Ray’s Daily
May 21, 2021
To give up the task of reforming society is to give up one’s responsibility as a free man.
Alan Paton
Ray’s Daily first published on May 21, 2007
I worked over the weekend at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with a fellow Salvation Army volunteer. She is a decade or two younger than I am yet we found we had much in common. Some of our conversation centered on the youth that will soon manage our world and our lives. We wondered if the pressures and materialism faced by many results in their being to narrowly focused to be able to deal with the broader responsibility of governing our society. Have they time for the humanities? Have they been sold on the idea that all politics is bad? Are they convinced that there is nothing anyone can do? I hope the answer is not to all of these, at least in our very best and brightest.
For some reason I started to think about how much of how we are so often distracted by so much activity around us everyday that we fail to invest in what might be a better tomorrow. Sometime ago I picked up some ideas that I think are important
- Find your own happiness. It amazes me how many of us don’t stop long enough to analyze what gives us pleasure. Too often we let others decide where we should look for happiness. I suggest that if you like to read then read. If you like to travel then travel. And if you want to see what you might be missing, get involved.
- Stray from the path once in awhile. Many of us reach the starting line in our lives and always follow the course laid out by others. Almost always you will find that it is those who stray from the beaten path who contribute the most to building a better world.
- Don’t run too fast. I pity those who run so fast that they never see anything around them. Sadly when they get to the finish line they find the race is over and their lives have ended. Everyone is a resource that should be used and not wasted, stop once in awhile and regroup for it is often the new beginning that allows us to be all we might be.
- Let go! Don’t let the past define our future. Some will say that doing it the same way we always did provides us proven results, don’t kid yourself too often this just provides us the excuse to coast with what we have. Those who stay in the past stagnate, and they become the past, as the one thing you can be sure off the world is always changing whether we do or not.
There is a lot more I could say but I won’t. The bottom line is that if our leaders of tomorrow don’t know themselves, don’t take a risk once in awhile, don’t stop to see if there is a better way, and lock them selves into the past because it is a safe harbor, then my friends I fear that my golden years will not be as bright if those who will have the power to manage society let us down.
~~~
The way people in democracies think of the government as something different from themselves is a real handicap.
Lewis Mumford
~~~
Selma telephones home with some exciting news:
“Mama, I got married.” “Mazel Tov,” says Mama.
“I might as well tell you, Mama, he’s not of our Faith.” “So he’s a goy. But am I prejudiced?”
“But, Mama, he’s also black.” “So he’s a schvartzeh. By me, everybody should be tolerant.”
“Well, frankly, Mama, he’s also unemployed.” “So, you’ll support him. A wife should help
her husband.”
“But, Mama, we have no place to live.” “Don’t worry, Selma, dear. You’ll move in with us.”
“But Mama, you have only one bedroom.” “That’s okay. You and your husband can have the bedroom.”
“Yes, Mama, but where will you and Papa sleep?” “Papa can sleep on the couch in the living
room.”
“Yes, Mama, but where will *you* sleep?”
“Selma, dear, about me you don’t need to worry. The minute I get off the phone…I’m going to drop dead.”
~~~
Doing nothing is very hard to do…you never know when you’re finished.
~~~
Nadine and Jill got summer jobs as cashiers in a grocery store.
Nadine is ringing up an order on her line and comes to a small dairy carton that isn’t scanning and has no price on it. She yells out to Jill, “How much is half-and-half?”
Without a moment’s hesitation Jill replied, “One.”
~~~
Seven out of 10 people say they are feeling the pinch of high gas prices.
The other three have bought siphoning equipment.
Jim Barach
~~~
New Office Work Rules
1. SICKNESS: No excuses will be acceptable. We will no longer accept your doctor’s statement as proof of illness, as we believe that if you are able to go to the doctor, you are able to come to work.
2. LEAVE OF ABSENCE FOR AN OPERATION: We are no longer allowing this practice. We wish to discourage any thoughts that you may not need all of whatever you have, and you should not consider having anything removed. We hired you as you are, and to have anything removed certainly makes you less than we bargained for.
3. DEATH, OTHER THAN YOUR OWN: This is no excuse. If you can arrange for funeral services to be held late in the afternoon, however, we can let you off an hour early, provided all your work is up to date.
4. DEATH, YOUR OWN: This will be accepted as an excuse, but we would like at least two weeks notice, as we feel it is your duty to teach someone else your job.
5. PERSONAL HYGIENE: Entirely too much time is being spent in the washrooms. In the future, you will follow the practice of going in alphabetical order, for instance, those with last names beginning with “A” will be allowed to go from 9:00-9:05, and so on. If you are unable to go at your appointed time, it will be necessary to wait until the next day when your time comes around again.
6. QUANTITY OF WORK: No matter how much you do, you’ll never do enough.
7. QUALITY OF WORK: The minimum acceptable level is perfection.
8. ADVICE FROM OWNER: Eat a live toad the first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.
9. THE BOSS IS ALWAYS RIGHT.
10. WHEN THE BOSS IS WRONG, REFER TO RULE 9.
~~~
He had delusions of adequacy.”
Walter Kerr
~~~
After a long, dry sermon, the minister announced that he wished to meet with the church board following the close of the service.
The first man to arrive and greet the minister was a total stranger. “You misunderstood my announcement. This is a meeting of the board members,” explained the minister.
“I know,” said the man, “but if there is anyone here more bored than I am, then I’d like to meet him.”
~~~
Vuja De – The Feeling You’ve Never Been Here.
~~~
In an American history discussion group, the professor was trying to explain how societies ideal of beauty changes with time.
“For example, he said, “take the 1921 Miss America. She stood five feet one inch tall, weighed 108 pounds and had measurements of 30-25-32. How do you think she’d do in today’s version of the contest?”
The class fell silent for a moment. Then one student piped up, “Not very well.”
“Why is that?” Asked the professor.
“For one thing,” the student said, “She’d be way too old.”
~~~
“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”
Aristotle
~~~
Indianapolis, Indiana
Management is not responsible for duplicates from previous dailies. The editor is somewhat senile.
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