Ray’s Daily
May 15, 2018
The life I touch for good or ill will touch another life, and that in turn another, until who knows where the trembling stops or in what far place my touch will be felt.
Frederick Buechner
I have a busy morning with my wife’s doctor and lab appointments. I also have a number of other tasks to do so I am sending you another Daily from yesteryear.
Ray’s Daily first published on May 15, 2009
It seems like I have been making a lot of trips back into the past lately, sharing the good feelings that I had for simpler days, a time when even just a neighborhood was a community. Many of the periods in the past were filled with trauma and difficult times. My generation has experienced wars, a depression, countless recessions, epidemics, disease and even conflict. I am not proud of our past prejudices and occasional inhumanity, but fortunately most of the folks I knew never where part of those problems. In some ways I think we were tested and as a result strengthened. And to a large extent we were strengthened because we had each other. I don’t mean by just family and loved ones but by those around us neighbors, friends, fellow citizens and yes even strangers. It was the people that made us a community.
It seems like these days too many of us just don’t have the time or to be honest don’t take the time to build the community environment that sustained us in days gone by. Maybe the problems we face these days will motivate some to step back and find what we had. What got me thinking about this today was a list that I got from a good friend. He sent me something he got off a bookmark that his daughter received when she was at Syracuse University. It was published by the Syracuse Cultural Workers. Here is what it said in part:
How to Build a Community
Turn off your TV
Leave your house
Know your neighbors
Greet people
Sit on your stoop
Plant Flowers
Play together
Share what you have
Take children to the park
Garden Together
Support Neighborhood Schools
Fix it even if you didn’t break it
Honor Elders
Pick Up Litter
Dance in the Street
Talk to the Mail Carrier
Listen to the Birds
Help Carry Something Heavy
Start A Tradition
Hire Young People for Odd Jobs
Bake Extra and Share
Ask For Help When You Need It
Open Your Shades
Sing Together
Share Your Skills
Listen Before You react To Anger
Seek To Understand
Learn From New And Uncomfortable Angles
Know That No One is Silent Though Many Are Not Heard Work to Change This
Thanks Jim for reminding us that Those Were the Days can again be the days if we only reach out to one another.
Ray
~~~
How Many Christians Does It Take to Change a Light Bulb?
Charismatic: Only 1 – Hands are already in the air.
Pentecostal: 10 – One to change the bulb, and nine to pray against the spirit of darkness.
Presbyterians: None – Lights will go on and off at predestined times.
Roman Catholic: None – Candles only. (Of guaranteed origin of course.)
Baptists: At least 15 – One to change the light bulb, and three committees to approve the change and decide who brings the potato salad and fried chicken.
Episcopalians: 3 – One to call the electrician, one to mix the drinks, and one to talk about how much better the old one was.
Mormons: 5 – One man to change the bulb, and four wives to tell him how to do it.
Unitarians: We choose not to make a statement either in favor of or against the need for a light bulb. However, if in your own journey you have found that light bulbs work for you, you are invited to write a poem or compose a modern dance about your light bulb for the next Sunday service, in which we will explore a number of light bulb traditions, including incandescent, fluorescent, 3-way, long-life and tinted, all of which are equally valid paths to luminescence.
Methodists: Undetermined – Whether your light is bright, dull, or completely out, you are loved. You can be a light bulb, turnip bulb, or tulip bulb. Bring a bulb of your choice to the Sunday lighting service and a covered dish to pass.
Nazarene: 6 – One woman to replace the bulb while five men review church lighting policy.
Lutherans: None – Lutherans don’t believe in change.
Amish: What’s a light bulb?
~~~
There is no greater joy nor greater reward than to make a fundamental difference in someone’s life.
Sister Mary Rose McGeady
~~~
A housewife with three small children was getting dinner ready, when the telephone rang. The six-year-old picked it up, and said, “Hi, Daddy!”, and began telling him about her day. She then passed the phone to her brother and sister, as was the custom whenever Daddy called from work.
When it was finally the wife’s turn to talk, she took the receiver, and said, “Hi, Hon.”
“Thank goodness, Lady,” the voice on the other end replied. “I just called to tell you that the wallpaper you ordered has arrived!”
~~~
He who wants a rose must respect the thorn.
Persian proverb
~~~
Jill went to a “Dude Ranch”. The cowboy preparing the horses asked if Jill wanted a Western or English saddle, and she asked what the difference was.
When he told her one had a horn and one didn’t, Jill replied, “The one without the horn is fine. I don’t expect we’ll run into too much traffic.”
~~~
We need to learn to set our course by the stars, not by the lights of every passing ship.
Omar N. Bradley
~~~
A Polish gentleman went to the ophthalmologist who showed him a card, with the letters C Z W X N Q S T A C Z printed on it.
“Can you read this?” he asked
“Read it?” The gentleman replied, “I know the guy!”
~~~
Responsibility does not only lie with the leaders of our countries or with those who have been appointed or elected to do a particular job. It lies with each of us individually. Peace, for example, starts within each one of us. When we have inner peace, we can be at peace with those around us.
Dalai Lama
~~~
Ray Mitchell
Indianapolis, Indiana
Management is not responsible for duplicates from previous dailies. The editor is somewhat senile.
Ray’s Daily has been sent for more than fifteen years to people who want to start their day on an upbeat. If you have system overload because of our daily clutter, let me know and I will send you the information via mental telepathy. If you have not been getting our daily you can request to be added by e-mailing me at raykiwsp@gmail.com. Back issues are posted at http://rays-daily,com/ currently there are more than 2000 readers from around the world.
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