“An unidentified man in Tucson, Arizona used a blowtorch to eliminate some unwanted spider webs under his mobile home. The resulting fire on October 15, 2017 required 20 firefighters to fight the blaze that torched his house. Addressing problems proportionately can prevent a lot of unnecessary damage.” World 11/25/17, p.15 Most people have overreacted to situations in…
A cartoon captured a child’s imagination of what she’d no doubt overheard before. Holding her doll while talking with a friend, she said, “Between the time spent going to school and doing my homework it’s hard to spend quality time with my doll.” Chicken Soup for the Mother’s Soul, Canfield & Hansen, 1997, p.213 Quality time to…
A school board was interviewing a person for a job as a high school science teacher. One of the board members asked, “Do you believe the earth is flat or do you believe it is round?” The candidate replied, “I can teach it flat, and I can teach it round.” What the prospective science teacher…
The All India Institute of Medical Sciences has tracked a unique statistic: how many people have died while taking a selfie. Their research confirms at least 259 such deaths around the world in the last six years. Drowning is the leading cause followed by transportation (taking a picture as a train/car approaches). Other causes are…
It’s easy to confuse gifts and talents. They are often lumped together. Talents are innate abilities such as natural aptitudes passed down and nurtured in families for such things as math, music, mechanics, etc., while gifts are from God, and are by definition “spiritual” because they are transmitted to us by the Holy Spirit once…
At some point in our lives, we all face challenges of one kind or another. Some challenges are welcomed and some might not be quite as easy to accept. We like challenges such as playing a game to win, or of accomplishing something we take on willingly like making something for ourselves or someone else. …
Through research conducted by Coca-Cola it was discovered that 83% of young Americans (age 17 to 24) were inspired to do a random act of kindness for someone else after having received one themselves. Kindness is contagious! USA Today, 7/24/18, p.1D I was on my way to a meeting in a city a few hours from…
When my brother and I were 4-H club members, there was a tour of farms, where the members lived, to observe our projects. When the tour group came to our farm, they critiqued our 4-H projects, but they couldn’t help also noticing our mother’s gardens. She raised a large variety of vegetables, and an even…
Some of us older folks feel a little intimidated by the latest technology. Since we didn’t grow up with computers, smart phones and tablets, we’ve had a steep learning curve, just when we are least able to learn new things quickly and tend to forget things even more quickly. Most of us can do the…