Thursday, August 7, 2008
Community | Obits | Editorial & Columnists | Society | Sports | Education | Classified Ads | Calendar of Events | Features | Newsbriefs | Legals | Archives | Subscriptions | Photo Gallery
|
|
||
|
Thursday, August 7, 2008 |
||
|
Community | Obits | Editorial & Columnists | Society | Sports | Education | Classified Ads | Calendar of Events | Features | Newsbriefs | Legals | Archives | Subscriptions | Photo Gallery |
| Good News Happy Hour Wonderful guest line-up when Swanee returns “Swanee’s Good News Happy Hour” will be off the air again this week. WKRA is still trying hard to get that brand new tower up and working. Expect us back on August 14 at 3-4 p.m. We are still planning on having our wonderful guest lineup for your entertainment. Museuming Life’s like a cake... Age is purely a state of mind – clearly age is on everyone’s mind and yet age doesn’t matter! So what, if you are over the hill; it is better than being under the hill! Consider the alternative to being here and be so thankful you’re a survivor. I am constantly amazed at how young old has become. It seems like just yesterday I was into Dr. Spock and now I’m in Dr. Scholls. This could have us quaking in our Reeboks! We have one eye on the calendar and one on the clock. I’ve been pressing that old accelerator in my seventies and now I’m doing the eighties and doing good. I’ve been doing it solo, too, and everyday is like a miracle and I appreciate these days. Just because you’re over 40 doesn’t mean you have to be lumpy, dumpy and frumpy! Older age is where you get it altogether and can’t remember where you put it. I don’t want anyone to think we are dinosaurs since we’ve crossed the great divide. Age isn’t all bad! Think of the trouble many of us would have if wrinkles hurt. Getting older is a grand adventure, so make the most of it. You aren’t old until you’ve lost your marvels! We marvel at the miracle of a new baby. We marvel at a sunrise so sweet or a sunset so poignant. We need to cherish life every day as if we are going to die tomorrow, but enjoy life as if we’re going to live forever. Make memories into stories and pass it on. Shirley Temple is 80. Mickey Mouse is 90-plus. Let me tell you about Esther Cannon. I had been at the museum for about 10 years. Esther, who was 84 at the time, was helping me work at the museum. She grabbed up a typewriter that was so heavy I could hardly lift it, and ran up the stairs with it. Then a couple of years later I asked her, “Esther, when are you going to California to live with your niece?” She said, “When I get old!” I am sure you are like me – a person of many passions. I want to serve my Lord, my family, and my community. If you are endowed with seeds of passion to pursue what it is you are after, you can do great things. Begin today! Now! I have everything I had 40 years ago, it’s just a little bit lower. My metabolism has slowed, my anxieties want to stay repressed, my eyes and ears aren’t what they were once and my memory is slipping. Now -- where was I ? Life is like a cake and it’s goodness depends on the ingredients you put into it. The first ingredient should be God. Without the Lord we are lost today, tomorrow, and forever. What we do today and what we’ve done yesterday is already recorded in God’s Book of Life but tomorrow is a spotless page. We are accountable for everything we do. Believing in the Lord is like taking out an insurance policy that we will get to Heaven. The second most important ingredient in our cake is attitude. Absolutely everything goes back to attitude. It is like the key to your being. Attitude is a large blanket. Attitude determines strength. Attitude determines direction. Attitude determines success or failure. Once I was one of the first to board a plane, got seated and watched as people filed onto the aircraft. On came a mother carrying an infant and forerunning a little girl who was trying to take it all in. She stopped at the food trays, bent over and looked inside and said, “Gosh!” We all need the “gosh” attitude to the wonders of this world as the wonders never cease. We need to be cognizant of them as we journey through life. Health is the next ingredient. Attitude is the key to your health. Without health, it would be difficult to cope. Stress is all around us and we come into contact with stress every day. Learn to handle stress. Guard your health as you would a fine diamond ring as health is very important. How many of you have a thoroughbred horse worth more than a million dollars? If you did have a thoroughbred horse worth a million dollars, would you keep this animal up all night, feed him junk food, let him drink coffee or booze, or smoke cigarettes? Or how about a $10,000 dog? – or a $500 cat? If we had a million dollar animal we would probably keep him in a climate-controlled barn and we would hire the best vet in the country to look after him. We would take care of this animal and yet we abuse our own billion dollar bodies. Women didn’t use to live to be 80 just a few years ago. In 1900, fifty was considered old age. Only one person in ten survived to age 65. Thirty-three was the whole human life span in the 1400’s. I tell you, we need to savor these bonus years and fill them to the brim. If you take estrogen, some say it does everything for a woman but hang her pictures! Do you have a garden? It is good therapy. However, in my yard, I gave the weeds an inch and they took over the yard. In life, will I let myself go to seed, or will I spend my life pruning and irrigating? Happiness is a cake ingredient too. Happiness can be built only on virtue and must of necessity have truth for it’s foundation. Sometimes we have destructive habits that we need to examine, break, and try again. One bad habit is being a fault-finder. Instead of looking for faults, be a good-finder. Don’t say anything unkind about others. Remember the Golden Rule: do unto others as you would have them do unto you. What is life all about? Stop searching for immortal deeds that will give our lives meaning and concentrate on filling our days with small moments that gratify us, and we will know the answer to the question, what is life all about? It is about loving, and being loved. It is serving the Lord, enjoying food, sitting on the porch savoring the sunsets, the leaves turning color, the rare moments of human communication. “Whatever it is in your power to do, do it with all your might.” Accept challenge and pain. If we don’t include pain, we’ll never know joy. Be close to people. If you go out looking for a friend, there aren’t any. If you go out in life to be a friend, they are everywhere. Reflections: At the close of your life, know that you have made a difference by teaching and being a positive example. You do have impact on other persons and that can be enduring satisfaction. Broken hearts, like broken bones do heal. Live until you die. There are persons who shape their lives by the joy of life. When you die, die living. Some people die with their magic in them. Think deep thoughts. Let me ask you something. How long has it been since you’ve really thought? Deep thinking is one of the most painful exertions known to man. We shrink from it, but if you dig down into your brain where thinking becomes creative, it is an exciting adventure. Commitment is an ingredient that keeps me going when things get tough. Be committed to the Lord’s work. Remember, the only thing, the only thing that matters while you are here on earth is what you do for the Lord. It doesn’t matter how much money you have, or don’t have, how fine your car or your house is. What you do in the name of Jesus is all that matters. We still have time, don’t wait until you are old and think “I will serve the Lord tomorrow.” Tomorrow may never come. Hope is another ingredient in our cake. We can give it to others with direction, encouragement and believability – hope that the future is going to be bright for them, regardless of where they are at the moment. Hope is the great motivator - honesty, optimism, personal responsibility and effort. In life, it is impossible for us to see ourselves as others see us. It is hard for us to take blame for our sins, too. In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve couldn’t take the blame. God asked Adam about eating the fruit. Adam says, “It was the woman you gave me who made me do it.” God asked Eve about the fruit and she replied, “It was that snake who made me do it.” And, of course, the snake didn’t have a leg to stand on. Now, when you start blaming other people, you don’t have a leg to stand on. Take the blame and fix the cause. There is a little story about Fred Smith. He is a historian and he has 11 children. One day he was telling his little son about some famous character in history. The child couldn’t wait for the end of the story. He asked his father, “Did he finish well?” We all need to finish well. I will finish well when I stand in front of the Creator of the Universe and He says to me, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant!” I will finish well if I am filled with faith, hope and love and live without anger, greed, guilt, envy and thoughts of revenge. I will finish well if I love the unlovable, give to the hopeless, give friendship to the friendless, and encouragement to the discouraged. I will finish well because I am pleasant to the grouchy, courteous to the rude, generous to the needy. I will finish well if I recognize, confess, develop, and use my God-given physical, mental, and spiritual abilities to the glory of God and for the benefit of mankind. When disappointments and set- backs happen, just change your direction. Get a piece of paper and pen and write it down. Then tear it up. It clears your thinking and decisions can be reached easier. When you are down, you are under a shadow and things get distorted. You have access to the world’s greatest counselor – the Lord. He is available 24 hours a day at no charge. Life is like a boomerang, whatever you give out comes back to you doublefold. In Longfellow’s words: “In this wide world, the fondest and the best are the most tired, most troubled, and distressed. Lives of great men all remind us we can make our lives sublime and departing leave behind us footprints in the sands of time.” Come and see us at the Square Museum. We are located at 111 Van Dorn Ave, 662 252-3669. Check out our website www.mchmuseum.org or email us at marshallcomuseum@bellsouth.net. |
       |
Report
News: (662) 252-4261 or south@dixie-net.com
Questions, comments, corrections: south@dixie-net.com
©2004,
The South Reporter, All Rights Reserved.
No part of this site may be reproduced in any way without permission.
The South Reporter is a member of the Mississippi Press Association.
Web
Site managed and maintained by
South Reporter webmasters Linda Jones, Kristian Jones
Web Site Design - The South Reporter