Ray’s Daily
August 27, 2018
Tell me to what you pay attention and I will tell you who you are.
Jose Ortega y Gasset
One of the things I really enjoy is hearing from old friends. The other day my friend Vince, a friend from my UNIVAC days who I have not seen in more than 30 years sent me some thought pieces that I want to share with you today.
As I read what he sent I stopped to think about my world and the people in it. I again realized how much the easily overlooked happening’s in our lives can be the most meaningful if we just pay attention.
Today
Today, I interviewed my grandmother for part of a research paper I’m working on for my Psychology class. When I asked her to define success in her own words, she said;
“Success is when you look back at your life and the memories make you smile.”
Today at 7AM, I woke up feeling ill, but decided I needed the money, so I went into work. At 3PM I got laid off. On my drive home I got a flat tire. When I went into the trunk for the spare, it was flat too.
A man in a BMW pulled over, gave me a ride, we chatted, and then he offered me a job. I start tomorrow.
Today, as my father, three brothers, and two sisters stood around my mother’s hospital bed, my mother uttered her last coherent words before she died.
She simply said, “I feel so loved right now. We should have gotten together like this more often.”
Today, in the cutest voice, my 8-year-old daughter asked me to start recycling. I chuckled and asked, “Why?” She replied, “So you can help me save the planet.” I chuckled again and asked, “And why do you want to save the planet?”
Because that’s where I keep all my stuff,” she said.
Today, when I witnessed a 27-year-old breast cancer patient laughing hysterically at her 2-year-old daughter’s antics, I suddenly realized that, I need to stop complaining about my life and start celebrating it again.
Today, a boy in a wheelchair saw me desperately struggling on crutches with my broken leg and offered to carry my backpack and books for me. He helped me all the way across campus to my class and as he was leaving he said,
“I hope you feel better soon.”
~~~
“There’s always more than what meets the eye. If you dig in deep enough and pay attention, you can really see the beauty in a person.”
April Mae Monterrosa
~~~
Blonde Caller: “Can you give me the telephone number for Jack?”
Operator: “I’m sorry, I don’t understand who you are talking about”. Blond Caller: “On page 1 section 5, of the user guide it clearly states that I need to unplug the fax machine from the AC wall socket and telephone Jack before cleaning. Now, can you give me the number for Jack?”
~~~
“He’s turned his life around. He used to be depressed and miserable. Now he’s miserable and depressed.”
David Frost
~~~
The children begged for a hamster, and after the usual fervent vows that they alone would care for it, they got one.
They named it Danny. Two months later, when Mom found herself responsible for cleaning and feeding the creature, she located a prospective new home for it. The children took the news of Danny’s imminent departure quite well, though one of them remarked, “He’s been around here a long time–we’ll miss him.”
“Yes,” Mom replied, “But he’s too much work for one person, and since I’m that one person, I say he goes.”
Another child offered, “Well, maybe if he wouldn’t eat so much and wouldn’t be so messy, we could keep him.”
But Mom was firm. “It’s time to take Danny to his new home now,” she insisted. “Go and get his cage.”
With one voice and in tearful outrage the children shouted, “Danny? We thought you said Daddy!”
~~~
“I have everything I had twenty years ago – except that it is now all lower.”
Gypsy Rose Lee
~~~
The Chaplain had been assigned to a large carrier in the Pacific Ocean. It didn’t take him long to notice how much grief the cooks (Mess Specialists) caught from the crew and how they gave back as much as they got. He talked to the Food Service Officer and decided to talk to the cooks and get them to be more cheerful when they served the meals to the sailors coming down the line. “A smile and a cheerful comment, a willingness to serve them will reap great benefits,” he told them.
After his pep talk the Food Service Officer and the Chaplain stood back and watched the food being served. A new sailor aboard walked down the line but he didn’t like anything he saw so he just carried his tray down the line till he got to the desert section. He picked up a saucer containing a large piece of chocolate cake.
The Mess Specialist looked at him, “Is that all you’re gonna eat,” he asked.
The sailor said, “Yeah, the rest of it don’t look too appetizing.”
The Mess Specialist smiled and said, “Well, in that case would you like two pieces of cake?”
The Chaplain smiled and hit the Food Service Officer in the ribs,
“I told you my talk did them some good.”
The kid said, “Yeah, man, I’d appreciate it.”
The cook leaned over and cut the piece of cake on the tray in half.
~~~
Two things a man should never be angry at: what he can help, and what he cannot help.
Thomas Fuller
~~~
A woman on a holiday trip stood in awe in front of an enormous tree.
“Oh, marvelous and ancient oak,” she enthused, “if you could only speak, what would you want to say to me?”
A woman standing nearby commented, “It probably would say, “Pardon me, madam, I am an elm.”
~~~
“Who doesn’t want to know that we notice them and value them? And who might respond to us better when they feel that they matter? It probably cannot be overstated – it matters…that people matter.”
Steve Goodier
~~~
Ray Mitchell
Indianapolis, Indiana
Management is not responsible for duplicates from previous dailies. The editor is somewhat senile.
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