I’ll Fly Away

I’ll Fly Away, Oh Glory, I’ll Fly Away

It is a true blessing to be young and healthy, to live without any devastating disease such as cancer or juvenile diabetes and many other things that haunt all ages. We should protect that good health with everything available from attitude to exercise. One way might be to visit a home for the elderly on a regular basis. A mental picture is worth more than any amount of words.

We all take health for granted until something goes wrong with the body. We automatically say fine, when someone asks. “How are you doing, how are you feeling today? The automatic answer is fine, or good, when many times we are not. As we get older that happens more often, we have many more days that are not fine. We entertain thoughts like going, “To a land where joy will never end, I’ll fly away.”

Getting old should be a slow process, like walking into a cold lake, a little at a time, no shock involved. As we do get older, there is some shock, as the body wears out, we start to think more about this in the tired and weaker last days. There is comfort in these words, “Just a few more weary days and then,” “I Will Fly Away.”

www.youtube.com/watch?v=uA4JyAONd_I

I realized much too late. Never start telling your Barber about your health problems!

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Learn by Heart

 

U.S.  Medical Coverage

Commit

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Learn by Heart

I had the good fortune of starting my education in a little one room Country School. Classes 1 through 8 were all held in that one room. The older students usually helped the one teacher with some of the younger kids. We had a young but very thorough teacher. She seemed to have a goal of teaching each student to commit many different things to memory, songs, poems, famous inventors, etc.. For the little kids it might be “Jack and Jill Ran Up The Hill.” The older ones may recite “Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.” I found out it wasn’t 208 Main Street, Gettysburg! It contained almost three hundred words that she wanted us to remember. It helped a lot to listen to the older kids recite it.

We memorize things with a goal in mind, remembering important dates, events, Bible verses, whatever it might be, the goal it is to retain the meaning of what we memorize, for the rest of our lives. The human mind is set up this way and it works very well. Many people at 90 years old, repeat word for word poems and songs that they learned as children, the meaning of those words stayed with them for 90 plus years. That is an awesome power.

In 1965 I decided I would try to become an insurance agent so I started to work for a company out of Des Moines, Iowa. I worked at first with an older agent who was going to teach me all about insurance sales, how you go about closing the sale, all of the things I needed to know about becoming a successful agent. This all went quite well, but on some occasions, the clock could be approaching midnight, we were still at someone’s house  trying to close the sale. He was determined to sell the people their first  insurance policy. This just happened to be the year Medicare started, that didn’t help. Everyone seemed to be looking at the clock, finally the people decide to take the policy. I know it was mainly to get us out of their house so they could go to bed. I often wondered how many of those people kept the insurance?

In 1966 Mutual of Omaha was looking for young wannabe agents, with fire in their bellies, ready to go out selling insurance of all types. They even had a special seminar in Omaha at company headquarters to get these young people started off on the right foot. I came to the conclusion, I had nothing to lose, they were going to fly me to Omaha, put me up in a hotel. A ten-day crash training course on every aspect of the insurance business and how to sell the product to a reluctant world. How could I go wrong?

That seminar was probably comparable to cramming for final exams at College. I didn’t go to college, so I could never have imagined my mind trying to absorb so much material. The ‘coup de grace’ was a 3000-word track, to be recited at the graduation banquet. It was a sales pitch that everyone was supposed to commit to memory to become successful. I spent night and day rehearsing for banquet night and was the only one out of several dozen who repeated the sales track verbatim. I had committed it to my memory, for that, I was rewarded with my first dollar from Mutual of Omaha. Each one of the seminar instructors had signed their names on it. I felt it was quite an honor.

Knowing that word track verbatim did not seem to help my sales closing ability, when it came time to getting people to sign on the dotted line. I learned soon after returning back to the field, I had to put more pressure on clients. My prospects were selling me on why they couldn’t afford to buy insurance, they had all kinds of reasons why there was just no money in their budget to spend on insurance, they just couldn’t do it. I would sit and listen to these people tell me their Tales of Woe. That got me feeling bad for them, there were even times I thought of slipping a few dollars under the table cloth before I left.

I nailed the 3000-word sales pitch, committed it to memory perfectly, but it sure didn’t change me much. I guess we are what we are, it is not easy to change, or toughen up our inner workings.

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The Gentle Assistant Recipe

Prune Juice, Bran, and Apple Sauce for Constipation

The Gentle Assistant Recipe

1 c. applesauce
1 c coarse, unprocessed bran
3/4 c prune juice

Mix all the ingredients together. They will turn into a stiff paste, about the consistency of peanut butter.
After mixing, it should be kept refrigerated. Take one or two tablespoons daily and wash it down with a full eight ounces of water. This works and it is all natural.

2017 Peace Blossoms

DAILY PROMPT
Blossom
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2017 Peace Blossoms

I had the hope at one time of branching out and blossoming into being a crusty old writer of tales from long past. I later realized I might be a blooming idiot, as some of my stories didn’t even agree with my thinking. Some did not even make it to full bloom, nipped in the bud, by the problematic, cold erasure. Like an apple tree loaded with blossoms, when the temperature drops to 20 degrees Fahrenheit. They were nothing to look at for any length of time, just passing withered thoughts. Similar to dried flower arrangements. I’m waiting for a new warm, sunshine and roses spring.

Blossom usually refers to a flower of a plant, one that bears fruit. Everyone in the spring anticipates the many different blossoms, the sweet smells, in the air. The fragrance from many lilac bushes planted together is something that you remember for a lifetime. The lilac perfume travels for miles on damp, warm spring breezes.

Spring introduces blossoms of every size and color according to the plants that yielded them. The flowering crabapple is a colorful work of art by itself; later, the tiny crab apples become a nuisance that makes a mess as they get tracked into people’s homes. Prickly pear cactus has a beautiful blossom. You should be very careful if you try to get your nose very close to one. Wild poppies cover mile after mile of the Sonora Desert when spring rains are plentiful. Blossoms as far as the eye can see!

“May 10, 2016 – A new mammoth report into all known species of plants on the planet has found that just shy of 400,000 are known. However, a growing number are at risk of, or have become, extinct.” This Good Earth needs bees to pollinate the different plants. All the bee has to do is fly from one blossom to the other. That is why it is here. The Humble Bee is almost extinct in many places, no doubt from chemicals. There should be a worldwide program to protect bees. Food, life, existence all depends on it. There are roughly 400,000 plants. Many of them will be in jeopardy in the future without bees.

“On March 27, 1912, two women stood in West Potomac Park in Washington, D.C., and planted the first two cherry blossom trees in the United States. These two women, former first lady Helen Herron Taft and Viscountess Iwa Chinda — wife of the Japanese ambassador — planted the first of 3,000 trees sent that year by Tokyo Mayor Yukio
Osaki.”

“Another interesting holiday legend pertains to the cherry tree. On December 4, St. Barbara’s Day, young unmarrieds should cut a cherry tree branch and put it in water. Whoever’s cherry branch blooms on Christmas day will marry within the next year.”

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Meddlesome Mom

Meddle
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Meddlesome Mom

Life has always kept most individuals busy taking care of their own business, or life issues. If people develop a nose problem and stick their noses where they’re not supposed to be, in someone else’s business, that could be a way to get a nose out of joint or maybe even broken under serious circumstances.

In our new world of turmoil, stress, strain and prescription medications for everything from gastric reflux to hypertension we seem to think it is alright to meddle in other people’s affairs. Meddling is not something that comes from modern living, back in the Roman Empire meddlers ended up in the lion’s den.

Why do we meddle in someone else’s life or someone else’s business? It is the other person’s life, not ours! If we take it upon ourselves to try to manage someone else’s problems we are sure to overlook some of our own that require care and fixing.

As parents, it is our duty to meddle in our children affairs when they are small children, as a way of guiding them in doing the right things with their lives. Where do we draw the line on meddling when we’re raising our children, where do we find the right cutoff point so we’re not meddling in their lives?

If you spend your life doing everything for your children, you better pray you live to be an old person. When you die, you’re going to leave your children as adults, adrift, not having anyone there to do everything for them. You meddled in their lives all the while they were growing up, and still meddled when they became adults.That would be considered meddling for a lifetime. You don’t want to have to get a pass from the old folks home to go mow your kid’s yard, rake the leaves, or fix the screen door.

If you live your life minding your own business, not meddling in the next door neighbors or your children’s lives, your offspring will grow up to understand what a life is without meddling. It is much better for your children to learn about not meddling from watching your example as they grow up.

There will no doubt be times when your children get into their adolescent years when you’ll have to make a decision, do I use tough love, or do I muddle my way through this and do a little meddling?

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The Half Pint Whiskey Bottle

DAILY PROMPT
Bottle
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The Half Pint Bottle

A bottle is a rigid container with a neck that is narrower than the body. By contrast, a jar has a relatively large mouth or opening which may be as wide as the overall container. I am quite positive that is what prompted fruit jar drinkers to enjoy their moonshine with such gusto. You can pass a fruit jar, pass around your half a pint and get many laughs as the first one goes chug-a-lug.

The bottle has developed over millennia of use, with some of the earliest examples appearing in China, Phoenicia, Rome, and Crete. The glass bottle was an important development in the history of wine, because, when combined with a high-quality stopper such as a cork, it allowed long-term aging of wine.

The earliest glass bottle factories had to be extremely busy just with the making of bottles to supply the maker’s of wine, beer, and whiskey. It was all shipped in barrels before the glass industry evolved, it made life much simpler for anyone handling alcoholic beverages.

In our little town, the local liquor store was referred to as the Clinic. I would imagine some early visitors considered it the place to go when they needed medicinal treatment, an elixir for the heart as an example, to keep the heart beating smoothly. A little Brandy was often prescribed by some doctors, very popular doctors, I imagine.

Drinking whiskey was frowned upon by large parts of society in the early days. This created a more secretive clientele, almost to the point of arriving in disguise at the local clinic or pub. Some would drive from as far away as 10 miles to a different town and then enter and leave by the back door of the establishment so as not to be seen. Everyone knew their cars, not much secret sipping got done.

Years ago, more people heard about the dangers of using whiskey or strong drink, it was drilled into them all their lives. It makes you wonder if the fear of strong drink is almost as bad the consequences of using it. Becoming secretive or fearful created a large demand for half pint bottles, nobody was going to order a quart of whiskey and carry it out of the store in a brown paper bag. You couldn’t get a quart in your pocket. I never thought of it before, but a large pair of bib overalls might be a handy way to get your whiskey from the clinic to the car. The half pint bottle became very popular and it made a whole lot more profit for the liquor industry.

The half pint bottle made its way into restaurants, movie theaters, buses, trains, planes, and automobiles, churches maybe. Spiking someone’s pop or coffee was popular, beer Boilermakers were for the hard working, bad dudes. Unwind fast alright! Half pints found their way into dance halls where someone might even have a Nip while dancing, head turned sideways of course. Often times fist fights broke out at the dance with half pints still in pockets, that can create a very dangerous situation.

I recall my uncle staying at our house while on Army Furlough in 1946. He came home one night with a black eye but had worse injuries. A half pint bottle in his back pocket became broken in a scuffle he had at the dance. I was only about five years old but I recall my mother spending hours with the old kerosene lamp and a pair of tweezers pulling glass slivers out of his rear. That night did not end well, on second thought, I guess it did end fairly well for my uncle, most all of the glass slivers were finally removed. A flask would have been much better than a bottle.

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Fathers, Present, Past and Future

Fathers, Present, Past and Future

I felt I should re-post this in honor of all fathers.

The role of the father has undergone troublesome changes in recent years in the United States. The family unit has become fractured because of these changes. Men fathered children, were head of the household and breadwinner at one time. Our changing society has reversed much of that, bringing big changes to the family unit.

Every religion commands the father to guide and bring up his children correctly. My father didn’t go to church or read God’s word. He believed that if you spare the rod you spoil the child. He kept a razor strop hanging on a hook by the kitchen sink in full view of everyone. It wasn’t just for sharpening the razor but it was not used for spanking very often. There was no attention deficit trouble at our house. Fathers today communicate more with their children instead of using the rod to correct them. That is by far the best policy if it is started at a young age. Talking to them, not yelling at.

Fathers who bring up their children in a church environment usually give their children a better chance at being good citizens. The church is really an extended family and where there is more love shown the results are usually very positive. I think my Dad looked at religion like Woody Guthrie, “Who said, when you go to church everyone sings Stand Up For Jesus,” “When you go to the ballgame they say, “For Christ sake sit down.” My dad didn’t take us to church. We are thankful for aunts and a grandmother who steered us in the direction of the church.

The Wright brothers father had a special family sharing time before the evening meal. When they sat down at the table together, he asked everyone in the family to share something that they learned that day. Sharing meals together with a prayer or without a prayer was the super glue that held American families together in the past. Fathers dropped the ball big time when they let everyone in the family eat where they felt like eating, in front of the television or computer game, instead of everyone sitting at the table together and sharing.

The modern-day father in the U.S. has had to learn to share in doing many things in the home as the mothers took on jobs to help pay for things in our need to have more stuff society. The flip side, there are no fathers, in far too many homes today and our country is paying a terrible price for it. Many families today have become a group of individuals, sort of camped together under the same roof, each doing his own thing, not really communicating with or getting to know each other well.

The very high medical costs today cause some fathers to not make wedding vows with the woman they love and who is having their babies. That is a very poor way for a young family to get started. Not getting married because of health insurance has to be very hard decision for a couple to make and then having to live with it. A healthcare system that is affordable for every citizen could put some strength back in many aspects of our society, especially the family unit.

The role of fathers has changed for the worse and society will have to change for the better if we ever expect to see the role of the father improve. Let us all have hope for the true meaning of Fathers Day in the future.

Let us never forget our Father in Heaven who gave up his son for all of us.

A Paragon Of Plainness

Paragon

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A Paragon Of Plainness

A personal sense of self-esteem or self-importance cries out daily, get out there, do your best, excel in anything, show me that you can become a paragon of something noteworthy. Stand out, be in awe of others, as they stare at you, as being the paragon of what they are not. Send your ego into orbit, that is what it is all about, being someone of exceptional merit, in others eyes, mighty me.

I would like to think, life is not ringing your own bell, tooting your own horn or flaunting your wealth or wisdom. Always treat your neighbor the way you would like to be treated. He will see you as a paragon of common sense, plainness and true friendship, all real valuable commodities. The epitome of true wealth!

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