New Reminders: Character

Character traits are defined as the individual qualities or attributes that make up a person’s overall individuality.  These descriptions can be physical, emotional, mental, or moral.  Every person is made up of many different traits or qualities, and these can also change over the course of someone’s life.  Character traits are the building blocks of personality;…

New Reminders: Are You an Angry Raisin?

Elaine Steinbeck (1914-2003) visited a Tokyo bookstore to see if they had her husband John’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Grapes of Wrath.  The Japanese clerk found a copy but called it The Angry Raisins.  Reader’s Digest, June 1990, p.106.  The book was written in the 1930s, a time of hardship for many across the United States. Not only…

Food for Thought: Serving Others

Paul Williams (b.1940) is an American singer and songwriter.  This Academy Award-winning composer has battled through alcohol addiction and gained a marvelous insight from an old-timer he met in recovery over twenty-five years ago.  This man asked Williams, “How are you treating the world today, Paulie?”  Williams replied, “Don’t you mean, ‘How’s the world treating me?'”  The gentleman quickly…