Saturday, December 25, 2004
PEOPLE MAKER
Charles Dicken's probably can be readily credited, I'd say, with having created more characters than any other literary people-maker.
So many of them are loveable characters and we like to think we have some of the qualities they show, but there are some first-class villians among them, too.
Chief among them, to many people, has old Ebenezer Scrooge, but he reforms completely in "A Christmas Carol" and rejoins the human race just in time. Now, take another of Dicken's nasties - Uziah Heep, and Fawkes was it not in the "Oliver Twist" story? They, and some others, start nasty and stay nasty for the duration of the story and a few pages longer.
We like to think we have some of the finer qualities of Charles Dickens' most loveable characters in our way of living, compassion, understanding, respect for the rights of others, as well as a firm dedication to the ideals of hard work and absolute confidence in the ideals orf astrict work ethic and a dedeication to work with definite aims in mind for a future brighter and more satisfying for ourselves and those we love
. Few of us would ever think of admitting that we, from time,to time, might also show some of the less admirable traits which Dickens caused his Heeps, Scrooges and other depicable characters to perform. "That's fiction," we say as an excuse, and life is real. It is, however, true that these lesser qualities can, and do, creep into, our lives without our being aware of it happening. Now, at the beginning of a New Year is the traditional time to resolve to eliminate quesitonable elements from our lives, and Christmas is a time for ethical purification which should make us
want to do better in the future The timing is perfect.
Think about it. If there is even a slight hint of "envy" in your thinking - deal with it now. Drive it out and along with it any taints of vainness, distrust, hatred or other such clouds shadowing your life and preventing the sunlight of happiness from getting to you in full measure.
Hell, it has been said, is the repeated remembence of all of the little things we have done about which we have any regrets. Why run the heat up higher? Certainly we can see evidences of that in Dickens' people and we can pick out ones we admire and try to emulate the general restraints they used to void the very same hazards we are still contending with today.
Right now...on this special day.. TinyTim's words fit our mood - a very merry Christmas to all!
A.L.M. December 25, 2004 [c402wds]
Friday, December 24, 2004
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
I'm tempted to write the words “Merry Christmas”, “Happy Holidays”, or simply “Noel” and call that today's column . That's the a way and we have all used it one year or another, but the right way is far safer.
I say “safer” because this year we have segments of our society who are taking affront with the wording of greetings for this special time of the year. There is a faction who, trying hard to appear to be be especially tolerant and liberal but eliminating any and all references in holiday greetings which might suggest a religious connection. The others - louder, perhaps, than usual this year because of trends indicated in our recent political elections. They insist that the opposition is seeking “to take Christ out of Christmas.” We are in a strange mood following our political phase of name-calling and condemnations en masse.
We are in a “home defense” stance, it appears. Anyone who looks to tradition as a standard is viewed by those who do not wish to be curbed as blockheads of the worst order.
The rest of the years these same people seem to get along reasonably well, but when the season of showing special love, understanding and compassion is promoted they become outspoken enemies. The ruckus is sharper this year than usual. In years past criticism has been limited to complaints about over-commercialization of Christmas weeks and, close to that itchy irk there was the use of “Xmas” -literally taking Christ out of the word “Christmas.” That was bad enough but now it is being urged that any and all reference to the Christian faith must the exorcised.
Anyone would would think that such a change could be effected other than by force and, even then, just on the surface, has to be confused on his or her holidays. They have confused December 25th with April 1st.
People who are intensely home defense oriented may even view this “attack on Americanism” as being part of one of the ever-present conspiracies which seem to exist to manage such underhanded things. Get the Christian terms out and insert Muslim equivalents in their places.
For my part - I'm still saying “Merry Christmas”. If it bothers you in any way feel free to say it anyway you like. Let such freedom be a part of our holiday time together. It's no skim off my glow.
A.L.M. December 24, 2004 [c409wds]
Thursday, December 23, 2004
SAYING THANKS
It happened to us years when our second son was just a little kid.
We were having a stuffed chair redone and we received a penny post card from the small shop saying it would be ready to pick up. My wife Irma and with second son David did a pick-up ride to Grottoes, Virginia where the man had shop as part of his small home. He knew when we had arrived by the changes in the shadows his shop as we drove into his driveway.
We knew the old man was deaf; had been since infancy, and communication might be hindered a bit. When we arrived in his house he indicated for us to follow him into the next room and there we found a large white sheet covering what we assumed was our reconditioned. The old man more or less ignored my wife and I and motioned for the boy to help him remove the sheet. He made sure the boy had a firm grasp on the edge of the covering and ,in that special way they seemed to understand each other, he let the boy do the major effort at tugging the drape away to reveal our chair to us.
The cooperative tug was quick and there it was - a beautiful chair re-created. The broken leg was mended, the upholstery was bright and tough looking; the springs had e,obviously been replaced or repositioned. There was small paper pinned to the chair back and the old man unpinned it an indicated he boy was to take it to his mother. He did so without hesitation. His mother glanced at the paper bearing our name and the amount agreed upon for the chair repairs. She opened the bag she carried and handed the boy the folded bills when he returned to the craftsman standing beside our chair.
All of that happened rather quickly and was not quite ready for the next step which was “fixed” I must admit. Irma, was a teacher at The Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind, Staunton, Virginia, and she had prepared our son for the visit to the chair-maker's shop. He stood there admiring the chair then turned to the old man and signed: “Very pretty! Very Pretty! Thank you! Thank you very much!” He seemed to say it in italics and underlined.
I don't know signing but I realized what he had “said” by the almost tearfully happy pleasure instantly evident in the old man's eyes. He helped us load the chair on our truck and as we pulled away he waved “Goodbye” to us,it seemed, and he stood there and signed to our son: “Thank you! Thank You! Thank you!”
A.L.M. December 23, 2004 [c462wds]
Wednesday, December 22, 2004
NOT QUITE THERE
The term “human rights” has not yet earned for level which will permit us to call it “universal.”
We use the term, however, and that's a good thing on me that in that it suggests an ideal - a time of maturity for the concept. it is not a new term; not an aged in either. Eleanor Roosevelt, while First Lady of the Land, used the term “Universal Human Rights” when she was active in the work of the United Nations efforts to establish a world-wide protective system to preserve and propagate human rights for all Mankind.
The UN Charter had, from the first days, assigned a respectable place to the idea of human rights. Eleanor Roosevelt gave that start a good push forward. She worked at the job for three years as chair-person of the “UN Commission of Human Rights” and, then, presented a strong case to the General Assembly following those three years of intense study and evaluation. The vote in the UN was a divided, of course. Forty-eight states “favored” the declaration. Eight states “abstained.” That was the Soviet bloc of nations, South Africa and Saudi Arabia. Two were reported “absent.”
As a direct result of report,the United Nations issued a “Universal Declaration of Human Rights”. It did so, too, without, “a single dissenting vote.”- technically. There other such legalistic shadows throughout many UN procedures, but, on the whole, that document gave Human Rights a strong mark of approval putting it on a firm legal footing and and enabling the concept to prosper.
Eleanor Roosevelt was the key to so much human rights advancements of those years. I never got to see her on any of her numerous trips to Southwest Virginia where she attended folk music gatherings. I remember, even then, of having a feeling she was really here to check on our human rights status as dwellers in the Appalachians area. She was a person who saw elements of worth in all people if they were given a chance to grow. The process is still going; still growing, but far from being “universal”
A.L.M. December 22, 2004 [c374wds]
Tuesday, December 21, 2004
SELF STUDY
Don't sell yourself short where it comes to being a salesperson.
You probably do a far better job than you realize. You have been on the buyers side of things most of your life , so you could anyone expect you to do well at it without training.
But it is not the seller of goods and services; tangible goods and and substances sold by the pound, dozen or gross of which we are
concerned. The one thing you want to promote more is yourself; your distinct personality and that which you have which no one else has in exactly the the same way and to such perfection.
Think back over the holiday shopping you might have done in recent weeks. What caused you to buy those items you selected? It was not, I would suggest, as much a “spur of the moment thing”. You had been prepared to make such a purchase for someone you love or admire. We often plan ahead to a far greater extent than we might realize we do.
We, here in America, are, probably, among the most heavily sales burdened people in the world. We see any item in print as a photograph or descriptive words exhibited to lure us into wishing that we, too, could obtain such an item for out personal use or - at the Christmas Season of the year - a special thing to give to someone we admire or to someone we love.
I doing so we are really selling a far greater and less tangible entity without realizing we are doing so. A physical gift at Christmas time or for someones birthday date or anniversary is in truth a token of your hope that the love and admiration known may continue to be strong and meaningful for both.
Too often, throughout the work year, we tend to sell ourselves short. Deep down, God made very few duds. Each of us is a special work of art the quality of our lives is an insult to the artist. This coming year look for the positive aspects in everything you want to accomplish. Don't even consider ideas which say you “can't do it”. You can do it but it is easier to do so if you have taken the time formulate a resume of your life and become aware of your worth and of your proper place in society.
Far too often today our lives become so cluttered that the difficult part of trip is finding space; a proper place to unfold the road map. Get it all unfolded, uncreased and oriented properly toward the guiding North Star of honesty and truth, and you are well on your way.
You are Captain and Navigator. of our life. Many other lives depend on what you do. Your having attained to those two titles is proof enough that you can do whatever becomes necessity.
A.L.M. December 21. 2004 [c489wds]
Monday, December 20, 2004
TWO-FOLD GIFT
Christmas Day less than a week a way!
It seems impossible! It can't be true, and yet event indicate that it coming along anyway – ready or not!
The City of Harrisonburg, Virginia –“home town” for those of us who dwell at The Cave – received two fine Christmas presents this week. Added to the list of things Harrisonburg citizens and James Madison University students will be two brightly wrapped gifts they will share in years to come.
At Chattanooga, TN on Friday, December 18th, the JMU “Dukes” Football team won over the “Grizzlies” of Montana to become National Champions, NCAA Division 1-AA Football! The game was on TV 's ESPN2 nationwide and Mike Shickman, (WSVA) the regular radio voice of JMU, did play-by-play on the JMU Radio Network. The field is one every one who saw the games will remember, too – with tossed turf from the initial plays and bundles of it lying loose across the field like non-tumbling tumbleweed. The Montana teams set a fast pace and took to the air as much as possible. They scored first and when their pace paused the JMU moving wall made steady inroads with a 41-21 score as their reward. It was JMU's first try at a national slot; the fifth try for the Montana team. The poor field condition are said to have worked in favor of JMU who played the previous week defeating William and Mary College under muddy conditions.
Such a win can mean a lot to the University and to the Harrisonburg area where Coach Mickey Matthews is now an established hero-type college coach. In many ways this is his win, but it means a lot to all of us.
The Second Gift for the community this week was an announcement made at about the same time of the championship game which set forth plan to built a totally new Rockingham
Memorial Hospital! The present fifteen acre location in the city will be replaced with a completely new installation on a 254-acre site on the northeast edge of the city at Reservoir Street and Port Republic Road. It should be ready for use by 2009. The present hospital with his multi-storied parking decks will become part of ...guess what! Right! James Madison University just across a narrow street which now divides the two.
Both JMU and RMH are important to all of us. In a geographic sense the City of Harrisonburg and the growing village community called Weyers Cave are day-by-day, week-by-week become one and the same., soon to join add-on towns named Dayton, Bridgewater , Mt. Crawford, and Penn Laird, Virginia.
Two gifts in one week! A very Merry Christmas struck a week or so early in the year 2004.
A.L.M. December 20, 2004 [c475wds]
Sunday, December 19, 2004
'NUTHIN T'DO”
I often meet with a confused mixture of amazement and disappointment when I hear people say: ”I have nothing to do!”
How can such a situation come about? Is it possible for a person to live a life totally apart from inventiveness, ambition and a willingness to improve one's lot – even to a minimal standard? How can anyone - young or old – arrive at a state in which they feel that everything that can be done has been accomplished?
One might expect to hear a young child make such a claim and we would try to suggest something to challenge such a child. We lead them to think of another game they might want to try and the momentary lapse of interest. Young people adults are supposed to outgrow such self-pity demonstrations.
The person who can say “I have nothing to do.” is seeking help in some cases, but, more often,they don't realize they are really confessing a weakness of character. By merely being in your presence, they are obligated to undertake whatever is needed to meet your needs. They have an automatic requirement to be pleasant in your company; or, if the situation demands it, to be as combative and physically active as combative as possible.. If another person is nearby, you have something to do. We are community creatures and our actions affect others about us. A do-less individual can be the proverbial “bad apple” which spoils the barrel of good fruit.
To shut oneself off from others is a self-sustained form of punishment and we need to make sure we are not, perhaps unwittingly, building such a self-imposed, self-administered form of self-punishment. Years ago the advertising world tried to convinced us that we could fit in anywhere if we learned to play piano, then, someone realized that the letters “B” and “O” could be combined to form something called “Body Odor”, and powders, pastes, pellets, patches, potents, poultices - in an unending accumulation of aberrations have followed in efforts to avoid such a condition.st l
If you find yourself tempted to give voice to the sentiment “I have nothing to do!” you are not only hurting yourself but you are insulting anyone else you know. You are, in fact, saying that you find them to be less than nothing - real duds, who do not inspire you at all by their being present.
A.L.M. December 19, 2004 [c409wds]
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