Category: Our Neighbors

Wishing everyone a very happy 4th of July weekend.

Here’s one of my favorite Johnny Cash songs, Ragged Old Flag. It says it well.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whmVGRSgAe8

“You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism.”

Erma Bombeck

The only commentary I can add to the death of Michael Jackson is that I was once in Gary, Indiana, where Michael Jackson was born and it was one rough town. Urban decay and blight had moved in in the 1970’s and I remembered thinking; “Wow, this is where Michael Jackson was born.” The steel mills were mostly shuttered when I passed through and it was a real sad place.

It’s a testament to our society that anyone born anywhere can make it in America based on their talent, ability and hard work.

I hope Michael Jackson finds the peace that eluded him in life.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt9TUy0_GiM

We would like to wish all the fathers out there a very happy Father’s Day.

I came across this little poem by an unknown author, and if you’re a father you should definitely appreciate it.

The Unreasonable Pa

My Pa, he didn’t go downtown
Last evening after tea,
But got a book an’ settled down
As comfy as could be.

I’ll tell you I was offul glad
To have my pa about,
To answer all the things I had
Been tryin’ to find out.

An’ so I asked him why the world
Is round instead of square;
An’ why the piggies’ tails are curled,
An’ why fish don’t breathe air.

An’ why the moon don’t hit a star,
An’ why the dark is black;
An’ just how many birds there are,
An’ will the wind come back?

An’ why does water stay in wells?
An’ why do June bugs hum?
An’ what’s the roar I hear in shells?
An’ when will Chritsmas come?

An’ why the grass is always green,
Instead of sometimes blue?
An’ why a bean will grow a bean
An’ not an apple too?

An’ then my pa got up – an’, Gee!
The offul words he said.
I hadn’t done a thing, but he
Just sent me off to bed!

“My words fly up, my thoughts remain below:
Words without thoughts never to heaven go.”

William Shakespeare
“Hamlet”, Act 3 scene 3

“A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.”

Oscar Wilde

With the first day of summer officially getting closer, I know we have a lot of people who love to read during the summer, especially on the beach. So, I thought I would throw out some picks for some non-fiction books that people might enjoy.

	When the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939, few could have imagined the fate that awaited the Polish clergy. The Catholic Church had a powerful influence on the Polish people. For the Nazis to gain absolute control, the solution was simple – the clergy had to be destroyed. As a young seminarian trapped in the merciless events of the time, Kazimierz Majdanski – who would later become an Archbishop – was not prepared for the events that would follow his arrest. You Shall Be My Witness is his extraordinary memoir, which chronicles his experiences and remarkable test of faith.
	Lou Gehrig started his professional baseball career at a time when players began to be seen as celebrities. Though this suited the charismatic Babe Ruth, Gehrig avoided the spotlight and preferred to speak with his bat. Best known for playing in 2,130 consecutive games as well as his courage in battling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (a disease that now bears his name), the Iron Horse that emerges from Luckiest Man is surprisingly a common man. Honest, humble, and frugal, his only vices were chewing gum and the occasional cigarette. Despite becoming one of the greatest baseball players of all time, the author shows how Gehrig truly was one of a kind.
	Many people will attest to the happiness pets bring, but few are aware of the neurochemical basis. In one of those delectably books that tie together threads of science, history, and everyday life, Made for Each Other explains the evolutionary processes behind our love and need for animals. Olmert starts with our ancestors’ transformation into hunters, the forging of communities, and the welcoming of wolves around the hearth. As wolves evolved into dogs, it is the chemical oxytocin that turned them into “man’s best friend,” and the same mutually beneficial oxytocin-enhancing chemistry makes possible the close bonds between humans and horses, cattle, and cats. More proof of the astonishing intricacy of life’s interconnectivity.
	This gripping true story about a 34-year-old Buffalo firefighter who regained consciousness after nearly 10 years patiently records a family’s heroic grief and fortitude. Trapped under a collapsed roof in a burning house in 1995 and deprived of oxygen for six minutes, Donny Herbert suffered severe anoxic brain injury and lapsed into a long, largely unresponsive, nonspeaking state. Finally on a stupendous day in 2005, Donny simply started talking again. In The Day Donny Herbert Woke Up, the author offers a restrained version of events, frequently tying Donny’s recovery to divine intervention, though the miraculous events are spare in relation to the enormous span of time anticipating Donny’s recovery.
	I Am Murdered relates the tale of the 1806 murder of one of the nation’s most celebrated public figures. Virginia’s George Wythe was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and of the Constitution. He was also teacher and friend to George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John Marshall and Henry Clay. Few were as beloved and admired; but one day in 1806, he and his entire household were poisoned. Historian Bruce Chadwick takes readers through the circumstances of Wythe’s murder and gradually reveals—no surprise to the attentive reader—the murder suspect. It’s a good story, well told about life in Richmond, a small, elite-driven capital city in the young nation’s most important state.

Whatever you do this summer, read a few good books and let me know some of your picks. I’ll be posting the fiction list soon. I’ll probably post another list of both non-fiction and fiction in August after I’ve read a few more and heard from you!

The Pentecost, El Greco, 1596

“And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a mighty wind coming, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them parted tongues as it were of fire, and it sat upon every one of them: And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they began to speak in diverse tongues, according as the Holy Ghost gave them to speak.” [Acts 2:2-4]