Ray's Daily

Ray’s Daily

August 30, 2018

www.rays-daily.com

As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness.

Henry David Thoreau

I am a little under the weather this morning, I think because os a change in my medications so more napping and less computing. I think today’s reprint is appropriate as my wife and I prepare to move to a simpler life.

Ray’s Daily first published on August 30, 2010

The other day my 19 year old grandson asked me what CC meant on his e-mail reader. Of course I told him it meant carbon copy a throw back to the days when we used carbon paper on typewriters. It was then I again realized the intergenerational gap that widens as each year goes by as things change even more rapidly. I don’t think he has ever even seen a typewriter except in old movies.

This brought to mind how I regularly write the daily as if everyone has seen, heard, experienced and learned the same things I have. A case in point is how I often make reference to Thoreau and his Walden Pond experiences without considering the possibility that others are unfamiliar with what he did. Thoreau left the urban life to live more simply in the rural atmosphere of Walden Pond. There he discovered the joy that can come from a simpler life, one not cluttered by what is bought and collected but one that enjoys the abundance that exists all around us that is often overlooked.

A more recent example was what a valued friend told me last week. I have known her for a couple of years. We first met when we worked on what she might do vocationally in the future. She is well educated having an MBA, she ran businesses in Europe and has a wealth of experience. In other words she is someone with a six figure earning potential. I suggested that she figure out how much her and her partner needed to maintain a comfortable life style and then put value on the non-income producing things she could do to live a full and happy life. As the months have gone by we did not talk much about it until last week when she reported with some glee that they had done the assessment and in fact had started to embrace a simpler life style. They decided they really did not need that much money, they have a modest house and economical car that meets their needs, and they have each other. They have put in a garden that provides both beauty and food. She volunteers helping others and has worked with disadvantaged kids. They read, they conserve, they enjoy what they do together and they seem to have discovered a degree of happiness that too many miss these days.

My friend has proven to me that you don’t have to travel to your Walden Pond for it can exist wherever you are, you just have to be able to realize it. There is a joyous freedom that comes from realizing you do not have to prove your worth by the accumulation of material goods; you can prove it by the accumulation of experiences and good work.

~~~

“It is what a man thinks of himself that really determines his fate.”

Henry David Thoreau

~~~

Andy Rooney On Fabric Softener: My wife uses fabric softener. I never knew what that stuff was for. Then I noticed women coming up to me, sniffing, then saying under their breath, “Married!” and walking away. Fabric Softeners are how our wives mark their territory. We can take off the ring, but it’s hard to get that April fresh scent out of your clothes.

~~~

Slow down and enjoy life. It’s not only the scenery you miss by going too fast; you also miss the sense of where you are going and why.

Eddie Cantor

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Grandma, when you and Grandpa had your first baby, did Grandpa ever handle the middle of the night feeding?”

“No. I always did that.”

“That must have been before you had women’s liberation.”

“No, it was before we had baby bottles.”

~~~

“Old” is when “getting lucky” means you find your car in the parking lot.

~~~

A priest was sitting on the steps of the church one spring day enjoying the sunshine.  He saw a young boy approaching him on the sidewalk pulling a wagon.  Every few yards one of the wheels would fall off the wagon, the boy would say “Damn!” put the wheel back on, and continue down the street, and a wheel would fall off again a few yards later.

As the boy neared the steps, the priest saw this as an opportunity to make an impression on the boy, and stopped him.  “You know,” he said to the boy, “when a wheel falls off your wagon, instead of using profanity, you should say ‘Praise the Lord!’ instead.”  He went on to tell the boy how Someone is always watching over us and how we should be careful to do the right thing at all times.

The boy acknowledged his words and thanked him, and went on down the street.  The priest stood there, feeling quite pleased with himself.  About 50 yards away from the steps, all four wheels fell off the wagon, the boy stopped, heaved a huge sigh, and said, “Praise the Lord!” Instantly the wagon raised off the ground, all four wheels returned to their places.

Upon seeing this, the priest said, “Damn!”

~~~

“A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person.”

Germaine Greer

~~~

A site foreman had ten very lazy men working for him, so one day he decided to trick them into doing some work for a change. “I’ve got a really easy job today for the laziest one among you,” he announced.  “Will the laziest man please put his hand up?”

Nine hands went up.

“Why didn’t you put your hand up?” he asked the tenth man.

“Too much trouble,” came the reply.

~~~

Alcohol and calculus don’t mix. Never drink and derive.

~~~

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Follow this simple procedure:

1) Hold down the shift key.

2) Hit the 4 key four times.

~~~

“To err is human, but when the eraser wears out ahead of the pencil, you’re overdoing it.”

Josh Jenkins

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An older lady is making her first visit to her new doctor’s office. Before seeing the doctor she is required to fill-out forms. A nurse in the office offers to help her do this. The nurse starts by asking, “How old are you, Mrs. Silver?”

“None of your business,” she responds. The nurse then says, “But the doctor must know your age for his records.”

Mrs. Silver replies, “Okay. Well, first, multiply twenty by two, then add ten. Got that?”

“Yes.” answers the nurse.

“All right, now subtract fifty, and tell me, what do you get?”

The nurse says, “Zero.”

Mrs. Silver responds, “Right! And that’s exactly the chance of me telling you my age.”

~~~

“Our life is frittered away by detail … simplify, simplify.”

Henry David Thoreau

~~~

Ray Mitchell

Indianapolis, Indiana

Management is not responsible for duplicates from previous dailies. The editor is somewhat senile.

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