Ray's Daily

Ray’s Daily

October 19, 2022

http://rays-daily.com

“Principles aren’t principles when you pick and choose when you’re gonna follow them.”

Chidi Anagonye

Our early wintery weather has frozen my brain so here is a Ray’s Daily reprint from October 19, 2004

I grew up during the years of the “feel good” movies. We found warmth, goodness and the human spirit in many of the films we watched. We found solace during the depression and during the Second World War in films that promoted the value of decency, kindness and integrity. For many of us it laid the foundation for the belief that we could make our world a better place, and we could do so civilly and without malice. During this political season I often long for the time when we valued those who rose above petty self interest in order to serve others.

One of my favorite movies of the genre was Mr. Smith Goes to Washington that debuted on this day in 1939. It starred James Stewart as an earnest young senator persevering against corruption and cynicism. The film won him the New York Film Critics Award for Best Actor.

Stewart’s genial, guy-next-door appeal landed him roles as simple idealists in several classic movies, including It’s a Wonderful Life (1939). In 1940, he starred with Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant in The Philadelphia Story, for which he won an Oscar.

Some would say that these films were pie-in-the-sky fantasies and that those of us who found hope and the human spirit in them were delusional. I guess if they are right I would rather be delusional and continue to have hope for the human race than to cynically give up on others.

I wish our children and grandchildren had the opportunity see the films we did. Today it seems that children’s cartoons, video games and the like are focused on conflict and violence. I hope I am wrong, but I do worry about a future led by those who have missed so much.

~~~

It is easy to perform a good action, but not easy to acquire a settled habit of performing such actions.

Aristotle

~~~

*Ten Things a Mom Doesn’t Want to Hear*

1.  I swallowed a goldfish!

2.  Did you know your lipstick works better than my crayons?

3.  Does grape juice leave a stain??

4.  The principal called…..

5.  But DAD says that word all the time.

6.  What’s it cost to fix a window nowadays?

7.  Has anyone seen my earthworms?

8.  I painted your shoes pretty, huh, Mommy?

9.  Well, the dog sure doesn’t like dressing up in your clothes.

10.  I’m moving out.  (Well, maybe some days.)

~~~

Those who do not know how to weep with their whole heart don’t know how to laugh either.

Golda Meir

~~~

Poor Johnson had spent his life making wrong decisions. If he bet on a horse, it would lose; if he chose one elevator rather than another, it was the one he chose that stalled between floors; the line he picked before the bank teller’s cage never moved; the lane he chose in traffic crawled; the day he picked the picnic was the day of a cloudburst; and so it went, day after day, year after year.

Then, once, it became necessary for Johnson to travel to some city a thousand miles away and do it quickly. A plane was the only possible conveyance that would get him there in time, and it turned out that only one company supplied only one flight that would do. His heart bounded.

There was no choice to make! And if he made no choice, surely he could come to no grief.

He took the plane.

Imagine his horror when, midway in the flight, the plane’s engines caught fire and it became obvious the plane would crash in moments.

Johnson broke into fervent prayer to his favorite saint , Saint Francis.

He pleaded, “I have never in my life made the right choice. Why this should be, I don’t know, but I have borne my cross and have not complained. On this occasion, however, I did not make a choice; this was the only plane I could take and I had to take it. Why, then, am I being punished?”

He had no sooner finished when a giant hand swooped down out of the clouds and somehow snatched him from the plane. There he was, miraculously suspended two miles above the earth’s surface, while the plane spiraled downward far below.

A heavenly voice came down from the clouds. “My son, I can save you, if you have in truth called upon me.”

“Yes, I called on you,” cried Johnson. “I called on you, Saint Francis!”

“Ah,” said the heavenly voice, “Saint Francis Xavier or Saint Francis of Assisi. Which?”

~~~

“The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.”

William James

~~~

With most of my grandchildren playing soccer we have had to learn the ropes. Now we are so well versed we even know what the following means.

**Stupid Things Actually Said By Commentators In The World Of Soccer**

1.  Well, it’s Liverpool two, Ipswich nil, and if the score stays this way, I’ve got to fancy Liverpool for the win.

2.  He had an eternity to play that ball, but took too long.

3.  And so they have not been able to improve on their 100% record.

4.  With the last kick of the game, he scored with a header.

5.  Well, it’s a fabulous kaleidoscope of colour: almost all the Brazilians are wearing yellow shirts.

6.  If that had gone on, it would definitely have been a goal.

7.  Their manager, Howard Wilkinson, isn’t here today, which strongly suggests that he may be elsewhere.

8.  I am a firm believer that if one team scores a goal, the other need to score two to win.

9.  If a team scores early on, it often takes an early lead.

10.  You cannot possibly have counted the number of passes made, but there were eight.

~~~

“If there was a loser in town, I’d find him and date him and fall in love — and be devastated when it didn’t work out.”

Halle Berry

~~~

A pastor, known for his lengthy sermons, noticed a man get up and leave during the middle of his message. The man returned just before the conclusion of the service.

Afterward the pastor asked the man where he had gone.

“I went to get a haircut,” was the reply.

“But,” said the pastor, “why didn’t you do that before the service started?”

“Because,” the gentleman said, “I didn’t need one then.”

~~~

“You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving.”

Amy Carmichael

~~~

There was this fellow from Tennessee who had a flat tire.  He pulled off on the side of the road, jumped out of his car, walked down the hillside and picked a bunch of wildflowers, and proceeded to put one bouquet of the flowers in front of the car and one behind it.  Then he got back in the car to wait.

A passerby studied the scene as he drove by and was so curious he turned around and went back.  He asked the fellow what the problem was.  The man replied, “I have a flat tarr.”

In response the passerby asked, “But what’s with the flowers?

The man responded, “When you break down the State of Tennessee tells you to put flares in the front and flares in the back!  I never did understand it neither cause the damn tarr is still flat.”

~~~

If you don’t run your own life, somebody else will.

~~~

He said: My wife, Diane, was chatting with her brother, Charles, a business executive who had retired last year. While discussing the joys of his new leisure time, Charles remarked that he had been compelled to give up skiing, a sport he had enjoyed for many years.

“Afraid of injuries?” Diane asked.

“Well, now I am,” he responded. “Before I could drag a cast into work and still do my job, but now I’d be messing up my golf game.”

~~~

“Some pursue happiness, others create it.”

~~~

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

Ray’s Daily has been sent for more than twenty 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@comcast.net. Back issues are posted at http://rays-daily,com/ currently there are hundreds of  readers from around the world.