Natural Knowledge

Every great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection of authority.

~ Thomas H. Huxley

The Gas Station

A christmas-story

The old man sat in his gas station on a cold Christmas Eve. He hadn't been anywhere in years since his wife had passed away. He had no decorations, no tree, no lights. It was just another day to him. He didn't hate Christmas, just couldn't find a reason to celebrate.
There were no children in his life. His wife had gone. He was sitting there looking at the snow that had been falling for the last hour and wondering what it was all about when the door opened and a homeless man stepped through.

Instead of throwing the man out, George, Old George as he was known by his customers, told the man to come and sit by the heater and warm up..
"Thank you, but I don't mean to intrude," said the stranger. "I see you're busy. I'll just go"
"Not without something hot in your belly," George turned and opened the Thermos and handed it to the stranger. "It ain't much, but it's hot and tasty. Stew. Made it myself. When you're done there's coffee and it's fresh."

Just at that moment he heard the "ding" of the driveway bell. "Excuse me be right back," George said. There in the driveway was an old 53 Chevy. Steam was rolling out of the front. The driver jumped out. "Mister can you help me!" said the driver with a deep Spanish accent. "My wife is with child and my car is broken."
George opened the hood. It was bad. The block looked cracked from the cold; the car was dead. "You ain't going in this thing," George said as he turned away. "But mister. Please help..." The door of the office closed behind George as he went in. George went to the office wall and got the keys to his old truck, and went back outside. He walked around the building and opened the garage, started the truck and drove it around to where the couple was waiting.
"Here, take my truck," he said. "She ain't the best thing you ever looked at but she runs real good." George helped put the woman in the truck and watched as it sped off into the night. George turned and walked back inside the office. "Glad I gave em the truck. Their tires were shot too. That 'ol truck has brand new..." George thought he was talking to the stranger, but the man had gone. The thermos was on the desk, empty with a used coffee cup beside it. "Well, at least he got something in his belly," George thought.
George went back outside to see if the old Chevy would start. It cranked slowly, but it started. He pulled it into the garage where the truck had been. He thought he would tinker with it for something to do. Christmas Eve meant no customers. He discovered that the block hadn't cracked, it was just the bottom hose on the radiator. "Well, shoot, I can fix this," he said to himself. So he put a new one on. "Those tires ain't gonna get 'em through the winter either." He took the snow treads off of his wife's old Lincoln. They were like new and he wasn't going to drive the car.

As he was working he heard shots being fired. He ran outside and beside a police car an officer lay on the cold ground. Bleeding from the left shoulder, the officer moaned, "Help me." George helped the officer inside as he remembered the training he had received in the Army as a medic. He knew the wound needed attention. "Pressure to stop the bleeding," he thought. The uniform company had been there that morning and had left clean shop towels. He used those and duct tape to bind the wound. "Hey, they say duct tape can fix anything," he said, trying to make the policeman feel at ease. "Something for pain," George thought. All he had was the pills he used for his back. "These ought to work." He put some water in a cup and gave the policeman the pills. "You hang in there. I'm going to get you an ambulance." The phone was dead. "Maybe I can get one of your buddies on that talk box out in your car."
He went out only to find that a bullet had gone into the dashboard destroying the two way radio. He went back in to find the policeman sitting up. "Thanks," said the officer. "You could have left me there. The guy that shot me is still in the area." George sat down beside him. "I would never leave an injured man in the Army and I ain't gonna leave you." George pulled back the bandage to check for bleeding. "Looks worse than what it is. Bullet passed right ya. Good thing it missed the important stuff though. I think with time your gonna be right as rain." George got up and poured a cup of coffee.
"How do you take your coffee?" he asked. "None for me," said the officer. "Oh, yer gonna drink this. Best in the city. Too bad I ain't got no donuts." The officer laughed and winced at the same time.

The front door of the office flew open. In burst a young man with a gun. "Give me all your cash! Do it now!" the young man yelled. His hand was shaking and George could tell that he had never done anything like this before.
"That's the guy that shot me!" exclaimed the officer. "Son, why are you doing this?" asked George. "You need to put the cannon away. Somebody else might get hurt." The young man was confused. "Shut up old man, or I'll shoot you, too. Now give me the cash!"
The cop was reaching for his gun. "Put that thing away," George said to the cop. "We got one too many in here now." He turned his attention to the young man. "Son, it's Christmas Eve. If you need the money, well then, here. It ain't much but it's all I got."
"Now put that pea shooter away." George pulled $150 out of his pocket and handed it to the young man, reaching for the barrel of the gun at the same time. The young man released his grip on the gun, fell to his knees and began to cry.

"I'm not very good at this am I? All I wanted was to buy something for my wife and son," he went on. "I've lost my job. My rent is due. My car got repossessed last week..."
George handed the gun to the cop.
"Son, we all get in a bit of squeeze now and then. The road gets hard sometimes, but we make it through the best we can." He got the young man to his feet, and sat him down on a chair across from the cop.
"Sometimes we do stupid things." George handed the young man a cup of coffee. "Being stupid is one of the things that makes us human. Comin' in here with a gun ain't the answer. Now sit there and get warm and we'll sort this thing out." The young man had stopped crying.
He looked over to the cop. "Sorry I shot you. It just went off. I'm sorry officer."

"Shut up and drink your coffee." the cop said.
George could hear the sounds of sirens outside. A police car and an ambulance skidded to a halt. Two cops came through the door, guns drawn.
"Chuck! You ok?" one of the cops asked the wounded officer.
"Not bad for a guy who took a bullet. How did you find me?"
"GPS locator in the car. Best thing since sliced bread. Who did this?" the other cop asked as he approached the young man. Chuck answered him, "I don't know. The guy ran off into the dark. Just dropped his gun and ran."

George and the young man both looked puzzled at each other. "That guy work here?," the wounded cop continued. "Yep," George said. "Just hired him this morning. Boy lost his job." The paramedics came in and loaded Chuck onto the stretcher. The young man leaned over the wounded cop and whispered, "Why?"
Chuck just said, "Merry Christmas boy. And you too, George, and thanks for everything." "Well, looks like you got one doozy of a break there. That ought to solve some of your problems."
George went into the back room and came out with a box. He pulled out a ring box. "Here you go. Something for the little woman. I don't think Martha would mind. She said it would come in handy some day."
The young man looked inside to see the biggest diamond ring he ever saw. "I can't take this," said the young man. "It means something to you."
"And now it means something to you," replied George. "I got my memories. That's all I need." George reached into the box again. An airplane, a car and a truck appeared next. They were toys that the oil company had left for him to sell. "Here's something for that little man of yours."
The young man began to cry again as he handed back the $150 that the old man had handed him earlier. "And what are you supposed to buy Christmas dinner with? You keep that too," George said. "Now git home to your family."
The young man turned with tears streaming down his face. "I'll be here in the morning for work, if that job offer is still good."
"Nope. I'm closed Christmas day," George said. "See ya the day after."

George turned around to find that the stranger he offered coffee before, had returned. "Where'd you come from? I thought you left?"
"I have been here. I have always been here," said the stranger. "You say you don't celebrate Christmas. Why?"
"Well, after my wife passed away I just couldn't see what all the bother was puttin' up a tree and all seemed a waste of a good pine tree. Bakin' cookies like I used to with Martha just wasn't the same by myself and besides I was getting a little chubby."

The stranger put his hand on George's shoulder. "But you do celebrate christmas, George. You gave me food and drink and warmed me when I was cold and hungry. - The woman with child will bear a son and he will become a great doctor. - The policeman you helped will go on to save 19 people from being killed by terrorists. - The young man who tried to rob you will make you a rich man and not take any for himself. That is the spirit of the season and you keep it as good as any man."
George was taken aback by all this stranger had said. "And how do you know all this?" asked the old man.

"Trust me, George. I have the inside track on this sort of thing. And when your days are done you will be with Martha again." The stranger moved toward the door. "If you will excuse me, George, I have to go now. I have to go home where there is a big celebration planned."
George watched as the old leather jacket and the torn pants that the stranger was wearing turned into a white robe. A golden light began to fill the room. "You see, George... it's my birthday. Merry Christmas."
George fell to his knees and replied,"Happy Birthday, Lord."

~ Author Unknown

Politicians

Ninety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation.

~ Henry A. Kissinger

Those Who Do the Work

My grandfather once told me that there were two kinds of people: those who do the work and those who take the credit. He told me to try to be in the first group; there was much less competition.

~ Indira Gandhi (1917 - 1984)

Common Interests

"So, let us not be blind to our differences - but let us also direct attention to our common interests and to the means by which those differences can be resolved."

~ John F. Kennedy (1917 - 1963)

Never go out to meet trouble

"Never go out to meet trouble. If you will just sit still, nine cases out of ten someone will intercept it before it reaches you."

~ Calvin Coolidge

Love One Another

"Community is the place where the person you least want to live with always lives."

~ Henri Nouwen

"I really only love God as much as I love the person I love the least."

~ Dorothy Day

"I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

~ Jesus Christ
John 13:34-35

Everything You Need to Know About Money

from Everything You Need to Know About Money
Scott Adams, Dilbert and the Way of the Weasel, HarperCollins Publishers, 2002

1. Make a will
2. Pay off your credit cards
3. Get term life insurance if you have a family to support
4. Fund your 401k to the maximum
5. Fund your IRA to the maximum
6. Buy a house if you want to live in a house and can afford it
7. Put six months worth of expenses in a money-market account
8. Take whatever money is left over and invest 70% in a stock index fund and 30% in a bond fund through any discount broker and never touch it until retirement

"If any of this confuses you, or you have something special going on (retirement, college planning, tax issues), hire a fee-based financial planner, not one who charges a percentage of your portfolio."

from MoneyWhys - Investment Guidance from Vanguard: Fall 2006
"However, Adams said he no longer follows his rule to invest 70% in a stock index fund and 30% in a bond fund. Today he invests primarily in municipal bonds, which are tax-exempt, and owns land in California."

The Holiday Homeless Family

Monday, Dec. 11, 2006

"The city of Boston sparked controversy when it renamed the spruce tree in Boston Common a holiday tree instead of a Christmas tree. The city's nativity scene will now be [called] the Holiday Homeless Family."

— Tina Fey
from "Weekend Update"
http://www.time.com/time/quotes/0,26174,1568678,00.html

Death or Redemption

Thursday, Dec. 14, 2006

"It's faith-based killing that teaches God wants people dead if they don't see Christ as you do. Jesus would turn the other cheek."

~ Rev. Tim Simpson
head of Christian Alliance for Progress, on the violent computer game Left Behind: Eternal Forces, in which players kill non-Christians
http://www.time.com/time/quotes/0,26174,1569830,00.html

Hope for the Oppressed

"We believe God came among the oppressed to bring hope."

~ Dearthrice DeWitt, pastor of First Congregational Church in Poughkeepsie
Let's live story of Christmas
Saturday, December 23, 2006
http://timesunion.com

Rise Up, O Flame

C. Praetorius, c.1600
From G.G.A. London, The Kent County Songbook
(8-Part Round)

Rise up, O Flame by thy light glowing.
Show to us beauty, vision and joy.

Thinking

We don't even bother to think until we are challenged by a problem.

~ John Dewey, philosopher

No Man is an Island

"All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated...As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon, calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come: so this bell calls us all: but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness....No man is an island, entire of itself...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."

"...No man is an island, entire of itself. Every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away to the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manner of thy friends or of thine own were: any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind...."

John Dunne, Meditation 17

------------------------------------------------------------------

Meditation XVII

from Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions
Nunc lento sonitu dicunt, morieris.

Now this bell tolling softly for another, says to me, Thou must die.
Perchance he for whom this bell tolls may be so ill as that he knows not it tolls for him; and perchance I may think myself so much better than I am, as that they who are about me and see my state may have caused it to toll for me, and I know not that. The church is catholic, universal, so are all her actions; all that she does belongs to all. When she baptizes a child, that action concerns me; for that child is thereby connected to that head which is my head too, and ingrafted into the body whereof I am a member. And when she buries a man, that action concerns me: all mankind is of one author and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated. God employs several translators; some pieces are translated by age, some by sickness, some by war, some by justice; but God's hand is in every translation, and his hand shall bind up all our scattered leaves again for that library where every book shall lie open to one another. As therefore the bell that rings a sermon calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come, so this bell calls us all; but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness. There was a contention as far as a suit (in which piety and dignity, religion and estimation, were mingled) which of the religious orders should ring to prayers first in the morning; and it was determined that they should ring first that rose earliest. If we understand aright the dignity of this bell that tolls for our evening prayer, we would be glad to make it ours by rising early, in that application, that it might be ours as well as his whose indeed it is. The bell doth toll for him that thinks it doth; and though it intermit again, yet from that minute that that occasion wrought upon him, he is united to God. Who casts not up his eye to the sun when it rises? but who takes off his eye from a comet when that breaks out? Who bends not his ear to any bell which upon any occasion rings? but who can remove it from that bell which is passing a piece of himself out of this world? No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were. Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee. Neither can we call this a begging of misery or a borrowing of misery, as though we are not miserable enough of ourselves but must fetch in more from the next house, in taking upon us the misery of our neighbors. Truly it were an excusable covetousness if we did; for affliction is a treasure, and scarce any man hath enough of it. No man hath affliction enough that is not matured and ripened by it, and made fit for God by that affliction. If a man carry treasure in bullion, or in a wedge of gold, and have none coined into current moneys, his treasure will not defray him as he travels. Tribulation is treasure in the nature of it, but it is not current money in the use of it, except we get nearer and nearer our home, heaven, by it. Another man may be sick too, and sick to death, and this affliction may lie in his bowels as gold in a mine and be of no use to him; but this bell that tells me of his affliction digs out and applies that gold to me, if by this consideration of another's dangers I take mine own into contemplation and so secure myself by making my recourse to my God, who is our only security.

http://isu.indstate.edu/ilnprof
/ENG451/ISLAND/text.html

Kindness

Kindness in words creates confidence,
kindness in thinking creates profoundness,
kindness in feeling creates love.

~ Lao-Tsu

Compassion

Compassion for others begins with kindness to ourselves.

~ Perna Chodron

Kindness

Quotes: Kindness

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion.
If you want to be happy, practice compassion.

In the practice of tolerance, one's enemy is the best teacher.

~ The Dalai Lama

Kindness and Honesty

Kindness and honesty can only be expected from the strong.

~ Unknown

Honor Your Father and Mother

"How far does honoring one's father and mother extend? Even were they to take his purse of golden coins and throw it in his presence into the sea, he should not embarrass, pain them or become angry, but accept the Torah's decree in silence."

Yoreh De'ah 241:6
The [standard code of Jewish law from the 16th century] Shulhan Arukh

Having Opinions is an Art

Any clod can have the facts, but having opinions is an art.

~ Charles McCabe

Destroyed from within

Opening quote:
"A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within."
~ historian Will Durant, writing about the Romans

Review:
"By the end I felt sure it was the most obsessively, graphically violent film I'd ever seen, but equally sure that 'Apocalypto' is a visionary work with its own wild integrity."

Gibson's Bizarre 'Apocalypto,' Tale of the Primitive Maya, Is Violent but Stunning Fable
By Joe Morgenstern
The Wall Street Journal Online

You are not your wounds

You are not your wounds.

~ Jane Eyre
A & E Literary Classics movie Jane Eyre

Center of the Universe

When they discover the center of the universe, a lot of people will be disappointed to discover they are not it.

~ Bernard Bailey

The Future

The only thing we know about the future is that it will be different.

~ Peter Drucker

The Price One Pays

The price one pays for pursuing any profession or calling is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side.

~ James Baldwin