Thursday, August 30, 2007
LITTLE THINGS You can experience of wonderful sense of accomplishment when you re-discover how much you can help others in need by doing things for their betterment. Due to illnesses in recent months, we have found it to be not easy for us to express our gratitude for the countless friends and neighbors - even few outright strangers we had not known before - have been doing things on our behalf. We continue to find it difficult to show proper gratitude and in appreciation of all in their giving or time , effort and true appreciation for such personal gifts. When we moved a year we, purposely selected a house with much less yard to keep "up" as the expression goes, while keeping the grass down is a common chore. To deal with that we kept our riding mower. Our daughter Barbara enjoys riding the machine as do our grand children when visiting. There's a small area about two-car size front of the house; a bit larger grassy area in the back and side stripe are every bit of six or feet wide. Barbara had minor surgery on her elbow and she wore a white supporting bandage on her right arm for a week or so.That was sufficient notice to cause the young man who mows the large lawn of the large Covenant Community Church to included our yard in his mowing work. He uses on of those those stand-and-ride super rigs and it takes perhaps two passes to do our hard as well as the grass covered borders of the church parking lot and joining our scrape of land borders the church's parking lot. He also returns to which overflows into the car-parking area when it gets too full. Foodstuffs and phone calls have also been abundant;notes, letters and cards, too - have been frequent and most welcome. Right now, while we are marking the second anniversary of the Katrina flood emergencies is an especially appropriate time to give some special thought and serious attention to the ways in which might allay much of the pain and suffering. Many such conditions never make the news headlines or excite political or governmental actions other than idealized talk with little genuine actions to combat the basic evils. Much is to be led and even accomplished by concerned individuals and the groups into which they so easily form to build stamina, strength and confidence. Andrew McCaskey Sr. amccsr@comcast.net [c415wds] 8-30-07
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
JOBS As you get a few more years you must ,sometimes, "take stock" now and then and wonder it, perhaps,you may have been more successful in some other line of work. I rather doubt that many of us born during the years following Word Year I. Our years of employment in so many cases, coincided with the rigors brought about by the Great Depression many boys and girls had to accept pretty much what they could get. Prior to that, I recall parents determining, in too many cases, perhaps, that their son was going "to study law",or "be a medical doctor" or lead his generation in some industrial firm; a commercial business of some sort or active in investment or banking fields in such a manner as to provide a cushiony income for his family. Careers for girls were often concerned with the proper match making needed to make such successful family units a sure thing. Young women were, however, showing more and more interested in entering various fields of business with career ambitions in mind. Parents were, as a rule quite active in seeking the proper employment area for there sons and daughters. During the less prosperous times the parental push was to properly launch a son or daughter into lucrative fields of work at executive levels rather than a common worker status. The current condition of rising educational cost has made it necessary for many parent to extend or facilitate added support. Once the youth is in possession of a diploma, he or she often does well to land a debt-paying "job" while awaiting the dreamed of "position." Very often that becomes his or her career choice. Andrew McCaskey Sr amccsr@comcast.net [c295wds] 8-22-07
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
DIVERSITY NOW There is probably no better time for us to observe the many ways in which we are different - one from another - than Election Time. That is one of the few time in which are asked to state some indication of our feelings openly and show how we feel about certain subjects which are of which are mutual concern to all of us. We tend to see single subjects in rather strange, mystifying lights and realize we each have individual personalities which cause us to be in disagreement with friends and family. Days, weeks and months such as we are presently living within present us with choices which, when decided by our actions, are critical the very life of our nation. We are choosing leaders who will be called upon to make proper choices for our nation to walk the the best paths. Some ways will promise potential good while other may place us all in danger. It is important that we, during this election period in particular making much more detailed demand on voters to commit themselves on themes, philosophies, of widely extended and re-defined situations we have avoided in the past. Excessive off-shore suicide by American industry, manufacturing, business, plus various desecration of the Arts and Culture. You are to take part in this national re-construction. You are being called upon to cast your strength and courage into a host of activities relative to fundamentals of our national way of life. As yet, in its "primary" phase, it seems evident that we voters are going to be asked if we, for instance, can accept a woman as president; a black man, or someone who adheres to a religious faith other than ones on the so-called approved list or the "None" route. You will be asked how you feel about continuing the "wars" currently in progress or seeing them expanded into new areas. Obfuscations on moral matters and educational concerns are apparent at every level of our society. Yet remaining in the "Convention's stage" the yet to be designated "smoke-filled rooms" await us as a critical point in our ship-of-state design and construction where so many seemingly pacesetting campaigns have been adjusted and modified in the past to be workable in the voting booths of our nation. Andrew McCaskey Sr amccsr@.comcast.net [c398wds] 8-7-07.
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