Saturday, August 31, 2002
GIFTS FOR THE NEEDY
I do not recall exactly which conquering hero of central Europe it was, but one of them - somehow I think it might have been Otto Von Bismarck - was reported to have taken pity on the starving populace and
had large wagonloads of potatoes shipped into the desolate area.
He did not realize that the natives considered the potato to be poisonous and unfit for human consumption. So, they fed the spuds to few remaining pigs and other livestock and did as best they could for their
own provender.
In more modern times relief-minded groups have banded together and shipped freighter loads of bulk grains to starving people around the world....our excess grains, really. They did not take into consideration that
the people actually in need had no way of grinding, crushing, boiling, cooking or baking such raw grains into edible portions. No doubt the only people who gained anything from the gift were those brokering agents who ferried the
stuff around seeking potential buyers. Bags of barley grain were sent to areas where the use of such a grain was totally no forage , fences, stables, feed stocks or farms with which to sustain the herds. Their needs was for “now” rather
than some months, or years away.
I sometimes wonder if we are doing the same sort of dis-service to the concept of giving by ignoring true needs. Could it be that many of us are contributing primarily for the inner satisfaction we, ourselves, feel from
having helped to sustained people in times of dire need. Or, what we considered to have been times of crisis in their lives.
Faulty, thoughtless giving only excaberates the plight of the needy at times. In some cases it many be prove to have been worse than not giving at all.
Think about it carefully.
Try to imagine what you would really and truly need if you were in a like situation. That is a difficult thing for most of us to do, because we have not the slightest understanding of what it is to be dismally poor and
forlornly cut off from the rest of humanity either here at home or in lands far away. Look in any direction. The needy are awaiting your sincere, thoughtfully considered, useful help.
A.L.M. August 30, 2002 [c-393wds]
Friday, August 30, 2002
WINDS OF CHANGE
Nothing seems to bring - no one thing, that is, so much change as does the wind.
It is the tortured soul of the storm, yet it can also be the gentle swish of a breeze soothing our sweat-soaked, sun-stroked bodies.
The wind is winsome and alluring when it chooses to be, and
lethargic and indolent if that be its mood. It can swirl up a miniature whirlwind of leaves, dust and candy wrappers in your yard as a harmless prank or exercise, or it can parent a larger version called a tornado which can crush your
home to total ruin. Hurricanes can undo man’s best building efforts in moments.
The wind can be both saint-like and satanic. It can cleanse the air of impurities so that man can breathe healthy, fresh air from afar, or it can bring heavy sheets of smog and pollution to confuse and choke an
entire area. It can power the giant dust or sand storms and chance the face of man’s Earth from beaches to dunes or plowed land and pastures to dust bowls!
When you see a wall of tumbleweed coming toward you in desert areas it is the wind which powers its terrifying movement. Seek shelter, but if cover is not available, lie down, protect your face and eyes, and the
wind -powered wall of withered weed will pass over you and hit the first upright building or cliff it can find. There, again, the wind will work it’s magic and fashion any excess into pagoda-like and other fantastic shapes, just as it does as
it fingers snow swirls on rooftops in snowy climes. That’s a glimpse of the wind’s artistic side just as are the remarkable patterns it etches out on the surface of sand dunes and expanses and , over many years, on the face of rocky crags.
The wind, you see, is also patient and tenacious. It can be in no hurry, if it wishes to assume that guise.
The wind can be gracious as well as deadly. It can drift afar and cause draught and desolation throughout huge areas of arable land bringing death to both man and beast. It can whip up sudden,
unpredictable storms in shallow lakes and coastal waters and be the bane of boatsmen, yet it can push even large ships across the world’s widest oceans, if asked to do so, by sturdy sails properly mounted and controlled wisely.
It’s here! It’s gone! It’s everywhere - and nowhere all at once!
Wind - the eternal power and sprit of Nature. The amazing wind!
A.L. M. August 30, 2002 [c-441wds]
Thursday, August 29, 2002
K-RATION MEMORY
We have, long since, used up all humorous materials concerning boxed K-rations we used in the armed forces many years ago.
I want to make a positive statement in regard to them and to pose a question or two.
There was one item in particular in those K-rations - not all of them - but at intervals, which I liked. I always felt it was a special treat when I cut open a waxy brown box and found therein a small can of food marked
“Pork With Apple Flakes” printed on a small label on top of the small can in generic white and black. I’ve been looking for a civilian version of the same delicious combination... well, since 1945, I suppose.
I even tried to interest a meat packing company in the area to give the recipe a try. We have an abundance of hogs in this Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and plenty more along the mountains to the east and
west on each side of us, and more apples than we can count. It seemed like good business to use up the less than top-quality pork critters and the less than perfect apples to be ground into a pork and apple flakes spread ... enough
meat to keep it on display in the meat sections at the supermarket, from which it could, logically, migrate in to the Deli and the Sandwich Makings areas.
No one there would even listen to me. It was commonly know, to them, it seems, that nothing good ever went into K-rations box or C-rations can and that, certainly, nothing good could ever be expected to come from any of
them.
Maybe some firm will see the potential for profits in such a simple food product and start producing it again. It may be that some already done so.
Do any of you readers know of such a product being on the shelves at our markets today? Maybe some of you people who work all day setting up grocery can displays - pyramids, circles, triangle towers, blocks or
whatever, which we then tear down bit by bit will understand the search I’ve been making.
If you do. E-mail me, please.
Just tell me where, and stand back outta my way!
A.L.M. August 29, 2002 [c-386wds]
Wednesday, August 28, 2002
QUESTING
Even with centuries of hindsight, we still have to wonder - even to question the sanity of people in the past who dared to go against all the best wisdom of their time to make discoveries which have, often,
reshaped civilization as we know it. And, we might note at this point, not always for good.
A common example about which many school kids wonder is that of Christopher Columbus.
I assume the textbooks still make much of people of his era thinking that the world was flat and that if one went too near the edge one would fall into oblivion. As a kid I wondered how the water stayed where it
was, if the ships went over the edge of the world so readily. Children question a great many things adults place before them as fact.
I wonder if our present estimate of what inventors, explorers and others in every field of endeavor may be slightly awry? I have a strong feeling the people of the Middle Ages, let’s say, for example, were not as
dumb; certainly not as “stupid” as we seem to think they must have been. Without doubt, historians and others have, in an attempt to show the modernity of their particular generation bad-mouth past thinkers along the same lines
to add to their own stature. We may be guilty of doing the same thing today, as we compare our space achievements to the science fiction concepts of Jules Verne, and others, long ago.
We should be appreciative of the hard work and serious thought of the oldsters put into civilizations advances rather than trying to minimize their contributions to make our appear better. Think about it If some of
those men and women had all the tools, equipment, devices, informational stores and encouragement we accept as being normal today - think what their inventions and discoveries may have been!
It took more than just a lot of self-confidence for those in previous generations. They faced obstacles which are unknown to us today. Many were attempting to do thing which were, for instance, condemned and
forbidden by the Church - then the ruling power in both a religious and at temporal sense. Thinkers, in those days, undertook to develop portions of life which remained a mystery to many. Their heritage dictated they consider cosmic
lore, astrology, necromancy, numerology and such backgrounds of inherited material to guide their investigations. Those who had the nerve to step out in distinct investigative paths of their own often found success in new
discoveries.
Old Chris may have been told the world was flat, square, or whatever, but he could see and he was aware the way it seemed to be, indeed, must be judging from the stars and planets he saw in the sky along with
the sun and the moon. No doubt many people thought the world was, indeed, flat, and we still have some people today who believe the Earth on which they reside is flat. Columbus had some people, albeit a minority, I suppose,
who thought the world was round. He gets credit for proving it to the satisfaction of many but not all.
The past is a gold mine ideas for us to seek out and develop. They are largely those ideas which failed when tried in ancient times, but with today’s equipment and informational sources we can certainly make
some of the oldsters dreams come true.
What is your particular field of interest or concern? Lest we be called “ignorant” or “stupid” by coming generations, let’s get busy and invent, create, devise, re-arrange something - a product or a process - which
will serve mankind’s needs.
A.L.M. August 23, 2002 [c-621wds]
Tuesday, August 27, 2002
SLANTED
It can happen
Some of the little folders that come in the mail by way of “Junk Mail” are worth reading.
Of course, they are often “slanted”. They are written to present a specific viewpoint and carefully crafted to sell you on a product or a service. Some are pretty far out. A few prove to be very practical.
One such folder you may have been received in the mail at your home this week It is a purple and white, four-page newsletter from the American Cancer Society.
Read the boxed in article on page three. It’s the one toward the outer edge and it is in white print on a purple background. It concerns stomach cancer and notice that there is not one lecturing word against
smoking, gluttony, couch-potato-ism, or pesticides. It’ s strictly about stomach cancer with facts presented thereunto:
. You will learn that there will be 21,000 cases of stomach cancer in the U.S. in 2002. 12,400 will die.
. most victims will be in the 60-70 age bracket.
. used to be a major killer in U.S. but it is now ‘way down the list.
. Cause? No one knows for sure. Cured, salted and smoked foods?
.Eat more fruits and vegetables.
.Use of antibiotics with young children kills germ which causes it.
. Advice. Eat 5 or more servings of fruits and veggies per day.
. there is far less stomach cancer in the U.S. than in other countries.
Let’s try to keep it that way.
That is “slanted”, in one sense, you might say, but in a positive manner. Watch for this particular leaflet in your “Junk Mail” this week
It should be easy to find among the credit card application form offers. Or, you can bring up www.cancer.org. and learn more about it on line.
A.L.M. August 27, 2002 [c-312wds]
Monday, August 26, 2002
KATMANDU DOIN’S
For many year I have wanted to have a good reason for starting a piece off with the word “Katmandu”. This is, about as close as I’ll get to doing so, I suppose, so I’d best make the most of it while I can.
Katmandu, in case you are lost, is in Nepal. In fact, Katmandu - more properly Kath-mandu - is the capital city of Nepal . The small nation is enclosed by India on the west and south sides and by China on the north
and east and it is no stranger to conflict and disturbance.
Kathmandu is a city I have long thought to be one of the few exotic locales remaining. The borders of Nepal have always seemed somewhat indefinite in relation to its neighbors, too, which has caused
friction over the ages and that has resulted in numerous stories many of which have gone untold.
Nepal is, once again, in the news right now because the nation has a ”terrorist” problem which has plagued them for over six years. They want to rid themselves of this problem once and for all, and now, we find,
India has decided to help them do so.
The rebels disrupting life in Nepal are a Maoist extremist group intent on bringing communism to Nepal. In 1951 the king, himself, took over the government which had been in the Rama family from 1846 and
declared the country to be a constitutional monarchy. The Rama family had seen to it that a member of the family was always the prime Minister and that pattern changed at once. Since that time Nepal has become more and
more acknowledged by the rest of the world as a worthy nation.
In 1990 a pro-democracy movement forced King Birendra to lift a prevailing ban on political parties and to appoint an opposition leader to head the interim government as prime minister. The liberal Nepali
Congress Party won in the first free election for a decade. The Communist Party made a strong showing, and a small but growing Maoist guerrilla force has been seeking to overthrow the government ever since.
Corruption haunted the government offices of many years, Parliament was a fragile structure of weak alliances and coalitions, but ineffective. In 1999, the political scene changed when the majority of seats went
to the Neptali Congress Party and a famous Neptali freedom fighter who was imprisoned for fourteen years by the King’s government, was named Prime Minister.
Nepal became a subject of international news. June 1, 2002 when the popular King Birendra was shot and killed by his equally popular son Crown Prince Dipendra. Seldom has a nation experienced such as
laughter. Angered at the family’s disapproval of his choice of a bride, the Crown P
nce Dipendra also killed his mother several of his family, then shot himself. I find it interesting that the official crowned Dipendra King while he remained in a coma from his self-inflicted gunshot and then, on June 4th, Prince
Gyanendra, the younger brother of Birendra, was named king. Just what this had to do with the maintenance of the blood line ,I have not yet figured out, but there has to be a logical reason for such actions.
The Maoists agreed to a cease fire in July, but peace talks broke down. They launched a series of deadly attacks and Nepal’s King Gyanendra declared a state of emergency in November.
It has not been made clear if Nepal asked for help or if India realizes that a strong communist force so near their own border was a potential threat to their own well-being. Thus far, they have provided two helicopters and
numerous transportation units and arms and such aid is to be expanded.
Nepal is now a among those nations combating terrorist activities and help from India may well be the sensible way to solve the problem.
Often we seem to get the idea that only the United States of America provides assistance to other nations, and it is good to see India - the world’s largest democracy - helping Nepal - one of the world’s poorest
nations - crush their terrorist enemy.
A.L.M. August 24, 2002 [c-702wds]
Sunday, August 25, 2002
JOLENE CLINE
It is wonderful to be taken by surprise!
I have known Jolene Cline for years, I watched her grown up, and I knew she sang well and at every opportunity. She was intently interested in music of a religious nature. Several years we were both on the same
bill. We did an opening or warm-up routine for a show “An Evening With Steve Bennett” who continues to be one of the finest masters of the guitar in all its guises performing today. I felt humbled and honored to be asked to “open”
for Steve Bennett, and I think Jolene must have felt the same way.
It was at a private home and was billed as a “House Concert”. Seating was provided for well over one hundred and twenty guests, and Francis Stout, our Host in who’s home we were gathered introduced Jolene
Cline to the waiting audience. Tall, statuesque, and smiling pleasantly, Jolene sang her songs and they were well received. I followed with a set of originals including one called ”Chesapeake Bay” because Steve Bennett lives at
Gloucester Point, Va. on the bay.
It was a wonderful experience for me and a good evening for all. It was the last time I sang in public and that has been two years ago, at least. We were invited back the second year, but illness
prevented me from being there. I have seen and talked with Jolene Cline every time I visit the doctor’s office in which she works. I remember asking her: “Still singing?” And she assured me she was.
Just recently, our daughter Elizabeth, who lives in Hampton, Va. , attended a Methodist Retreat at Blackstone,Va. and Jolene was Music Leader for the group. This morning Elizabeth surprised me as she handed me
two CD’s and I am listening to Jolene sing at this moment.
One is titled “A Little Bit of Heaven”. It includes ten favorite songs. The other: “It’s All About Love”. has eleven well-known songs. One the first disc she has Jeff Duffield on piano and strings, Scott Linton, drums and
Bobby Meadows on bass guitar. On the “All About Love” CD she is joined by the “Celebration Four” quartet and additional musicians, Brian Sutton on fiddle and mandolin, Brad Corbin on steel guitar. John Gates, drums and Gary
Green plays harmonica with consumate skill.
The members of the quartet are: Martin Cline (Daddy), Dick Coffman, Garold Senger and Nolan Cline.
The variety of selections and accompaniment allows Jolene to show off additional nuances of a remarkably talent. Recorded at Majors Studio, Waynesboro, Va. CD’s and cassettes are available at P.O. Box 12,
New Hope, Va. 24469. Booking information and CD’s are yours at (540) 363-5641.
How nice it is to know someone who is on the way up in the entertainment field!
Jolene Cline! I knew her when.
A.L.M. August 23, 2002 [c-483wds]
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