MAY - 2010

EDITORIAL

“Lord, keep your arm around my shoulder and your hand over my mouth.” Someone sent this quote to me recently and I like it very much. I suspect that it could be Irish in origin. Anyway I am inclined to reflect on the Lord’s closeness to us and our tendency to speak ill, on occasion, of our neighbors. I know from personal experience that there is a very strong moral sphere in Bryn Athyn which frowns on malicious gossip. I recall talking to Joel Pitcairn long ago and as I began to speak of one of my neighbor’s defects, I got a very disapproving look from him. Then more recently I slipped away from charity when talking to Don Rose and again received a disapproving look. Such times are embarrassing but instructive. My friends have been moral guides for me and I hope that I have been the same for others, especially my young buddies. No, Mr. L does not like to hear unkind thoughts spoken in his presence.

If anyone becomes aware that they have wandered from the ways of charity I am inclined to remind him or her that the shortest distance between a personal problem and a solution is the distance between their knees and the ground. And anyone who kneels before the Lord can stand up to anything and anyone.

HUMOR

A seminarian named Breeze, weighed down by MA’s and PhD’s, collapsed from the strain. Said his doctor: “It’s plain, you are killing yourself by degrees.”

Signs of being in the senior years:

The reason I know my youth has been spent, is that my get-up-and-go has got up and went. But really I don’t mind, when I think with a grin, of all the places my get-up has been.

There are two kinds of people who wake up in the morning. Some say, “Good morning, Lord.” Others say, “Good Lord, it’s morning.”

The preacher said, “I have good news and bad news today. The good news is that we have enough money to build our new chapel. The bad news is that the money is still in your pockets.”

SENIOR AGE

“In spite of illness, in spite of the archenemy sorrow, one can remain alive long past the usual date of disintegration if one is unafraid of change, insatiable in intellectual curiosity, interested in big things, and happy in small ways.”
- Edith Wharton (1862-1937)

“You can only perceive real beauty in a person [people] as they get older.” - Anouk Aimee

“Beware of the young doctor and the old barber.” - Benjamin Franklin,

“…when an old man is concerned in a matter, he looks both before and after.” - Homer

“Before you contradict an old man, my fair friend, you should endeavor to understand him.”
- George Santayana (1863-1952)

IDEAS

“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them.” - Thoreau

“Never let the fear of striking out get in your way.” - “Babe” Ruth

Use soft words and hard arguments. - English proverb

“Don’t simply retire from something; have something to retire to.” - Harry Emerson Fosdick

MARSHALL STEWART BALL

Here are more quotes from Marshall, the boy who cannot speak, whom I quoted in the April issue of Sunshine.

Go to feelings that give good to others.

You make the choice to think good or bad.

Begin now to make good choices.

Best feelings come when angels take each thought to good love and reality appears.

Poor thought quietly carves up the harmony of wonderful life.

Love pours, freeing me.

Nice gentle giving frees good Marshall.

That growing thought learns to listen to God.

INTERESTING IDEAS

Don’t let your sorrow come higher than your knees. - Swedish Proverb

“In giving advice, seek to help, not please, your friend.” - Solon

Never give advice unless asked. - German Proverb

“Do it now. It is not safe to leave a generous feeling to the cooling influences of the world.” - Thomas Guthrie

A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

On March 31 Vita and Julia were playing badminton in their front yard. I took this occasion to give them a copy of the April Sunshine with their color pictures inside. So they stopped playing and I handed Vita a copy of Sunshine and a ten dollar bill to each girl, as a reward for their art.

I think now in reflection that I probably thought then that they would dash into their home, carrying the magazine and money. They would say to their mom, “Look what Mr. L gave us. He is so good and kind.” And mom would say, “Yes, he is very kind. Now children, hand the wonderful magazine to me so that I can read it and you take your money to your piggy banks to be saved for next summer’s vacation. Now go and give a big hug to Mr. L and say, “Thank you.”

However as I handed the money and magazine to Vita, she had difficulty holding them, as well as holding the badminton racket. So she told me to put the magazine on the front porch. I did so reluctantly because the porch was a bid dusty. But I placed it there and walked back to the girls. As I approached them I sensed something flying in the air towards my face and I batted it away. The always-creative Vita had neatly folded the ten-dollar bill and made an airplane out of it and tossed it toward me. And after seeing my defensive action, she picked it up and tossed it at me again. Oh, what fun we had, with my magazine’s pages blowing in the wind and dust, and money flying through the air.

Then we went into their back yard and considered removing orange ribbons from beloved pine trees destined to be cut down. We wanted to tie them around trees in the neighbor’s back yard, but we didn’t.

ANOTHER PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

It was a warm Saturday toward the end of last March when Dorothy and I decided to go to New Hope and Lambertville. It was good to walk in the fresh air again after a cold, wet and snowy winter. We took our usual route across the bridge and through the delightful Victorian houses in Lambertville. After a while we sat, in the sun, on a bench in a small public park, complete with a monument to Civil War soldiers, an old cannon and a bandstand.

Soon a young woman, whom I learned later was 28 years old, entered the park. We exchanged smiles and greetings. I asked her if she lived in Lambertville. She said that she did, however I noted some uncertainty in her voice. So, in a voice a bit raspy and harsh, I asked the bold question, “Where do you sleep?” Well, she burst into a flood of tears and after a few seconds, she answered sadly, “Where anyone will have me.”

We sat together for a while on the bench, in the sun. Her life’s journey had been sad – too sad for this magazine. Anyway, after about twenty minutes, I placed three new twenty-dollar bills beside her purse and Dorothy and I walked away. About half way across this small park, I turned and said, “The Lord loves you.” All was silent for about five seconds. Then I heard her voice, “The Lord loves you too.” I turned and waved to her and Dorothy and I departed.

I suppose that a cynic would say, “She just robbed you of $60.00 and will now go buy drugs with it.” But I was unwilling to turn my back on a young woman whose tears flowed, as if from a pain too deep for me to understand. We did our small part. And yes, Dorothy and I had talked with her about life on earth, Swedenborg and the New Church.

HEALTH and a GOOD ATTITUDE

Those who do not find time for exercise will find time for illness. - Proverb

“Walking is man’s best medicine.” - Hippocrates

“It is better to wear out than to rust out.” - Richard Cumberland

“No one knows what he can do until he tries.” - Publilius Syrus

“Fight one more round. When your feet are so tired you have to shuffle back to the center of the ring, fight one more round.” - James Corbett

“When fate knocks you flat on your back, remember she leaves you looking up.” - Anonymous

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” - Lao-Tzu

If there is no wind, row. - Indian Proverb

“There is no failure except in no longer trying.” - Elbert Hubbard

“Your heaviest artillery [in sickness] will be your will to live. Keep that big gun going.” - Norman Cousins

“You have to raise yourself above things instead of letting things raise themselves above you.” - James Stephens

Be not afraid of going slowly; be afraid of standing still. - Chinese Proverb

“People are lonely because they build walls instead of bridges.” - Joseph F. Newton

STRIKING QUOTATIONS FROM SWEDENBORG’S WORKS

By the Swedenborg Society

When an angel does good to any one, he also communicates his own good, good fortune and bliss to him and this with the desire to give the other everything and to retain nothing. - AC 6478

Conscience is an inner perception of what is good and true. - AC 4627:3

Regeneration is nothing but the subjugation of the natural and the dominion of the spiritual. - AC 5651:3

Those who look with their eyes to heaven and in heart to hell…profane and the lot of profaners in the other life is the worst of all. - AE 232:2

It is unknown in the world that love of self, regarded in itself, is the love that rules in hell and makes hell with man. - HH 555

It is to be known that no one is regenerated without temptation; and that many temptations follow on, one after another. - AC 8403:2

Evil spirits most vehemently desire and burn to infest and attack man when he is sleeping, but man is then especially guarded by the Lord, for love does not sleep. - AC 1983

In the other life men cannot conceal what they have thought, because there the thoughts show themselves openly. - AC 4464:4

Angelic happiness is in use, from use and according to use, that is, it is according to the goods of love and of charity. - AC 454

VARIOUS IDEAS

The task ahead of us is never as great as the POWER behind us.

Life is not the way it is supposed to be. It’s the way it is.

If God is your Co-Pilot, switch seats!

Stop telling God how big your storm is, instead, tell the storm how big your God is.

When you get to your wit’s end, you’ll find God lives there.

You can tell how strong a person is by what it takes to discourage him.

He who angers you, controls you.

MARRIAGE QUOTES

“The goal in marriage is not to think alike, but to think together.” - Robert C. Dodds

“A good marriage is the union of two good forgivers.” - Ruth B. Graham

“What counts in making a happy marriage is not so much how compatible you are, but how you deal with incompatibility.” - Leo Tolstoy

As for his secret of staying married, Jon Bon Jovi said: “My wife tells me that if I ever leave, she is coming with me.”

“Often the difference between a successful marriage and a mediocre one consists of leaving about three or four things a day unsaid.” - Harlan Miller

HUMOR

CHURCH BULLETIN BOARDS:

When his father asked five-year-old Jimmy to say the prayers at Sunday diner, he did a good job. He thanked God for the people sitting at the table. He thanked God for the good food, describing each item. Then he hesitated and his father asked him why. Jimmy said, “If I thank God for the broccoli won’t He know that I am lying?”

If you don’t pay your exorcist, will you get repossessed?

A man’s home is his castle, in a manor of speaking.

What do you call a country where everyone drives a red car? A red carnation.

What do you get when you drop a piano down a mine shaft? A flat minor.

Pencils could be made with erasers at both ends, but what would be the point?

An electrician claimed that his truck was a volts wagon.