Good Morning All & Happy Thursday!
Only 8 more shopping days ’til Christmas…whew!
As our family is growing, we’ve decided to go with picking names of the people for which we are giving gifts. It does help simplify things, but I miss not shopping for gifts for everyone. I love the adrenaline rush that comes with that “last minute” shopping…rushing around trying to find “just the right” Christmas gift for each family member when everything has been picked over. It doesn’t seem that you are rewarded for procrastination when it comes to Christmas gifts. What do you think?
Happy Birthday wishes go to actor Bill Pullman of “Independence Day” & “While You Were Sleeping” movie fame, who is 67 today; to actor and fellow Cherokee tribal member, Wes Studi, of “The Last Of The Mohicans” movie fame, who turns 73 today; and to a favorite actor/comedian of mine, Eugene Levy of “Waiting For Guffman” & “Best In Show” movie fame, who is 74 today! Here’s to all of you on your special day of celebration!
I’ve been going through my personal library trying to figure out which books to keep and which to pass on, as I’m running out of shelf space in my house! One of the joys of this life is reading good books.
In the course of my re-discovery of my book collection, I came across author James Bradley’s works…”Flags Of Our Fathers,” “Flyboys,” and “The Imperial Cruise.” I’m re-reading all of these well-written books, so needless to say I’m not getting very far in my effort to streamline my book collection!
While I’ve always been a fan of Teddy Roosevelt, primarily for his work in helping establish our wonderful National Park System (a tremendous legacy in and of itself, I might say!), fighting corruption in government and business, taking on the trusts and monopolies, and inspiring entrepreneurship and individual initiative, among other things, his view on race and his errors in judgement with regard to America’s relationship to Asia that Bradley points out so well in “The Imperial Cruise” has made me rethink my view of TR’s role in history. It’s sad to think that his policies and actions contributed to the chain of events that led up to World War II and subsequent conflicts we’ve had in Asia (i.e. Korea & Vietnam). Like James Bradley’s dad (John Bradley, one of the flag raisers on Iwo Jima), my dad (Don Newbold—or as we affectionately called him, “Pumpa”) was just a kid from small town America who found himself caught up in the tragedy of World War II. If the war had continued on much longer, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be here typing this blog this morning, as my dad was told that he would be in the first wave of the invasion of the Japanese mainland. Knowing what he knew about the resolve of Japanese soldiers on Iwo Jima, he didn’t have much confidence that he would return.
Bradley’s books do a good job of pointing out the foibles of the human race…no one has a corner on the righteousness market, that’s for sure. If one believes that human kind is the result of an “accident of nature,” one can believe that there’s no hope or point to us existing, given our abysmal track record over time. If we really thought that we could “get it right” ourselves, than how come we’ve never learned from history…after all, we’ve had a lot of time and events to study to show us the errors of our ways…
If we do, however, believe that we are not “accidents of nature” but the result of the work of a Creator (an Intelligent Designer if you will) and that there is a point/reason to our existence, then how do we overcome the errors of our ways and make things right in the end? For me, I believe that there is a bridge to get us from our separation with our Creator caused by our disobedience (i.e. bad choices) to a restored relationship with our Creator. That bridge is the atonement for our bad choices (i.e. sin) through the death of Christ on the Cross and separation from His father by descending into the depths of Hell and then rising to new life again. How else can the history of human kind be explained that makes any sense? If our relationship with our Creator is restored in this way, then we can truly look at others as having been made, like us, in the image of God. It changes everything…it is the true and only hope for the world. Looking at history as Bradley has done so well, how can it be otherwise? What do you think?
James Bradley ends “The Imperial Cruise” with these words:
“Theodore Roosevelt wrote, “Peace may only come through war.” In my lifetime the United States has benevolently spent trillions of dollars trying to prove that erroneous notion. In the twentieth century, America extended its military to Asia. now it’s time to work on the human links between cultures. For the past ten years, the James Bradley Peace Foundation and Youth For Understanding have sent American students to live with families overseas. Perhaps in the future when we debate whether to fight it out or talk it out, one of these Americans might make a difference.”
—James Bradley, “The Imperial Cruise,” Little, Brown & Company, New York, NY, (2009), page 336.
In one of my very favorite publications, the December, 2020 edition of “Rural Montana,” there’s a terrific article about the work of Montana lentil farmers, Jerry & Kathy Sikorski. The Sikorski’s wanted to help their fellow Montanans during the COVID-19 pandemic. They didn’t have the funds to make large donations, but what they did have was an abundance of a crop that can feed people in many ways. “We didn’t have a lot of money, so what could we donate?” Kathy Sikorski remembered saying during a discussion with her husband. “And we both said, “We have lentils.” The Sikorskis produce about 1.1 million pounds of black lentils, which are known for their nutty flavor, during a good year. From there it is sold for seed or as a food product. This year’s crop was wiped out by hail, but because of the restaurant restrictions across the country due to COVID-19, much of last year’s crop remains in storage. They have donated more than 6,000 pounds of lentils to food banks and shelters during the pandemic. That’s worth more than $35,000 worth lentils at retail price. They delivered a load to a family services organization in Billings and watched as a long line of cars full of families waited to get their free lentils and other supplies. “It was humbling,” Kathy said. “We are a ranch family. Nobody had any money growing up, but we never not had food.” The article about the Sikorskis in “Rural Montana” ends with Kathy saying “Everybody has something to give, you just have to dig down and find it.” Here’s to Jerry & Kathy Sikorski and all farmers & ranchers across the country who give to others in need in the way they do!
—Ryan Hall, “Lentil Legacy: Co-op couple donates tons of lentils to those in need,” “Rural Montana,” December, 2020, pages 2-3.
We had a long-time friend of ours, Jeff Hastings (a heart transplant recipient!), over for dinner and a movie last night. We watched the most recent James Bond movie called “Spectre.” It was spectacular, to say the least (spoken like a fanatical James Bond movie fan, don’t you think?). We had a great time together yesterday catching up on things, eating a terrific meal prepared by my wife and also feeding our movie watching addiction. It reminded me that I have an old (circa 1965) James Bond card collection, one of which features “Agents Of Spectre.” It has a great black & white photo on one side showing three agents of “Spectre.” On the flip side, it reads as follows: “When the international crime organization SPECTRE decided to assassinate James Bond they had a great variety of talent to call upon. On a secret island in the Aegean Sea off Greece they had their school for murder. The fruits of their labors were a group of men expert in any type of criminal activity from petty thievery to mass murder. Rosa Klebb, chief of operations for this fantastic group, went to the island to select the most skilled assassin as Bond’s executioner. After conferring with the island chiefs, she decided upon Red Grant, who had passed all their deadly courses with flying colors. Pitted against the strength and reflexes of Agent 007, however, Grant proved to be inadequate.”
Here’s the word definition for the day:
“Housewright”: A mid-16th century North American word meaning “A builder of houses, especially those constructed largely of timber; a house carpenter.” We sure have some great “housewrights” working on our new home in Montana!
Here’s the fact for the day:
Ice cream was invented in 1620.
Here are some thoughts for the day:
“We were created to take care of, steward the land. That is mankind’s purpose on earth, to steward and take care of the land as it feeds off of it.”
“Dances With Wolves” really started the movement, using subtitles for Lakota Sioux and showing Indians as interesting, complex people—not just the enemy—and giving a lot of unknown Indian actors work.”
—Wes Studi, Amercian actor and a member of the Cherokee Nation West of “Last Of The Mohicans” movie fame (73 years old today!)
Here’s to a great Thursday and lots of love & good wishes always!
Press on,
Papa ‘a (Dad, Uncle Mark, Mark, etc.)