“How far the little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.” (Shakespeare) Did you know that, if the world were flat, on a dark night you could see a flickering candle for up to 30 miles away? Boy Scouts are taught to do a good deed every day right where they are…helping wherever there’s a need. Why not be a “good scout” today and do a kindness for someone? Your good deed can help light up a “naughty world.” ;-) Jack
FROM RI IN BOSTON: Shakespeare recognized the power of a candle's light. There's also the old proverb, "It's better to light a candle than curse the darkness." The candle light of two lanterns in the Old North Church in Boston gave a nighttime warning of the movement of British troops, heading to Lexington and Concord as the Revolutionary War got going. Simple things matter.====JACK: You never miss the light until the power goes out. "Where are the candles?" We now have a generator, and the power has only gone out briefly (during daylight) since we got it. It's like insurance. It's a waste of money until you need it.====RI: Some people treat their faith as an insurance policy, only taking advantage of it when a problem comes up. When personal circumstances go "dark" we call for the Light, scrambling and pleading for His help. We can rest well because that Power never goes out.====JACK: ...like having a flashlight handy, but never checking the batteries.
FROM ST PAUL IN ST PAUL: good words today, Jack. thanks. my Uncle Ellis spent almost 3 years guarding an ammo dump on Okinawa during WW II and he said that you would never light up a cigarette after sunset for fear of a sniper picking you off even from some great distance. striking a match or even the tiny tip of a cigarette could cost you your life. and yes, it is amazing just how much darkness one little candle can dispel. what if, instead of the light dispelling the darkness, it was the other way around?? a sobering thought... thankfully, Jesus is the Light of the world. ====JACK: During WW 2 we had blackouts (shades on the windows at night) so that potential enemy bombers would not be able to identify cities. With the passage of time, "war stories" seem almost unbelievable.====SP: we had them too in Miami, Fl. where i was born. i don't recall any of that obviously but Mom talked about pulling down black shades on the windows and turning out lights, etc. the whole city went dark for a time. as you said, almost hard to believe that ever happened.====JACK: I wonder what "hard to believe" stories from today will be remembered by the next generation? "Grandpa used to drive his own car!"
FROM QUILTING CAROL: Good Morning! I just shared these words with a cousin who lost her dad this week. I thought they spoke about his life. My uncle/her dad was a tireless worker at their church, in their old neighborhood, for his children and grandkids as he shared his talents, kindness, help and love and he did it quietly without fanfare. These later years he’s been a caregiver to his wife/my biological aunt who has Alzheimer’s. He been a great role model for us who knew and loved him. His candle will shine for a long time.====JACK: By forwarding WWs to your cousin is an example of how opportunities are there to spread the light and dispel darkness. We had fun, as children, to sing This Little Light of Mine. With the passage of time, it takes on added meaning.
FROM TARMART REV: History has recorded a former McCullough was a "good scout" (our family history has him as a fifth generation ago, "McCullough" and other resources as, "McColloch")
McColloch's Leap was a feat performed during a September 1777 attack by Native Americans on Fort Henry, site of present-day Wheeling, West Virginia, during the American Revolutionary War.
In September 1777, during a Native American siege on the fort, Major Samuel McColloch arrived at the fort with forty mounted men from Short Creek. The gates of the fort were thrown open to allow the men entrance. Major McColloch lingered behind to guide and protect the men. The Indians attacked, and all of the men except McColloch made it inside before they were forced to close the gates. McColloch found himself alone and surrounded by Native Americans, and he rode immediately towards the nearby hill in an attempt to escape. McColloch had earned a reputation as a very successful "borderer" (one who protected the frontier borders from the Native Americans) and was well known to both the frontiersmen and the Indians. The Indians eagerly pursued McColloch, and drove him to the summit of the hill. As he rode along the top of the hill, he encountered another large body of Indians. He now found himself surrounded, with no path of escape. He knew that, because of his reputation and history against the Indians, he would be tortured and killed with great cruelty if he were to be captured alive. With all avenues of escape cut off, he turned and faced the precipice, and with the bridle in his left hand and his rifle in his right, he spurred his horse over the edge to an almost certain death. The hill at that location is about three hundred feet in height, and in many places is almost perpendicular. The Indians rushed to the edge, expecting to see the Major lying dead in a crumpled heap at the bottom of the hill. To their great surprise they instead saw McColloch, still mounted on his white horse, galloping away from them. As legend of this famous "leap" became known, the place where it occurred became known as "McColloch's Leap". In 1917, the Daughters of the American Revolution placed a monument on the hill to commemorate McColloch's bravery. The monument still stands near the top of Wheeling Hill, next to U.S. Route 40(National Road).====JACK: Have you been there? Someone should have made a movie. ====REV: I have seen the monument some years ago and always thought the character, Flint McCullough, as a scout on the television series, Wagon Train, was a take off of Samuel McCullough. Couldn't prove, but have always wondered?
FROM CPA BOB: We're not doing with our world any better than it was in Shakespeare's time. Still naughty and probably more so.====JACK: Good and evil are in the eye of the beholder. It depends on what you're looking for. There's good and bad in every age, as there is in every person.
FROM BLAZING OAKS: The pioneers on the prairie lit candles in their windows to guide people to the house in a blizzard...it could be seen for miles. I've read some true stories of such rescues from Pioneer diaries. Amazing how candles really do dispel the darkness when the electricity it out. But they can't cook the food, or turn on the TV, or myriad other things electricity does ...but we're talking good deeds here to shed light in our chaotic world, which we can all do, if its only a smile to everyone you meet! Good thought, as usual!!====JACK: Your comment on the value of electricity reminded me of a Christopher Morley poem, Power House. There are different kinds of power.
Out for my evening stroll I discovered on 84th Street A power house quietly humming to itself,
And though I lived near-by I had never known that it was there. Some people are like that.
====OAKS: Indeed. Interesting poem. I don't know his work!
No comments:
Post a Comment