWRIGHT
CURTIS & LEROY
Curtis and Leroy saw an ad in the Starkville Daily News in Starkville, MS, and bought a mule for $100.00. The farmer agreed to deliver the mule the next day. The next morning the farmer drove up and said, "Sorry fellows, I have some bad news, the mule died last night." Curtis and Leroy replied, "Well, then just give us our money back." The farmer said, "Can't do that. I went and spent it already." They said, "OK then, just bring us the dead mule."
The farmer asked, "What in the world ya'll gonna do with a dead mule?" Curtis said, "We're gonna raffle him off." The farmer said, "You can't raffle off a dead mule!" Leroy said, "We sure can! Heck, we don't hafta tell nobody he's dead!"
A couple weeks later, the farmer ran into Curtis & Leroy and asked about the dead mule. They said, "We raffled him off like we said we wuz gonna do." Leroy said, "Shucks, we sold 500 tickets fer two dollars apiece and made a profit of $898.00." The farmer said, "My lord, didn't anyone complain?" Curtis said, "The feller who won it was upset. So we gave him his two dollars back."
Curtis and Leroy now work for the government. They're overseeing the Bailout Program.
(For some reason I was wondering if Percy Kilbride and Marjorie Maine changed their names to Curtis & Leroy)
+++++ Some questions and other onerous information:
Did you ever wonder why the IRS calls it Form 1040? It's because for every $50 that you earn, you get $10 and they get $40.
Did you ever notice when you put the two words, "THE" and "IRS" together it spells "THEIRS?"
George Washington never told a lie, but then he never had to file a Form 1040.
Accountants solve problems you didn't know you had in a way you don't understand.
The hardest thing to understand: Income Tax.
Isn't it appropriate that the month of the tax begins with April Fool's Day and ends with cries of "May Day."
And last of all, It's too bad all the people who know how to run the country are busy--
driving taxicabs and cutting hair.
##### THE WORDWRIGHT
By Jean Steel Venrick (Mrs. Wordwright)
"Come into my kitchen and let's talk about pots and pans." You may be thinking, "What is so exciting about that subject?"
I'm very particular about how my pans look. I want them shiny clean so I use stainless steel with copper bottoms, which of course need an appropriate cleaner each time the pans are used. I do not feel this is time consuming, I just do it. "Copper-Glo"is the brand name I use but it has become hard to find and my husband has discovered another suitable brand, "Bar Keepers Friend" so that is what we use currently.
I have never had a dishwasher so this job has always been done by hand. I do not want to give up my cupboard space to a dishwasher. When our house was built in 1964 a dishwasher was not a necessity in the kitchen, however today a kitchen without a dishwasher is just not a kitchen, or so some think. Frankly I always found dish washing a good time to think and solve the world's problems. Since my stroke in April of 2008, Bill has assumed a lot of my household duties and since he used to help me and we together would talk and "solve the world's problems", now I am the one who helps unless it becomes too tiresome to stand for long periods. Another household chore, ironing, is something I like to do and that gives me another opportunity to think while I press the wrinkles out of clothes (that is, what clothes are not the permanent press kind). And because I have an adjustable ironing board I can set it at a convenient level for me to use while sitting down. But, back to the kitchen!
I have a couple iron skillets in my collection which are seldom used anymore but at one time I relied on them heavily. The iron skillet does make great fried potatoes, crispy edges, you know.
Now to when my "particular-ness" goes out the window. I have two electric skillets that are horrible looking, yet I wouldn't give them up for anything. The small one I wrote about in June 2006 is one of these "horrible looking" ones. See "MR. FIXIT" - This poor little skillet is still working after Bill fixed it three times, replacing the original Bakelite handle twice, once with oak and the most recent was made with maple. It is not non-stick and you dare not scour it with a metal scouring pad because that takes off, I will call it, the patina. Do that and your great fried egg soon becomes a scrambled egg because it "sticks to the pan". You can use a plastic scrubber on it but that's as far as you dare go. This little skillet has been around for years and seems to be like the Eveready Bunny--it keeps on working! I have another small skillet ready "in the wings" when the time comes that Bill can't fix it anymore.
There's another skillet in our kitchen, a large Sunbeam which was given to us as a Christmas gift in 1957 or 1958 (when we were in Hobbs, New Mexico) and it is still working! We only use it for one or two things - making corn cakes or French toast, Bill's favorite. (Since my recent bout with the diabetes issue French toast and Corn Cakes are a rare treat.) Saturday mornings were our time for something special, either the corn cakes or French toast with Mrs. Maple's LITE syrup, from Aldi's. This old skillet makes the greatest with either of these treats. I have a special recipe I dreamed up for the Corn Cakes - not from a mix.
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After starting this missive a year ago I might as well take it out of the can and publish it. Those who know us will recognize our peculiar ways in this story and hopefully those who do not know us will see some virtues of my wife Jean, that have been the impetus to make our marriage work since June 3, 1951. It's been sometime since my wife has appeared on this site so I thought it past time to share some more of her writings. Jean is a disciplined journalist and "pots 'n pans" is only one example how meticulous her routines have been through the years. She has enjoyed a pen-pal relationship with an English lady since entering high school -- that's around sixty years; and she got serious about a regular family journal when we adopted our children. Writing, you can see, is a very important part of life to my wife. The journal was started in 1967 and she has written nearly 6,500 pages (3-ring binder notebook pages mainly).
THE WORDWRIGHT
Whenever words are being used some kind of definitions and/or parameters must be factored into the equation. So let's begin with the words themselves.
"PRINCIPAL - First in rank, authority, importance, degree, etc." Next, the same sounding word is not as easy to define: "PRINCIPLE - The ultimate source, origin or cause of something, and the third suggested meaning is a further application of this root meaning: "A fundamental truth, law or doctrine, or motivating force, upon which others are based (like, moral principles)".
Life, as we know it on Planet Earth, is determined by absolutes. There are those who prefer to think otherwise but absolutes cannot be ignored. Try jumping off a ten story building and claim the absolute of gravity will not apply. Try putting your hand in a crucible of molten lead (which becomes liquid at approximately 540 degrees Fahrenheit) and leave it there for just 30 seconds. Consider just one more futile experiment. Drive your car at a speed of 60 miles an hour and try to stop when you get within 10 feet of a concrete covered bridge abutment. By the time your brain's message to your leg muscles gets your foot to the brake pedal your car will have smashed into the concrete wall and you will probably be dead and the car a total loss. These three scenarios are indisputable examples of principles.
Principles then, by the definition in the first paragraph are virtual absolutes. Gravity is indisputable--it works on this planet every day, sunshine or rain. It works the same for everyone, whether male or female, a 10 pound baby or a 200 pound adult. Money has no influence or effect on gravity; you cannot bargain with coin or paper currency and change the "law of gravity".
Life is affected by principals and principles, period. Charles R. Swindoll has written dozens or maybe hundreds of his small (68 pages) Bible study guides and his editor-writers, Bill Watkins and Bill Butterworth consistently used what I would classify a caveat in those books: "Knowledge apart from application falls short of God's desire for his children. Knowledge must result in change and growth." I believe these two statements are true regardless whether the subject is religious or secular.
What about the PRINCIPALS?
Every person who is "in charge" over matters, events or a company in which you have no control could be called a (or the) principal. If that person is not governed by PRINCIPLES that are fair, equitable or moral, you could well have problems (or "issues" as modern day parlance prefers over "problems"). It is that simple. How we deal with life or the circumstances that are our lot in life is what matters. It is that simple. In other words, Chuck Swindoll's editors wisely counseled biblical students: "Convert knowledge learned into change and growth."
There will always be principals and principles. We must come to some kind of terms with how we work with this fact of life. It is not a matter of rocket science to discover the principles mentioned above will be obvious in leaders in our government, whether it be politics or legalities in local or other levels of government. Believe it, principles are essential to the successful operation of any government.
With the above thoughts on principals and principles some applications are in order. In 1999, the popular TV host, Larry King, had CBS'S 60 MINUTES quips expert, Andy Rooney as a guest. All through that broadcast, neither "principal" or "principle" was mentioned as a word. However, throughout the comments Andy Rooney made in regard to two politicians in particular and others in general. (Please remember the DATE--1999! Readers need to understand my comments are not about today's politicians but the application is like the ubiquitous "politician "--their talents-virtues know no generational bounds.)
"Lowering Standards" - A PRINCIPLE
In the opinion of Andy Rooney, when a President chooses to refer to himself as BILL Clinton instead of William J. Clinton, he presents the idea or concept of a lesser or lower standard. We accept such lowering of standards with "common" people but when the President of the United States compromises principles of standards it is a fake acquaintance entitling "common citizens" to regard Bill Clinton (in this analogy) to be a "buddy" as opposed to the fact this he is the one who was holding the highest office in our land. Jimmy Carter did the same thing. Comparatively, I cannot imagine the average Brit being encouraged to refer to Queen Elizabeth as "Betty", can you?
"Buying Political Offices" - Andy Rooney feels that something has radically happened in our society when becoming elected is dependent on how much money you can raise to spend on being elected. This is literally (by principle) BUYING the office. The person seeking election should be qualified by what they are rather than whose they are.
"Principles of Principals" - When Bill Clinton allowed himself to become involved in a scandal with a young woman within the walls of the White House he was disdainfully disregarding the principles of morals, ethics and sanctity of the office of President. We do not expect this kind of conduct from the President and not only did he appear to be guilty he lied to millions on television when he denied he had such relationships. The same accusations can be applied to Republicans with former President Richard Nixon in the Watergate Scandal. Inexcusable is a fair word to use for either man. I think the conclusion Andy Rooney had about his opinion of former President Clinton ("...he was good at what he does but terrible at who he was") and finally Mr. Rooney said, "With all his faults I still liked the man." And don't we wish or hope people can regard us with the same concessions? No president has ever been perfect but neither should they relish in their imperfections.
"Knowledge apart from application falls short...knowledge must result in change and growth." --- Charles R,. Swindoll
It isn't every day or even a life-time to have been acquainted with a top-notch dairy farmer who married a grade-school classmate and both of these individuals have been known and kept track of for over sixty years. After the story about Russell & Delores Miller's dairy operation in Hortonville, Wisconsin, it was decided to publish this story about two brothers in Lancaster, Ohio, who had to take over a small twelve cow dairy farm when their father passed away. THE WORDWRIGHT
THE JOHN ETY FARM BEGINS
John and Ethel Ety established their farmstead in 1917 on Fairfield Township Road 201 and raised their four children, Ruth, Annabelle, Robert and Paul a few miles northwest of Lancaster, Ohio. At that time the acreage of the farm was 87 acres with about six or seven cows. In 1945 the Ety Farm was twelve cows with Surge bucket milkers in their old stanchion barn. Change was the main constant in the years to come. The first change came four years later when their father died. Bob had graduated from high school three years before and Paul was starting his senior year; the older sisters had married and moved away from the farm. Bob and his family moved into the home place with Mother Ety after their father passed away and Paul, Jane and their son rented a place in town. What began as a modest farm dairy was slowly changing, and with the passing of their father, the two sons were to develop one of the most outstanding dairies in Fairfield County. These brothers were exceptionally hard workers and left no stone unturned in providing the finest feed, environment and milking conditions possible for their herd of registered Holstein cows. Perhaps the most amazing parts of the success of the Ety Dairy Farm was that here were two young men in their twenties whose complementary talents and teamwork made it all happen.
THE ETY BROTHERS DAIRY GROWS
It didn't take these young men long to figure out that they were either going to have to get in or get out of the dairy business. Improvements and methods from hand-milking a dozen or so cows to planning and developing different kinds of milking parlors made the Ety Farm a place where change became the norm. When something new came along they would decide which way or what system or plan they would adopt.
Early on both brothers attended a Surge Dairy School and they picked up ideas as to how to make significant improvements on their farm. A regular commuter driving by the farm was always treated to see something new or different. The very nature of the milk parlors, with its large windows was an invitation for everyone to "come see how we milk cows". With their growing herd the once 36,000 gallon underground manure tank would eventually be dwarfed by a 25 feet high, 82 feet diameter liquid manure tank that would hold nearly a million gallons. Managing manure was a top priority. Their two 20' x 60' silos were soon inadequate and more were built. Silos came along like "new tools" in a mechanic's shop. While visiting the farm once, Paul mentioned that Jane told him she wanted a house before they built another silo. Paul grinned and told me they put up at least two more silos before Jane got her house.
The complementarity of good management and good herdsmanship produced the desired results--good milk production. In short, Bob and Paul took care of their cows. Even in retirement, Paul said something that didn't really surprise me when he told me he still buys his eggs from a farmer instead of a supermarket. At his house they buy eggs for $2.00 a dozen when you can buy them at half that price; and the farmer in Paul explains, "...the lady we buy eggs from takes care of her chickens". That was good enough for him, besides Paul quickly added, the yolk in the farmer's eggs are orange-colored, not yellow! "They're good eggs!"
A HIGH POINT IN ETY DAIRY CAREER
When Bob & Paul Ety were setting records (with the help of their cows of course) they were in their middle thirties. Who can really tell what the real drive was behind these two young men? Was it simply making a real business from a very modest beginning of their father and his few cows? Perhaps this could have been a subtle impetus but probably the real reason or cause for their success was their work ethic. The only evidence of pride is a cautious grin on the faces of the two young men pictured below. Bragging is not a part of the Ety Dairy heritage. They just worked hard and you could say they proved the wisdom behind the acrostic of the word LUCK - Laboring Under Correct Knowledge. Yes, the harder they worked the luckier they got!
Their pinnacle of success was when they made headlines in farm news by the increase of 12,240 gallons (of milk) increase per year! The picture above shows what that many gallons of milk look like! That kind of success doesn't come from luck or talk. But years after the two Ety brothers achieved such notoriety life brought some tough times. Barely twenty years later Bob died. What now? What was once a two-man team was now nearly a solo. They did have hired men most of the time. Usually one full time and they had others they could call on when the crops were ready to be brought in. Bob and Carol's two boys helped with the farm because they lived there. By the time they quit milking, they had 300 cows, about 500 calves and heifers. The local dairy bottling distributor used to come every other day and get 8,000 to 9,000 gallons of milk. Sometimes they would have to pick it up every day.
Plans were already in the works to "quit the dairy" before Bob became ill with cancer and later died. So, it was only a matter of time until the farm would "wrap it all up" with plans to sell the land to a business developer and retire like most people do in life. Remember, with a large herd there has to be a use or plan to "do something" with manure; and they used this natural fertilizer on their land, it was that simple.
Today the ETY DAIRY FARM is just a memory. Where once cows were cared for, fed and milked, a modern huge shopping center exists. Corn and milk are no longer the produce from those fields. Fairfield County Township Road 201 has been named ETY ROAD for sometime now and it is a thoroughfare off US Route 33 to gain access to condos, apartments, automotive dealerships and brand-name stores that are household names. If Paul misses anything it is the work with cows and the land but life goes on, and once again change rules. For years this farmer's day started when the alarm clock went off every morning at 3:45 and ended when Paul walked through the door of their home around 10:00 that night. In spite of such a work load they raised three children and the work ethics of Paul and the parental principles of his wife run through the veins and genes of the Ety children to this day.
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An interesting Letter to the Editor of the Columbus (Ohio) DISPATCH points out a "beyond the media's eyes" work by the Amish. Here is that letter as Merrill Sheets, Delaware (Ohio) wrote for the January 26, 2010 issue:
"With all the news about the earthquake in Haiti and groups wanting to help a very large group of people has done this for a very long time.
"The Amish communities all across the United States, including the large one in Holmes County (Ohio), have annual auctions to help the poor of Haiti.
"Participants donate most of the sale items, although some are sold on consignment. The receipts are used to further expand their work in this country..
"Members of the Amish sector have visited Haiti with truckloads of donations. They have done this for many years and do to this day.
"Locally, Haitian relief missions already operate a school of 500 students with a staff of 12, half of which is from Berlin, Ohio.
"These people continue to help with their humanitarian efforts in their own quiet ways at home and abroad.
"I have had the privilege of knowing some of these fine people and the work they do.".
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During the past weeks since January 12, 2010, when Haiti was hit by the worst earthquake in 200 years, millions of dollars have been raised, celebrities in every field or career have gone to Haiti, famous doctors have taken leave of absences to assist that ravaged area. Just this past week a popular female actress whose name you would recognize immediately, was photographed as she talked with one of the victims expressing her personal concern. One can only wonder, had it not been for the Letter to the Editor alluded to above, how many would have been aware the Amish have ministered to that country for years? They don't work to be noticed. Were it not for incidental appearances in films, for example, most would not be aware how they do a "barn raising". The 1985 TV movie, WITNESS, starring Harrison Ford is probably one of the best biographical sketches in years that told how the Amish live and work together.
Picture an Amish man reading The Budget (their newspaper) about all the hubbub, accolades and activities over the Haitians after the terrible earthquake, quietly smiling, knowing "they have been there all along". We just don't read about it - and the Amish wouldn't see it on the TV because they don't use electricity. THE WORDWRIGHT
by Delores Miller, Hortonville, Wisconsin
Delores and Russell Miller are "old friends" of Bill Venrick as we are members of the American Amateur Press Association for a couple decades. A while back Delores wrote a short story of milk cans that caught my eye. Here is that story, and how her son Keith Miller, a 4th grade teacher got to tell his class about a milk can that used to be in his parents' dairy. THE WORDWRIGHT
CLASS, WHAT IS THIS?
Keith Miller (Delores & Russell's son) - 4th grade teacher, tells about a school project. in Evansville, Wisconsin. In social studies he had asked his students to bring an artifact to school (for show & tell). Keith said, "I asked each student to bring in an artifact from the past. This is what I brought in (see above photo)--a milk can. 98% didn't have a clue what it was. They did ask good questions about it, which was most of the point of the lesson."
+++++
Now Delores Miller tells a brief history about MILK as she remembers it.
Since the beginning of the dairy industry in Wisconsin about 1900, containers were needed to transport the milk to the cheese factory. Separators were first used to divide the cream from the whey, and small cans were hoisted and transported by horse and buggy to the cheese factory. The first whole milk can was a twenty gallon can that took two people to lift up onto the buggy for the horse to haul to the factory.
Next came the ten gallon galvanized tin cans which weighed 15 pounds plus the 80 pounds of milk, making a mighty heavy load for one person to hoist up to the milk truck that came daily to the farms. The milk truck drivers were admired for their strength of hefting all those cans. Mike Polzin was our milk truck driver, we rode along to Sunrise School with him, a whole mess of us kids. Ray Draeger and Duane Miller were other drivers.
The Zillmer family shipped their milk to the Quarterline Cheese Factory with Harold, Elda and Jane Brown as Cheese Makers. Other factories in Dupont were Maple Valley, Green Valley, Spring Brook (by Elmer Piehls), and the South Dupont cheese factory which now in 2010 is still making good colby cheese and fresh cheese curds two days a week. So in Wisconsin alone there must have been a million milk cans left over from those early days before pipe lines and bulk milk trucks hauling 5000 gallons of milk. Oh, how different from the 8 gallons in a milk can.
I never thought to ask for a milk can when I left the childhood Zillmer farm. Russell inherited all his father's milk cans, and they have been divided amongst our 5 children and nieces and nephews. Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Missouri and Arizona these milk cans are gracing living rooms, reminding them of the early heritage of dairy farming. They are good receptacles for holding valuables.
Aunt Wilma Lembke and Uncle Clarence on one of their Wisconsin visits begged a Zillmer milk can. They hauled it over the rivers, deserts and mountains to California. Decorated with yellow painted daisy and sunflowers. For 40 years it graced their living room.
Alas, Uncle Clarence died in 1979, Wilma downsized in 2004 to a Military Veteran's home in Napa Valley, California. Needing to get rid of the Wisconsin Milk Can. She packed it up, UPS delivered over the mountains, rivers and deserts to the Miller house doorstep in Hortonville where it sits in our living room, reminding me of the Zillmer farm of the 1940s.
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So, there in a nut shell is a short story about what "milk" and "milk cans" meant to Russell and Delores Miller in Wisconsin. Another story about "milk as a business in Lancaster, Ohio" is in the hopper so keep coming back to THE WORDWRIGHT and read about milk before it got into the plastic jugs or paper cartons.
THE WORDWRIGHT
Arthur Thomas "Tommy" Hartung, of Lancaster, Ohio, was one of the examples of the salt and light of the earth that some never know until those crystals of salt and lights are gone--extinguished like a candle whose wick was "puffed out". I only knew of Tommy like most people who saw this rather different fellow riding on a bright yellow bicycle, wearing his helmet and a fluorescent slip over safety gear. He was always on the move or standing waiting for the "go ahead" from whomever used his services. More than once my wife and I saw Tommy, with a sack from WENDY'S to deliver to someone. This 60 year-old man looked much younger than a man about to enter retirement age. The excellent eulogy below, encased in quotes, was written about Tommy when he passed away May 21, 2009, and appeared in the Lancaster Eagle-Gazette; whoever wrote this is assumed to be one of the family.
"He will be remembered for his warm smile, incredible memory, riding his yellow bicycle, singing, lawn mowing, leaf raking, setting out garbage cans, his wonderful wit and running a variety of errands for dozens of east-end neighbors and businesses. He was a true friend to so many.
"Tom was born in Lancaster, Ohio and enjoyed living his entire life here. He was one of the first attendees at the Sheltered Workshop (now Fairfield Industries/Forest Rose) that his parents were instrumental in starting, an Eagle-Gazette newspaper carrier in his younger years and a devoted usher at St. Bernadette Church for over 30 years. He also enjoyed traveling to Athens for Ohio University basketball games.
"Tommy was given the opportunity to grow and learn in a nurturing neighborhood surrounded by a large network of friends who gave him purpose in life and a much-needed daily routine. He had a knack of stating the truth in a blunt, honest, heartfelt way. He was an official goodwill ambassador who understood the simple pleasures of life, small acts of kindness, and the importance of the lost art of conversation. He touched many lives in many ways, reminding you of tasks that needed completed, bills that needed paid, groceries that were on sale for the week."
More than his family will miss this man. The local east-end Kroger store has his bright yellow bicycle chained securely in a little niche at the front of the store, his helmet and some gear with the bike and a plaque mounted on the wall above his bike. A stone marker could not express loss any dearer or clearer.
It was told that his mother had moved into a retirement community so he would have a place to live after she died. Also words were passed around not to give Tommy anymore cigarettes which were thought to have caused lung cancer that darkened this bright ray of sunshine.
One of the Gospel writers expressed it this way, "You are the salt of the earth [and].you are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid..." Matthew 5:13-14 We could say, "Pass the salt please and give me a light so I can see..."
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THE WORDWRIGHT
A couple essays ago I wrote about a small lard oil miner's lamp. Customarily some wrote stating they had never heard of such a lamp but they had known about the carbide lights (or lamps). My little lamp was popular before World War One, so that is a generalized authentication that my old miner's lamp is easily 100 years old. Big deal. There is a ten foot long bookcase (golden oak with walnut trim) behind me, with six doors on it (half of them still have the antique glass in them) that was most likely built on the premises of the Fairfield County Children's School 127 years ago or 27 years before my little lard oil lamp was manufactured in What Cheer, Iowa. This bookcase is filled with books, as are over a dozen other bookcases because we are "book people".
When I was twelve years old my Grandfather Harry E. Keadle told me stories about a long stick having been made from a school house where one of our presidents taught school. He told me that story many times and as I grew older he promised that one day that stick would be mine. Really it wasn't just a stick, it was a pointer like school teachers of years gone by used to point out places on a map or in drills of the letters and ciphers (as reading and arithmetic were "taught to the tune of the hickory stick" as the old song goes.).
My Grandfather Keadle's father, John R. Keadle, taught school and to my obvious dismay I never either knew or had wondered if my great grandfather had once used this pointer. But what I do know, my Great Grandfather John R. Keadle did teach school in Missouri when his son, my Grandfather Harry E. Keadle was born in Trenton, Missouri, in 1880. This old pointer is 41-1/8" long and the most narrow diameter is 5/8" at its point and 1-1/8" diameter at the end held by the teacher. It is obvious the pointer had been carved or shaped using a draw knife with the "hickory stick" held in a shaving horse. What is most impressive to me is the hand-cut (carved with a penknife no doubt) 1/4" high lettering on this antique school master's pointer:: "MADE FROM OLD SCHOOL HOUSE IN HARRISON TP, MUKINGUM CO., O. WHERE PRESIDENT JAMES A. GARFIELD TOT SCHOOL IN 1848." (With such a hand-carving job one has to allow the carver some license in not spelling out "taught" but carving "TOT" instead and he also left the "S" out of "Muskingum".)
Today, I now wonder if my Great Grandfather Keadle might have been the one who had used a draw knife to carve that pointer before his son was born in Missouri. Perhaps the words carved in the pointer were simply authentication of the pointer, where the hickory lumber came from and became part of his teaching aids. All this is conjecture obviously, but it sure makes a good story that I can now say I have shared about my interesting ancestors. Oh yes, I almost forgot. I also have an Autograph album he had passed around to his students (scholars as they were called) in Hooksburg, Ohio (Morgan County, just south of Muskingum County). On October 21, 1883, Lillie Fisher wrote:
To my teacher --
Tis sweet to be remembered
By those we trust are true,
Please think of me sometime
And I'll often think of you.
Apparently my great grandfather only taught in Missouri for a while and after their son was born he returned to Ohio where he continued teaching. There are only faded notes here and there so how long he taught cannot be determined. It is my understanding he was a student at Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, about the time the school became co-educational.
Do you get the idea that I enjoy old stuff?
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After I wrote "This Little Light of Mine" a good friend of mine, James Saddler in Huntsville, Alabama, sent me another lard oil lamp to add to my collection. The oil lamp Jim sent me was made by J. Anton & Son of Monongahela, PA., and has a patent date of 1904. MANY THANKS, JIM!
THE WORDWRIGHT
By T. J. Ray, Oxford, Mississippi
In those days I thought image was important, and I liked the image presented by several colleagues who smoked pipes. Despite the desire and the money I wasted, I never got the hang of smoking. Couple that with my distaste for cigarette smoke and my gagging at the whiff of cigar smoke, I played the fool for a while.
All that is another way of saying that I don't like smoking. I often asked my dad not to smoke, but I'm not sure his emphysema killed him, though it surely contributed to it. He never considered suing a tobacco company, just as he didn't join the group lawsuit against the asbestos companies. During the Big War, he worked in a shipyard where asbestos was used a lot. His argument was that the asbestos producers didn't set out to harm him.
And all that leads me to the announcement that a Florida jury has awarded three hundred million dollars to a lady who sued a tobacco company. "Cindy admitted her fault to the jury," her attorney, Robert W. Kelley, said in a statement. "But Philip Morris refused to accept any responsibility for her emphysema, even though she was an addicted customer for 25 years."
A jillion dollars for continuing to do something voluntarily for decades? I've stood in tobacco stores and convenience stores and watched folks purchase packs of smoke. Never have I seen a gun pointed at their heads. And year after year after year they do the same thing, often in the face of advice from their doctors to stop smoking. Even after their lung X-rays show the cloud gathering in their body.
From 1938 till 1974, subsidies were as integral to tobacco farming as rich soil and a damp climate. By 1977 tobacco production was growing without subsidies to farmers, mainly for export. Given the illogic of the woman in Florida getting three hundred million, one wonders if the day will come when a U.S. Company is sued by someone in another country for getting lung cancer.
The topic here is rather smoky; when does the individual accept personal responsibility for risking his or her own life? For instance, if a man takes a handful of aspirin each day because he heard it helps prevent heart attacks, should he be able to sue Bayer Aspirin when the pills eat a hole in his stomach? Or, if a person chooses to drink heavily, is it acceptable to file a lawsuit against the whiskey manufacturer when he becomes an alcoholic? Or, will the kid in San Francisco who uses marijuana excessively from free clinics be able to sue the city for his drug addiction? Just one more: why should McDonald's be liable for someone spilling hot coffee in a lap after they leave the store?
I wonder how many ashtrays were on the table in that Florida jury room.
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THANKS, T.J. I grew up smelling smoke on dad's clothes and never thought anything about it - and today no one seems to think much about it either. My father lived to nearly 93 and smoked a pipe, cigars, even chewed tobacco. Finally he went to cigarettes until one day his wife said, as she pulled out the last cigarette from the pack, "This is the last one for me." That's all it took, dad quit too. That was probably close to twenty years before he died - of old age. Personally I am glad I never started the habit of smoking. I wonder if today's tobacco might be more potent than it used to be or were smokers back then more potent than what they were smoking?
THE WORDWRIGHT
Did you ever wonder how long people have been communicating with other people? "Say the word, I, we, it, mother, brother, ten, and you are speaking words which, in one form or another, men of Europe and Asia have used for thousands of years." So wrote Frederic M. Wheelock in his book, "LATIN, An Introductory Course." (Don't bother to run to the local Barnes & Noble looking for this book because the issue I found this in was Copyrighted 1956, 1960 and 1968)
I have written in other places joshing about those who say "print is outdated, and books are disappearing" and I still say "balderdash". In case you haven't noticed, computers generate more paper than anything that has come down the pike during the last fifty years. We thought mimeographs were great (those of us who even remember what a mimeograph is, or was) but the computer and its printer, loaded with paper, can generate sufficient paper to qualify its owner to be called a publisher within months of possessing these electronic machines.
DON'T EVER STOP LEARNING - Does the "do it your selfer" or professional mechanic ever get enough tools? If there's a shooter in the family, does he/she just have one gun? Language is a tool in a shop. And reading is that unique tool for language. Unfortunately those who are semantic slight of hand artists in our world think they have all the answers and because of them our society is so concerned about leaving this group or that group out we have even let "politics" get into language - politically correctness. The moral for this thought is don't let the politically collect group drain all the blood (or meaning) out of all the important words. Whether these PC people want to admit it or not, differences in people do exist and instead of (attempting to) deny those differences we should celebrate them.*
All learning comes easy or hard depending on what you already know, or enabled yourself to know. Experience may be the best teacher but doubtless one could not find a more dangerous or harder teacher. The mind (brain) we humans have is one of the most copied or emulated objects man has on his drafting or research table. You may not know a scripture from a scarcement but you better know a spark can start a fire. You better know troubles, unattended to, can burn you out or make your mind sick.
Learning is basic to life. It is also user friendly. What you learn today may save your life tomorrow, or no less than make you understand what someone is trying to sell or tell you--in person or on the TV. An open heart or mind is the vessel of choice if you plan to be around long on this ball of clay swirling around the Sun. Otherwise, plan on letting someone else do all the thinking, working and care(ing) for you the rest of your life.
*Attribution is due Michael Golden, whose essay "Don't Rewrite the Bible" which appeared in the Fourth Edition of "Exploring Language". At the time of its publication (1986), Mr. Golden was an elementary school teacher in Brooklyn, New York. A brief commentary, "It is absurd." succinctly expresses Michael Golden's opinion on some politically correct words. Just in case this seed thought arouses your interest, "Exploring Language" Edited by Gary Goshgarian was published by Little, Brown and Company, Boston. ISBN 0-316-32157-5
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WITH THANKS to T. J. Ray, Oxford, Mississippi, THE WORDWRIGHT shares these words about KEEPING CHRISTMAS...
Though I have no idea who penned the following words, I am sure he had me in mind in many of them. I hope you find your way through the jungle of jingles this year. Perhaps we can all produce a happier tune for those around us.
Keeping Christmas
There is a better thing than the observance of Christmas day, and that is keeping Christmas.
Are you willing to forget what you have done for others, and to remember what other people have done for you; to ignore what the world owes you, and to think of what you owe the world; to put your rights in the background and your duties in the middle distance and your chances to do a little more than your duty in the foreground; to see that your fellow men are just as real as you are, and try to look behind their faces to their hearts, hungry for joy; to own that probably the only good reason for your existence is not what you are to get out of life but what you are going to give; to close your book of complaints against the management of the universe and look around you for a place where you can sow a few seeds of happiness - are you willing to do these things even for a day?
Then you can keep Christmas.
Are you willing to stoop down and consider the needs and the desires of little children;
to remember the weakness and loneliness of people who are growing old; to stop asking how much your friends love you and ask yourself whether you love them enough; to bear in mind the things that other people have to bear in their hearts; to try to understand what those who live in the same home with you really want, without waiting for them to tell you; to trim your lamp so that it will give more light and less smoke, and to carry it in front so that your shadow will fall behind you; to make a grave for your ugly thoughts and a garden for your good thoughts, with the gate open - are you willing to do these things even for a day?
Then you can keep Christmas.
Are you willing to believe that love is the strongest thing in the world - stronger than hate, stronger than evil, stronger than death - and that the blessed life which began in Bethlehem nineteen hundred years ago is the image and brightness of the Eternal Love?
Then you can keep Christmas.
And if you keep it for a day, why not always?
But you can never keep it alone.
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(T.J. Ray, a retired professor of English at the University of Mississippi)
The Incomparable Christ
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, human attempts 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. -- THE WORDWRIGHT
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 marshaled 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 and gone, 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
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Bill and Jean Venrick wish you a Blessed Merry Christmas and the Best Wishes for a Happy New Year. Get ready to use the numbers 2010 in your checks and other notes.
The passing of loved ones, whether it be parents, children or siblings, creates a need for us to "look back" in our mind's eye to conjure up sufficient memories to soothe us for the moment. Sometimes we are able to do a bit better by pulling out a photo album or digging through that box that has photos which had never quite made it to an album but you just couldn't throw them away.
Another thought of mine goes back probably twenty years when a friend of mine said his parents didn't leave any tracks of their existence. That is not the case with either of our parents but it certainly is a sad state of non-existence if that is the case with your family.
Even during hard times like the years of the Great Depression and the years shortly after, people found the few cents required to "take a snapshot" or even spend a few hard-earned dollars to go the professional photographic studio downtown and get a real portrait. My wife and I were born in 1932 which is about three years into the depression and it surprised us to find a precious photo of my wife standing at the end of a little building her father built for them to live in until their more adequate house was built.
My parents did not seem to be in the same financial straits that my wife's parents experienced because in addition to a photo album stuffed with snap shots we still have a few pictures where you got " all dressed up" and had a real photo made, you know the kind, where the photo is mounted in a decorated easel style folder you would see on mantels, bureaus or tables. Perhaps the exact reasons such photos were bought will never be known but suffice it to say it's good those photos were acquired. Recently we came across a photo of my wife and her brother when they were around eight and three years of age. The first thing we thought was her parents spending that kind of money because it would have been considered a luxury.
Whatever the reasons photos were taken, their very presence is proof that, even if money had to be put aside for a few weeks or maybe even put the expense on a charge tab, some kind of value was realized by leaving photographic tracks (or images). What is really sad and disappointing to descendants is to find pages of albums filled with people without any names - and no one is alive to help identify them.
True, trips down memory lane can be made in our minds but isn't it nice to physically look at photos "way back when they or we were kids" or when our parents got married and kids were only a gleam in their father's eyes.
Today's digital cameras have nearly brought the professional photo studio into your kitchen or living room table. And really, this has only happened during the last few years because only the wealthy could afford a digital cameras. The inexpensive digital cameras today, and the computer programs to crop, size and group pictures make preserving pictures as easy as taking the pictures - well, with the help of older grandchildren maybe! And we must not forget the cell phones with cameras!
A strange announcement was found in our newspaper about a photographic business shutting down and they wanted the public to stop by and look at photographs that were never picked up. It appears they have a bunch of them and they want to give people a chance to come in and look over these photos and simply take them (at no charge). They're hoping the photos will be appreciated by friends or relatives of people who never came to pick up their pictures. Whatever they have left will simply be trashed. When I heard this I recalled an incidence of several years ago when another photo studio closed after being in business over 75 years and they had a large quantity of glass negatives that were simply trashed! My, what personal photographic records were simply lost because someone did not place any value in that old-time method of printing photos from glass slides.
I have attended many auctions or sales where a box of albums are often on the tables, as well as professional studio photos. No one cared or had any interest in keeping or sending these photos on to descendants. Probably twenty years ago my wife saw two very large oval picture frames with photos of a local couple and bought them sheerly because of the frames. Years ago my wife's own family made the decision to trash many old large picture frames but they saved the photos which were, for the most part, photos that had been re-touched with charcoal techniques. It is not a simple matter to save or store such prints either and silverfish can cause damage to such photos stored carelessly. But some in today's society seem to say, "Who cares?"
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TAKE A PICTURE TODAY -- and leave tracks. But don't forget to identify the people in the photo! THE WORDWRIGHT
T. J. RAY, Guest essayist, from Oxford, Mississippi
Retired English professor - University of Mississippi
Mom often rebuked Mr. Catledge for letting his hunting dogs, which he kept in his back yard near ours, bark and bark and bark much of the night. The problem and the dogs went away when he got too old to hunt. She always insisted that neighbors have some duty to those around them not to disturb their world.
Neighbor is a curious word, one that has lost much of the meaning Mom thought it included. In Anglo-Saxon it started as a verb, buan "to dwell." A person who dwelled close at hand was a neah gebur "near dweller". What one Anglo Saxon homeowner expected of his near dwellers I don't know, but in time the word began to suggest a friendliness, a willingness to be compatible to the neighborhood. People thought that folks in the "hood" were somehow special and greeted them with "Hi, neighbor." A cup of sugar or stick of butter was usually available in a pinch when it was too late to go to the store and the cake was almost ready for the oven.
Recently a friend (who is not a neighbor) shared his frustration with me about one of his neighbors. Seems the neighbor owns one or two large dogs, which he lets out of the pen about five o'clock each morning. These critters immediately set to howling, as though they have a major disturbance to deal with, keeping it up for almost an hour.
I asked my friend how he was dealing with it. His grim expression answered my question eloquently. He doesn't know how to deal with it. His first impulse was to confront his neighbor, as Mom used to confront Mr. Catledge, but he doesn't really know the guy, barely knows his name. Another solution was to call the law on the fellow, but he concluded without reason that the problem would return as soon as the law departed. In extreme moments of trying to milk those last thirty minutes of cozy sleep before giving up, my friend fleetingly considered just going up the street, standing in front of the "neighbor's" house and shooting the offending curs.
What choice did he make I asked: polite request for silence, calling the sheriff, or shooting the beasts. His answer with a sad shake of the head was "None of those." So there he is, almost waiting for the unwanted wake-up yelping and terribly frustrated by the fact that there is no good way to deal with the problem.
This case suggests that long ago, warm feelings neighbors once had for folks living near them have gone away. Perhaps it is instructive to know that the early Dutch word boer and the modern English word boor come from the same early Germanic "gebur." The Dutch word signified a peasant (the Boer War) or an insensitive person. Maybe our word for loud, insensitive, uncaring, rude, and thoughtless folks ought to be neighboor.
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THANKS T.J., for this word study. You've given us sufficient food for thought to ruminate about ourselves and our neighbors. THE WORDWRIGHT
Words "make the world go around". Words make or lose the sale. "A word fitly spoke is like apples of Gold..." (Proverbs 25:11a. KJV). It has always been so. Even the wisest man in the sacred Scriptures dared to say, "...of making many books there is no end." (Ecclesiastes 12:12) WORDS make up such books.
The "makers of computers" have tried to convince us that the printed book is gone forever, which is tantamount to saying "we know we are not ". The doomsday prophets numbering the days for print don't give up easily but it will be a long time before all printed books have disappeared. True, the newspaper has bought into this theory and sometimes we have to admit, "rightly so" but let's face it, the newspaper has always been somewhat of a temporary collection of (sometimes) mindless words. "Fish wrapper" is something many newspapers are destined to be. And consider the bottom of the bird-cage --- not exactly a memorable place to be, would you say?
Do not be hoodwinked. Those CD's you get with computer software are today's substitute for books of yesteryear. But the consumers are the printers of those owner manuals! True, the contents of these plastic disks are not printed with ink onto paper which is folded, stitched , glued and bound into a real book. But the books of centuries past were not exactly like books on our shelves either. So, "books" have changed through the ages from clay tablets, stiff course sheets of papyri or parchment made from dried skins of animals that were rolled into scrolls and stored in clay jars. It is still safe to quote that old passage: "...of making many books there is no end..." Books, and "print" have just taken on a new form and look.
A few years ago when I built a bookcase that is in back of the computer I am working on right now, I thought it would be a novel thing to plaster a piece of a newspaper "Classified Ads" onto one side of the case with the hope that someday someone would read about the prices of houses in the days I built that bookcase. Let's face it, those secure copper boxes that fill the ubiquitous corner stones in buildings all around town contain newspapers and copies of books! And books, my friend, are being printed every day - but one thing for sure, they are being written, published and printed in ways never before dreamed of.
"Type" too is nearly an anachronism. The Chinese may well have been the first humans to "make type" or pieces of clay or some rigid material that could be locked up in some kind of chase, letter by letter, word by word, and line by line to express thoughts or ideas. Then that "type" would be impressed onto a piece of paper and passed around for people to learn something they may not have known before. Then, of course, to type (before computer days) you used a typewriter! Try and find one of those today - you might start with Yard Sales.
WHAT is said is important but what really matters is WHO said something. The ridiculous warnings printed on practically everything from toasters to hedge trimmers are a perfect example. Who in the world would do some of the stupid things that are written as warnings on a bread toaster? But alas, it is only because of our litigious society that these warnings are included. There is a CYR policy or procedure. Ask any nurse what this cryptic expression or note might mean. Notes on a hospital chart are written for the primary purpose of protecting someone's reputation and reliability. The WHO is still the most important when I consider anything printed.
What I am trying to say is WHO is the most important when it comes to what is written (that which has been set in type, composed by word processors, or written with a ball-point pen). The one who writes "I love you" is demonstrating conversation, not just preparing a message. And WHO says that message is more important than the words! Napoleon used what and who words accurately when he said, "It is the cause and not the death, that makes the martyr." And Pythagoras knew words are vehicles -- "A thought is an idea in transit."
Don't give up on the printed word. What you are reading truly is not a book, nor is it printed on paper (at least not unless you "select PRINT") but it is as close to being printed in a book as you can get, at least in our world of computerized copy. And our world of copy machines (printers included) has made it possible to print thousands of copies of whatever we want to say without holding a pencil or ball-point pen in our hands - we just select a few keys and "let our fingers" do all the work.
What good is what you are thinking unless you put it into words? I suppose something can be thought of that might contradict what I just wrote but the principle behind these words is WORDS ARE COMMUNICATION. Talk to people. Tell people what they need to know. Without words from the special person, YOU, no one will be able to fulfill your needs or be aware of your wants..
I am about ready to agree with Dante's thoughts, "Come, follow me, and leave the world to its babbling." NO MORE BOOKS? Balderdash!
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I enjoy working with wood, and I suppose anyone who picks up a plane, a hammer, saw or a chisel could write an article about their projects. Yesterday I finished a project I started just a few week ago - honestly I have one more phase to finish before I can really say I'm done (but isn't that always true--we never really get done until we're read about in the obits).
My wood shop is mobile! Some things take a while so when I checked to see when I got motivated to "put wheels" on my woodworking machine I looked in the front pages of "The Small Wood Shop" (one of many books from "Fine Woodworking" magazine) and there it was: 12-13-94. Some projects don't happen "right away". (See further notes of reference at the bottom of this essay.)
As many of my projects start, there was a reason I had to clean up my shop - we needed to replace our 45 year-old garage door. Since we abandoned the idea of keeping a car in the garage many years ago, it became a great place to have some areas to do our bread-winning business of making rubber stamps until we retired in 1994, and then it was natural to add a few more items to the already stuffed garage. One week before the garage door man was scheduled to visit my shop to tell me what had to be done so he could work became the impetus to "clean out the shop". I simply had too much stuff. Mind you, it wasn't "junk"--it was (and still is) usable lumber and related items but "space" was voted on and something had to go.
An old "picked up" chest of drawers was the first project to be "mobilized". WHEELS make the world go around, or so they say, and now that old chest of drawers got wheels and it is now movable and not something you have to scoot around or leave it be. In order to attach the casters ("wheels" to the non- mechanical person) I had to remove the drawers so I could mount the casters to the bottom of the carcass. Boy, was I making progress! My first thought was to junk that old chest of drawers but the longer I looked at what was in the drawers I knew I have to save it. When I got those wheels on the old chest I immediately knew I had to put wheels on my router table. But I had already found a temporary place to store that router table because I had made a tall bench under which I could scoot the router table until I found time to attach casters to its carcass. The tall bench was "another project" I had to finish before the garage door man could even come to give me the verdict about what kind of work-room he needed. Well, when I got that tall bench made, and the router table scooted under same, there was my great Ryobi BT3000 -- in the way!
But I really didn't know my "Ryobi Saw System" was in the way because I like to work in small spaces, I thought the garage door guy could work around it! Wrong!. When I had gotten my chest of drawers "casterized" and a little more arrangement I called the garage door guy and then it was made plain I had to move the saw completely out of the garage!
Well, thankfully the weather cooperated and not only did I remove all the "extra" lumber which I had stored in great little containers here and there, the day the garage door installer came I had put my saw out in the drive-way (with the other stuff--already covered with tarps).
$715 later, when that new garage door had been installed, I made a decision - REAL WHEELS had to be mounted on my BT3000 Ryobi Saw cabinet. (I am not making anything for touting its name and needless to say I did not pay full-price for my saw either--I got it only after the distributor dropped the price almost 50% because they weren't selling back in 2001 in our laid back town!) So, when I wheeled my saw back into the shop (it had big rigid casters mounted on one end but you had to raise the other end almost 30 degrees to get it high enough to make use of the wheels) I knew I had to get a real wheel system.
Now, what all happened since that moment, is the real gist of this story. And also, back to the great article I mentioned earlier. I could have bought a mobile arrangement at another big-time store but it would require me to spend $70. Nope, I could make it myself. So I found that article in "The Small Wood Shop" and got busy. I drew up the plans (mentally and on scraps of paper) and with some revision to the mental and paper notes I can finally proudly say my saw is now easily moved around to store it out of the way when not in use. When I want to use it I roll it where I want, put my foot on the ledge of the mobile base, press down, and with a couple other movements I can lower the cabinet to rest on its rigid base and shazamm, the saw is ready to use!
To the mechanical minds out there, my system is an adaptation from sketches in the book by Fine Woodworking and is simply explained as an hinged "L" arrangement mounted on either end of my saw cabinets. The natural pivoting function of the casters (primary pivot) was simplified by keeping the casters close to the "hinged" area (or the shorter part and secondary pivot) of the "L" plywood fixture. I used 3/4" plywood for both the tall and short pieces of plywood (the "L") and hinged them with whatever hinges I had. With a little ingenuity, trial and error, I found the system worked great! Once I got the casters mounted on the plywood (before attaching same to the cabinet) it was only a matter of choosing the right size (thickness) of board to temporarily hold up the saw cabinet to create a "ground zero" or required space between cabinet and the floor. Next I bolted the upper plywood section to the cabinet end[s]. When slight foot pressure was applied to the lower-hinged plywood section, the saw cabinet raised, disengaging strut and (having removed the temporary board) the cabinet easily lowered to the floor. Mounting the struts was a simple matter of form and function - strut "on" and "off" position to maintain a 90 degree support or released position. If you don't get any of this you'll just have to buy your own mobile attachment. On second thought, here is a picture of the mobile platform I made for my Ryobi saw.
I think I could have had fun building the pyramids or maybe tossing those big stones around in England and all over that part of the world.
THANKS FOR READING...The Wordwright
NOTES: If you have access to a good library where archives are kept and not re-cycled, Page 79 is where the article "Machines On Wheels" shows the idea I used. THANKS, Jim Boesel, if you're still among us, your article and the handy drawings by another Jim, Jim Richey, the four pages of text and drawings are a boon to any small shop woodworker! "The Small Wood Shop" is published by The Taunton Press of Newtown, Connecticut. Also I have to add another bit of truth. This was really not the first time I put wheels in my shop; I put wheels on a 12" planer in my Tollgate Country Woodshop but before I invite you to visit that shop I have some more cleaning up to do.
The man who wrote about the [many] roads less traveled was asked dozens of time, "Dr. Peck, why is there evil in the world?" Yet in all his seminars, all his interviews, all his patients, no one ever asked him, "Why is there good in the world?"
When we are challenged to figure out a puzzle we only solve those mind games when we stop and study the configuration of the objects. When I was in my pre-teens my blind grandfather could untie knots better than I could - and he couldn't even SEE the tangled shoe strings! What deep dark secret did he have stashed away in his mind that enabled him to untie the knot in his grandson's shoe laces?
In our 58 years of marriage, my wife and I have been in several different churches (really, congregations) and we have never found a perfect church. We're not the only ones though because recently we received an e-mail from someone who had been "bothered" and he wrote, "In the past 30 years I have seen so much here...decisions made that I don't like...". Before I even had a chance to think about writing this person a response my wife said, "I'm going to write Charlie..." (We don't have any "Charlies" in our church so don't try to figure out who it is.) What my wife wrote him was nothing more than he should have figured out himself - if he had just looked at the problem instead of trying to think where he could go after he "left our congregation".
International Business Machines (IBM) does not have a monopoly on the word THINK, even though they made the word famous years ago with those word reminders you would see on desks all over the country. Before we change jobs we need to check out that place we think has "greener grass". Is it closer or farther than where we work now? Is it a new or older company? What kind of people work there? Do people seem happy who work there? Four questions have been noted and money or hours have not been considered. One time I asked a new personnel director what she thought of her new job; she said, "Bill, all jobs are really the same - you just trade problems." And she was the HR person! Admittedly it may be hard to accurately find out if most people are happy at their jobs, but it is not rocket science to read the odometer to check mileage, or in a few visits to the place it shouldn't be too difficult to get an idea of employee attitudes. THINK - it's a good start before you change.
Life is full of contrasts. Differences prevail rather than diminish. Could it be good is in the world to alleviate the bad? Poets have a field day with different climates or personalities--why can't we learn from them if there were no other pedagogue around. Rather it is obvious people do what they want to do. Axioms abound, one in particular has taught Psychology 101 with the words: "If you always do what you've always done, you will always get what you've always got." Simple. Discontent? Try something different - THINK. Perhaps we are the good that some evil people need. Perhaps we are the bad, in someone's eyes, that cause their problems. Perhaps the contrasts (in people, in patterns) produce the total picture. Could it be that it is our grandma who is saying, "Everybody is out of step but my Billy"? Hummmm. Perhaps we are where we are by God's design or providence, by fate, by chance or maybe because we were trained to be there or maybe it was just plain dumb luck. Whatever the reason, don't waste the experience.
In our country or culture we don't believe in a caste system but the truth is we just don't admit to its existence. No one dares to talk this non-existent caste system but too often, for example, when a couple marries, they suddenly discover that God makes people different from others. Often, principles of physics enters and we learn "opposites attract" and couples flail about in life, mystified at such findings. Sometimes we actually realize this is a genuine complement of personalities.
Our varying personalities and characteristics create issues when we do not regard our mates. There are social levels that literally govern certain individuals and if a "poorer" caste becomes a mate of a "wealthier" caste, problems often develop. This should not surprise us but still folks who are bred in a different social or financial climate often discover that money does mean more to some than others. My own father-in-law confessed a rather candid remark once when he said, "Marriage is the biggest gamble a man and a woman could ever make." He said that after he had been married nearly sixty years. My barber once told me, "Love is blind; marriage is an eye-opener." Good advice is available even in the barbershop.
Our country doesn't get it because one of the comments recently aired on a C-Span interview was that some great percentage, like 95%, of jobs require education past high school. I'm not exactly sure but I think some miscalculations are at fault. College is simply not for everyone! Oh sure, there are trade schools and employment educational programs but the pressure for "going to college" is one of the faux facts that cause young people to go into more debt than is practical or sensible - and consequently some never pay off those loans or take years to pay off.
Back to my theme, "We just don't get it." YES, we just don't get it: about people's differences, about the invisible caste system in our nation, about opposites attracting, about morning people, about marriage being a daily adjustment of two lives: neither is more important than the other except to those who still think man is superior to the woman -- his head is in the sand!..
Dredging deeper yet into lists of people, a fellow wordwright friend of mine in Huntsville, Alabama, shared some information written by Bill Federer (American Minute for October 5, 2009) about descendants:
"Jonathan Edwards married Sarah Pierrepont, and according to A Study in Education and Heredity by A.E. Winship (1900), their descendants included a U.S. Vice-President, 3 U.S. Senators, 3 governors, 3 mayors, 13 college presidents, 30 judges, 65 professors, 80 public office holders, 100 lawyers and 100 missionaries.
This same study examined a family known as "Jukes." In 1877, while visiting New York's prisons, Richard Dugdale found inmates with 42 different last names all descending from one man, called "Max." Born around 1720 of Dutch stock, Max was a hard drinker, idle, irreverent and uneducated. His descendants included 310 paupers, who, combined spent 2,300 years in poorhouses, 50 women of debauchery, 400 physically wrecked by indulgent living, 7 murderers, 60 thieves, and 130 other convicts. The "Jukes" descendants cost the state more than $1,250,000."
Is it still possible or plausible to say it doesn't matter what we do with our lives or be concerned about our attitudes and personalities affecting the lives of others around us? The quality of a country's heritage indeed is based on the quality of those who forged that country's greatness. This should concern us as we observe the workings of America. I am grateful for Doris Wilson, my music teacher at North Elementary in Lancaster, Ohio, because she taught us to sing AMERICA (Written by Samuel F. Smith, 1808-1895) Perhaps you recall the teacher who played the piano as you learned to sing this in school:
My country, ' tis of thee,
sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing;
land where my fathers died,
land of the pilgrims' pride,
from every mountainside let freedom ring!
My native country, thee,
land of the noble free, thy name I love;
I love thy rocks and rills,
thy woods and templed hills;
my heart with rapture thrills, like that above.
Let music swell the breeze,
and ring from all the trees sweet freedom's song;
let mortal tongues awake;
let all that breathe partake;
let rocks their silence break, the sound prolong.
Our fathers' God, to thee,
author of liberty, to thee we sing;
long may our land be bright
with freedom's holy light;
protect us by thy might, great God, our King.
"The course of human history consists of a series of encounters... in which each man or woman or child...is challenged by God to make the free choice between doing God's will and refusing to do it. When Man refuses, he is free to make his refusal and to take the consequences." Arnold Toynbee
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I need to say "THANK YOU" to my friend, James Saddler, of Huntsville, Alabama, for the data in this essay about descendants of two individuals: Johnathan Edwards and a man named "Max". THE WORDWRIGHT
We need to communicate with each other -- and beyond the family too sometimes, but what's there to say? Naturally one has to define the subject but as a matter of fact, there is a lot to say about nearly anything that goes on. In the house. In the neighborhood. In the church. At the school meeting. In the city. In the county. In the state. In the nation. Well, I guess, since you put it that way, there is a lot to say, isn't there?
You are a writer too -- oh, you may not consider yourself one, but whenever you have an opportunity to express yourself, e.g., by writing to the newspaper Letters to the Editor, you are a writer. You are an author, as well, so when you have something to say, write it down (better re-read it though, maybe a couple times) and mail it to the person or persons involved. An added suggestion -- if the subject is controversial and you wrote it right away, sometimes it is better to write it, then allow yourself time to cool off (24 hours will usually do it), then pick it up the next day, read it again and if you still like it, mail it!
So, the next time any subject comes up, why not prepare yourself ahead of time to say something, you have just as much right to speak up, to talk, to comment on anything that any so-called: anchor person says on any TV network -- believe it. You are important, so don't sell yourself short.
You have the necessary tools at your fingertips -- you're using a computer to see this, so unless you do not have word processing program, you are on your way -- so get to it. If your Mom and Dad are still around, communication is always in order. If you're the Mom or Dad, the same thing applies with the kid(s). Computers and the Internet have been a great enabling factor with e-mail - so. "What's there to say?" Just think about it -- you will probably come up with a lot to say. The family is always in need of communication, that cross word or old sore of a family dispute that is old enough to be settled, or that word of encouragement or love left unexpressed, grab a Kleenex and think about it -- then do it! WRITE!
THE WORDWRIGHT
PICTURE YOURSELF facing your spouse about to draw their last breath after 57 years, the only one you ever lived with, sharing thousands of meals, tears of pain, tears of joy and now you just might recall hearing those words uttered as rings were exchanged, "...for better or worse..." Yes, those words were honest because you lived to see the day when that pledge of love was fulfilled in the most difficult way, the last shallow breath and then silence.
I think I can honestly say this is the only time when we can safely say, BELIEF has been proved between two people. Of course there were obviously times when such dedication was there but for the sake of principles and actuality, being at the threshold of death and knowing you were the other half of that promise "for better, for worse, to love and to cherish until death do us part..."
"Why such a gloomy assortment of words today, Bill?" Well, my wife and I traveled two hundred miles to be with the widow of a friend who passed away in the manner mentioned above...that last shallow breath and then silence. His wife experienced the identical moment as hundreds, thousands, millions of spouses have for centuries.
WHO, OR WHAT DO WE BELIEVE? Both of the people in the brief cameo above believed in the other. They worked out problems through nearly sixty years of life together. They shared a common ground of belief, trust and faith in God and each other because they knew this trio of virtues was the muscle and sinew of their marriage. Their lives were the evidence of what was deeply ingrained in them.
BELIEF, TRUST, FAITH are, I am afraid, becoming as uncommon as common sense today.
Our country or nation is going through "another rough time" as the likes of other rough times have actually happened before. (We tend to forget history.) People have "believed" in some thing: a bank, a system, whatever, and that thin thread of belief, trust and faith (like the three woven strands of rope) began to unravel, weaken and finally snap because the other party, the bank[s], the system, or whatever, did not share the common strands of belief, trust and faith. There may have been a board of directors screaming for more profits. Perhaps a CEO had more greed than was proper for a business man. Perhaps the system was being run during the past decades by cutting too many corners and fudging figures to suit jaded concepts of business ethics.
Looking back 80 years to the Great Depression we have admittedly gone through times likes this . And, to hear annotated comments recently, the "terrible shape" we're in "is not as bad as the l960's [or whatever time window is called to mind]. "Do you mean things have been as bad as they are now?" Yes, and maybe worse than they are right now. (It all depends on who is telling the history.)
When a war came along, in our country, for example, World War II. it was an era when patriotism was still in vogue (from the Revolutionary War mainly) and the aim of most citizens, and the direction of our nation, was to STAY TOGETHER, or perhaps more accurately, to STICK TOGETHER. During the duration of World War II, housewives learned how to do without or use less sugar, silk hose, save grease in cans to take to the store (for the cause), plan meals around rationed foods. Men not involved in the war, due to age or physical disqualifications, found the A, B and C gasoline ration stamps on their windshields of the family car limited the use of fuel they could buy. The kids were even involved as they were encouraged to save paper, and any other scrap that might be utilized in recycling to meet the demands of a nation in war. We believed there was a need. We were even willing to sacrifice to meet those needs as long as necessary.
Today, what is so different? We are at war. In fact, several wars -- almost on the tail of the other. We are in a constant alert for warring terrorists. We have seen a war of greed drive our nation to its knees. We have seen giants in the auto industry come begging assembled leaders of our nation for loans that staggered the minds of "normal or average citizens". We have seen, and continue to see, citizens lose their homes because the banks (we were told, were the problem) loaned money to people whose income or credit simply would have disqualified them loans a few decades ago. I am sure the "sides" involved will never truthfully admit to guilt but the wife of a banker told me it was the government's fault that such loans were allowed to be made. Personally I believe this because it is the government who has made it their business to CONTROL much of the economy and anything else it can gets its fingers onto. The elusive "fine print" of loans enticed people to borrow more than they could afford, and somehow when the mortgage blossomed out, it doubled in some instances and an $800 mortgage payment became $1,600! "For better or worse" relationships (marriages, in fact) were drastically affected.
We have a president, who, along with his compatriots, have simply created some issues that makes old-timers wonder how in the world can we spend so much money and expect to straighten out the economy. I wonder sometimes who to believe. I am convinced that there are sincere Democrats and Republicans who love our country. I am also convinced that there are extremists and "Looneys" on both ends of the political spectrum. WHO DO WE BELIEVE? WHAT DO WE BELIEVE?
Hardly a day passes but I receive another e-mail that says this or that to upset or strain relationships or belief, trust or faith in our esteemed leaders. It matters not that they are Democrats or Republicans. There are good people on both sides but let's face it, they are PEOPLE. And most everyone knows that all people are not good people. People makes mistakes and bad people make worse mistakes.
Good people like to think their good friends would not send them untruthful e-mails, for example, and therefor MILLIONS of e-mails zoom through the Internet only later to find that some of the facts are "not entirely correct".
The problem, we are now told is mis-information. And the word ISSUE is used a lot to take the place of the more honest word: PROBLEM. Yes, there are PROBLEMS, folks and ISSUES just don't tell the complete story.
We have left the chicken house door ajar and further allowed the wrong kind of people "in charge" for far too many decades while we thought all was in good hands. We, not the elected leaders, were asleep at the switch. We were not watching the wall for invaders. We have been wronged and we have wronged others. Why is it that our nation cannot see that when we think less of loyalty that such disloyalty can and has ruined our nation? Why have we set income goals so high and then cry "FOUL" when the industries of America "go offshore" to get their products manufactured? Why is it we have killed millions of babies and think we can wash their blood off our hands with the detergent we call "convenience" and not have our minds altered by such actions? Why should we be surprised to find we have thrown out God from our schools and wonder why some are now wanting us to take God's name off our currency? Godliness is not just found in Christianity because we have seen a quite workable "marriage" of Christians and Jews during the past hundred years and more. Tolerance is a different ball game today. We have tried to find value and worth in hyphenating our origins and essentially rubbing out the image of AMERICAN completely. What was once something to be proud to claim, is now something strangely inadequate or unacceptable.
Back to my original plea - WHAT CAN WE BELIEVE? WHO CAN WE BELIEVE? Can we expect most, or all or our nation's leaders to be able to look us directly in our eyes when their last breath is taken, "I have been completely honest with you..." And also, folks, let up on sending all those stories about leaders, heroes, or columnists who say this or that UNTIL YOU KNOW for a fact that they are true.
Personally I think since the advent of C-Span, thirty years ago, we have been able to be more informed than we ever were. Brian Lamb, the founder and CEO of C-span was interviewed and according to the comments in Wikipedia Free Encyclopedia, the following comment serves as enlightenment:
He has been to the grave site of every United States president and vice-president. Lamb is not registered as a Democrat or Republican, he has voted for candidates in both parties during presidential elections. In July 2008, John McCain jokingly described [Lamb's] political affiliation as, "I think he's a vegetarian." In an interview Lamb stated he has "been listening to both sides so long that I don't know what I think anymore".
That is just about where I am - I cannot honestly believe every Democrat or Republican is an idiot, stupid, a liar or any other accusation. I think there is too much glut to sort through and only when that is reduced will we know what we can believe. ####
THE WORDWRIGHT
When I was a young man, and it came time to take our car for routine lubrication and oil change at a SOHIO service station at the Southeast corner of Broad and King Streets in Lancaster, I was never disappointed or ill advised as to anything about our car and the service it needed by Verne McLain..
Verne McClain had a one-man filling station for Standard Oil products - his SOHIO filling station was one of several in our town and each one was nearly as reliable as this one which was a favorite of mine during our years of owning several cars.
Customarily when winter was approaching it was routine for Verne to tell me, when I picked up the car, "Bill, I checked your thermostat and replaced it." (A pan of water on top of a gas heater was his "testing equipment".) This proficient filling station owner did not have any helpers, unless you could call a Scotsman who stopped by occasionally to help Verne pump gas when he was real busy. He never charged extra for such service--just for the part (thermostat) and as I look back to such service, the following experience bounces around in my head with near disgust.
Recently I took my car to one of the so-called FAST service places where they sell tires and lubrication services. Divulging their name is unnecessary and unwise in our litigious society. I will have to admit though, even though I have been disappointed with their service sometimes, once there was such a delay in getting my car serviced they did not charge for that lube job.
I'm a "coupon person" and in hopes of saving a buck when I tendered my $19.95 coupon. The first reaction I received was, "Good, Better or Best?" That's all, no other words, like, "Glad to see you again Mr. Venrick, just "Good, Better or Best?"" Of course Verne McClain, my old SOHIO guy would have called me by name but this guy has to ask me my phone number before he has any idea who I am or when I was there last. Not only have I been there many times, there have also been many employees come and go in the few years I have patronized this place so its for sure if I didn't remember them, they wouldn't remember me!.
I asked, "How much is the GOOD?" After poking a few keys on the computer he announced, "$30 'out the door'." Not sure how I could leave unless I went "out the door" but just the same I said, "Let's just use my $19.95 BASIC discount card. (Funny, in their sales pitch, the word "basic" was absent. So I just decided that card was just a ploy to get me IN the store.) Even with the "basic" price of $19.95 I was charged an additional fee of $3.00 to "get rid of my old oil" plus State Sales Tax of course. After I asked him if I brought a container to put my old oil in, if they would exempt that charge, he said he would so next time I will "take my old oil and give it to a filling station that uses old oil in their heater". I'm sure he will say, "Thanks, Mr. Venrick." yeah, but at least I will know who benefits from my tired oil.
So far this story isn't too far out but when the attendant announced the service was finished there was a "by the way" comment coming -- "Your transmission fluid is brown so you might want us to change that for you." Fortunately my memory was working that morning and I remarked that they had done such a service the last time we had the car serviced there. After pulling up my file on the computer sure enough, they had put a new filter and new fluid in my transmission last time. Then the clerk told me the service technician had only seen my mileage and NOT really checked the dip stick! I considered that a serious misuse of words and genuine mis-information. Yes, I miss first hand--one-man-shop simplicity.
If you haven't picked up the point in this tale, it is simply to say SERVICE and INTEGRITY were words with meaning in years past. Not only did the service station attendant pump the gas into the car, he ("she's" were not in any station I catered to then) would check the oil, radiator, power steering, windshield washer container, wash both front and back windshields as well as giving the side windows a quick swipe and he might even have noticed a low tire and without prodding, "aired it up" and told me so. After the gasoline purchase he would take my credit card, run it through the machine by the gas pumps and bring the slip to me to sign. And I never had to get out of the car. I always bought SOHIO Cushionaire brand tires and any SOHIO station I drove into would immediately recognize me as a SOHIO customer by the tires alone.
I will have to admit this 3-initials place I wrote about earlier has a great "repair deal on tires"-- when tires bought there had a leak, any tire patch service is FREE, no questions or arguments. And they will rotate my tires for FREE too. I guess that's worth more than a few bucks!
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Do you miss anything like this? THE WORDWRIGHT
Aside from becoming frustrated at a stoplight and wondering when it is going to change, this brief essay from OUR DAILY BREAD might just be the solution. Of course you should not "close your eyes and bow your head" but do what we can easily do, multi-task (to borrow a computer word). Complete credit and attribution is hereby given to the fine folks at RBC (Resources for Biblical Communication), also known as Radio Bible Class and years ago simply known as a program in which a former medical doctor, Dr. M.R.DeHaan taught Bible lessons. I have a little tract printed in 1942 by Dr. DeHaan on "Broken Things". M. R. DeHaan's sons, grandsons and probably other family has continued this work begun in Grand Rapids, Michigan decades ago. Their address is simply: Radio Bible Class, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49555-0001. Their INTERNET address is:
http://www.rbc.org/index.aspx
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STOPLIGHT PRAYERS
"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing." I Thessalonians 5:16, 17.
"I have discovered firsthand that Our Daily Bread readers are idea people. For instance, when I mentioned in an article a problem with ants, several readers sent in ideas about how to stop them. And when I mentioned a missionary who had arthritis, many readers submitted their remedies.
"Sometimes our readers present a different side of a topic in Our Daily Bread. For example, after I had detailed how much time we waste waiting for traffic lights to change or phone to be answered, a letter-writer made this suggestion: 'Many Christians use these precious delays to pray. You can pray for each person in the cars around you. You can pray for the people who install and maintain the traffic lights. Or you could ask God to teach you patience with all life's interruptions.'
"That suggestion expresses, I believe, one application of the instruction in today's Scripture text that we should pray without ceasing. In Ephesians 6, Paul said that prayers are a key weapon in the Christian's battle with our spiritual foe. And who knows, our prayers may even be instrumental in keeping someone from defeat.
"Today, use every opportunity to pray to the Lord, even if you are waiting at a red light."
-- J.D.B. (J. David Branon in OUR DAILY BREAD, September-October-November 1991, for Wednesday, September 11.)
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THANKS, J. David Branon for some good advice! Bill Venrick, THE WORDWRIGHT
Lately we have been doing some nostalgic writing and when July 28 came up on the calendar I just had to put something down on paper to share with readers of THE WORDWRIGHT, so welcome to my world as Jim Reeves would say...
BILL VENRICK
NEARLY HALF A CENTURY AGO...
Or, you could say, "Four and a half decades ago, July 28, 1964, Bill and Jean Venrick moved into their "all they could afford" house. We had lived in two places since our jaunt to Hobbs, New Mexico (and several points in Ohio) until it was discovered "the ministry" was not exactly the mold Bill fit in sufficiently to warrant a life-time profession. Not that "we turned our back on the Lord", though, because "Bill and Jean Venrick" were always quite busy "in the vineyard of the Lord" -- we just decided the pew was a better platform than the pulpit. But I digress in getting started in the 45-Year-Story.
YES, Tuesday, July 28, marked the day that we moved into our "new house" in Lancaster, Ohio but it was sans carpet (plywood floor in the Living Room) and the walls were "new plaster white" for more than a year before we decided to adapt a color scheme. The carpet came sooner, of course, but as is the case of many new home owners, you cut here and there to get the price in the range of affordability.[the way it used to be instead of "no money down" and "no interest until 365 days later"]. We had shopped around several months while we were living in our first [little] mortgaged home, deciding whether to join the crowd of Development Houses or a "private contractor" and told the latter all we could afford. He took our self-drawn plans (and top-dollar figure) home and several days later came back and told us "the best I can do is $10,700.00." $10,000 had been our top-dollar amount so that was within the ball park and we struck a deal. From the day we struck the deal, 58 days later we moved into the house this "45 years story" is all about.
Our house was built on the east side of our street which was the dividing line of a development which, for some reason, was not a part of a major development in Lancaster. Right across the street a now 85 year old woman is the oldest resident in our block of close neighbors. The house next to hers was owned by a man who was in East Elementary School when I was a kid. The other side of our oldest neighbor was occupied by another former high school classmate. Just a few years later, a couple built right next to our house and I had been a fellow high school band member of this woman's brother.
Since my father-in-law was a professional carpenter we had involved him in the building of our house in a limited way--he built the custom cabinetry in our bathroom (that helped keep the price of our house lower). Our house was a two-bedroom dwelling, bath, kitchen, living room and half-finished basement--the other half was the garage, since our plot was one of those where the driveway goes right into the "basement" level (you know the arrangement I'm sure). We were the first family to build on the last half of an otherwise city block and only a few years went by before "the rest of that blank ground" filled up with four more houses. The neighbor directly south of our house was a family who had lived right across the street in the house from which we had just moved - we liked that coincidence.
But back to our house. The living room walls showed tell-tale roller splattering from the varnished doors which had been "rolled" when leaned against the newly plastered walls; the roller splattering clearly delineated where the doors had leaned against the wall. We thought nothing of it, and to use my father-in-law's phrase, he "didn't think much of it either"-- not too careful workmanship! But to a young couple who was glad to get settled in their new house, what made the difference?
Our house was small - about 1200 square feet and with just two people, that was good enough for now and 45 years later it is "just right" for two (old) people. Back in 1964 when our house was the first one in this half-block, it was also "at the bottom of the hill." Remember what always comes down hill? WATER. Well, when the first BIG rain came that was our first lesson on "water running down hill" but more specifically in the form of a very thin slurry of mud--right through our basement walls! Even as serious and non-funny as that was, it was even funnier to see our neighbor to the south of us madly scurrying around his house digging trenches to direct the water around his house so he wouldn't have the same thing! This water problem was solved when the neighbors started coming along to the north of us when their grass began to take hold.
Fast forward a few years. Children come along, naturally, and not so naturally. After "losing three children" in our first fifteen years of marriage we had given up on a family until 1966 when we decided to adopt one - no, we adopted two children, and within 9 months! Our daughter was 26 months old and our son was 14-1/2 months old at their adoption. Four years later we needed to add a bedroom. Enter father-in-law again. Jean's father again was a life-saver and great teacher on how to save (more) money. After deciding on a 14-foot square room addition, we started "collecting" the necessities to build on a much needed room.
I used a 2-week vacation to help my father-in-law do routine block laying for the basement portion. But previous to that actual laying blocks I visited a local concrete block manufacturer in town who welcomed us to help him by taking some typical "seconds" from his stacks of finished blocks. Not that the blocks were so poorly made they wouldn't work, they just would not suit a discriminating builder. We used all the "inferior" blocks for under-ground where they would not be seen and used brand new "perfect" blocks above the ground level. The main level (above the basement) was pretty much the same--we scouted and scarfed up every bit of building supplies we could that would be "unseen" and boy were there gold-mines if you just opened your eyes. One quick for-instance was the black insulation panels popular then. A local lumber yard had a poor habit of stacking the seconds of this product on "just another pile" instead of putting a BAD ONE on top of the good ones--and any strong winds always found a way to ruin the top of the stack). No guessing required--"Where did we get a lot of our black panel insulation?" YEP, off that inferior stack--and for a real discount. We not only used the full sheets (when available, on the outside surface) we cut strips of the black panels to fit within the studs and after filling the typical insulation space with usual insulation we made a chase-like form to "top off" that space with MORE insulation with the "strips of black insulation". Consequently our new room is the best insulated part of our house! After about a month we had a new bedroom at the cost of $900. And didn't have to borrow a dime--we just bought as we needed it with several months of planning. I doubt if I ever spent a more profitable vacation, even if my very inadequate talents were not the best and, of course my work continued after my vacation ended as well.
Perhaps we might tell another story or two later about how our house took on changes. So far, we've been able to talk ourselves out of a condo move--so guess we will see if we can hit fifty years in this little house.
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IN A PREVIOUS VIGNETTE I touched on some subjects or incidents that may create a "didn't I read that before" syndrome when you read this essay. This story I am about to share, although similar or paralleling my interests in recycling, for example, is not the same story! So, relax, and enjoy.
"BUSY" IS A WORD that has been used to describe me. In one or more of my essays I have made mention of my Mother's father, Harry E. Keadle. He once told me of a time when I was quite small, but big enough to get into mischief, he heard me picking up a wrench and messing around near one of his weaving looms (he had five at one time). It must have been quite obvious where I was by the sounds his keen ears picked up some metallic noise (he was blind) and he surmised I had a wrench in my hands. "What are you doing Billy?" he asked. My reply turned out to be a classic, "Fixin". I have often wondered if, after I left, he "looked" (really felt) all over the metal loom I was "fixin" to see if I had left a wrench or something else in a working section of one of his looms. "Fixin" has been a hobby of mine for years.
Some hobbies. I suppose, come from a developed ability to fix things, or maybe even design or make things. Sometimes it is a drive or compulsion in which circumstances have cropped up in my life to fix or make something in our home or for our children or other relative in the past years.
WOODWORKING is definitely one of my hobbies. My father-in-law, Ray Steel, was known as a finish-carpenter or cabinet-maker. In his lifetime he had a part in building or finishing six houses. Later I realized he was simply acting as a contractor who hired various men to lay blocks, build the shell, do plumbing and then he would "finish" the insides. He might even do the wiring although he was not an electrician. Once he built a home where he used several ton of Bedford, Indiana Limestone for two fireplaces and outer stone work. He would live in those houses for a while and the urge would come to "build another house" after he and his wife lived in that house for several years. When he married, just prior to the Great Depression, he moved his new wife into a house he had built which only had a very small debt to pay. That was the house where my wife was born on Reese Avenue in Lancaster, Ohio. We even have a few pieces of his workmanship from that house in our house today. I saw my father-in-law at work many times but never imagined that I would some day own some of his tools and become a "half-way-decent" woodworker myself.
Upon my father-in-law's death, inheriting some of his tools obviously created the urge to learn how to use them and apply myself to becoming useful (or busy) in yet another way. I remember my very first project was to make a single shelf which I positioned beneath a large mirror covering the wall at the end of our hallway. "BIG DEAL -- a single shelf." but it was a start in my experience as a woodworker (I would not dare consider myself a real carpenter)..
FOOTSTOOLS became the "signature product" in early woodworking projects. Gradually, more than a couple dozen stools found their way into our house, our son and daughter's houses, other relatives' and friends' houses. My wife kindly scolded me for not making every one of them the same! Each stool was slightly different due to trying this and trying that feature or technique to achieve the desired results. Strength was one desired feature and because of the lack of skill, experience and knowledge of wood the stool designs were definitely strong. Some of my stools could probably have been used in the circus tents for elephants to step on. But somehow they became a regular request so another stool was made. Only one stool, to the best of memories, was a "commissioned job" where money was a result because an auto mechanic ordered a stool for a specific use in his shop.
TOYS of all descriptions also became projects from the shop. My woodworking skills did not begin until after becoming a grandparent so toys were a natural place to utilize basic skills. Several catapults (using Ping Pong balls as ammunition) were made; as well as pull-type toys, miniature writing desks (with a roll of adding machine tape for writing paper) and marble roll toys and puzzles
DUMPSTER DIVING - I hope this doesn't embarrass any of our sophisticated friends (or even family--but they ought to know better) but many projects were either made or fixed using something picked up either on the street (near the curb of course) or in the dumpsters of assorted "Resources" in our town. "Someone's trash is someone else's treasure." Yep, that's me and I can't help it -- it is almost impossible to drive past a "collection" of throw-aways; you never know what is there until you stop and look through it! The word JUNK is a respectable word in my vocabulary. Yes, there is evidence the CO Syndrome (compulsive obsessive) needs factored in -- "You never know when you might need that little or big piece...one of these days." Another syndrome, TMB (too many birthdays) is making it obvious some real trimming down of possessions is needed. It would be a shame to leave "too much stuff for the kids to get rid of" (a morbid but realistic fact just the same). Perhaps I just need to get busy, maybe get away from this computer and build something else and shave down some of my collection from Dumpster Diving.
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THE WORDWRIGHT
Over 1500 years have gone by since the first Vandals ravaged Gaul, Spain, North Africa and sacked Rome. This member of an East Germanic tribe lives on - our newspapers report their existence every day. Our neighborhoods show evidence of their existence. Our cities post warnings to be heeded by this family but their shameless disregard, said to be borne out of malice or ignorance, seems to have thrived instead of diminish. Whatever the cause the Vandals continue to destroy and spoil public and private properties - anything that is beautiful and artistic.
And what is our reaction? Now, as then, 1500 years ago, many often cower in fear, grit their teeth in gut determination that even the Vandals will not dissuade their dreams and mists of attempts to "just have something" that they can call their own. Ah, that could the be the KEY - something "that they can call their own". Ancient Vandals, as in today's society, didn't have anything (they thought) so why should anyone else?
We have heard of the Hatfields and the McCoys. I even know a lady who is an heir of that family squabble. We read and know of the "fighting Irish" and the Missourians who persist at least in slogan, "Show me" what is what. So, why do we act surprised to learn another dysfunctional family exists?
We like to assign titles or tags to our problems and that is not all bad, but we ought to simply stop and consider what and where Vandals "came from". All things have an origin--even if it is a nondescript cobweb indiscreetly lurking in an occasional spot of the home. It is there, the cobweb, because "something is at work". Something is "at work" even when Vandals are the subject.
Could this be a test? Admittedly it is a shame, at least it would be to me, to be a part of a family whose name has been Anglicized to describe some crappy people who get their thrills out of toppling cemetery stones or trash mail boxes along country roads. And it is the same family instinct that is the cause of discarded cigarette butts being thrown wherever they please. It is the same family trait that drives owners of vehicles to drive however they please. And it is the very nature of all of us to sometime, someway, somehow disregard another's feelings, property or existence.
Undoubtedly this family still exists and determines to live on by some odd quirk of providence or purpose to demonstrate unfailingly that some still don't care but the real test is what we do with such information. A bit of caution is in order. In our litigious society ("crazy world" would be another way to say it) you have to be careful. Building a mail box out of ½ thick sheet steel would probably cause such vibrations for a ball bat-wielding vandal that they could sue you - check your rights before you spend money or time unwisely.
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THE WORDWRIGHT
In the Book of Jeremiah we read: "O Lord, do not your eyes look for truth?" (Jeremiah 5:3). The Apostle Paul wrote: "Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body." (Ephesians 4:25).
Most of us want to be truthful in everything we say. While we sometimes condone what we call "little white lies" we still want to be known as people of integrity who speak only words that are true.
If we are truly people of integrity we are very careful in our daily conversation about passing on information about our friends or relatives or neighbors that may not be accurate. To be sure we are not saying something that may be fallacious we go to the original source to determine if what we have been told is 100% true. When we conduct any business we want to be completely transparent and honest.
In spite of the fact that there was a movie a few years ago that attempted to show how difficult it is to always be completely truthful, we realize that not only does God expect us to speak the truth but our society as a whole still expects us to be honest in what we say.
We hold in contempt the sales persons who deliberately misrepresent their products so that they can make a sale. Years ago I tried to sell some books door-to-door. (I will not identity them since they were very honest books). The person who trained me tried to teach me that if a person asked a question about something in the books and I did not know the answer it was OK to just make up an answer. It did not take me long to realize that I could not and would not make sales calls in that manner.
In spite of the fact that we pride ourselves on being honorable persons whose words can be trusted, we have become guilty of using the Internet to pass on information that is not true. Almost every day I get an E-mail that contains information about something that is totally or, at least, partially erroneous. This was especially so during the past (2008) election. Both parties were guilty of disseminating false information about the candidates of the opposite party.
Today we call these fallacious E-mails "urban legends." Some have been floating around in cyberspace for many years. I would like to appeal to all who use the Internet to please do some checking before you pass on any E-mails. Some can sound so authentic but be partially or completely false. A short list of resources follows - use them to become a sleuth for truth yourself. Perhaps the classic wisdom, "If it sounds or claims to be too good to be true, it is probably not true" is the best guide or advice. Unfortunately, in our rush to judgment or communicate, especially if the subject is a pet of ours, we just can't wait to forward this story or that great bit of information (or gossip). Gossip never had such speedy resources before the Internet and e-mail. An older, and wise friend of mine in Arizona once told me, "Bill, 95% of the 'stories' you get via e-mail are simply lies." My friend might be accused of exaggerating but I would rather bet on his advice than become a liar because of passing on false or incorrect information.
Here is a partial list of resources to become a Sleuth for Truth:
http://www.truthorfiction.com/
http://www.snopes.com/
http://www.scientificamerican.com/section.cfm?id=fact-or-fiction
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyond_Belief_(television)
If you want to be known as a person of integrity in your personal dealings with others, then please be such a person when you use the Internet.
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THANKS TO my friend Robert J. Tinsky, in Oblong, Illinois, for the majority of thoughts expressed above; some suggestions of my own have been added to Bob's thoughts. THANKS BOB! THE WORDWRIGHT
Subtitle: The importance of personal responsibility
COMMON SENSE is getting pretty uncommon in our world today. If you doubt that, try reading the HOT warnings on a cup of coffee at your favorite drive-thru or quick-food restaurant. It is common sense that dictates a standard operating procedure for a good friend of mine who happens to like guns. This friend is not a rocket scientist, nor a holder of a Ph.D. degree and I would almost bet he doesn't even have a Bachelor Degree in anything past human nature. You know how he handles the problem, if it really is a problem, of having guns in his house? WHENEVER (emphasis intentional) a child comes in his house, the first thing he does is disarm EVERY GUN in his house! He actually keeps ammunition in some of his firearms and those guns automatically are checked and my friend, after having checked to see if there is a cartridge in the barrel, he simply removes the magazine clip and puts it in his pocket!
No child will EVER be able to find a gun to "pretend like he's a cop or a robber" in my friend's house. And that is the simple modus operandi in my friend's house and in my unscientific and non-politically correctness philosophy I maintain that this simple rule of safety is all that is needed, so Mr. Politician, get busy with some real problems in our country!
How could I be so naïve to think such a low tech solution could solve at least one of our nation's problems? Oh, I guess I forgot to remind you that there are STILL shootings of children going on--the latest being a child 6 years old shooting another child of the same age. Well, the answer is simple but my answer is not a placebo--it has to do with brains and using them.
Neil Postman, deceased 2003, was a University Professor, Paulette Goddard Chair of Media Ecology, and Chair of the Department of Culture and Communication at New York University. Among his twenty books are Amusing Ourselves to Death and The Disappearance of Childhood. Mr. Postman doesn't say much or anything about gun control in his books--rather he gets down to the nitty-gritty and talks about PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY.
In his most recent book, "Building a Bridge to the 18th Century", Postman addresses this problem in Chapter Seven (pages 116-135). Postman was one stalwart individual who happened to believe technology is not God's answer (or even man's answer) to our problem, and so writes: "There is some ironic comfort in our remembering that we are still suffering from the shock of twentieth-century technology, which has numbed our brains so that it is difficult for us to note some of the spiritual and social debris that our technology has strewn about us."
To facilitate the reader I will give the "punch line" (from Postman's writing) first; in writing about monitoring or knowing and applying principles and precepts about which parents and our society should be aware and practicing, Postman concludes: "...[such] are very difficult to do and require a level of attention that most parents are not prepared to give to child-rearing." Remember my friend and the control he exercises with his guns? Now, if you have the inclination, interest or downright sincerity required to really show concern about your children and your neighbor's children, read on.
Again, quoting from Postman's latest book, "If parents wish to preserve childhood for their own children, they must conceive of parenting as an act of rebellion against culture. This is especially the case in America. For example, for parents merely to remain married is itself an act of disobedience and an insult to the spirit of a throwaway culture in which continuity has little value. It is also almost un-American to remain in close proximity to one's extended family so that children can experience, DAILY [my emphasis, bv], the meaning of kinship, and the value of deference and responsibility to elders. Similarly, to insist that one's children learn the discipline of delayed gratification, or modesty in their sexuality, or self-restraint in manners, language, and style is to place oneself in opposition to almost every social trend. But most rebellious of all is the attempt to control the media's access to one's children." This is not all, obviously or we would have to reprint Postman's entire book so if you want to find a very simplistic approach to life and child-rearing then at least a few pages in Postman's book will be worth a trip to the public library to get your hands on his book.
This book cannot be read while watching TV by the way, and in fact it might be a good idea to prepare yourself by having a good dictionary at your side, and a willingness to evaluate related resources because Neil Postman's rhetoric includes massive usage of "big words" and more than often references to sages of generations past. One other side excursion in expressions worth mentioning, but not from Postman, is one Karl Kraus. Postman quotes Kraus on the subject of cultivating taste or "how to nourish the souls of students" in which Kraus thus nourishes students, "so that...they might know the difference between an urn and a chamber pot." Yep, that difference would be neat to know if the call of nature is profoundly present.
Remember, this book is not for the weak of heart or will, but if you honestly want to find another view, other than Uncle Sam helping you do something you alone are responsible for doing, then shut off the TV and the computer and pick up this book at our library.
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This essay was written in March 2000 - before "The Wordwright" days. While sorting through these old files, I discovered what many of us in the Senior Set learn early - the issues (we used to call them problems) of life do not really change; we simply adopt new buzz words and pretend we have solved the "old problems". If you care to upgrade your RAM (in the "computer" of your brain) you might use Micah 6:8 and I John 2:15-17. These biblical memory chips, although they do not address the above subject directly, once you allow them to be assimilated into your concepts and principles of life they will enable you to come to this conclusion sooner: "LIFE is not all that complicated."
Bill Venrick
CHANGE is the only constant - on this we have to agree; however, only for those who have lived through seven decades is it easier to review where we have been or what we are leaving behind. Admittedly all changes or adaptations to the times and culture swings are not all bad nor can we honestly slough off things brought on by the younger generations; times do change and we must change or we might even miss some good while pondering the past.
"Where is he going with this?" you might be asking. Well, I will explain. In an attempt to keep my spiritual bearings in line with the magnetic forces that surge through my two-fold body (the body and the soul concepts) I often pick up a hymnal and find an old hymn that is no longer in the Top Twenty, or even Top Hundred Favorites and read what words challenged Christians a few short decades ago. The hymn below is one that used a Welsh hymn melody putting music to words written by James Russell Lowell, a poet who lived slightly more than seven decades in the 19th Century (1819-1891).
If you can, cease the busy-ness of your day's schedule and read the following hymn. Some of it will undoubtedly be strange because the vocabulary is much different than the short repetitious choruses common in most "worship assemblies" today. It needs to be said that in years past, theology was taught through hymnody and after studying the Bible in Bible classes worshippers "sang about their faith" through the years and wove a complete garment of faith from what they were taught and what they caught through hymns.
ONCE TO EVERY MAN AND NATION
Written by James Russell Lowell
Once to every man and nation
Comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of truth with falsehood,
For the good or evil side;
Some great cause,
God's new Messiah,
Offering each the bloom or blight,
And the choice goes by forever
'Twixt that darkness and that light.
Then to side with truth is noble,
When we share her wretched crust,
Ere her cause bring fame and profit,
And 'tis prosperous to be just;
Then it is the brave man chooses
While the coward stands aside,
Till the multitude make virtue
Of the faith they had denied.
By the light of burning martyrs,
Christ, They bleeding feet we track,
Toiling up new Calvaries ever
With the cross that turns not back;
New occasions teach new duties,
Time makes ancient good uncouth;
They must upward still and onward,
Who would keep abreast of truth.
Though the cause of evil prosper,
Yet 'tis truth alone is strong;
Though her portion be the scaffold,
And upon the throne be wrong;
Yet that scaffold sways the future,
And, behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow
Keeping watch above His own..
AMEN
Yes, some of you may remember those old hymns and perhaps were even bored when the song leader said, "We will be singing all verses," but after years of singing those wordy hymns we finally might have gotten the drift - those hymns taught our fathers faith. And "new" wasn't bad then either - did you catch the words in the third verse, "New occasions teach new duties - Time makes ancient good uncouth"?
As for me, I still appreciate those hymns of decades past compared to the hip or rhythmical repetitious songs and will prefer to sing "Tell me the old, old story..."
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by T. Joe Eggebrecht, Guest Essayist
Growing up during the Great Depression in a small town we kids had no TVs, no computers, no skating rink, and often no radios or movie theaters (except the free street movies). We had hours of fun with a big pasteboard box from the grocery store, driving an empty can down the street with a small tree limb, and building a tree house with old boards. My brother and I taught ourselves to pole vault with a sapling we cut on the river bank. We pole vaulted over fences and mud puddles, or over a cross bar set-up that we had constructed. We never got sick from rummaging through the bottles and other containers in the trash behind the drug store or the doctor's office or collecting stamps from behind the insurance office. We had fun with no expense simply because we had no money. Now we need money, lots of it. Our kids just will not spend hours playing with a pasteboard box or a nine foot sapling with the branches trimmed off. They have to have electronic toys that cost lots of money.
So, greed has become the attitude and the cry from our hometown to our nation's Capitol. Congress is accusing bank executives of greed. Investment execs are pointing the finger at greedy professional athletes and lawyers." But have any of them actually looked in the mirror? Aren't the Congressmen just as greedy as the Wall Street execs? Congress has given themselves big pay raises, perks, and health coverage while so many Americans are struggling financially with a pay cut and no health coverage? If you are looking to Congress and the President for relief, forget it. They take care of themselves with our tax money.
Rabbi Avrahim Trugman wrote the following: "It is obvious to anyone who has seen a bit of the world and known people from all strata of society that money is no guarantee of happiness. It may even be true that the more money, the more problems, and in many cases the more unhappiness. In fact, this sentiment was expressed clearly in the Ethics of the Fathers 2,000 years ago: 'the more possessions--the more worry__'
"Why is this so? It seems that the more we have, the easier it is to fall into the trap of becoming dependent upon our possessions to provide us happiness. This is especially true in our age where the constant bombardment of the media and advertising is geared to make us think we must have It all and we must have it now! If not, we are missing something and are somehow deprived.
"Happiness is an attitude towards life and comes from a deep inner feeling of self-worth and purpose. All the money in the world cannot create these feelings of self esteem. Another gem of wisdom in the Ethics of the Fathers states: 'Who is rich? One who is happy with his lot!'
"This is not to say that one needs to be poor to be happy either. Money is neutral. Like many other things money can be used for good and positive purposes or the opposite. To be happy with our lot also does not mean we should not strive for a more comfortable life style and accept poverty with no hope of betterment. It does mean though that we should strive to be happy and grateful with what we have, no matter what the circumstances. To do so indicates a great trust in God and leads to inner peace and contentment."
Consider: "And having food and raiment, let us be therewith content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil." [I Timothy 6:8-10]
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THANK YOU JOE, for another reminder from the generation who was raised on the necessities of life and found a happiness and satisfaction that our current society thinks only money can buy. THE WORDWRIGHT
T. Joe Eggebrecht, Guest Essayist
Bridgeport, Illinois
The Apostle Paul knew something of the passion of Jesus as he sat in a prison in Rome. He had been placed there because he preached about the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. Rather than mark off his days of incarceration on a calendar Paul made his prison time worthwhile. He wrote letters to some of the churches where he has preached to encourage them in the faith. One of those letters was the one he wrote to the Philippian Christians.
He wrote: "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men." [Phil. 2:5-7]
Jesus' divine nature was His from the beginning. The Apostle John wrote: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." [John 1:1] Then in verse 14 we read, "And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory as of the only Begotten of the Father." So, Jesus was not in a human body by accident. He chose to take the form of a man. He did not need to strive to reach up to be equal with God. He was already there.
One of my favorite hymns is "Ivory Palaces." The hymn describes the Lord's decision to leave Heaven and come to earth as a servant or slave. "Out of the ivory palaces, into a world of woe: Only His great eternal love made my Savior go."
The Word made Himself of no reputation. He became nothing, born in a stable. He was not born in the sterile conditions of a hospital, but He was born in a stable where animals were kept. He was not laid on a clean baby bed with fresh sheets from a germ-cleansing chamber. He was placed in a manger, an animal feed trough. He grew up in a simple carpenter's home, not in a palace or even a mansion.
"And He humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." [Phil. 2:8] Being of such humble birth was not sufficient, He also humbled himself to allow mankind to ridicule Him, mock Him, beat Him, and nail Him to a cross. He was hung on that cross between two nearly worthless men who were being crucified because they were criminals, so those who passed by could continue to mock Him
Having died there on the cross without any funeral pre-arrangements, no funeral director, and no cemetery lot, it was necessary for a compassionate friend to take care of His body. A rich man, Joseph of Arimathea (one of the Sanhedrin), sought permission to take care of the body of Jesus by placing Him in his own tomb that he had carved out for him and his wife.
Jesus only needed Joseph's tomb for the weekend, for early on the first day of the week He arose from that tomb. "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth." [Phil.2:9-10]
It sounds like Paul has written a song in his prison cell and is singing. Are you singing that same song?
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Yes, Joe, and it is my prayer that each believer who reads your essay today wants to join us in singing that same song, not only on Easter but every Lord's Day which reminds us of the Resurrection of Christ. THE WORDWRIGHT
obfuscate - 1. to cloud over; obscure; make dark or unclear 2. to muddle; confuse; bewilder., obfuscation, noun.
Speaking plainly is clearly out of style by some in Washington, D.C., and politics. Of course one ought to have sensed this if you have ever read the line in Shakespeare, "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers." (Check this quote for yourself in Google for the real context.) I once worked for a person who plainly recommended, "Don't ever get in a position from which you can't back out." He may not have used those exact words but when you weighed the meaning of his words with the facts, this was the gist of his ethics. Sadly I sense this same rule of ethics in much of the dribble we are being exposed to almost daily about the financial fiasco in Washington..
Perhaps we could say "honor and ethics have been trivialized" -- say anything and maybe no one will not know you are speaking regnostically. It doesn't matter if a word is unfamiliar, unknown or non-existent because there is a process at work to "dumb down" the populace and who cares? Watching C-Span has been an education and hopefully an eye-opening experience for our nation. In fact, I am surprised that some effort hasn't been made to censure such broadcasts. One thing is sure, you will never see any of the more common networks allow such "reporting" as we see on C-Span. Pardon me for using a word I have heard a lot of lately, but the hearings that are going on in Washington are clearly a transparent presentation of the lack of ethics, value and honor in institutions (businesses and organizations)--there is no honor or ethics, that is the point! Let the singer say the words, "I can see clearly now!"
Instead, daily we are exposed to words and phrases that are designed to obfuscate the issue. What words? How about this for a starting list: derivative credit, bundling, institutional confidence, bail out, systemic, liquidity risks, earmark, property casualty, hedge fund, melt down, retention bonuses, performance bonuses and economic tsunami. Come on folks, let's face it, few other than economists, salesmen or lawyers can catch the meanings of these buzz words. While the common person is trying to run such a word through their brain the conversations continue and by the time we parse the words in the sentence they change the subject. Even the senators and members of congress have gotten a little out of sorts when those being interrogated side step the issue or avoid it completely and have blurted out, in street talk terms like, "How in the hell did this ever happen?" Yes, TELL US, how was this ever ALLOWED to happen, Washington? You yourselves are supposed to be the guardians of justice, the watchers of the wall, the defenders of justice and now the companies and agencies spawned in Washington have made the expression, "What goes around comes around." come to life again. In other words, folks it has always mattered, "Whose ox is being gored!" Now Washington, D.C., itself has been gored and they are uncomfortable!
I believe there are some senators and members of congress who are honestly astonished that some of the shenanigans have been going on and now the truth has come [home] to roost and it is not a happy scene.
In case one of our readers feels I have used one of those "fancy" words, the very first line at the beginning of this essay defines "obfuscation". The fancy words Washington and its economists and lawyers have used trying to salve the reality of their significance have not included more explicit words which in truth are what caused them to dig up these convenient terms--how about swindle and greed? It is a despicable situation when the very people who we are to trust and depend on doing what is good and best for their constituents have been caught with their grimy fingers in the cash box. But this is not news either is it? How about the Social Security funds and how new places for those monies to be squandered into misplaced dole which disappoints every participant who was brainwashed into believing the government was qualified and concerned about their [life's] savings?. The term "bail out" is as despicable--and an even further attempt to dull or dumb down the real meanings of expressions. Anyone who has ever been in a boat taking on water knows "bail out" means something is seriously wrong. Unfortunately our current administration is hoping we are too dumb to know what a bail is and what it is used for in emergencies. Further in the exchange of words, what is the criteria we are to use with the lip service from government's leaders --- will what they have said be the same in days to come? Why is it that all the brains that are supposed to be at work use such words as "try"? When I have a need for surgery I would like to believe the surgeon is capable of doing more than try to remove the body part - it is close to where it is supposed to be isn't it? Surgeons have been doing this for a few years haven't they? Finances in the past worked pretty good when a loan was only given upon the basis of a down payment and secure collateral. And don't let our senators and members of congress try to obfuscate the issue in talking about the "last eight years" -- political experts are saying this mess started a bit earlier.
Besides, this is not all about finances either, is it? What about trying to erase the spiritual values in our land? What about the importance of ethics and morality? True, ethics and morality appear in other writings than the Bible, but scholars who know the religions of the world are a small percentage of our populace--most people in our land, if the have any spiritual values, got it from their churches which had a commonality in teaching such values. We have seen judges vilify the Bible, the Ten Commandments and still try to believe the lip service of using the Bible in "the right places" like inaugurations and other instances where an oath is to be repeated will make us feel good. There is a paid clergyman in the congress and one cannot help but wonder what kind of legal mumbo jumbo is used to harmonize such dichotomies? The Bible is either OK or not OK - and let's not bother with the argument, just now, as to whether it is in fact the Word of God. If it is good enough to use in Washington (where they want it used) why is logic all of a sudden discounted and courts of our land can make laws to remove the Ten Commandments from public places?
Is this one of those cases where we are just seeing the tip of an iceberg?
THE WORDWRIGHT
Post script: This situation is being further aggravated by the ever present "do gooders" out there in e-mail land who think "getting together" with meaningless lists saying, "when the number reaches a thousand signatures, forward same to a specific address..." Such efforts are not reliable or significant methods or procedure to get the job done. Citizens must have guts enough to accept their responsibility of citizenship to study the issues and vote, and then "vote out the bums" if they do not do their jobs! We need to get serious about limiting political terms. Long terms might just have a dulling influence on politicians' minds and they forget why they were "sent" to Washington.
Guest Essayist: Harry T. Spence, Norwood, Massachusetts
When you watch the weatherman on TV, you notice he is very upbeat, gregarious as well as garrulous. He has a huge map of that section of the U.S. where his program emanates. On the map he shows you the results of the Doppler radar which always indicates the direction of the weather, usually west to east or south to north. He tells you what is going to happen tomorrow based on where the weather is and its directions.
In the early years of aviation, when the mail was carried by that means, the pilot would phone a person located where his first leg was to go, and while his plane was being gassed and checked over, the would find out what the weather was like. If it were bad, he would look at his alternative path and call another source. Pretty primitive, but not that too far removed from today's weather reports.
Yet, it is the ilk of the weathermen who have alarmed us to "Global Warming!" They use a super computer to compute all the variables involved in long-range weather predictions. To do this, they have created program models into which they input data they want massaged. Voila! Ten hours later they have results: "Global Warming!"
When I was in the computer business, I used to hear the acronym: GiGo, which stood for: Garbage in; Garbage out. In other words, the computer could only produce what you asked for based on what you told it. If your data were wrong, your results were very questionable.
I believe the "Global Warming!" crowd have been deluded by the fact that their input was not sound. Now, I am not a climatologist, but I have read widely on the subject and have concluded that there are many esteemed scientists who credit "Global Warming!" as those who do not. The planet Earth is HUGE! It has circumference of 25,000 miles at the Equator! It makes one rotation in twenty-four hours which means it spins at a rate of 1,042 miles per hour. Can you feel the movement? It is truly amazing! We are spinning at a high rate of speed and we feel nothing!
But ... We are also hurling through space in our orbit around the sun, which takes 365 days to complete. How fast is that in miles per hour? Let's see. The sun is 93 million miles away and is sort of in the center of a circular orbit (it's actually somewhat oval) so to get the speed, we have to do some computations.
First, one would have to double the distance of Earth to Sun, since Earth would be on the outside of the circle. To get the circumference of the orbit, one would have to multiply that number by Pi. So, let's see - 93 times two is 186 million miles; times Pi (3.14) and that is 584,040,000 miles divided by 365. That comes to 1,600,109. Divide that by 24 and you get 66,671 miles per hour!
If one were to combine this revolution and rotation speed, we are hurtling through space at a combined speed of 67,713 miles per hour! Again, we feel nothing! The reason for this probably has a lot to do with the mass of the Earth. It is so huge and man is so tiny, respectively, that the shock of the speed is communicated directly to the mass and the six billion ants (us) don't feel it.
Yet, we are told to believe that a gas, CO2, collects on this mass and is heating it up, so significantly, that it is causing the entire Earth to heat up or in other words, this phenomenon causes "Global Warming!" Further, that man's use of CO2 generating products is responsible for this.
Now, the year 2008 [winter], was the coldest in twenty or thirty years. When asked about this phenomenon, the "Global Warming!" alarmists state that this proves their point: the frigid weather is an offshoot of "Global Warming!"
Purportedly, Mr. Al Gore was late for a talk on the subject by a series of snow, ice and cold delays and when he finally got to this shtick he excused his lateness with, you guessed it, "Global Warming!" made me do it!
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It was good to read Harry Spence's essay on our HUGE PLANET. Not only do we not feel the spinning of the earth, nor does the zillion tons of concrete poured regularly for buildings not make this spinning ball of dirt lopsided; and like the battery rabbit it just keeps spinning around. (Of course we know all man has done in making concrete is re-arranging the material and moving it a small distance to another place on this huge planet!) If you have ever been in an airplane you found out immediately Harry's concept of "not feeling motion" because once the airplane leaves the ground it creates an odd feeling like you are suspended on a string or something. There is nothing to compare movement to--when you're UP in the sky you don't get to see telephone poles flash by or see mile markers on the freeway! Thanks Harry, for this information about "Global Warming!" Yeah, we here in Ohio will be interested to see how the summer coming up will compare to the winter of 2008! THE WORDWRIGHT.
To start this essay off I need to be honest and say I am simply not much of a sports guy. Oh, I enjoy watching a good football, baseball or golf demonstration of skills but no one would ever ask me to umpire a baseball game or announce the color of a football game. I am just not qualified.
This past Sunday I heard a story about Bobby Knight and his basketball team's jerseys. Bobby Knight's team (in Indiana) only had the TEAM name on the front of the jerseys and no player's names appeared on the back, like other teams. So the guy who is known best for flinging chairs across the floor after an official makes a bad call had something right about the concept of teamwork after all. Wonder if this archaic idea of Knight had anything to do with Coach Skip Holtz, East Carolina football coach doing the same thing -- his motive? To promote team unity. Isn't it a shame that most will remember Bobby Knight as the guy whose temper got out of control and overlook or forgot Knight's principles of team unity? Tim Keown of ESPN dot com once wrote (about Knight): "He held to the idea that kids were there to learn basketball and go to class."
I wonder sometimes about our concept of "the church". How much progress is made when we stand by and carp about denominational dogmas? How many souls do we save from spiritual shipwrecks in the sea of life when we argue or debate about theological differences? What progress is made in the number of souls added to the Kingdom when we debate about "traditional services" as opposed to "conventional services"? The great (?) theological names as Melanchthon and Luther are mainly famous in some circles because of debates concerning the exact meaning of the Eucharist. To the persons whose faces stream with tears thinking about our suffering Saviour - they could care less about such arguments.
Could it be that if God had his way about this whole business of "the church", the only name on our jerseys (if we wore them) would be JESUS CHRIST, perhaps more to the point, THE CHURCH? When arrogant concepts and precepts abound in our world like the one over the entrance of a church here in Lancaster, it is no wonder people question or scorn "the church". The sign says: REAL PEOPLE, REAL LIFE, REAL FAITH. I would hope this motto does not convey the mindset concluding this is the only place where real "anything" is found. One item mentioned on their doorway at first puzzled me but as I thought further I have concluded they are probably honest (and real) about one thing--the TIME their worship starts: 10:09 a.m.. In most churches I have ever attended there are always some who simply cannot get their "on time". Obviously this congregation has tried to build-in this buffer for late-comers. My rush to judgment of this church's attitudes obviously needed fine-tuned a bit.
During the past couple decades I have come to the conclusion that the concepts of the Lord's church is going to happen [God's way] in spite of the sometimes idiotic and egotistic ways of man. There are going to be animated churches, shouting churches, hand clapping or no hand clapping churches, a cappella or instrumental music churches, and every genre of churches (as God deigned them to be) in spite of the denominational fences we have built in our religious world. Thank God that Jesus Himself said, "The Gates of Hades (or Hell) shall not prevail against the church." That is proof enough for me that God's church is still prevailing regardless of what many denominational groups want to claim as to be the ONLY REAL CHRISTIANS. Look around, and if you look close enough, I am sure you will find some spiritual virtues and values that might just be desirable in "your" church too. (My list above is a very short list.)
TRUTH is one thing - claiming to have all the truth is an entirely different matter. We are all to seek for the correct understanding of God's Word but none of us can claim we have arrived at the point where we have it 100% nailed down. Our big problem, it seems to me, is when we make our interpretations of God's Word sacred and binding on all other believers. It is so easy for us to become little "popes" and pontificate as if we alone are the ones who have the only correct understanding of what God means by what He says in His Word. Another problem comes when we magnify our opinions and make them authoritative as if they have come directly from Heaven itself.
Now I am going to look for a team jersey to wear and make sure my name is not on the back. I need to say THANKS to my good friend, Bob Tinsky, for some assistance in this essay.
THE WORDWRIGHT
Re: Our nation's present political program
Why is it that I just can't buy what our nation's leaders are trying to promote as THE ANSWER to our nation's problem(s)? I certainly cannot consider myself a genuine pundit but from the reactions and feed back I get from many of my friends I think I can honestly say ANYONE (just about) can come up with a better idea than the $pendthrift$ who claim to be thinking for the good of our nation.
A popular cigarette slogan really fits our political climate: "You've come a long way baby." YEP, that is for sure. We have come a long way from the right way. We have come a long way from the way our country was directed by the founders. We have a come a long way from the way of integrity and common sense. Perhaps I could come up with a few more "we've come along way" axioms but let's stop with this short list.
Initially I must say I am very much ashamed of the state of condition our nation is in and the folks (from either side of the proverbial "aisle") in Washington are to blame. We have become a nation of buzz words. "Stimulus" heads the list, but other words in this long list could be: No Deposit Required, Cash Discount, Rebates, Economy Size, and No Interest for 12 months.
Even the political powers who dreamed up this latest stimulus package (there have been several and doubtless others will join that train) have "honestly" (that's a strange word for politicians) said they do not know if this will work. What will work? Apparently no one knows, but I think the common people know but their voices are crowded out by the blaring trumpets of the professionals and the media who have their amplifiers turned up so high (and loud) that anything coming from the tax payers simply cannot be heard. The stimulus package is about as realistic as winning the Mega Bucks lottery after buying one dollar ticket. Unfortunately we are talking about MORE than one person being taxed for more than one dollar in this financial fiasco. Now they have me talking in terms of billions and trillions! Most working men I know are very conscientious about money they have worked for but unfortunately our government leaders act as though the taxpayers have deep pockets and empty minds.
One honest word that keeps surfacing is an explanatory reference to the past. "This is almost as bad as..." and they list days in former presidential administrations--sometimes going back to the days of President Eisenhower. (That is just one--so pardon me if I don't list the others that have been named.) Are we to take it then that this too will eventually be "over"? I am not sure any of our leaders know what a TRILLION anything is! How about a trillion lies for starters? How about a trillion bad programs. C-Span is a very interesting medium of information that has become an eye-opener. Whenever our politicians are standing there, sometimes asking for an "additional 60 seconds, or 3 minutes" to finish their great speeches and the camera pans around the house showing a bunch of empty seats making it evident the people who might just need to hear those words are simply NOT THERE. Oh, I suppose we are to believe those absent will have the congressional record that they can read what was being told but words imaged on paper are not nearly as exciting as the vocal presentations "from the other side of the aisle." Then too, the politeness exhibited by the senators and representatives is a little disconcerting, "The honorable... ...from [state named]" or some other accolade that makes you wonder if this might just be the same person that rubbed shoulders with the speaker (of the moment) in a local tavern or expensive restaurant where they all had a ball recounting their careers in Washington.
My hope is that all is not lost. My hope is that some of the fine people in Washington will honestly win and the charades of political semantics will cease to be weasel words. (Weasel words: words which have had all the meaning sucked out.) Specificity is a word you hear a lot today. Let's ask for some clearer words like, "I am to blame" or "It's my fault". "I will replace the money I stole..." Recently one of the hearings aired on C-Span got so hot that a couple of our nation's leaders resorted to phrases like, "How in the hell did this happen?" I am glad that phrase was not bleeped because you really have to wonder, "How in the hell has all this happened?" Those being examined or questions just sat there like they were in a vacuum.
The answer(s) are clear. Someone was not paying attention. QUITE A FEW "someones" have not been paying attention. The people in office (all the senator and representatives) cannot all be blamed obviously, but certainly some check-valves and precautions have been blown away by some flaws. I recently viewed a YOU-TUBE presentation where Harry Reid was being interviewed and Mr. Reid was trying to explain why our income tax system is a VOLUNTARY tax. If this video was for real, and I am sure some videos are doctored, how in the world can anyone believe our income tax system is voluntary? Most people I know were not asked, "Do you care if we take out tax money from your income?" If the system is voluntary, why does the Internal Revenue Service exist?
I believe life was much simpler before so many politicians learned words like "billion" and "trillion" and oh yes, stimulus and specificity. Tuesday, February 10, 2009, Timothy Geithner, Treasury Secretary, was asked if the amounts [being requested] of millions and trillions were in round numbers. (He said they were.) "My, what big teeth you have Gramma," said Little Red Riding Hood to the disguised Big Bad Wolf. Somehow these incidents seem rather similar.
In regard to this political mantra of "creating jobs", it would seem we already have enough government jobs.
THE WORDWRIGHT
In the summer of 1947, Lancaster, Ohio had very unusual treat in store for people of all ages when a film production crew and a dozen or more professional actors, directors (and whoever else was required to make a movie) came to town. Most reading this will not recall a Class B movie by the title, "The Green Grass of Wyoming" but this was the movie shot "on location" at the Fairfield County Fairgrounds in Lancaster, Ohio. When this film troupe came to town, Lancaster got its share of publicity and memories that I am sure still linger in the minds of hundreds. The story I am about to tell is one that I have recalled recently to a few of my friends and because each one of these friends said, "I never heard that before..." it was decided I had to share this story .
Recently my wife and I rented this old flick from our local library and I must admit the memories were given a spark of life just to be viewing that old movie. The acting, plot and continuity in the movie were a bit naive and not polished compared to today's standards and the most sexually explicit scenes would have to be classified as dull unless you include the snorting of a stallion and the mares in several scenes. As a 15 year-old boy I got to hold Lloyd Nolan's coat (the same one I saw him wear in the movie) and I will remember that incident until I take my last breath. He did not treat me like he was too important to talk with me and I have no accurate recollection as to why he let me hold his coat - he may have just wanted to light a cigarette but that is exactly what I did, held Lloyd Nolan's coat! He was an actor I had enjoyed seeing in the movies and to stand there holding his nice brown sport jacket was thrill enough for me. My grandfather once told me to shake his hand. After I shook his hand he said, "Billy, now you can say , 'This is the hand that shook the hand of the man who shook the hand of President William McKinley." I doubt if I have said that a dozen times in my lifetime but it sure impressed me. I didn't shake hands with Lloyd Nolan but I can remember holding his coat as if it were yesterday. No other star in that movie really got my attention like Lloyd Nolan.
I am not certain how I acquired all the data about that movie but apparently the film production crew made sure certain details would be known before hand so the film shots would be exactly what they wanted and no one would be able to accuse them of abuse to animals in one particular incident of the movie. The part of the film Lancaster shined in was really only about 15-20 minutes, tops, of the whole movie but when the announcer in the film announced the entrance into the fairgrounds, it was as important as entering the most important place in the United States. The camera panned westward on Fair Avenue, and across the race track you could see North Columbus Street where we lived. The deliberate panning of the fairgrounds included the horse barns as well as the active grounds thronged with people. Photo shots were taken from the top of Mount Pleasant which is a large rock outcrop 250 high near the fairground - those were spectacular moments.
Sulky, or harness races were held daily and 20th Century Fox capitalized on this event, specifically seeking such an atmosphere to include in their film. Seasoned actor Charles Coburn (without his monocle) played the part of a grandfather whose memories were a bit more glorious than his actual successes as a winner, but remember, this was just a story. Mr. Coburn's character got a late-in-life chance to win a harness race. Robert Arthur, who played the part of a boy friend of the granddaughter (Peggy Cummins) and he was a sulky driver in the race. Burl Ives was in the movie too, but to the best of my memory I never saw another film where Robert Arthur or Peggy Cummins was in - so their popularity doesn't appear to have been greatly enhanced by "The Green Grass of Wyoming". While researching data for this essay I discovered Marilyn Monroe was an extra in the scenes of a square dance earlier in the movie.
There was one scene in the movie that probably took all of 45 seconds that they worked on for what seemed like days to me. During one scene in the race, a sulky driver was supposed to have been forced to run through the fence of the race track. They tried unsuccessfully to get steer that horse into that fence but for some reason the horse simply would not do it. The production crew had built a couple sections of the fence out of balsa wood and a small child could easily knock the fence down without getting a bruise - but the fake fence section looked real to him (or her). Finally it was decided the only way they could drive that horse into the fence was to use a blindfold. That is exactly what they did. Only problem was, after the sulky driver successfully steered the horse into and through that fake fence, he safely hopped off the sulky which the frightened horse was now pulling frantically through the inner area of the race track. Before anyone could attempt to catch the blind-folded horse, it ran full speed into a length of real fence. The horse was severely injured and had to be destroyed. Naturally, at the time, they had to stop the race (the other racing horses were now in the opposite end and had to be stopped). Film editors performed their magic and nothing of the real-life runaway horse or the its dreadful accident was included in the movie.
On another occasion of regular daily harness races, when I was in the grandstands watching another race, there was a real wreck or pile-up of sulkies and their drivers just a few yards from the grandstands. Strange that with all the professional photographers present and the 20th Century Fox film car and their camera crews, not one shutter clicked to film that incident. That is, to the best of my knowledge, I never saw or heard of that accident being photographed, or even remembered by many I have talked to.
Now that I have told this story I imagine the Fairfield County District Library will have to make a dozen or more copies of that one VHS cassette they have but one thing for sure, you will not see the horse run through the real fence to be injured and put down nor will you see the crash of a dozen sulkies and their drivers right in front of the grandstand. Next time I see you though, I would be glad to shake your hand.
TAKE A LOOK AT THE MOVIE POSTER!
 Click to enlarge; opens in new window."WOW!, Mr. Wordwright", yeah...
By T. Joe Eggebrecht, Bridgeport, IL
Guest Essayist
T. Joe Eggebrecht is an acquaintance from the middle 1950's and only recently we became re-acquainted through my friend Bob Tinsky of Oblong, Illinois. Joe Eggebrecht is a retired preacher who continues to assist small churches and has done supply preaching since his retirement in 1993. Joe presents some very interesting thoughts in his essay; in fact the expression "mind over matter" comes to my mind - see what you THINK. THE WORDWRIGHT
The word "proactive" is a somewhat recently coined word. It means "acting in anticipation of future problems, needs, or changes." However, thousands of years before the term "proactive" was coined the Jewish sages gave this tool a name, "zerizus." Rabbi Zelig Pliskin writes that it is that quality with us that fuels achievement. He calls it "joyful will power" to make our dreams come true. Zerizus appears to come from the YOZER which means to form in the mind or devise a plan. That is that which Jehovah told Jeremiah [Jere.1:5] See also Jer.18:11 where Jehovah informed Israel that their disobedience had caused Him to "frame" evil against them. [See also Isa.45:7]
Continuing with this thought Pliskin wrote: "Run through positive, joyful scenes of you taking meaningful action a number of times. In just a few minutes you can see very many repetitions in your mind. While in real life such activities would take a much larger time to repeat, imagining positive mental pictures can be done in a fraction of the time.
"If you knew that you could reach any goal that you visualized, what goal would you picture yourself reaching? Experiment! Keep practicing mentally, and see in what ways you benefit."
A student of Pliskin's questioned that this would work but later he reported to the rabbi, "Once I saw that this worked for me, I began to use visualizations for motivating myself to do more and more things. This was life-transforming for me. I was able to practice over and over again. Since these practice sessions were just pictures in my mind, I could visualize many more times than I possibly could actually do the things I visualized. In a short time, I was able to do hundreds of repetitions. I enjoyed making these mental pictures and I found the entire process a source of positive feelings."
If you grasp what Pliskin has said, then you can better understand Solomon. Solomon said "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." [Prov. 23:7] Before you dismiss all of this as balderdash, think of the success of the meditative pitcher Al Hrabosky. Cardinal fans during the 1970's lovingly called him "The Mad Hungarian". He wasn't just getting rid of a wad of tobacco when he was prancing back and forth behind the mound, he was psyching himself to strike out the batter. As you go to sleep tonight do in your mind a task you have to perform tomorrow, but you really don't know how. While you sleep your mind may work all night on the project while your body rests. In the morning you will arise with a complete "how to do it." I speak personally as I have done this many times on carpentry projects, on sermon outlines and ministerial tasks.
Perhaps this is why Jesus was constantly asking his hearers what they thought. [Read Matt. 5:27-28;17:24-27; 22:42; 26:51-53] Jesus is concerned not only with that which we do but also that which we think, because our "thinker" has a lot of power.
How about a penny (or more) for your thoughts?
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THANKS, JOE, for your thoughts on THINKING and using that marvelous incubator of a tool God has given us. THE WORDWRIGHT
T.J. Ray - Guest Essayist.
Picture in your mind a man who can look backwards and forwards simultaneously - not realistic is it, but to his credit, he at least sees in two directions, the rest of us being limited to one. Thus, we spend our time looking back and relishing or regretting things in the past, hoping to enjoy them again or to fix them. Or we pass our time anticipating what comes next, dreading it or squirming with eagerness for IT to happen.
Sadly, two faces or one face, looking back or looking forward, are incapable of the most precious view: Now. Yesterday haunts many of us because we think it shortchanged us, or it clutches us in memories of joyful events. Tomorrow dangles before us like a golden ring or over us like a sword of Damocles.
What is troubling (and so very, very human) is that so little time is spent looking around us now, savoring the moment. Even if it is not a happy one, it is the only one we have any guarantee of. Being conscious of Now may not erase the disappointments and failures and angers of the past, but it can allow us to move past them. Now may not insure a Nirvana future life, but it should alert us to the reality that what we do now may affect what comes next. Sensible awareness of where we are and the resources we have may very likely prepare us for the future--if there is one. How sad if one spends all of today getting ready for a day that never dawns. That is not to advocate that our next act should be ignored; remember that it wasn't raining when Noah began the ark.
We are all between yesterday and tomorrow: a new national government with all its adjustments and successes and failures, the next school semester of school before graduation and before a career, more life after a terrible diagnosis with its consequent treatments and pains. A student once wrote in an essay that something was between After and Before. The more I think about that, the more stark it seems, for that is how life is. What is done is done, and we are left with regrets that can't be resolved or joys that live on only as we remember them. What is to come can't be found under microscopes, through telescopes, on radar scopes, or in computers.
Long ago some preacher or Sunday School teacher read this to me: "Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?" Perhaps therein is some good sense: what goes in and around the body is not the most significant facet of life. All the fancy clothes and sweet scents and gourmet dishes will not stop aging and will not improve the spirit of the person. Decades ago the flower children asked people to stop and smell the roses. Passing years underscore the value of such a pastime.
That great sage Anonymous Author had this to say about After and Before:
For yesterday is but a dream
And tomorrow is only a vision
But today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness
And tomorrow a vision of hope.
Look well, therefore, to this day!
#####
T.J. Ray, a retired professor of English at the University of Mississippi, is our guest essayist. We appreciate T. J. Ray's essay and would suggest just one more reference about being able to see things behind us as well as things around and and before us. In years past, readers of the King James Version of the Bible were admonished by the Apostle Paul, "See then that you walk circumspectly..." (Ephesians 5:15). Literally we could translate that as "...looking all around you as you walk..." THANKS T.J.
THE WORDWRIGHT
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
LOCUSTS INVADE WALL STREET
By Leroy Garrett, Denton, Texas
Our guest essayist today has been a favorite author of our family for years. We receive his regular essays in his ongoing series, "Soldier On" and this one first attracted the attention of my friend Bob Tinsky and he urged me to consider using it in this website. After reading Leroy Garrett's essay it was not a difficult decision to write Leroy and ask his permission to publish this essay on our website. We urge you to read this essay and come to your own conclusions. THE WORDWRIGHT
Because of a devastating invasion of locusts a prophet emerged in Israel who saw the devastation as the judgment of God, and called upon the nation to repent of its sins. "Rend your hearts and not your garments," he urged, as he called upon them to "Wake up" to what was happening to them.
The prophet was Joel, concerning whom we know nothing except that the locust invasion, which had destroyed his own vines and fig trees, got his attention. He saw in it "the Day of the Lord," which was to bring promises as well as judgment. We remember Joel as the prophet that Peter quoted on the day of Pentecost -- on the birthday of the church -- to the effect that God's spirit was to be poured out on all nations.
Joel has its purple passages. A church group visiting President Truman sought to dissuade him from military action in Korea by quoting the Bible -- Isaiah 2:4 and Micah 4:3-- to the effect that nations are to beat theirs swords into pruning hooks and their spears into plowshares. The President surprised them by pointing out that the Bible also says, "Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears." The President was quoting Joel 3:9.
Truman may not have understood that Joel was giving the earlier prophets an ironic twist. In summoning the nations to a holy war in the valley of Jehoshaphat God was bringing them to judgment for their warmongering. There they were in the valley before God caught red handed with their military hardware that had been instruments of peace.
Joel believed that the locusts were sent by God as a wake-up call to Israel. He has the Lord saying of the locusts, "my great army which I sent to invade you" (Joel 2:25). The destruction was so severe that "The beasts of the field also cry out to you, for the water brooks are dried up, and the fire has devoured the open pastures" (Joel 1:20).
It was so bad that the priests were called on "to weep between the porch and the altar" (Joel 2:17). His descriptions are graphic: the fields and the fig trees are wasted, the grain is ruined, the oil fails, the land mourns, the people's faces have turned white for want of food.
The prophet's call for repentance assures the people that the God they have offended is "gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness," (Joel 2:13) and that he will forgive. Unlike the indifference usually shown such prophets, the people repented. Joel and Jonah, who to his dismay elicited repentance from Nineveh, may stand alone among the Old Testament prophets, in attaining such results.
This led Joel to speak of a blessed future for Israel, which included the equality of women: There would be no gender test in the outpouring of God's spirit (Joel 2:29). The apostle Peter indicates that this began to be fulfilled at Pentecost (Acts 2:16), but when it comes to "no gender test" we are not there yet here in the 21st century.
But Joel could see a glorious God's tomorrow in an unknown future. A "Day" will come in which "the mountains will run with new wine and the hills will flow with milk" (Joel 4:18). The dark and dreadful locusts gave way to a bright and living hope.
If there is a Joel among us today he might well see the economic meltdown on Wall Street as an invasion of locusts sent from God. The "locusts" would be the greedy corporate bosses at the likes of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the self-serving politicians in Washington, along with all those who lusted for ill-gained wealth in the housing industry.
The editor of U S. News, who describes the present crisis as "the worst destruction of wealth in our history," says there are 12 million homes across America that are worth less than their mortgage, and many are worth far less. Should half of these drop the keys in a box and walk, the loss would reach the trillions and undermine any effort to save the banking industry.
Greed is behind it all -- greed for an easy buck, and greed for a luxurious home that was beyond one's ability to pay for. And a lot of innocent people have been badly hurt by it all, and there are likely to be many more.
So, as bad as things are, it could get worse. I have asked several friends, all of whom are "comfortable" (a euphemism for rich), how they have fared during the crunch. They have all lost a lot of money. But many of us are so wealthy that we can lose large sums and still be well off. We are so spoiled by prosperity that it takes lots of locusts to get our attention!
I am not saying that God causes nations to suffer such tragedies as 9-11 or a financial meltdown, but I do believe that when such things come -- in whatever way they come -- he uses them in an effort to get our attention. They can be a call for repentance. But we have to be aware of our sins and of our need for God's saving justice before we can heed the call to reform our lives.
That was Joel's advantage. The locusts kept coming -- the prophet was aware of different kinds -- until there was nothing left. Man's extremity is God's opportunity. Repentance toward God has a chance when we have nowhere else to turn. It is when the sky grows dark from a cloud of locusts that our ears are opened to a message of hope.
If we do not heed these wake-up calls to take the weightier matters of life more seriously -- and to come to terms with the price of greed -- this may be but the beginning of our woes. Joel's cry, "Rend your hearts!" is a good place for us to start.
#####
THANK YOU LEROY! There is a passage tucked away in one of the smaller books of the New Testament, I John 2:15-17, which in the King James Version has been a Scripture I have memorized when a divine axiom is called for; however the Jerusalem Bible translation is a fitting translation to quote at this time: "You must not love this passing world or anything that is in the world. The love of the Father cannot be in any man who loves the world, because nothing the world has to offer - the sensual body, the lustful eye, pride in possessions - could ever come from the Father but only from the world; and the world, with all its craves for, is coming to an end; but anyone who does the will of God remains for ever." THE WORDWRIGHT
You may read more of Leroy Garrett's essays by visiting his website: www.leroygarrett.org
Click on "Soldier On."
LIGHTENING UP A BIT - During the past few days, postings of some heavy subjects caused me to sort through essays that my friend Bob Tinsky wrote which have been on file for future use. Now that the election is over, and the two somber essays have been published, let's go back to yesteryear and read about how my friend, who is now 82, looks back to when he was 8 or 9 with his first roller skates. Since Bob has awakened some of my memory cells, I have decided to add my "Chapter Two" to an essay Bob sent a few months ago. THE WORDWRIGHT
Two old-timers tell about their roller skating days
by Robert J. Tinsky and Bill Venrick
Chapter One - by Bob Tinsky
I must have been about 8 or 9 years old when I got my first set of roller skates. I don't remember when or why my parents got them for me. Probably they were one of my birthday presents since my birthday is in the spring.
Those roller skates did not come already attached to a pair of shoes. Instead they were metal wheels that I had to strap to my shoes. Evidently it didn't take me too long to master the use of those wheels. I have some fond memories of a group of us kids going up and down the streets on our roller skates. One drive way that we were particularly fond of was on a small incline with lines in the concrete. Going down that drive way gave a pleasant tickling sensation to our feet.
When I was in my early teens I made the transition to skating in a roller skating rink. It did not take me long to learn that skating in a rink was entirely different from skating on the streets. It took me a few tumbles before I finally mastered the art of whirling around on those wooden wheels.
The skates we had in those days had this similarity to the ones we used on the street--they did not come attached to shoes. We had to use a special key to clamp them to our shoes. If we didn't get them clamped on tightly enough, they would come off in the middle of the rink. It was a big improvement when we could get shoes with the wheels already attached to them.
It was quite the popular thing for many years for church youth groups to rent a roller skating rink for an evening. In some areas where I ministered we had monthly skating parties. Before the evening was over everyone was asked to stop skating for a few minutes while someone in charge would lead in a short devotional period.
The first roller skates were invented in the 1700's by an unknown Dutchman who wanted to ice skate in the summer time. He accomplished this by nailing wooden spools to strips of wood and attaching them to his shoes. The first skates with metal wheels were invented in 1760 by an Englishman by the name of Joseph Merlin. Shortly after creating his shoes with metal wheels he decided to make a grand entrance to a masquerade party wearing his new invention. He had one problem--he did not know how to stop on those wheels and crashed into a very expensive wall-length mirror. We can humorously say, "That was the way he crashed into society."
Over the years many important improvements have been made in roller skates. We have gone from wooden to metal to plastic wheels. I went on-line to one large box store and found out that they offered almost 600 different varieties of skates.
I think I could still maneuver my way around a skating rink with four wheels under each shoe. I am not sure, however, how I would fare with the modern skates with five or six wheels in a straight line under the shoe. At my advanced age, I doubt very seriously that I am going to try. But then, I just might.
Chapter Two - by Bill Venrick
Bob has written about skating on the streets as well as the rink but to be specific, roller rink skating was a bit different because you could not use your "metal-wheel street skates" on the wooden floors of the roller rink. I too was among the youthful crowd who enjoyed going to the roller rink and getting a special kind of skates clamped to your shoes. I especially remember when the "skate boys" (the employees of the skating rink) would get a bit over-zealous and wind that crank a bit tight and your shoe soles almost started to fold under!
Nothing could beat the rush of excitement of being on wheels going in a cooperative ring with a hundred other kids around a huge room that had special hardwood floors that were especially conditioned and serviced to withstand such abuse of thousands of wooden wheels making paths that certainly must have created micro indentations in the wooden floors. We never gave that a thought though because it was such a thrill to do all sorts of special rink feats like crossing your leg over the other as you made the turns - and as Bob said, a spill would occasionally remind you that such feats needed a little more practice. There were always the regulars, who must have "lived there" because they could skate backwards and do all the sashaying possible only by the best roller rink regulars that made us ogle with envy.
As you may recall, those of you are enjoying this trip back memory lane, during the evening of skating, an organist (as it was in our skating rink) would be playing throughout the evening. At a specified time time in the evening, it was announced (on the speaker. system) we would reverse our direction and instead of skating clockwise, we would all change, and begin skating counter-clockwise. This little shift in direction made you have to relearn that cross-over trick with the legs and ooops, down we would go until we got used to that technique of crossing one leg with the other.
I think the biggest thrill of all was when we finished skating for the night, they would un-clamp those special skates from our street-shoes and as you walked out of the rink you felt like you still had the skates on and you were walking on about three inches of air.
What Bob wrote about the origin of roller skates was news to me but when he mentioned ice skates I was immediately reminded of my father (who was born in 1901) telling about his winter fun. Winters must have been a lot different in those days; no great efforts were made to clear the streets or use salt and mobile snowplows - of course, there were not that many cars then. Dad told me about skating several miles "up the river" or "up the canals" (the canal transportation system had been phased out just decades before) and those ice covered water-ways were just the ticket for a day's enjoyment of ice skating. As mentioned about roller skates being attached to your street shoes, that is the way most ice skates were then too (some exceptions may have existed for the rich kids) and you used a special key to clamp your ice skates onto your shoes or or used leather straps with buckles.
As with roller skates first being clamped onto street shoes, and later a special shoe was developed onto which the skates were attached to the shoe, the ice skates went through a similar evolution. Reading further in the Wikipedia link, below, you will discover a common thread of circumstance about "how things got started" and ice skating originally was enjoyed as early as 1000 BC. Many years later when folk in the Netherlands introduced the sport to the British aristocracy it was soon enjoyed by all walks of life. However, and this was a surprise to me, in other places early on ice skating was limited to members of the upper classes. Humm? Sounds a bit familiar to certain sports or entertainment that only the elite consider themselves as proper participants - nah, that couldn't be, could it???
Pleasant memories to you all -- THE WORDWRIGHT
#####
Further resources and a necessary caveat (regarding dangers of ice skating) can be found by visiting Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Key words - ICE SKATING
When Widowhood Strikes
by June T. Bassemir
Our guest essayist is June T. Bassemir, of Long Island, New York. We are fortunate to have in our group of friends and writers, ladies who have experienced life and are willing to share the difficult times. As our English friend wrote of her widowhood, June tells us about her experiences.
Something must be said about becoming a Senior Citizen - especially if one is a widow; perhaps, for a man it isn't so hard but for a woman, it seems she has three strikes against her: her gender, being the sole decision maker, and her age.
Once widowhood strikes, she has to be the captain of the ship. Moving through the water, keeping things afloat can sometimes be discouraging. It doesn't matter too much if the decision centers on a car repair; a bathroom remodel or some other household maintenance job; quite often it seems we are fair game to be taken advantage of.
Take the case of Mrs. "X" who unbeknownst to the local quick oil change man, had in her earlier years restored a 1931 Model A Ford. She knew the need for changing oil at regular intervals and how the internal combustion of an engine worked. The price for this simple maintenance of having the oil changed; was an advertised bargain and so the work was agreed upon. Mrs. "X" retired to the waiting room and was engrossed in a magazine when the mechanic appeared at her side. He explained that in changing the oil, they found metal filings and he recommended they do some expensive work on the engine immediately.- costing much more than thee times what she expected. She jumped up and said. "Oh, really?.. metal filings? Can you show them to me?" Whereupon he disappeared only to reenter within minutes and said. "Oh, I'm sorry the other man emptied the oil container into the drum." Upon reflection, Mrs. "X" decided to go ahead with just the oil change and no such trouble with that car ever appeared. That young man thought she could be hoodwinked into paying for an unnecessary job. No so, with Mrs. "X".
Not only manual laborers try to take advantage of us. How about the Financial Advisor of a large corporation who billed an elderly client $100.00 which appeared on her statement without any notation. When she questioned it, she really didn't understand his explanation but was too intimidated to question him further. But her daughter called and found out it was a charge for a credit card that she didn't have....but he told the daughter "she COULD have one if she wanted too." How fair is that????
Why do younger people and I am speaking mostly of men, seem to think that just because we have been around the sun a few more times then they have, that we have lost our sense of reason and revelation? Whatever the situation, most of us do have the ability to sense when the wool is coming down over our eyes. Don't try and befuddle us with improbably explanations of why the car won't start, or why the newly planted bushes planted last year by your company didn't live; or how the electric wire anchored on the roof suddenly started to fray and spark as you were power washing that section.
Please, give us just as much respect as you would a man of your own age.
If a man hired you to do the landscaping of his house would you try and buffalo him into believing plants would grow over an old existing hidden asphalt driveway, just by digging a small hole through the topsoil and the asphalt for such a plant? Of course not! He would tell you..."Under no such circumstances, plant things there....get rid of all the asphalt first." So, please don't expect us, as "old women" to be so dumb as to fall for that! The underground economy (not paying sales tax), is a tempting thing. However, if you pay cash for some work without paying the tax, and the work is done poorly or you have some complaint with it, don't be surprised when you try to get some compensation. It won't happen. It will be like standing on a two legged stool. Bite the bullet and pay the tax.
If on the other hand a worker or contractor has done more than is required of him, make sure that they know you appreciate it. That form of gratitude does not always have to be a monetary one. Think of unique ways of showing some kindness. Maybe you can give a handcrafted item or a useful valuable article you no longer need or even a piece of pie you just baked. We all like to be appreciated.
And lastly ladies, the next time you get a quote for work to be done, stand up and have it thoroughly explained. If there is something you don't understand, ask to have it explained again. Resist being little lambs marching to the slaughter house. Question what the salesman, contractor or worker tells you and say. "That's very interesting. I'll speak to my son about that and let you know."....even if you don't have a son... and IF you don't have a son, you can borrow mine.
June T. Bassemir
#####
Once again we have been allowed to journey through another person's life to see that "other people" have similar or perhaps even greater problems than ours, but isn't that one of the reasons we have learned to communicate with others? Mere words are hardly the solution to problems as we experience them, but as for me I have grown to appreciate quotes or axioms that we can hide in our hearts and pull them out when needed. The following quotes are offered as equipment or tools to use in the quest of life:
"That which does not kill us, makes us stronger"
--- Friedrich Nietzsche
"Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself."
-- George Bernard Shaw
"We must learn to live above life's losses."
-- Anon
THANK YOU JUNE -- THE WORDWRIGHT
By Ruth Dant, England
THE VENRICK HOUSEHOLD has enjoyed a special treat for many years as a result of Jean having an English pen-pal. My wife began writing to Ruth in 1947 and because of this dedicated exchange of letters through the years, the thoughts and family notes between an American girl and an English girl have been uniquely shared via letters. For 61 years the discipline of the "old fashioned" way of correspondence (hand written letters) has produced a sincere appreciation of each pen pal; and as life became crowded with family, for both my wife and her English friend, their correspondence settled down to an annual Christmas letter. That annual contact was sufficient excitement though in receiving a sometimes stuffed envelope with photos and nearly a dozen two-sided handwritten pages of news and notes back and forth from England and America. With the advent of e-mail, our joy has been increased many times. The article you are about to read is a very personal story by Ruth Dant as she shares the health problems and the ultimate passing of her beloved husband, Charles. Ruth wanted us to be sure to mention her UK or English nationality, and thereby "...explain the weird way of spelling we UK citizens have." The Venricks, here in America, are grateful to my wife's English friend, Ruth Dant, for deciding to share her very personal experiences. It is our hope readers of THE WORDWRIGHT will find Ruth's experiences equally interesting and informative. ###
My Husband Suffered With Depression
After nearly forty years sharing life with a husband suffering from Depression, albeit controlled for twenty-seven of those years by the drug Lithium, to hear the words "you don't have Depression any more" was such a relief. However, it was not to be, someone had got it wrong, instead shortly after the information was given he became mentally ill again, was diagnosed with manic depression and told this was a bi-polar disorder. It may, however, be better to go back to the very beginning of his illness and diagnosis so that you can more easily understand what life has been like for most of those years.
When we married, just over 53 years ago, there was no indication that my husband might one day become a victim of Depression. After living with my parents in law for 18 months we bought a small two-bedroomed house almost in the centre of Cambridge, where we lived then, and settled down to enjoying married life together in our own home. After we had been married almost 4 years our eldest son, Philip, was born in the local Maternity hospital, followed almost 2 years later by our second son, Mark, this time born at home. We enjoyed our sons as they grew up but sadly when Mark was about ten months old my husbands father died, following a spell in hospital with Clinical Depression, where they also diagnosed prostate cancer. My husband was told that, with medication, his dad could possibly survive for four to five years. This was not to be and, losing his will to live, he died in August of the year in which he was diagnosed. About three weeks before he passed away he had told me that my mother-in-law had been sectioned in her late teens as she was suffering from paranoid delusions, seeing people in the garden where there was no one, for example. This also happened again during the early part of their marriage before my husband was born, and she spent some time in a psychiatric ward, although she was not sectioned at that time. It seems, therefore, that my dear husband could have the tendency, given the right trigger, to fall victim to mental illness, since both his parents suffered from it in different ways, as did some of my father-in-law's close relatives.
About four years after my father-in-law's death I gave birth to our daughter, Joy, thus completing our family. Our family life was very happy, although with its ups and downs, Philip had started school at 5 with Mark following in the term in which he would be 5. Then, just before our daughter's third birthday, we moved into a three-bedroomed terraced house in Cherry Hinton, which before the war had been a village but was now included within the City boundary, settling in very happily to life there, joining the local Baptist Church and becoming involved in its various activities. Our daughter started school in the term in which she was 5 and our life as a family continued very happily. Philip sat for the 11+ and gained a place at the local grammar school and then at the beginning of his first year there my husband was diagnosed with Clinical or Endogenous depression (which apparently means 'from within' rather than having an external cause e.g. a death in the family). It began when he developed an abscess under one of his teeth and upon its extraction was given pencillin to prevent problems, however it was thought this could have been the 'trigger' which began his Depression problems One day, Mark's 10th birthday actually, I returned from my morning job at about 1 p.m. to find my husband and a colleague sitting in the kitchen. He had been sent home because he had had a breakdown at work and couldn't cope any more at that time. Visits to the surgery and psychiatrists followed but no firm diagnosis was made then. Shortly after this he began to think he had prostate cancer like his dad and began a circle of 'couldn't pass water because he had prostrate problems' and then wouldn't drink because 'it would make the problem worse'. He was admitted to a special psychiatric clinic which was a part of Addenbrooke's Hospital, but after only a few days there was transferred to Kent House which was in the grounds and part of the local Psychiatric Hospital called Fulbourn Hospital. If my memory is correct he was sectioned at that time and I was asked to sign a form allowing them to give him emergency ECT in order to break the circle. The reason for this ECT I was told was that he would suffer dehydration because he wasn't taking fluids and then become physically ill. He had five sessions and began to improve although now they had to find the right medication to continue the improvement.
During the next few years he had more ECT's both as an in-patient and as an out-patient, but to his credit he manfully struggled to work even though I often had to push him to get up, washed and shaved and out to his employment. There was one particular day when I followed him to make sure he actually did go in the right direction. Another time I rang his Chief Assistant to ascertain that he had actually arrived and was assured that he had. When he was well he enjoyed our family life and we had quite a few good family holidays at the seaside staying either in a caravan or other self-catering venue. As we had no car at that time we usually travelled by coach or train although one year, the boys having gone to a Scripture Union camp, my husband, daughter and myself went off to the Norfolk coast on a Moped and a Honda C50 motor bike respectively. On these occasions he seemed to be 'normal' and we were able to ignore his illness, then there were other occasions when he would be extremely difficult and either on a high, or down deep in depression when he wouldn't talk to us, or want us to talk to him. Although there were short periods when he was unable to work, because of more ECT's some in hospital and some as an outpatient, he continued to go when he was able. He was also given a different job in the laboratory where he worked at the time, which needed less concentration and he didn't need an assistant to help him with it. Eventually the funding for this particular post came to an end and no more, unfortunately, was forthcoming so he was given 'as much time as he needed' to find another job. After many job applications and refusals, he at last secured a position as Chemistry Technician at a local Independent boys school where he was able to continue, suffering only one bout of depression shortly after commencing there. During this bout they found that Lithium would keep him on an even keel, which it did once they had worked out the correct dosage, for the rest of his working life.
It had always been my husband's wish that we move into a smaller property when he retired so we began looking for a Bungalow. However, the prices in and around Cambridge were too expensive for us so we decided the only thing was to look wider. Although we looked for something equidistant from our children, this proved impossible and eventually we bought the one I now live in which happens to be only three miles from our daughter's home. One of my husband's doctors in Cambridge had told him that he would probably be able to cease taking Lithium once he retired. However, the doctor whose practice we joined on moving here, told him he would need to keep taking it for the rest of his life, so he continued with it. Life proceeded on a fairly even keel and we decided to attend the small Methodist chapel in the village where we lived. They were very happy to have us join their congregation and we were able to help them in various ways. My husband continued with his Lay Preaching which he had been doing since his early twenties, mostly in the Bedfordshire Baptist churches but he also helped out in some of the Methodist circuits, particularly the St. Neots one. When the village Methodist chapel was forced to close, due to lack of numbers and an ageing congregation, we went back to our Baptist roots and attended Ampthill Baptist Church where we continued worshipping during the last five years. All this time his depression had been controlled by the Lithium he was taking until three years ago when he began to suffer from tummy trouble and, to cut a long story short, it was found that he was suffering from mild Lithium poisoning through taking too high a dosage for his age. The doctor reduced the dose and eventually he recovered and was back to normal. A year or more later, he began once more to suffer with the same tummy trouble he had had previously which went on almost the whole of the summer, culminating in him collapsing in our bathroom and having to be rushed by ambulance to hospital where it was found he was again suffering from Lithium poisoning although this time, much more seriously. At the hospital they immediately stopped his Lithium and endeavoured to clear his system of the drug which took quite some time. While they were doing this he remained in hospital refusing in the beginning to drink or eat and becoming dehydrated, so was on a saline drip for two or three weeks. Eventually he was well enough to come home but it took some time for him to fully recover.
Our doctor was reluctant to prescribe another anti-depressant without a Psychiatrists say so, therefore, he arranged for him to see one and an appointment was eventually made. During this time he seemed to be perfectly normal and not to be suffering from depression at all, which brings us back to the beginning of this article when I mentioned the relief we both felt on being told "you no longer have Depression". At last we were both free of the effects of this very difficult illness.
However, as I said in the beginning this was not to be: he began a course on a different anti-depressant which first started to improve his condition but this did not continue. Following this he was diagnosed with manic depression or bi-polar disorder. This was followed by several other anti-depressants on a trial basis, together, if my memory is correct, with the original new medication. However, his condition did not improve, if anything it got worse and he become quite aggressive and difficult to live with including various mood swings. One moment he would be the kind and loving man I had married and then he would digress into a very unpleasant person indeed, doing all kinds of strange things, so much so that I began to think he was suffering the first stages of Alzheimer's. To cut a very long story short he was finally admitted on Section (detained under the Mental Health Act) to the Psychiatric Wing of our local hospital where he remained for about six to seven weeks. He became a voluntary patient after four weeks and was allowed several day visits, some of them to home and it was planned he would come home for his first overnight visit on the day before his 76th Birthday so that I and my daughter could take him out for lunch to celebrate. We were also to have a celebration tea on the Sunday when our elder son, his wife and family were due to come and share this with him. Sadly, during the week prior to this event, he developed a urine infection and was sent over to the AAU ward to be given fluids overnight. Then on the Saturday he died very suddenly of a massive bleed to his brain stem, totally unexpected and what caused it we will never know. Whether he would have ever been found a suitable anti-depressant to control his manic depression, again we will never know. However. I was told by my doctor when I had to see him for my medication a couple of weeks later, that "he was showing signs of dementia and I could have been facing five very difficult years" so perhaps his death was a blessing for him, rather than the tragedy it seemed at the time.
Tailpiece:
Perhaps in this article I have glossed over much of the happenings of my husband's life as a depressed person, or rather a person who suffered with Depression, but I feel that many of the things which occurred are better left un-recorded and in any case are probably buried so deep in my memory that I have been unable to tease them out. Should any one reading this article feel unable to understand why I have written it after my husband's death, may I say that it was commenced long before that event and I felt it only right to revise and complete it.
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THANK YOU RUTH, for writing about a very personal time of your life.
THE WORDWRIGHT
I have had some welcomed assistance in the assurance that essays continue even though my personal time is sometimes not as free as before my wife's stroke. (Jean is doing very well, thank you, but the work that needs to be done to keep a house in order has to be first in priority and secondary priorities simply stand in line.) The previous essay by Robert J. Tinsky made a simple plea - BE SURE TO VOTE. Today, I am publishing an essay written by a Mississippi friend, T. J. Ray, who is a retired professor of The University of Mississippi. T. J. Ray is a unique writer with a background of 40 years teaching English grammar and language history. He thus qualifies as a pristine wordwright. Readers will immediately sense T. J.s writings stand alone. Some tongue-in-cheek, irony and humor can be found but there are portions that require serious contemplation and rumination. Hopefully these words, no less than the thoughts, will ultimately find their way to the hearts and minds of those who rule as well as they who follow--and vote. THE WORDWRIGHT
The Presidential Party Protocol
Recently someone wrote about defining the constituents of elected officials. Probably he was regnostic and may have been suffering a case of collywobbles. Even so, his words made sense, even suggesting a long-overdue application of the principle. A fitting rubric for the topic might be the Presidential Party Protocol.
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In accordance with Article II, Section I of the U.S.Constitution, whenever a President is sworn in, these words are uttered: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." Of particular note here is the absence of phrases such as "the interests of the _____ party." And a reading of the Constitution that is to be protected and defended is amazingly void of phrases such as "the Republican Party" and "the Democratic Party."
The logical effect of the oath is that the new Chief Executive swears to support the Constitution as it applies to all citizens, those who may have helped elect him as well as those who fought vainly to keep him out of office. As government is practiced (or malpracticed) in our country, folks who financed the winning campaign usually expect a return on their investment of dollars and time. Therein exists the real possibility that the only people represented by the winners are the ones with the deepest pockets. The likelihood is that donors whose checks ran to thousands or millions of dollars will be paid much more attention than the thousands of pensioners who could only contribute ten dollars.
The Presidential Party Protocol should profoundly alter the political landscape, perhaps profoundly improving the management of the nation. (Coincidentally, there should also be a gubernatorial version of the Protocol.) The most significant requirement is that from the day of inauguration the President is barred from participation in any way in party affairs. This includes endorsing other candidates while he or she is in office. One result is that no government agencies will be used to promote party candidates. Air Force One will fly for the people, not the party. It prohibits the Chief Executive from appointing people to positions because of party affiliation. In other words, the President will select the person who is best qualified to do a job, ignoring any pressure to filter nominees through a party screen. While such a constraint on the President may be difficult to define, it is like other aspects of that position: the moral integrity of the person in office.
If the President is concentrating on doing the job , being free of obligations to a party, time and energy may be dedicated to the business of the nation and the welfare of the people. This is highly preferable to presidents going around campaigning and fund-raising for their parties. Perhaps they would then know, for example, whether weapons of mass destruction actually existed before declaring war and that corporate greed was robbing hardworking Americans of their investments and pensions.
Though not direct aspects of the PPP, three other ideas need to be acted upon. Given the intermittent poor choices of vice president running mates, it is past time for the vice president to be elected just as the president is. And the term of office for both offices should be extended to six years with no option for a second term. It makes no more sense for a senator to serve six years than it would for a president and a vice president to also serve the same term. Finally, the electoral college should be abolished. If the nation is to respond to the actual poll of its citizens, then the results of that poll (the popular vote) should be the deciding factor in elections.
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Now, on with the ruminations. Thanks T. J. Again, BE SURE TO VOTE!
THE WORDWRIGHT
REFLECTING ON 'HARD TIMES'
By Dean Rea, Eugene, Oregon
People who lived through the Great Depression think differently than those born within the last three or four decades. THE WORDWRIGHT is privileged to have a full-fledged wordwright, Dean Rea, of Eugene, Oregon, as a guest essayist. When Dean writes about his boyhood experiences in Kansas, you can almost feel the grit of the sand seeping under the doors and through cracks in the window frames. With more than 55 years as a practicing journalist and professor of journalism, our guest essayist comes thoroughly equipped to "tell a story" and leave his readers begging for more but his short story style is sure to satisfy anyone who reads his reflections on "hard times."
Bill Venrick
A 5-year-old boy sits quietly on a chair in a Kansas farmhouse at mid-day. Dust whips across the drought-stricken wheat ranch and soon turns day into night.
The boy's mother closes the curtains while his father sprays water across rooms in the house to clear dust as it seeps through door and windows frames.
The boy worries about the watermelon vines that grow along a garden fence. He planted the seed, and he's looking forward to picking the melons when they ripen.
As the dust storm blows away the topsoil in what was to become the Dust Bowl, the last vestige of hope of raising wheat - and watermelons - vanishes.
Dust and the Great Depression drove my family from the farm and from Kansas during the early 1930's. With a grubstake from grandparents, they ended up in the Ozark Hills on a hardscrabble farm covered with rock, weeds and neglect.
The pre-World War II era is often referred to as "hard times." Fortunately, I wasn't old enough to know how difficult it was for my parents to feed a family and to finance a 40-acre farm operation.
As a 10-year-old, I recall racing across a field with my father, the sole of one of my shoes flapping with each step. We laughed about the flapping shoe, and dad repaired it with hammer and nails on a shoe last that evening after the cows were milked.
Maybe times weren't so hard because I was a boy and didn't realize that I was experiencing "hard times." We had food on the table. My mother canned everything we grew in the garden and meat from pigs and cattle that we slaughtered in the fall. We weren't teased about our patched clothing because everyone wore patched clothing.
No one had electricity, and the battery-powered telephone was mounted on a wall. Our ring was two longs and a short, and everyone on the line listened in on everyone's conversation. We packed our lunches and walked to school where we helped keep a stove stoked with wood during the winter.
We took a bath every weekend even though we had to hand pump every ounce we used from a well and had to heat the water on a wood-burning stove. We read books beside oil lamps at night. We wore clean clothing to church, and we looked forward to Saturday night community potluck meals, games and festivities.
We had a form of universal social services in which everyone in the community would help anyone in need. If you were sick, home remedies were shared. Serious sickness might require a doctor but certainly a prayer vigil. Sick or hurt and couldn't work? Neighbors pitched in and plowed fields, cared for livestock, harvested crops.
So, why the concern today about an economy going south? Inflation? High gasoline prices? Job losses? Mortgages in the dump?
While discussing today's "hard times" with a son, who is a pastor, I said: "During the depression many people didn't have much. Today, many people are losing their jobs, their homes, their toys. Maybe, it's more difficult to lose something when you have something than it is when you have little or nothing."
I often think of the 5-year-old boy seated in a darkened Kansas farm house and wonder about children today who are experiencing "hard times": domestic violence, sexual abuse, drug addiction, starvation, slavery, war, genocide.
On reflection, a dust storm and a depression hardly qualify.
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THANKS, Dean, perhaps you have struck a chord reminding us that "neighboring" was exactly that and not expecting an invasion of "the government" or help driven by committees and organizations from Washington and some kind of headquarters operating out of territorial jurisdictions. True, our population has grown so much larger since those days of the Great Depression and other calamities caused by Nature itself but the pristine neighborhood assistance from the communities themselves "back then" exemplifies something about which a bureaucracy knows little.
THE WORDWRIGHT
The world was not worthy of them
Copyrighted by Bill Venrick, 2008
The title of this essay comes from Hebrews 11:38. The words that follow have not come easy to this writer since we live in a land of political correctness, casual life styles and a trading of virtues once deemed "natural" or even Christian, or no less than "godly" when one considers the oft used phrased, Judeo-Christian virtues or values. Let's face it, America, those of us who have lived in the era from the late 1920's until this 21st century have experienced what might be called "The Surviving Witnesses." But such an accolade needs some sinews and meat on the bare bones.
How long the financial and economic crisis America, and even some parts of the world, will take to right itself (like cream coming to the top of its container, or oil and water separating in a laboratory beaker) will not be known until "later." We can pray that what happens will be better than the circumstances that caused this sickness we have experienced. And it is a sickness.
The phrase used in the title was spoken by the inspired writer of the book of Hebrews in the Bible. The writer has chronicled "righteous people" or "faithful people" of centuries past (back beyond or before the divisions we call, BC and AD.) But back to the writings in the book of Hebrews. Two words, "by faith" precede sections or paragraphs of that New Testament book and a near symphonic expression of words are so profoundly put together that nothing less than a great musical score by Beethoven or Bach needs to accompany the reading of this chapter of the Bible.
By faith we understand...
WOW - and what is it that is now being attacked? Attempts are being made to wrestle godly faith from the mouths of our nation's forefathers by saying the Bible (or God) had no place or the background or lives of those spiritual giants who framed the Constitution, the By Laws and many other legal documents through which our nation was birthed. That very constitution is being challenged and attempts to virtually rewrite it by the men and women who were appointed as Supreme Court judges. The argument appears to be: "Is the constitution living or dead?" At the rate spiritual values are being changed, it looks like the latter is the consensus of the majority of the individuals wearing black robes.
By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's commands. The words continue to flow: "By faith Abel offered a better sacrifice than Cain..., by faith Enoch was taken from this life...,by faith Noah...built an ark..., by faith Abraham...obeyed and went... All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised them...By faith Abraham offered Isaac (his son) as a sacrifice..., by faith Jacob...blessed each of Joseph's sons, by faith the people passed through the Red sea..., by faith the walls of Jericho fell..., by faith the prostitute Rehab...was not killed." And the writer of Hebrews went on to describe still more spiritual giants or heroes and because they lived lives of faith and died without seeing their goals - that is when we find the words: "The world was not worthy of them."
The moral application of this essay so far would be to say, "Our nation's leaders have, at least the majority who have ruled us lately, have sunk in their own stench of broken promises and misconstrued values -- they are not worthy of the hundreds of thousands of young men and women who have died on battle fields in our land and in lands across the seas. Their utter contempt for the bravery of fallen soldiers by attempting to discard the basic spiritual values our nation has held dear for over two hundred years smells worse than the foulest barnyard excrement produced. Our current leaders are not worthy of the men who gave their most for the very purpose of keeping our freedom.
I regretfully say, "It is disgusting to see our great nation floundering in financial chaos after the Great Depression and congressional shenanigans involving Social Security and broken promises, "IOU" slips left instead of refilling the coffers with cash; stealth-withdrawals used to invent programs liberally using money apparently with little or no intent to repay. In the recent decades our congress has gone along with [even] fake-sounding names like Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac that would make our grandfathers laugh out loud - "Loan people money to buy a house with no down payment? That's silly and unheard of!" "Nothing down? Ridiculous!" In actuality, the truth of the matter is: "If you cannot save to buy, you cannot borrow to buy." That is why there have been "renters" and "landlords" -- is that so difficult to understand? Even when manufacturers or companies project new products, they may have to invest (through borrowing) monies that require stocks to be sold. Our city and state governments work through bonds where the purchaser of bonds invests money to take care of our roads, dams, buildings and anything else deemed valuable enough for the most (or the citizenry). Those bonds are "paid off" in taxes levied against home-owners or property owners. The money lent was not freely given.
And they are trying to dupe us into believing that the right and proper ways that formed our land are no longer practical? Who are they trying to fool? They have already fooled themselves and apparently enough of our citizens to continue to reposition the parasites sitting on both sides of the aisles of our nation's capital. If this circumstance and situation is a catharsis, I pray we will see the best flushing that Washington has had for decades! No incumbent is worthy of any more terms to misguide, misuse and mismanage our treasury and taxes any longer. Term Limits should be the first order of business.
By faith we understand, and to put it another way - is it by no faith required (or allowed) that we are being cloned into dupes who will give our governmental leaders whatever they want? The new $1 coin which has received customary criticism from "concerned religious citizens" seems consistent with the covert workings of some leaders. True, they retained the motto "In God We Trust" but that motto has lost any significant place on the coin - its location is more like a riddle to solve. We went through one revolution (from a purported tyrant King) and now have we merely traded hats and some kind of crown is worn by men in $400 double-breasted suits and feet shod with wingtip shoes? And yes, men who have convinced themselves and us that they "have to have" two homes and all the other accouterments known and maintained by the members of our congress. Seems most, if not all, have never read the accounts in our nation's history where when members of the congress or government, from the President down, wrote letters like this:
"Having now finished the work assigned me, I retire from the great theatre of Action; and bidding an Affectionate farewell to this august body under whose orders I have so long acted, I here offer my commission, and take my leave of all the employments of public life." (-- and he went back home.)
-- George Washington (Address to Congress on Resigning his Commission, 23 December 1783)
I think what I would like to see is the National Guard being so busy directing traffic of our congress and senators leaving Washington every two years, they have to use auxiliary units of the Boy Scouts of America to make sure all evacuees get out by midnight of the day their terms expire. And the next day (or two or three, whatever it will take) the same National Guard and Boy Scouts, if needed, will have to do this all over again, directing traffic as the new crew comes in to try to do something with the circumstances left by the previous folks. The only problem is maybe some kind of an extermination crew might need to be used making sure no unhealthy residue remains before the new folks get there.
Perhaps we ought to at least try to smile and see some value in the philosophy of the cartoonist, Charles Schulz: "Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia."
Charles M. Schulz
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THE WORDWRIGHT
THINGS WE CAN'T SEE
Copyrighted by Bill Venrick, 2008
Something that has intrigued me for years is: Many things in life are the way they are as a result of things we cannot see with the naked eye. For a typical example, consider my thumbs, which cause my wife to smile when she sees them as "just another finger"-- they're not formed like her genetically inherited thumbs. Her thumbs turn "backward" in an obvious curve, like her father's, and mine stick proudly straight without a curve at all (like a finger). Her father's thumbs were even more pronounced in shape to almost a quarter of a circle but actually appearing to be a right-angle from the last joint. Why do I bring this up? We can't see what causes such things because it's in the genes!
A young ballplayer with a crippled arm and leg stands out in my memory as another example of something that was caused by things we can't see. This young man's hand was crippled, causing it to hang limply from his wrist and appeared useless. Boy was this a mistaken observation. I remember seeing him play ball in the outfield, crippled though he was, running awkwardly to where the ball was going to hit the ground, he caught it with the gloved hand (the one not crippled). He shifted his glove from his good hand, using his crippled hand to remove his glove without letting loose of the ball and used his good hand to grip the ball and accurately threw it to the baseman scoring against the runner. All this happened within seconds and with an adeptness so slick you wondered how he did it. Many kids would have given up even thinking about playing ball if they had such a crippled hand. What caused that boy to have a crippled leg and arm is something we can't see.
John K. Fink, M.D. Of University of Michigan has a laboratory committed to finding the causes and developing treatments for hereditary spastic paraplegia. A long time mystery of mine came to an end about a specific problem caused by things we can't see came to an end unexpectedly at a high school class reunion. My wife and I shared a table with a lady whose body suffered from HSP (hereditary spastic paraplegia). Her father had this disease, which is not really a disease but rather a group of clinically and genetically diverse disorders that share the primary feature of progressive, generally severe, lower extremity spasticity. She was the only one of four children who inherited HSP from her father. Our classmate transmitted this disorder on to five of her seven children, and the disorder can now be seen to be in two of her grandchildren. Our friend noticed in adulthood she was stumbling or tripping a lot and as this intensified she saw this trait occurring one of her children. It was at this time a physician zeroed in with a diagnosis of the problem that causes leg stiffness and gait disturbance due to difficulty dorsiflexing the foot and weakness of hip flexion - in other words, the problem was in her legs, knees and ankles. Our friend was glad to find she was not just a stumble bum but what she had was something caused by something no one could see. (That is, until Dr. John K. Fink came along, and obviously her physician had read reports of or by Dr. Fink)
Life is filled with such maladies, diseases or disorders - most of which the causes cannot be seen with the naked eye. We could go on with a suggested list: retardation, Down's syndrome, any brain connected disorders (strokes, tics, etc.), leprosy, the color of our hair, the shape of our fingers, the way we stand (our posture), the way we act or speak and so on to make a list without end. As I thought about this malady, learning it had a technical name, or HSP, I recalled the book by Philip Yancey & Dr. Paul Brand, "Fearfully and Wonderfully Made" (Their title was drawn from the Scripture in Psalms 139:14, the King James Version.)
Designers of the internal combustion engine and every other involved invention worked from sketches written on bits and pieces of paper to be finalized into involved drawings before the essential parts could be made to combine with yet more parts utilizing additional skills of pattern makers, mold makers and mechanical engineers. Great scientists like Leonardo da Vinci yearned to discover why or how the body worked and they intently sought cadavers to dissect. Some of their research exists yet today guiding men of medicine and anatomy to see the marvels of the human body that was truly "fearfully and wonderfully made."
To some, all of this has been simplified, at least in their own minds, to say all of this has "just happened" through hundreds of millions of years evolving from slime that had washed up on the beach. Perhaps such an unsophisticated generalization by this writer is not fair but a shortening of what would seem to be an involved creation process in an attempt to deny the existence of a creator God is just as unsophisticated and unfair in my mind. Just because doctors before Dr. John K. Fink could not "see" what caused our friend's serious malady, and some perhaps even concluding she, and others like her, were simply clumsy, did not make the malady or disease any less a reality to her and the thousands similarly affected. After stumbling, excuse the pun, on this subject, talking with a doctor friend about this malady, he asked me if this crippled friend of ours was from Logan, Ohio. I thought that was a strange question but he quickly allayed my concern by saying, "There is an near clan in Logan (Ohio) with such maladies." It should not come as a surprise to discover problems involving our body, and everything around us occur, and as the created being, could it be that "all of this" is one great program or scheme of learning for us?
Yes, it is strange that humans are plagued by maladies, weaknesses and even diseases that are caused by things we can't see. Perhaps some critics of "the church" might think "all of this" as a cruel joke by a creator God to hem us in with skin in a body that is not perfect and required -- sometimes, deigned to do near impossible deeds. Early on in God's dealing with man, Moses tried to convince God that he couldn't talk (properly, I am sure was his main concern) but Moses, like us, was overlooking the very fact that he was talking with the One who designed and made his body!
No, I do not feel I have answered any great anatomical questions or solved any genetically transmitted maladies in a few hundred words but I do hope it might be a bit easier to believe many of our problems are caused by things we can't see. If the reader is sincerely seeking enlightenment I would urge you to search for the book mentioned, "Fearfully and Wonderfully Made" or perhaps one yet easier to find, "In His Image" by Philip Yancey and Dr. Paul Brand. The simple, though complex discoveries, uncover or perhaps unwrap this subject unfolding layer after layer enabling us to see things we cannot see. Is it faith? Is it acceptance or admission of some spiritual workings that cannot be seen with human eyes and minds clouded somehow with a spiritual blindness? Whatever - we do not have to stay ignorant or uninformed about things we can't see.
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THE WORDWRIGHT
A resource of interest: http://www.med.umich.edu/hsp/analysis.htm
BACK FENCE ECONOMICS
Copyright 2008 - Bill Venrick, THE WORDWRIGHT.
Alright already! We have heard from the high level economists, and both parties, or so it seems and they have given their opinions and cast dispersion and blame on the folks across the aisles (from whichever side these "well dressed representatives of the nation" holler from) and naturally the various wise guys from the assorted media; so I thought "Why not say something myself?" (My good friend, Bob Tinsky, recently shared his thoughts comparing governmental antics with Laurel & Hardy as you may recall(*).
I know some from the ages of 55ish get a little tired of it but I just cannot think there are enough comments made from the citizens who were born in or lived through the Great Depression. My wife and I wrote a book highlighting a small orphanage in Fairfield County, which operated for nearly 100 years, taking care of children who had been victims of societal malfunctions. Early on into our project it became obvious that the reason any children's home concept, even if you go back to the indentured servant days, existed was simply because some people don't know what they don't know. Of course when the indentured servant concept came to view (at least in our country) was when towns had developed and children came along to families with economic problems just keeping their heads above the water while trying to stand on their tip toes. Some folks obviously had trouble understanding "how kids came along" and once they did it became a choice of whether you became celibate or found another way to pay for all this family that, somehow, made their presence known.
Then, of course, during those days when indentured servants were in vogue, folks just didn't live all that long and some of those children were left for relatives, neighbors and ultimately the courts to care for. My wife's descendants had their own sad story to tell when both the parents died within a matter of months and "all of a sudden" there were six kids whose lot was to raise themselves, but it was a help that Grandma & Grandpa were in the near neighborhood. Without going into a lot of details, that brood did a pretty fine job of raising themselves but that is another story. But back to the Great Depression days.
I was born in 1932, which appears to be the wearing off times of that depression but the ripples of those slim days was still a bad taste in the mouths of most and "things" were still not easy to get unless you were fortunate enough to have money. My father told the story many times about a house on the SW corner of East Wheeling and Livingston Streets that he couldn't buy because he didn't have the 10% required for a down payment. The house was selling for $1,200. (Yes, twelve hundred dollars.) Back in those days banks were not in every neighborhood shopping center. In fact, you walked to the tune of the drummer boy (the banks) if you wanted to do any business with them. They were not open all that long during the day - just customarily 9:00 til 5:00, and they closed Thursday afternoon, and Saturday they closed at noon. It was pretty much, if you had money in the bank or a good credit rating you could get whatever money you needed to buy a house. Also, back in those days, our city was made of 80% property owners and the rest of the folks rented. We had schools where teachers were routinely career people. with the small exception of some teachers who should never had been given the job to begin with but most teachers were the kind who were very concerned about teaching their pupils "reading, writing and 'rithmatic" and throwing in enough geography and history to know where all these people came from and how they all got here in the United States. But I digress.
Plain and simple, you bought what you could afford and if you couldn't get a loan, you kept on renting. Since my Dad could not come up with $120 dollars (one-hundred and twenty dollars) he simply did not qualify for a loan from the bank. There were other ways to get money though, small amounts that is. If you needed a new refrigerator or furniture, the store would "carry you" and let you pay for it with monthly payments and charge a small interest. If you were still wanting more, there were always those City Loans who loaned money at a much higher interest rate but if you couldn't meet their payments they had ways of getting their money back by turning you over to a collection agency and you might even have your wages garnisheed and then your employer would be legally empowered to deduct a certain amount of your pay until your debt was paid. People moved pretty often in those days. When I graduated from high school I had lived in twelve (yes, 12) different places but fortunately stayed within two school districts in all that time. One summer we even moved over to Wheeling Island (in the middle of the Ohio River between West Virginia and Ohio) when my Dad wanted to express his patriotism by quitting his job at the glass factory and went to work in a "defense plant" (making pom pom guns for the Navy)--sometime during WW 2.
People had it rough but for the most part, to be blunt, people either had it or didn't have it. Those who didn't have it, were not babied or coddled like people are today and there was no such thing as NO MONEY DOWN loans. That almost qualifies for an oxymoron--how could you get money (a loan) if you didn't have any collateral? It just wasn't done!!
And that is just about all I wanted to say - our country has gotten itself into one big mess, probably the nearest to the Great Depression that I have ever experienced but our great leaders (of this nation) do not seem to want to admit how bad off we are but when you see interest on Certificates of Deposit go from 12% to 2%, the dumbest guy in the class can tell you "somethings wrong!" Oh, there is money being printed and there is some around but have you noticed how much it looks like Play Money - why, any real printer would never print such currency--the type chosen doesn't even match. There might be a larger figure (or numeral) in one corner that is an entirely different style of type - no professional printer would have dared made that choice. For years we have used the motto "In God We Trust" (on our currency) but our country has gotten so casual (and bending to "new concepts") the motto has become so small (of course it had to be small on coins) that now the new dollar coin has it obscured so that it had to be put on the edge of the coin. Try to read that without a jeweler's magnifying glass!
Folks, I think it is about time we get used to the idea of maturing into people who are capable of being satisfied with what they have. The asinine motto of one rent-to-own company, whose motto is: "Because we all should have nice stuff." Oh??? The key words are "we all"; we all may want better stuff - whether or not people can afford it is another matter.
When we get back to buying or living within our means - that's for everybody: homes, schools, towns, factories, stores, the country, then we will see some semblance of normalcy - not before. I cannot resist saying that somewhere along the way, whether it was entirely the Union's fault is an argument for sure, but when the employee started telling the company how to plan their pay scales, and provide financial benefit packages (ad nauseam) for every worker, this was the beginning of the new way of doing business. Back in the post depression days when my Dad's union fought for a pay raise, it might have resulted in "mere cents on the hour" and if there had been a strike (to boot), whatever pittance they gained was already lost after their first new contract took affect. Another axiom, "The only thing we learn from history is we don't learn anything from history." That in itself is not too encouraging though, is it?
Competition has always been "good for business", but when that competition is on the other side of the globe and wage earners there are making a fraction of what Americans demand, could it be we have gone amok with our high standards of living? Drive down the streets of any town and look at the older homes - typically you will see many more smaller homes than big homes; you can be sure that those homes probably produced the same size families, maybe even larger, than those who are trying to buy the multi-level near-mansions. One great difference though, those home owners probably had their "smaller homes" paid for in 25 years or less and one wonders if the big home mortgages of today's market will ever get paid off. #####
THE WORDWRIGHT
* TINSKY essay "Another Nice Mess" check in the archives)
"WELL, HERE'S ANOTHER NICE MESS YOU'VE GOTTEN ME IN"
Copyrighted 2008 by Robert J. Tinsky, Guest Essayist, Oblong, Illinois
Those of us who have been "around the block" more than a few times will remember the title of this essay as probably the most famous line of the comedians Stan Laurel and Ollie Hardy. The team entertained people from all over the world with their humorous antics from 1920 to 1950. They made 106 movies during their long career.
The words quoted in the title of this essay were first used in the film "The Movie Case" produced in 1930. They were later used in the movie "The Fixer Uppers" in 1935. In at least two of their later films they made a hilarious change in this famous line when Ollie said to Stan, "Well, here's another nice kettle of fish you pickled me in."
Enough of the history about these two famous comedians. What I want to say in this brief essay is that the leaders of our financial institutions and of our federal government have gotten our nation in another mess. Or to paraphrase the words of Laurel and Hardy we could say "here's another nice kettle of fish you pickled our nation in."
I am wondering if we have not had too many "Laurel's and Hardy's" in charge of our financial institutions and our government. Isn't it time we kicked out all the knuckleheads and replaced them with people with some genuine business sense.
You can study the background of this whole mess and soon discover there is plenty of blame to pass around. From what I have been able to ascertain it started with some stupid government policies that violated some basic principles of economics. We are told that greed is one of the basic causes of the problem. Greed certainly made the problem worse, but in my opinion it was because we had too many "Laurel's and Hardy's" in charge. Like those two comedians they bungled the way our financial system is supposed to work. All I can say to these "comedians" in charge of our government and financial institutions is "Well, here's another nice mess you've gotten us in."
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WELL, Bob, you've made it short but not so sweet. It certainly is a prayer of many that our country can work their way through this crisis, however it might involve re-teaching an awful lot of people that lesson us old-timers had to learn years ago--knowing the different between "wants" and "needs". THE WORDWRIGHT
Guest Essayist: Bill Volkart, Cincinnati, Ohio - Copyright 2008
My mother was a young woman during WWII and was one of the early liberated types called in those days a 'Rosie the Riveter' type. She loved working and going out with friends and soon developed a love of alcohol. In fact she was out drinking and dancing the night before I was born. Today that would be child endangering, then it was just a fact of life.
She was a good mom and loved me dearly but her love affair with alcohol was still with her. She taught me to read and by three I could read rather well for a little child. I read well enough to know the words Gin, Vodka and Bourbon for sure since those bottles were always around.
We only had one car since mom never learned to drive so we walked everywhere or rode the bus. By the age of five I was dutifully walking with mom everywhere we went. One of the places we walked about every three days was to the liquor store since mom would polish off the booze pretty quickly. This was lost on me, being five, but I knew where we were going and knew the clerk there by name and I could immediately find the brand of booze she wanted. This soon led to my knowing what kind of drinks she liked and knew how to make them. It was not long before I knew how to make a dry gin martini (her favorite drink) as well as whiskey sours and now and then a Tom Collins. I was probably the only five year old bartender in Cincinnati. My wife kids that mom taught me to read so I could learn to read the Barkeepers Friend drink mixing book.
As time passed I learned that not all moms drank like mine nor did their kids mix drinks. It made me worry about her but despite my protests she continued to drink anyway. It eventually took its toll on her and on August 11, 1978 when I was 26 years old, she died of liver failure. She was 56 at the time and it has taken me many years to get over her untimely death. But even now I remember our walks to the liquor store every three days. That liquor store is gone now and so is mom but I can still make one helluva dry gin martini.
If you are an irresponsible drinker, please stop. It affects more than just your liver, it ruins lives and makes some of the worst memories a child can carry through to their adult life. Don't live your life serving as a bad example. I have forgiven my mom, you may not be so lucky with your kids.
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I encourage every parent to read this essay and print it to pass on to other parents. My friend, Bill Volkart, in Cincinnati, Ohio, has written a story that is a virtual mirror of my life as a teenager. My mother was also an alcoholic and abused her body to the extent that she passed away before she was 42 and I was 15. The incidents I experienced often haunt me to this day as I recall the stigma and embarrassment because most of my friends knew my mother was a drunk--there were few "soft terms" then for alcoholism as "political correctness" was yet to be discovered. I was not like my friend, who learned how to mix drinks; rather, I became a professional at finding where mother hid her booze, and then I would throw it away, naively thinking I was doing the right thing. Sixty-one years later I vividly remember helping my mother as she struggled getting off the bus late at night, after having been in a bar most of the evening. Those experiences were sufficient warnings to me about the control some people lose when they become drinkers. THE WORDWRIGHT
by June T. Bassemir, Guest Essayist - Copyrighted 2008
When I asked June for some bio information, she wrote: "My biggest accomplishment (besides having 4 children who have produced 9 grandchildren) was restoring a 1931 Model A Ford - and no.... I was not the original owner. " June lives on Long Island, New York and her family is among the first settlers, after the Indians, that is. I appreciate June's ability to work with words--yes, another Wordwright for sure. And, just for the record, Mrs. Wordwright thinks June is "right on" with this subject! - Bill Venrick, THE WORDWRIGHT
After many decades on this planet I have decided we all seem to be governed by the market place. I am not talking about the market place in Africa where peanuts, and manioc is sold on the ground, but the Market Place in the United States. The big office room with the mahogany table and chairs, where the CEOs of mattress companies like Seally, Beauty Rest, Serta and Temperpedic get together with linen companies such as Cannon, Wamsutta, JCPenny Home and Burlington.
I'm not suggesting that these two different products are in bed with one another but it is entirely possible that Mr. Burlington's middle name is Serta and Mr. Seally's first name is Cannon. In this sacred room they discuss business and quite naturally the conversation goes like this: "How can we stimulate more sales?" One bright twenty two year old boy, [the son of one of the company heads] has a brilliant idea and he responds thusly: "Let's change the size of our mattresses making them thicker and then everyone will have to get new sheets to go with them?" Now this dear fellow has not been very attentive to his mother's folding of sheets and pillow cases. After all, they probably had a maid to do it, and so he puts forth his idea and they all agree - "It is a capital one." (Of course, aren't they capitalists?)
So the Seally, Beauty Rest, Serta and Temperpedic blue-suited men decide together to do exactly that -- on the first day of the next year. The linen people follow suit thus causing women young and old, housewives and executives to head to "Linen and Things", or "Bed Bath and Beyond" to replace all their old sheets which of course, now do not fit the new mattresses.
There are a few drawbacks to this scenario which affect you and me and the first is, .have you noticed that cotton sheets and/or cotton & polyester sheets do not wear out? I mean, when was the last time you climbed into bed and put your foot into a torn area? Never. Sheets just don't wear out. Have you ever asked, "What should I do with this perfectly good sheet now that it won't fit my new mattress?" I had a solution one time and that was to make rags. Yes, indeed, cotton sheets make good rags especially for people who restore and repair old cars. However, unless you are a member of one of these clubs, your rag recipient will be hard to find. And there you are, with a pile of nicely folded twin and double sheets ready for something...to go somewhere - but where? Another bad feature is that the linen people have decided it is easier for them to put elastic all around the whole bottom sheet edges, instead of just in the corners, which makes the folding of them for the linen closet, (if you are lucky enough to have a linen closet), just about impossible.
Before this, I had educated myself in the art of folding the old style of fitted sheets and received much applause from friends and family alike for my expert folding ability. If they gave out degrees for such, I would have one but now I not only have lost my degree in Folding 101, I have failed utterly with these new "pillow top" sheets. I have tried over and over to get a decent folded object that will fit on the shelves of the closet, but try as I may, I have yet to succeed.
If money was no object, I would donate this new mattress to the Salvation Army along with two sets of new double sheets but Sleepy's is still waiting for the remainder of their money... so I am stuck! Besides, where am I going to go for a mattress of the old kind?
Climbing into bed each night used to be an anticipated seductive pleasure but now it has become a dedicated effort. One does not just flop into bed. No no...a step stool should be considered and a box of Kleenex kept handy for eventual nose bleed from the high altitude. And for heaven's sake - don't fall out of the bed in the middle of the night - it's a long way down.
Due to "Junior's" suggestion at the CEO meeting when he came up with his brilliant idea for "stimulating sales", we are all in this quandary together and it was created by ...the market place. I would like to be invited to join the next planning committee meeting to give these executives some advice on homemade practical design. Sadly, they only seem to be interested in the black figure of the last column on that green ledger sheet and not Mrs. Little Known Homebody.
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THANKS, JUNE, for another unique essay from the woman's point of view.
THE WORDWRIGHT
By Guest Essayist, Robert J. Tinsky, Oblong, Illinois
Recently my long-time friend, Bob Tinsky, sent this to his local newspaper as a LETTER TO THE EDITOR -- sounded like something THE WORDWRIGHT readers would enjoy, so here it is:
I don't know about you, but I will be glad when this year's election is over. I am getting really miffed listening to all the petty things being floated around about each candidate.
I don't care how many houses either candidate owns. I don't care whether or not either one knows how to bowl. It makes little difference to me whether or not either one has ever fired a gun. It is not important to me that either one be able to give a rousing speech. I don't give a hoot about the color of the skin of the candidate or whether the person is male or female
I also am not interested in hearing all the promises either candidate makes. Promises are easy to make. What I want to know is how they propose to keep any of those promises. Can they guarantee me that they can get their proposals approved by Congress? Where is all the money going to come from to pay for all the things being promised? Does either candidate have any concrete suggestion as to how we can pay off our national debt? Will the person elected be the one who can lead us out of the moral swamp our nation has gotten into and restore the moral and spiritual dignity that once characterized our great nation?
Another thing I don't care a snap about is all the misdeeds that can be dug up concerning the past of either prospective president. I did a lot of stupid things when I was young. I surely don't want anyone hanging the mistakes of my youth around my neck today. I am not interested in knowing about all the foibles in their past. What I want to know is what kind of a character the candidate has developed that will assure me that he or she will be a good and respectable and moral leader of nation today. I want to be assured that the person I vote for is a person of integrity.
Also I want to know what qualifications each person has that can assure me that he or she will be the right person to lead our nation during the next four years. Is the candidate a person who can reach across the aisle and bring the two parties together so they can work together for the good of our nation rather than simply for the betterment of their political party?
I believe that we need to set aside all the petty nonsense and deal with the genuine issues. If you agree with me, let's all say it together "Enough already!"
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ANYONE ELSE out there who has wanted to write such a letter? THANKS BOB!
THE WORDWRIGHT
A QUART OF MILK - When I was a boy, the Milk Man (Bennetts, Deeds Dairy and Home Dairy, to name the more popular dairies "back then" in Lancaster, Ohio) would leave a couple quarts of milk at our back door and the only identification as to contents was the name of the dairy on a little paper cap covering the bottle opening. I believe it simply said MILK, and maybe later, "Homogenized". You knew what it was because it was in a MILK BOTTLE. Sure there was cream, buttermilk, and even orange juice available but the point I am trying to get across is that the ingredients were quite simple. At breakfast this morning I noticed the rather large label on the plastic gallon jug containing 2% Milk and figure there must be several dozen words identifying or describing the contents of the container, as well as the bar code for pricing and inventory control. As specific as they are today, I am surprised that they do not list what field of the farm the cattle grazed, and maybe even which teat of the cow's bag the milk came from!
GASOLINE - Just two grades, Regular and Ethyl. Diesel, to the best of my knowledge was not around then, unless it was a restricted commercial item. You could buy "coal oil" or kerosene as it is known today which is comparable to diesel fuel, I believe. Then people used kerosene as fuel in small kitchen stoves with one, two or several burners that were designed for people who did not have a natural gas or electric stove in their kitchen. Today, the price of gasoline, and especially diesel fuel, might well be labeled GOLD, liquid gold that is.
CEREAL - When I was a kid, I think it was about then, they started using the word "preservatives" in certain products. One I remember for sure, was a box of Kellogg's (I think) PEP cereal. For some reason, it got old at our house or the grocer's shelf because it was about the stalest tasting stuff you could find - and we probably threw it out. Not that PEP was not a good cereal, but that cereal simply got stale. Today, cereals and such products are so hyped up with chemicals that even bugs don't bother eating it, but as people, we don't know any better and we gobble it up without another thought. Today there are also "expiration dates" on most products. Sometimes, of course, this is a code or an embossed type of identification but it is there just the same. Also, years ago little trinkets or awards were in a box of cereal, or no less than a coupon that you could send off and get a whistle, compass or other "valuable" item most kids would want. Or you could send in the BOX TOP, or several box tops and, with a few coins, and get a secret code ring!
HOSPITAL CARE - Close to the house we lived in when I was a teenager was the original hospital of our town. It was a two story house where nurses and doctors took care of patients in a very personal way. It was not unusual for the doctor himself, to carry a patient up a flight of stairs to the 2nd floor, after surgery, taking them to their room. Of course, most my age remember when "house calls" were more than a funny situation comedy on public TV. In my early adult life, it was also not unusual for our doctor to instruct his patients to "Pick up your pills in the box at the office front door." There, on the porch, just a few feet from the sidewalk, among packets of pills for sometimes a dozen or more, would be a packet of pills with the name "VENRICK" handwritten on the little envelope. There was no slip to sign, no validation required - trust and integrity were a part of the society in which we grew up. It is obvious such trust is not visible in today's society where you have to put your "signature" on a slip of paper and then "print" your name and phone number on the slip, and oh yes, PAY FOR the medicine before you leave the counter.
YES, I am aware my age has something to do with my desire for "the plain and simple". As I mentioned earlier about the PEP cereal going stale or flat, you can just about bet that we are not plagued with that because of all the additives they use in food products. However, the recent experience my wife and I had, acknowledging, accepting and adjusting to the facts of life - both of us had let ourselves go, weight wise, and excess weight and blood pressure are not "friendly facts"; so we have been quite conscious of the portion of boxes, bottles and bags called "Ingredients". Some may remember my rant about wanting chocolate milk without high test sweeteners or why they have to include high fructose corn syrup and (more) corn syrup in tomato catsup; well, it took all of about 60 seconds for a best friend and my wife to "inform me" you have to include sugar (or some kind of sweeteners in some things. OK, alright, OK, sweeteners are necessary but that still doesn't keep me from studying "ingredients". I am glad there are some food products prepared "plain and simple", e.g., Peanut Butter, dried fruit and some cereals. A popular food chain in this area, KROGERS, has a line of peanut butter that has, for ingredients: "Roasted peanuts, salt. Contains: PEANUTS" Pick up a jar of the top sellers and you will find that peanuts and a LOT of other stuff is in that great spread that doesn't stick to the roof of your mouth. (If you too would like some "plain and simple" peanut butter, and you are in an area where KROGERS is known, look for their product: "Natural Creamy" Peanut Butter.
The same is true with cereals. I prefer Shredded Wheat that has a list of ingredients with as few lines as possible. A POST "Shredded Wheat (with wheat'n bran)" only has three lines: "Ingredients: Whole grain wheat and wheat bran. To preserve the natural wheat flavor, BHT is added to the packaging material. And for "Contents: WHEAT" Again, take a look at those whiz bang popular brands and see "what else" is needed for most cereals. (End of commercials - no, I have not been promised a dozen cartons of any of the above products but I sure do like them!)
Yes, I am aware there are folks with unique health issues and "plain and simple" is virtually impossible. Rather, you will find a notice like, "This product was manufactured in a building where wheat flour and peanuts were processed." Pure and simple, our society has become quite complex, and let's face it, most of us are glad food producers recognize generalizations like "plain and simple" are simply not always possible.
Those who have experienced similar problems as my wife (stroke and diabetes), they and their caregivers, simply must become very thorough readers of foods products we find on the grocery shelves. Since we have drastically reduced our desire for sugar we have found even sour fruit tastes sweet! We have a hybrid blackberry bush in our backyard that is thorn-less but boy is it sour! Funny thing, that real sour taste has been reduced since we "gave up" sugar - fresh fruits have sufficient sweetness and if we add fruit to our cereal, that is sufficient sweetener. And boy do /we like the ingredient list on a package of dried plums: "Ingredients: California pitted dried plums. Potassium Sorbate added as a preservative."
Yeah, "plain and simple" is still around too!
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THE WORDWRIGHT
But one that should be discussed.
June T. Bassemir, Guest Essayist, from Long Island, New York
Copyrighted 2008
When I asked June for some bio information, she wrote: "My biggest accomplishment (besides having 4 children who have produced 9 grandchildren) was restoring a 1931 Model A Ford; and no, I was not the original owner." June lives on Long Island, New York and her family is among the first settlers, after the Indians, that is. I appreciate June's ability to work with words--yes, another Wordwright for sure.
Living in a house with one bathroom, three sons and a husband, my mother saw early on that she was outnumbered. Something had to be done. I will ever be grateful to her that she trained the men in our family to put the seat down long before I arrived on the scene. It was the kind thing to do. As a result of her determined effort; I never had the distasteful experience of sitting down without the benefit of said seat. That is, until I was newly married.
Late one night and without the benefit of any light it WAS my unfortunate experience. That was the first and only time it happened because I followed my mother's example on the matter and taught my husband to be considerate of me and replace the seat. When the sons came along; they did the same for the sake of their sisters. Now, you would think that was all I had to say on the subject, but it's not. Grandsons are now on the scene and there are many. Once again I am outnumbered when they visit. This lesson has to be taught either by drilling over and over until it finally sinks in or with a note in red letters, above the flushing unit. The note explains that it is a loving habit for them to form for the next person who follows them into the necessary room...to wit, the grandmother.
This lack of consideration was recently experienced with the visit of an air conditioning man who came to spend some time going over an estimate for air conditioning my house. After his consultation which actually took less than an hour, he stood up to leave but asked first, if he could go to the bathroom. This question always feels like an intrusion to me and it makes me inwardly groan when those who have come to do some small service work, asks it. One time I had the foresight to say to a burly, overfed, 300 lb. electrician. "Sorry, I am having trouble with my cesspool right now and I'm limiting the number of flushes." But, this time I was taken by surprise and so I had no alternative but to point in the direction of the pink room, next to the laundry room down the hall. While he was occupied, I looked over his worksheet and noticed it compared exactly to the work of the previous estimate from another company. However this man's presentation was more detailed and I was leaning towards giving him the contract even though his price was considerably higher than the first. I had to weigh which estimate I would choose.
After his visit to the tiled room and his departure from the house, I sat down to compare the two figures again, mulling over the decision. I liked this second man's approach in showing me just where each air duct and return would be placed and where the unit would sit outside. I could forgive him for asking to use the bathroom, but there had to be more than the money saved with the first estimate, to make the decision. I was still thinking of which way to go, when just by chance; I happened to pass the bathroom door and looked in. Oh no -- HE LEFT THE SEAT UP! That did it. Needless to say the first A/C man will get the job. Of course, I would never tell No. 2 man that he lost the job due to this small infringement, but that was the deciding factor - plain and simple.
So mothers, teach your sons to think of others especially of their future wives and daughters and put the seat down. I won't insist on the lid also coming down but occasionally that would be nice too. And workmen - think and act ahead and make sure you can give an estimate or do the work involved without asking that ugly question: "May I use your bathroom?"
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THANKS for some great tips on a delicate subject, June.
THE WORDWRIGHT
Essay by Robert J. Tinsky, Oblong, Illinois
Guest Essayist
About 3000 years ago King Solomon wrote: "Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body." (Eccl. 12:12) The prophet wrote of the time when "many will go here and there to increase knowledge." (Daniel 12:4) I wonder what King Solomon would think if he could come back and see the vast multitude of books being published every year in our country. I am not given to predictions of end-times events in our world but I can not help but wonder if Daniel could be referring to the time in which we live.
In 2006 there were 290,000 books published in the United States. Each year about 10 million books are written, most of which are never accepted for publication. Every week I read in the newspaper articles about some of the new books that have been printed along with a list of the ten best selling fiction and the ten best selling non-fiction books. Some of the magazines I receive have pages trying to entice me to join their book club so I can receive the latest books each month. In the pages of their monthly magazine and in letters I receive in the mail I am invited to sign up so I can receive monthly the Reader's Digest Condensed Books. (I don't subscribe but I do like to get my hands on used copies of them.)
I turn on my computer and go to Google or Yahoo and I am immediately invited to read the latest headlines. At my finger tips are sites that will instantly tell me everything I want to know about any possible subject. (Sometimes, much more than I really want to know). I have bookmarked several sites where I can get the latest news from both a liberal or conservative viewpoint and where I can get articles by those of the same political persuasion.
I have a library of at least 1000 books in my home with all kinds of information. I know I can get much of this same information via the internet but I am of the old generation and still like to have a book in hand. We have a small library in our little town that can get almost any book I want to read or study by going to their inter-library loan program. I can order the book and have it often in two days. My mind is reeling from even thinking of all this knowledge instantly at my command. With all this information at hand you would think I was the smartest person on the earth. Problem is, when do I find time to read all this? And, just reading is not enough. Some of these things take time to study thoroughly to be sure I really comprehend and to get the information imbedded into my own God given memory system.
Enough on this subject. Time to get back to reading the latest book I borrowed from the library just three days ago.
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Not sure Bob convinced me, I think he's going back for more
if he's going to read another book! THANKS BOB,
THE WORDWRIGHT
By T. J. Ray, Oxford, Mississippi
Note from THE WORDWRIGHT - This is a heavy subject and more than cursory thoughts are necessary. Public School Boards of Education nationwide would do well to make this essay a "must read" for every teacher in training. The application of principles and precepts needed, as suggested by T. J. Ray, might well require a new qualification for teachers (and School Board members): "Not for the timid." I consider it a privilege to publish T. J. Ray's essay on this website and am grateful to him for granting us permission to use it. Professor Ray even sent along the photo below of the teacher and her students at the Wilson Elementary School in Clay County, Mississippi, which is near Columbus in the eastern edge of the state (year unknown).
"Teaching, what about it? Students, do you like the teachers?" Old and worn questions maybe, but I was asked them recently and was bothered by my answers. Almost any teacher will tell you instantly that he likes students. That's what I did. Later, when the moment was past, I began to consider what I might have or should have said.
Why does a person seek to become a teacher? There are many with the title who are counterfeits. Immediately, George Bernard Shaw's quote springs to mind: "He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches." Perhaps there is more than a germ of truth. Are there accounting profs who teeter on the edge of financial insolvency? Drama coaches who never act? Literature teachers who are content with verbal debris for their leisure reading?
Students may have a piece of the truth when they accuse teachers of hiding from the "real" world. It's true that the world of the campus is artificial. Any system that gives teachers practical autonomy in the midst of a democratic society is artificial. Here, though, I level no charge. If the classroom is to orient the student so that he succeeds in the "real" world, then good for it. And, too, there are teachers whose world ends with the class period. They take no stands, front no issues, and applaud when they believe their students have mastered the course. These people are human zombies. They are conveyor belts of data, details, facts, trivia. A teachers must do more than a good computer or audiovisual device can do. He must help students relate his course content to the real world.
Relevance is a charged word today. For teachers it is generally negatively charged, nd they are repelled by it. Do they resent being shown that their professional function has been neutralized, that they are ineffective? Why didn't my fellow students and I not bomb buildings and have eyeball confrontations with our teachers in the 1950's? Were they and their programs more relevant, more pragmatic? Or were we naive and timid?
May it be that we were raised in an era when longevity seemed the rule, when systems went on and on, some changing and surviving while others declined and vanished? Today's students don't have any sense of permanence or longevity. The Anglo-Saxon motif "Life is laene" sums up their world: Life is brief. Though they may be wrong, thought the world may go on for centuries, thought God may be in his heaven and all's well with the world, our students think it is falling apart. And even if they are dead wrong, as long as they believe this terror, it is one function of teachers to respond, to make knowledge relevant.
Indeed, why not? What is so evil about making human behavior in all its forms meaningful? Is it better to subject the young to Shakespeare than to an Indian guru or a hypo? Is it worthy subjecting him to the discipline of physics lab when he may never experiment again? Is there any point in teaching the writings of the Vikings in a world of CBW, CIA, and DDT? Emphatically, yes! But sensibly, purposefully, and oh so patiently.
We must let our students know there is a reason for our professional existence. First, we must know ourselves that such a reason exists. If we cannot find one and verbalize our motive for teaching what we teach, then we must nod silently when the young shout "Irrelevant" because then we are.
There is no more significant profession in the world than teaching. It is perhaps the oldest in that people have probably always transmitted knowledge one to another, usually from adults to younger people. Gradually it developed that a few would have primary responsibility in this area. And slowly teachers became respected and finally trusted with the minds of the young. Plato conceived of men studying most of their lives to become teachers, and to become philosophers in the bargain.
Now the greenest, most immature individual is turned loose with a few years of college. And there is no valid probationary period as exists in medicine and other arts. Are there people who come privately to the conclusion that teaching is not their proper calling? Do they ever quit, walk away, and leave the students to more capable hands? I suspect that voluntary withdrawal is the exception rather than the rule. Hence, one of the burdens the profession ought to assume is that of improving and weeding its own ranks.
We are probably guilty of harboring incompetents, mantling them with tenure and select committee appointments that assure them of unchecked license in the execution of their nefarious art. For that's just what bad teaching is, a misguiding, a corrupting of the innocence of young minds and characters. To the degree that poor teachers stifle the urge to learn and frustrate students in pursuing knowledge, to that degree they are of the same cloth as the witch doctor who holds his people back from modern medicine or the chanting monk who frightens his flock away from a more enlightened view of their creator and world.
No other professional group has the opportunity teachers have. Physicians may be able to men bodies. Ministers may well prepare souls for the next life. And engineers and scientists may shelter, clothe and feed us better than we have been pampered in the past. But only teachers are in a position that allows them to shape the intellects and personalities of the young. They have the chance of molding human beings, creating humane beings.
Teachers have the highest calling because they deal with the world's most precious commodity: the human mind. If they were handling delicate china or expensive electronic materials, we would expect great care. How much more valuable and delicate is the mind?
If students are the teacher's reason for being, then there is an obligation to examine the relationships with them and improve matters that need improving. And God knows something has broken down in the teacher-student relationship in recent years. No longer can a professor expect respect as a right for his position.
No longer is his authority sacrosanct. No longer are his activities immune to public scrutiny and review. If he wants respect, he must earn it--by his fairness, genuine competency, and relevance. He must admit, however quietly and privately, that many of his shibboleths and prescriptions are only gossamer laws. And he must recognize that he is answerable to three courts.
First, he must satisfy his peers. The other side of that coin is that his peers must demand satisfaction. They must collectively seek to improve the profession. They must set standards by which acceptable performance may be distinguished from the ephemeral. And they must weed their own ranks. As teachers move more and more toward professional organization for mutual job protection, they must also assume a self regulating duty. Secure teachers are not per se effective teachers.
Second, the professional must submit to examination by the public. The AAUP notwithstanding, a form of employer-employee relationship does exist between the teacher and the institution that employs him. School patrons have a right to get a desirable return on their investment. In the case of the fireman, truck drivers, or even military personnel, teachers would probably approve public review of their performance and agree to dismissal or censure for incompetency. But does the school not have a right to expect that teachers, involved in commonly taught courses, accomplish something in common?
Finally, teachers must answer to their students. Here, a kind of merchant-customer relationship exists. The student, or someone on his behalf, pays a price for his education. The very least return for that investment is the right to anticipate a valuable experience, and perhaps the right to criticize what is received. Not that I want student reviews of syllabi. Not that I want students on curriculum committees. Not that there is any exclusive virtue in using student course evaluations as prima facie evidence of a teacher's competence. But -- who knows a teacher so well as his students do? Is there anyone more intimately concerned with their getting high quality training than students themselves? Who suffers more when we send them out of courses with passing marks but without the intellectual talent to function successfully in their next course or their first job?
If there is no learning by conscientious, well motivated students, there probably has been no teaching. When students of average mentality are not conscientious or display no enthusiasm, it is the responsibility of the system--not the individual teacher-- to structure its program to stimulate the student to learn as much as he can. Lest this be misunderstood so that no teacher will argue that his job is not to be guidance counselor or cheerleader, let me say: Schools and the general public must get over the notion that everyone is college material. We must direct our best efforts at those applicants with the highest potential of contributing significantly to the human race. Do what you will with the rest. Send them to trade schools, as is done in many Europeans countries. Or send them to the military or the Peace Corps. But admit that they shouldn't be in higher education and get rid of them. If one can argue for weeding the teacher population, can one not also advocate weeding the student body?
Teachers are very important people. Not because they have degrees, appointments and publications lists. Not even because they know more about their subjects than their students do. Their lives are significant because they are trusted with the sacred duty of helping others, usually younger and less experienced, to prepare for a complex adult world.
Teachers are variously cantankerous, snobbish, erudite, obtuse, cynical, Socratic, or superfluous. Students are often rebellious, dense, naive, eager, and innocent. And jointly and separately they fail each other. But the primary hope for mankind rests with teachers--not with family, church, or government--with the teacher and his students. There can be no more precious moment in human existence than when a teacher leads a student to know a truth.
The following note was written by Professor T. J. Ray, September, 2006
The words above were written in 1975 and first printed in a publication of the Mississippi Department of Education, The Mississippi Educational Advance. That was after my first 15 years in teaching and before my last 25. Knowing what has occurred in education since 1975 and reflecting on the essay, I feel strongly that it is still by and large a proper comment on the subject.
Some aspects of education have gotten worse. Standardized tests have almost eliminated the need of teacher evaluation of students, and teachers spend far too much time under the shadow of those tests. Dropout rates are higher, and strange experiments are being trotted out in an effort to keep kids in school.
While the above essay was more about public education, its essence was and is applicable to the college level, where things are as bleak as in lower grade levels. In a craze to have large and larger student bodies in order to get more and more money from the State, colleges have very steadily and readily admitted people who would have been turned away not many decades ago. Now a major state university has gone so far as to admit a student who cannot read or write. That might be surprising were it not so patently clear that the tail (athletics) has come to wag the dog (academics).
Yes, teachers are still important. They should not and cannot be replaced by exotic online courses or distant learning experience in which the teacher never faces the student.
Yes, we have a problem that might be posed thusly: As education standards diminish, the quality of life in our world diminishes.
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"THANK YOU TJ, for some challenging concepts!" THE WORDWRIGHT
Copyrighted 2008
Robert J. Tinsky, Guest Essayist
Edith Clark was the grandmother of our daughter's husband. She died earlier this year at the ripe old age of 99. Edith lived alone in her house for several years following the death of her husband, Charlie.
On the front porch of her house there is a flower planter. Every spring her daughter-in-law would plant some flowers in it and put a bucket of water on the porch so Edith could regularly water these plants. About two years before Edith passed away her daughter-in-law, thinking it was getting to be too difficult for Edith to water these plants, suggested that she put some artificial flowers in the planter. Edith immediately gave her a disgusted look and said, "I ain't dead yet." Talk about spunk!
Too many times those of us who are senior citizens get the idea we can't do anything anymore because we are too old. Can't do anything anymore? Balderdash! (That word means "nonsense, foolishness, trash). It is nonsense to think that just because we have had a lot of birthdays there is nothing left for us to do.
I can give you many examples of people who were still productive in their latter years. John Wesley, at age 88 still preached every day (not just on Sunday but every day). Tennyson published the poem "Crossing the Bar" when he was only 82. Benjamin Franklin went to France in the service of our country when he was 78. Michaelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, lying almost on his back on a scaffold at age 90. We have all read of people who, in their 70's and 80's, earned a college degree.
There is something every one of us senior citizens can do. I turned 82 this year. Last year I served as president of the board of directors of our Mobile Home Park in Florida. I am chaplain in our park and lead in a Vespers service twice a month. I am also in charge of the Senior Citizen program in our church when I am in Florida. Last fall I had an interim ministry for four months and preached every Sunday morning and evening and led a Bible study every Wednesday. Currently I am writing my second book. I just finished putting together a pictorial biography of my father who lived to be 97. I say all this not to brag but to illustrate that there are still things that can be done even when we have become senior citizens.
I don't know what your "thing" is but I do know there is something you can do even though you may be advanced in age and may have some physical handicaps. It may be something as simply as sending cards of encouragement or talking on the phone to help relieve not only your own loneliness but that of others who live alone.
Years ago former President, Herbert Hoover, offered this advice to senior citizens: "There is no joy to be had from retirement except some kind of productive work. Otherwise you will degenerate into talking to everybody about your pains and income tax. The other oldsters will want to talk about their own pains and pills and income tax."
So, let me give a little bit of advice to you old "duffers." Next time you say, "I am too old to do anything, say to yourself what Edith said to her daughter-in-law, 'I ain't dead yet."
THANKS BOB, you give us a little more time when you say it like that.
THE WORDWRIGHT
"Sour Grapes" - Attribution to Aesop's fables for the expression. Meaning: A scorning or belittling of something only because it can't be had or done. I might be broadening the definition somewhat but I hope you get the idea--sometimes we "make our own sour grapes" from situations or circumstances.
I am going to be bold and say "I don't think anyone ever escapes the feeling of 'sour grapes' if he-she is honest with themselves." Yeah I know as Christians (or godly individuals) we are never supposed to be resentful of someone or something that just didn't work out for us.
I know from personal experience that planning a life-career is something most of us would like to think we might have done it differently. Maybe not. I know very few men whose life career was simple to work out and they in turn tried different things until, often they "found something" by accident or nearly so, that they could sink their teeth into and they applied themselves and the rest is history--they made a real go at it!
Jimmy Buffett, the popular singer-songwriter, in a Reader's Digest article in 1998, said, "The stage is not a place for the faint of heart." Jimmy, I got news for you - neither is LIFE a place for the faint of heart. Another popular singer-songwriter wrote masterful wisdom when he said, "Life is what happens to you when you are busy making other plans." I must confess that I do not have any records of either of these great musical artists but I can't get one of the lines of Buffett's 1977 hit (Margarita ville) out of my mind because it is true of most mistakes in life, "It's my own damn fault..." (Excuse the four-letter explicitness but its a direct quote.) And John Lennon's thoughts on life is equally thought-provoking - we are busy making "other plans" when LIFE seems to interrupt us!
Once, when visiting a college campus, Buffett was asked how he started out. He replied, "In front of the bathroom mirror." Wouldn't it be nice if we could be smart enough to say or practice everything we wanted to do in front of the bathroom mirror. Candidly I must say only during the past few short years did I install a tall mirror on the door of our basement bathroom. If I had had the sense to put it there ten or fifteen years ago I would not have had to lose those extra pounds that I finally tossed aside during the past four months. A daily check-up in the mirror would have shown too many "sacks of sugar" have changed my physique.
Sour grapes might be distasteful because we're unhappy with our job. No job is worth messing up your mind so you are not happy - change the job and find something you enjoy doing. It will be worth it even to make a few less dollars and you won't have to buy any tranquilizers.
LIFE has its own "bathroom mirror" in the way others treat us. Now I've gotten back to the thought behind the heading of this essay. "Sour grapes" is one of those phrases or sayings that has come down through the centuries. I would like to expand the meaning a bit more to be inclusive of "hurt feelings". Every once in a while we find ourselves confronted with hurt feelings because of what people have done or said to us--or maybe something they didn't even say! The old joke comes to mind of two psychiatrists passing each other in the hall and the one saying, "Hello there," caused the other to think, "Wonder what he meant by that?" Does every word have to mean something when someone speaks to us? Can't we loosen up a bit and give someone else a break when they have gone "brain dead" for 45 seconds and said the dumbest thing that ever came from their mouths? Once I paused while passing through a set of doors and held it for a woman and she was nearly insulted at my gesture. Wow! Her feelings sure fit her coat sleeve rather well, I thought. Of course she was of the more then current group of "liberated" women and she could well do things for herself and did not need a man to hold any door for her.
I am glad I once treated an older lady with some uncharacteristic respect when I greeted her with, "That's a nice outfit you have on..." She beamed immediately and returned my compliment with a smile worth a $1,000 and two words, "Thank you!". She had not been wearing a smile when she approached me and I confess I don't really know why I plied what little psychology I know by greeting her that way but I am glad I did. There was a little ugly old lady in our town years ago whose little garden was a near marvel in itself since it was awkwardly placed on a steep bank of her property. I usually saw this lady as I drove by her house since she lived close to my father's house. On a sudden impulse, once while driving by, I stopped the car and walked over toward her as she worked in her garden. "That sure is a great garden you have there," I said as she looked up at me. Her heretofore not-too-pretty face, with a wart on her nose, changed immediately! That casual compliment didn't cost me a dime and I would not have been greeted more heartily had I offered her a bouquet of red roses. Her eyes lit up her now smiling face and we had a nice chat - neither of us knew the other before that moment but I am satisfied I helped her through the day, and I also felt good about myself.
Fred Bauer, another contributor to the Reader's Digest, wrote "THANKS for Everything" and those packrats who stashed their November 1994 RD, can find his story on Page 171. Mr. Bauer shared facets from his life to help his readers cherish moments otherwise forgotten in their lives. Some of us could look back in our years of school and remember a teacher that went "one step further" than required in their curriculum schedule to help a 3nd grader who had not "caught on" to some small thing like knowing how to put letters together to make words. I remember one teacher who kindly warned me, "Billy, if you ask me one more question, I will take you by the hand and walk you around the room with me." You know what happened - I walked around the room with MY teacher! I am sure she was one teacher who gave me goose bumps when she bent over my shoulder to help me learn to read. Miss Grove was her name and I am glad, as an adult, I told her more than once she was appreciated.
Fred Bauer was a freshman, more sports minded than schoolwork and falling behind in his Latin when Violet Bible, a neighbor who was a schoolteacher, found out about his problem. Mrs. Bible invited him to her house to show Fred "Latin's great fun," and for several weeks she tutored him until, as he said, "I could conjugate with the best of them--well, almost." Anyway, Fred Bauer passed Latin and as a young, inexperienced and immature boy he saw nothing extraordinary that a working wife and mother had nothing better to do after a hard day at school than tutor him in Latin. Years later when Fred was "back home" visiting, he realized what an uncommon sacrifice Mrs. Bible's help had been. When he told her "Thank you," he was rewarded with a surprised smile and a sparkle in her eyes. Every person who draws a breath yearns for kind words of appreciation.
People are not all alike, or haven't you noticed? Some are givers and some are takers -- and the way we are wired by our Creator, it takes all kinds to make up this world. So, the next time you feel like you've been offended, used or even "dumped on" get a fresh drink of the water of life and remind yourself that others are human too. How we are treated might just be the way we seem to others. When you are in a crowd of unfriendly people, be friendly, even if it makes you a little nervous.
Here are some quotes that might be of some assistance when you find yourself in a place where the are some "sour grapes":
"May we never let the things we can't have or
don't have or shouldn't have, spoil our enjoyment
of the things we do have and can have."
Country Magazine, Oct/Nov 2007
"If your ship doesn't come in, swim out to it." -- Andy Tant
"Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be."
Abraham Lincoln said it, and he had sufficient experiences to test this philosophy.
"Resentment is like taking poison and waiting for the other person to die." -- Malachy McCourt, as quoted by Alex Witchel in the New York Times.
"Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are."
-- Malcolm Forbes
If any of the above thoughts have offended anyone, forgive me; if any of the above thoughts have helped anyone, Thank God!
THE WORDWRIGHT
Written by Robert J. Tinsky, Oblong, Illinois - Copyrighted 2008
This past month my wife and I visited with two different friends who have moved from their homes into a retirement facility. This has resulted in a rather drastic change in their lives. They have had to give up their home, much of their furniture and be separated from friends that they have known for many years. In one case the couple has also given up their automobile and the privilege of coming and going at will.
Both of these friends have dealt with this period of transition in their life style with mixed emotions. They expressed regret mostly about being apart from so many dear friends. In spite of the changes they have had to make they all realized that the change was for the best and have come to accept their new living facilities with grace and dignity.
Let's face it, as we grow older we can all expect some changes in our life style. Some of these changes come on rather unexpectedly as the result of an accident or a serious illness. The fact that our income may decrease at the same time that the cost of living continues to go up and up causes us to make some serious changes. The loss of a mate leads to some of the most dreaded and necessary changes in our manner of living.
When we are faced with any of these changes we have two choices--we will either resent the changes and become bitter and crotchety old persons or we will accept what we can not change and resolve to be happy in our circumstances. I don't relish the thought of being limited by some infirmity of the flesh. I don't look forward to the time when I have to relinquish my driving privileges. I, like most people I know, would prefer to remain in my own home until it comes time for me to "check out" and make my way to the home Jesus has prepared for me.
Acceptance is the attitude that makes all the difference in how we deal with the changes that are going to come as we grow old. Someone has said: "Our attitude toward life determines life's attitude toward us." I have an article in my file about a man who is always in a good mood and who always has something positive to say. When he was asked how he could be such a positive person all of the time he gave this answer: "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or you can choose to be in a bad mood. I choose to be in a good mood."
Henry Albright, a painter and lithographer who lived from 1876 to 1944, once wrote this about our attitude toward life: "A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort." I am sure that was what we call a "tongue-in-the cheek" statement. I am not interested in annoying people by having a positive attitude but he is right. Some people are so determined to not enjoy or appreciate or accept their circumstances in life that they resent those who face the changes that old age brings with grace and dignity.
There is a sign over the Phoenix Suns' locker room that says this: "The game is scheduled, we have to play it--we might as well win." We are all in the game of life. We have to play it until the game is over. We might as well win.
THANKS, BOB - I hope these comments will aid others in our age bracket.
THE WORDWRIGHT
Just to keep the record straight, this is the same guy who wrote, "SIX ALARMING WORDS", the words that my wife said, "I think I had a stroke." And this is the same guy who set out to find "good things" to write about. Well, ever since my wife, Jean, had her stroke April 22 (three months ago as this is being written), neither of us have forgotten those six alarming words nor have we allowed dismay to ruin our days with bad news. Jean has even adopted a motto of life in three words within a quote she found in "Our Daily Bread" July 2, 2000: "When bad things happen to you, ACKNOWLEDGE, ACCEPT and ADJUST." So, consider this a report to bring our readers up to date and confess to our being members of the Pack Rats of America.
You see, in 1994, my father, Gourley Venrick, passed on about two months short of his 93rd birthday. Dad had had several scrapes with old age and parts wearing out on his body and while I cared for him we bought the usual collection of paraphernalia: walkers, four-pronged cane, wheel chair and a potty chair. There may have been other items but this short list is sufficient for my story today. Did I tell you we are pack rats?
Well, when Jean had her stroke it was immediately realized we better find "that walker of Dad's." We had also dug back through "the stuff" in an outbuilding on the back of our city lot to get his wheelchair. We had stashed those two items with a lot of our "stuff we might need someday". Today my wife said she would like to try getting away from her walker, you know, graduate from one level of dependency to a bit higher level--it's called improving. So, I put that information in my "RAM apparatus" (between my ears) and tried to locate a quad cane my Dad had fourteen years ago. The second place I looked -- there it was: hanging from a floor joist in our garage (or what used to be our garage) over against the wall. Did I mention we are pack rats?
I have to admit our ways might drive some people nuts but in our brief life together of 57 years we have learned to appreciate and enjoy what we have, and we have what we want. Candidly I have to confess to having never been in the high income bracket and many times we have found ourselves content to enjoy the things we have and not yearn excessively for things we couldn't buy. My wife read a quote in Country Magazine, the 2007 October-November issue: "May we never let the things we can't have or don't have, or shouldn't have, spoil our enjoyment of the things we do have and can have." Well, this is no problem for pack rats.
Whenever we have had a need for something like a wheelchair, a walker, a portable potty, you name it, if we didn't have it, we knew where to find one! We call that a blessing, and "A good thing", like Martha Stewart says.
Being married to a voracious reader, a great joy is experienced when we trade quotes like the following:
"Happiness is beneficial for the body,
but it is grief that develops the powers of the mind." Marcel Proust
"Nobody, as long as he moves about among the chaotic currents of life,
is without trouble." Carl Jung
"Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live." Also - "Life is an adventure in forgiveness." Norman Cousins
"It is a tree of life to all who cling to it."
A Jewish saying (proverb) in regard to Scripture
"We do not choose the day of our birth nor may we choose
the day of our death, yet choice is the sovereign faculty of the mind."
Thornton Wilder
"Count your blessings instead of your crosses
Count your gains instead of your losses."
From "Count Your Blessings" by Frances Doran
"The happiest people don't have the best of everything.
They just make the best of everything." Anonymous
"We go to church to keep our lives in balance." Bill & Jean Venrick
"God will not look you over for medals,
degrees or diplomas, but for scars."
Elbert Hubbard
It is hoped this short treatise can be properly closed as we acknowledge some good things we enjoy in life in spite of the bad things that come our way. Our prayer is that we will never ask, "Why us?" but honestly ask, "Why not us?"
THE WORDWRIGHT & Jean
SOME POLITICAL COUNSEL from my friend, Bob Tinsky in Oblong, Illinois...
Have you ever compared two people who were very similar and said the difference between them was like Tweedledum and Tweedledee? I recently got to wondering, "Where did those names come from?" I did some research and here is what I discovered.
Tweedledum and Tweedledee were characters in the novel written by Lewis Carroll entitled: "Through the Looking Glass". Some people have erroneously referred to them as brothers but actually they were cousins in the story. You may recall that Disney made Carroll's book into a movie entitled, "Alice in Wonderland." In the movie there were the two little fat men name Tweedledum and Tweedledee.
Lewis Carroll, however, was the not the originator of this term. In 1725 a poet by the name of John Byron made fun of two quarreling composers, Handel and Bononcini, and said there was little difference between their music since one went "tweedledum" and the other went "tweedledee."
If you are a fan of Batman you may know that two of the villains in that series were cousins named Deever and Dumfree Tweed. They were also referred to as Tweedledum and Tweedledee.
The dictionary gives this definition for this expression: "two things or parties that are identical or nearly identical." Another definition is: "Two groups or two people resembling each other so closely that they are practically indistinguishable."
Ani Difranco's 1998 album contains a song entitled: "Fuel." In it he asks the question: "And I wonder who's gonna be president, Tweedle Dumb or Tweedle Dumber?"
I have written all this to reveal my frustration with the choice we have for president this year. I am not sold on either candidate and it seems that our choice is between "Tweedledum" and "Tweedledee." I know there are some differences between the two candidates but I wish there was a stronger contrast between the two. What George Wallace said several years ago is still true: "There is not a dime's worth of difference between the Democrats and the Republicans." Don't get me wrong. I certainly was not in favor of Wallace's segregationist policies and feel he leaned too far to the right to suit me. But there is still some truth to what he said about how little difference there is between the two major parties.
As an American I believe it is my patriotic duty to vote. But I sure do wish we had a better choice than between "Tweedledum" and "Tweedledee." You may not agree with me. That's OK. Let's just pray that whoever gets elected will do a good job as leader of the United States and as the leader of the free world.
*****
THANKS for your help, Bob -- now back to making decisions...yeah.
THE WORDWRIGHT
“WELCOME back” to Harry T. Spence of Norwood, Massachusetts, as a guest essayist for THE WORDWRIGHT. Harry expresses himself in his unflinching straightforward manner leaving no doubt as to his personal feelings about those in stardom and their political views of America.
SUSAN SARANDON
The title actress has been of star quality since the mid-80’s. I have enjoyed her performances much. Recently, she made a political statement on the subject of the 2008 Presidential Elections. In short, she said that if John McCain were elected to the office, she would “leave the country,” move to Italy or Canada. My initial response was “Goodbye!”
Miss Sarandon has not been original in respect of her position. I recall that Barbra Streisand and Alec Baldwin made similar statements in earlier presidential contests. So far as I know both are still here. Too bad!
As Yul Bryner’s King of Siam would say, “I have a puzzlement!” Why would play actors believe that anyone could possibly care if they left the country? Maybe they are playing a role: show outrage!
In the United States we have fringe “left-wingers,” and fringe “right-wingers,” read: NUT cases! At one time, in a more realistic time, these “types” would be ensconced in loony bins. But the ACLU got them all out on the streets, so we, the rest of society, must find a way to cope. Perhaps some of the loonies became actors.
This piece, then, is a coping mechanism. I could care less who chooses to leave the United States and live somewhere else. If they can afford it, fine, go do your thing. But, the threats they make. Do they seriously believe anyone cares? I do believe they are serious believers that their “followers” will understand their frustrations and applaud their statements and actions.
So, I ask myself, what is going on here? Basically, it is very simple. These people hate their country. They hate The United States of America! Moreover, they love Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea, North Vietnam, the Soviet Union, Red China, ad infinitum; if any country hates the United States, these lefties love those countries.
Why do you suppose this is? What can have been their experiences that they bear such venom? They all look healthy and they smile a lot (except Alec Baldwin); they dress expensively; they drive expensive foreign cars;they eat in expensive restaurants. It would appear, outwardly at least, that their country has treated them very well. So, why the venom? As I said, it is a puzzlement!
To this point, I have singled out the acting profession. The hating of America goes far beyond just that ilk. It seems rife on college campuses, both at the student and teacher level. This phenomenon is not difficult to understand. Did you ever wonder what became of the radicals of the 60’s and 70’s? They all ended up teaching in our learning institutions of today. Do you suppose any of their radicalism found its way into their teaching of the classics? (Oh, right. They don’t teach the classics anymore.) But, I’m sure you get my meaning. Here they are, facing a roomful of heads full of mush, and who could resist the temptation? Fill the void with your own head full of mush.
Now, in a way, I applaud these ingrates. They are sincere in their hatred and after all they were born here, so don’t they have the right? Yes, they do! But, how about imports, such as George Soros? Where does he get off, bad-mouthing America? In his case, I would say, definitely: “Go back to Hungary (or wherever), we don’t want you!”
Is the United States above criticism? If one looks at the history of the world in the context of what the United States represents, then I say resoundingly: YES! Never, in the history of the planet, has any country, save the United States, tried consistently to better its people's way of life, to help where disaster strikes, produced inventions that have raised the standard of living of countless millions; I could go on, but, I’m sure you get the point.
Has the United States made some mistakes? I guess I’d have to say that such is inevitable. But, they were mistakes! Never, have we used our power except for good. There has never been an Attila or a Hitler or a Stalin or a Mao Tse Tung or a Castro or a Pol Pot or an Idi Amin, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera!
Lately, we hear a lot of: Is there a God? And I respond: There is a U.S. There is indeed a God!
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THANKS for some challenging thoughts, Harry. THE WORDWRIGHT
THE WORDWRIGHT WELCOMES back his friend in Cincinnati, Ohio, BILL VOLKART
BLUE LAWS 2008
by Bill Volkart
Copyright 2008
In these uncertain times the cost of energy has become a tipping point for most Americans. A do nothing Congress, no new drilling, no new refineries etc. etc. wow. No wonder the price of gas and electricity and lots of other stuff is so high. May a humble citizen of the Realm make a suggestion that no one will like but would certainly work? Bring back the Blue Laws.
Those younger readers may already be googling the term but I will save you the trouble. The original intent of the Blue Laws were dictated by the influence of the church, in a vain attempt to hold onto the concept of 'keeping the Sabbath holy', which dictated that all businesses would close on Sunday. This did not involve services such as hospitals, police, fire and other needed services, just retail mainly. It assured a quiet Sunday when people stayed at home and enjoyed their families and aside from a trip to church, people seldom went anywhere.
Today the same thing without the religious overtones could be applied once again. Imagine the savings in gasoline and electricity taking one day off could do. One seventh of normal gasoline consumption would be largely eliminated, the huge electric demands of shopping centers and strip malls and a thousand smaller retail outlets would cease for a day, saving untold millions of kilowatt hours and the fuel needed to generate said kilowatts. Best of all, people would still have six days to get their business done and be all but guaranteed of a day off once a week. With people all complaining about the lack of free time to unwind and the high cost of energy it seems like a win win situation to me.
Of course the naysayers will be all over this idea with their doom and gloom predictions of business failures, public resistance to not being able to shop on Sunday, ad nauseum. Had the same attitude existed in World War II we would likely be speaking Japanese or German now. You have to have faith that the American people would suffer the pain of having to take a day off once a week and watch TV or grill some burgers. Not so much to ask compared to ration stamps.
I will be the first to admit this simple idea might not work in the modern American society but it costs little to try it and no bureaucracy to run it, all we have to do as a nation is agree to stay home on Sunday and not go to work, shopping or adventuring. Just stay in a nice comfy chair with a cold beer and a ham sandwich (with ham bought one of the other six days) and don't go out. That is all you have to do. Is your life so screwed up that you can't manage to do such a simple thing? I hope not or we are all going to be picking trash piles for scrap metal and uneaten Big Macs.
So what will it be America? Can you manage to take one day off a week to save the life you live on the other six days? Can you find it in your heart to listen to the radio on the front porch drinking lemonade and watching the children play? If you can we might just all get through this with our skins. If not we deserve whatever happens to us. But I for one will not feel guilty if it does. I warned you.
THE WORDWRIGHT SAYS, "THANK YOU, BILL"
MORE ESSAYS BY BILL VOLKART
HELPER TO MILKMAN – by Bill Venrick (in the middle 1940's)
Remember when? Books and stories are written every day taking us back to yesteryear so why should we at THE WORDWRIGHT be any different? When I was in high school I had a job helping a milkman. My job was simple—in fact so simple, to this day it seems I may have been just a slight extension of energy available to the milkman to go up to every porch and pick up empty bottles and take them back to the truck. I got a whopping 50 cents a day and free milk to drink while on the truck. I just happened to work with brothers – both worked for the Home Dairy and had separate routes which helped me by having a spare route in case one brother was off.
Milk was delivered house-to-house every other day as ice boxes were still in use by some homes while others had refrigerators and milk came in three sizes of bottles: ½ pint, pints and quarts. Chocolate milk and cream were usually reserved for half-pints but cream may have been bottled in pints as well, if my memory is correct. There were no gallon glass jugs delivered when I worked on the milk truck, gallon jugs became popular later when refrigerators became more popular and also stocked and sold at larger stores. Some dairies even bottled what was called Half & Half (half cream and half milk) as a richer milk for cereal. Other dairy products like cottage cheese and butter were delivered to the houses as well.
Back then, milk was sold in glass bottles and the product container had gone through different shapes of bottles. In the winter time these tall bottles often provided a real treat to the first person who brought in the milk – the cream in the top of the bottle would often freeze and push the cap right off the bottle and there was nature's treat: frozen cream! When I worked on the milk truck the dairy I worked for had square shaped bottles and a different cap than the older tall bottles and the winter treat of frozen cream was gone because of the “new idea” of homogenized milk -- a processing method that broke up the cream, thoroughly mixing the cream and milk by shooting it through a very fine nozzle breaking up the fat globules. Then the cream did not separate and rise to the top and thus the milk was creamier. Homogenized milk was touted as being easier to digest.
My job was definitely short-lived for a reason I never gave much thought which was probably a no-brainer—a kid just finds a better job! One experience that sticks in my mind was the time the brakes grabbed on the truck and the milk crates stacked behind us came smashing against the front of the truck breaking bottles all over the place. The shame was the crates involved were buttermilk! Not exactly the most pleasant fragrance to me at the time and my old army field jacket got soaked and bits of broken glass were in my pockets, like forever. Let's face it, “forever” didn't really last long and I got over that job and the spilled buttermilk.
Somehow I envied my buddies who had paper routes and made “real money”, at least compared to the 50 cents a day I made helping the milk truck driver. Later when I got my driver's license I drove a truck for a dry cleaner. Made a good bit more money than the milk route helper's pay for sure.
MY NEWSPAPER ROUTES by Robert J. Tinsky (in the middle 1930's)
When I was only about 9 or 10 years I started selling newspapers on the street corners. My first job as a newsboy was to stand at the end of the street car line and offer papers to people as they emerged from the trolley. This was during the big depression and the newspaper sold for only one cent. Half of that was my profit.
My next job as a newsboy came when I owned my first bicycle. That job required me to ride up and down several streets in the evening selling a newspaper that always had the first page printed on green paper. It was called the Evening Journal. I think it sold for three cents. I was always told the most exciting headline and I would yell this out as I rode along to entice people to come out of their houses and get their hands on the latest bit of news. If something really spectacular happened that day, they would publish an extra edition and I would go up and down the street yelling, “Extra, extra, read all about it” followed by some sentence to persuade people to buy this special edition of the newspaper.
I was probably about 12 years old when I got my first paper route. Each day I would faithfully go to a little shack called “the station” where I would pick up my supply of newspapers. We had a bench in the station just the right height where all the boys could fold their papers before heading out on their routes.
Sundays were the hardest days for me since the newspapers were so large. I had a little wagon that I used to haul the papers home. There I would divide my supply for the day in half so I would not have to carry such a heavy load all at one time. The Sunday papers all had to be delivered before 6:00 A. M. Some people would be on the porch waiting for me to come and they were not very happy if something happened to make the delivery of their Sunday paper late.
I not only had to deliver the paper but I had to collect from them each week. If someone failed to pay, it came out of my profits. Most people, however, were very honest and nice to me and at Christmas time I could expect some nice tips from most of my customers.
Since we lived near a university campus I also had the job of selling newspapers to people on Saturdays after football games. If our team won, I could expect to sell a lot of papers and to receive some big tips. When we lost it was an entirely different story.
We had some big contests to pick up new customers. We earned points for each new customer we signed up and won some neat prizes. The one I remember the best was a live turkey. I will save the saga of that incident for another article.
When my two sons got old enough I felt they should follow in their father’s footsteps, so both had paper routes at different times. Although no one got up and drove me arou |
