It is customary to make a wish on one's birthday. On her sixteenth birthday, nine months after being shot in the head in an assassination attempt by a Taliban gunman in northwest Pakistan, Malala Yousafzai addressed the United Nations Youth Assembly in New York with a wish for universal equality, universal opportunity, and universal education. Once targeted for death because of her outspoken advocacy for her own education and those of other Pashtun girls, she now speaks on behalf of women and children everywhere. Her message is one of fearlessness and hopefulness. It is an inspiring call to justice.
“Though no one can go back and make a brand
new start,
Anyone can start from now and make a brand
new ending.”
Carl Bard
Update 04/23/13
I’m back from a three week vacation.
The trouble with vacations is you have to work three times as hard to catch up
on everything you did not do. I’m no different on this and will hopefully have
something to offer next week.
I will call your attention to the
health section on the menu to your right. There is a great piece by Gary Null
on the “War on Health.”
Then, go to the Life Scriptures
section and watch the video on
It’s often said: “The apple does not
fall far from the tree,” It’s true, as my
Son, John-Joseph Calvin Lee, sent me
this email which I’m sharing with you this week. By way of background he
majored in history.
I thought this was brilliant:
Hey Dad,
I came across this and
thought you would get a kick out of it:
They used to use urine
to tan animal skins, so families used to all pee in a pot & then once a day
it was taken & Sold to the tannery.......if you had to do this to survive you were "Piss Poor"
But worse than that were the really poor folk who
couldn't even afford to buy a pot......they "didn't have a pot to piss
in" & were the lowest of the low
The next time you are washing your hands and
complain because the water temperature isn't just how you like it, think about
how things used to be. Here are some facts about the 1500s:
Most people got married in June because they took
their yearly bath in May, and they still smelled pretty good by June.. However,
since they were starting to smell. ...... . Brides carried a bouquet of flowers
to hide the body odor. Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when
getting Married.
Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water.
The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the
other sons and men, then the women and finally the children. Last of all the
babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it..
Hence the saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the Bath water!"
Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high,
with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all
the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained
it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the
roof... Hence the saying "It's raining cats and dogs."
There was nothing to stop things from falling into
the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other
droppings could mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a
sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came
into existence.
The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something
other than dirt. Hence the saying, "Dirt poor." The wealthy had slate
floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh
(straw) on floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added
more thresh until, when you opened the door, it would all start slipping
outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entrance-way. Hence: a thresh hold.
In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with
a big kettle that always hung over the fire.. Every day they lit the fire and
added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat.
They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold
overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that
had been there for quite a while. Hence the rhyme: Peas porridge hot, peas
porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old. Sometimes they could
obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they
would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man
could, "bring home the bacon." They would cut off a little to share
with guests and would all sit around and chew the fat.
Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food
with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing
lead poisoning death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next
400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.
Bread was divided according to status. Workers got
the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the
top, or the upper crust.
Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The
combination would sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days.
Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for
burial.. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the
family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would
wake up. Hence the custom of holding a wake.
England is old and small and the local folks started running out
of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones
to a bone-house, and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25
coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they
had been burying people alive... So they would tie a string on the wrist of the
corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a
bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the graveyard
shift.) to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be, saved by the bell or
was considered a dead ringer.
And that's the truth....Now, whoever said History was
boring.
Now, you
understand why the “Apple does not fall far from the tree.”
Thanks,
Son
And as
always, I thank you (the reader) for your time.
I had a very wonderful experience this past weekend –
I attended a celebration of life service for a friend who passed at age 91, in San Diego.
Jim Williams lived in the apartment two doors down
from Dr. Betty Ann Coats, who nursed me through my treatment for cancer.
I've heard the expression celebration of life before,
but in the truest sense of the phrase this really was a celebration. Jim had six
children, a bunch of grand kids and a great grand child en route, and THEY
showed that their dad had lived a wonderful life. Their actions were uplifting,
upbeat, and caring, just like Jim: Proof that the apple does not fall far from
the tree.
I found myself saying: “This is how I would like to
be remembered!”
It is a rare occasion to attend a going home service
and leave feeling better afterwards than you did going in.
Thanks, Jim!
I also added a link this week to my life scriptures
section on the menu on your right. I think you’ll find it interesting:“Spiritual but not religious.”
It
is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the doing. It is not how
much we give, but how much love we put in the giving.
- Mother Teresa -
Update 02/05/13
I remember when I was a young child I loved trains. I
still do and many memories of train rides with my Uncle Joe and Cousin Betty,
who have made the great transition. My friend June sent me this great train
ride and I thought I’d share it this week with you.
This is Floyd Cramer at the piano. Wait
for the pictures to come on and have your volume on. This is really a beautiful
trip. CLICK HERE!
“Love isn’t a state of perfect caring. It
is an active noun, like struggle. To love someone is to strive to accept that
person exactly the way he or she is, right here and now.”
- Fred Rogers -
Update 01/22/13
Many of you know I started this weekly adventure so
as to not have to send a million emails to inform those who I think have like
interest in my esoteric topics of life. In light of that you will understand
why I have placed this link here for you to read. It is not a short fly through
item, but I think you will find it thoughtful of interest. Click on the link
now!
A loving person lives in a loving world. A
hostile person
Lives in a hostile world: everyone you meet
is your mirror.
- Ken Keyes Jr.
Update 01/08/13
"Excuse
Me, Are You Jesus...?"
A few years ago a group of salesmen went to a regional sales
convention in Chicago.
They had assured their wives that they would be home in plenty of time for
Friday night's dinner. In their rush, with tickets and briefcases, one of these
salesmen inadvertently kicked over a table which held a display of apples.
Apples flew everywhere. Without stopping or looking back, they all managed to
reach the plane in time for their nearly-missed boarding.
ALL BUT ONE!!! He paused, took a deep breath, got in touch with
his feelings and experienced a twinge of compassion for the girl whose apple
stand had been overturned.
He told his buddies to go on without him, waved good-bye, told
one of them to call his wife when they arrived at their home destination and
explain his taking a later flight. Then he returned to the terminal where the
apples were all over the terminal floor.
He was glad he did.
The 16-year-old girl was totally blind! She was softly crying,
tears running down her cheeks in frustration, and at the same time helplessly
groping for her spilled produce as the crowd swirled about her; no one stopping
and no one to care for her plight.
The salesman knelt on the floor with her, gathered up the
apples, put them back on the table and helped organize her display. As he did
this, he noticed that many of them had become battered and bruised; these he
set aside in another basket.
When he had finished, he pulled out his wallet and said to the
girl, "Here, please take this $40 for the damage we did. Are you
okay?"
She nodded through her tears. He continued on with, "I hope
we didn't spoil your day too badly."
As the salesman started to walk away, the bewildered blind girl
called out to him,
"Mister...." He paused and turned to look back into
those blind eyes.
She continued, "Are you Jesus?"
He stopped in mid-stride ... and he wondered.
He gently went back and said, "No, I am nothing like Jesus
- He is good, kind, caring, loving, and would never have bumped into your
display in the first place."
The girl gently nodded: "I only asked because I prayed for
Jesus to help me gather the apples. He sent you to help me, so you are like Him
- only He knows who will do His will. Thank you for hearing His call,
Mister."
Then slowly he made his way to catch the later flight with that
question burning and bouncing about in his soul: "Are you Jesus?"
Do people mistake you for Jesus?
That's our destiny, is it not?
To be so much like Jesus that people cannot tell the difference
as we live and interact with a world that is blind to His love, life and grace.
If we claim to know Him, we should live, walk and act as He would. Knowing Him is more than
simply quoting scripture and going to church. It's actually living the Word as life unfolds day to day .
You are the apple of His
eye even though we, too, have been bruised by a fall. He
stopped what He was doing and picked up you and me on a hill called Calvary and paid in full for our damaged fruit.
Please share this, {IF you feel led to do so}.
Sometimes we just take things for granted, when we really need
to be sharing what we know....