A Soulful Journey

Wade Boggs batted .350 after an acrimonious palimony suit in 1988. Pain does not have to "do us in." Failure does not necessarily break us. We are made of grander stuff than that.

"Humiliations heaped in myriads. Hatred and contempt received, returned. Wasted, empty years? Not quite. No years are empty in a life; and wasted - that depends on What is made of them and after." ~Terry Anderson We have two chances in life. The first is when we are presented with time and opportunity. The second is when we look backward, assess our shortcomings, learn from the mistakes, and grow.

Seer of the seventies, Alvin Toffler, wrote: "Once the klutz factor is eliminated, we don't need the typist." from The Third Wave Toffler was correct as he was with so many of his predictions. In this instance a segment of the job market was eliminated. There are no secretaries with typing skills in the workforce any more. They have been replaced with computer literate receptionists. The world moves on. Keep up or get out of the way. I wonder how many silent redundancies were made in the seventies and eighties. I wonder how many people slunk off wounded, feeling inadequate, less than human when innovation and people made them feel worthless. Perhaps another avenue of thought would go like this: Every person has unique skills that belong to them. To try to fit everyone into the same slot may be to miss their gift and deprive us all. Thank God we are all different.

Not so long ago and old man in Russia started learning Hebrew. That was illegal. A man from the KGB approached the old man and asked, "Tell me, what do you think you are doing?" The old man replied, "I am old. I could die any time. I want to learn Hebrew so I will understand what they are saying in heaven." "And what makes you think you are going to heaven, old man? Perhaps you are going to hell." The old man gazed at the KGB and said, "In that case, I already know Russian." ~ Rabbi Jacob Radinsky We work for heaven today. What we do impacts our present and informs our future. For this reason, nothing is meaningless. Nothing.

The story is told of Joshua ben Levi who approached the Messiah to find out when he was coming. "Today," the Messiah replied. After having waited the duration of the day Joshua ben Levi then went to Elijah and asked why the Messiah had lied to him. Elijah answered, "He meant today, if only you would listen." retold by Rabbi Albert Friedlander

Dwight L. Moody was an Evangelist minister. Once while working in his study, his son knocked on the door. "What do you want?" asked the minster harshly. His son answered, "I don't want anything. I just want to be near you." Isn't this what God wants?

How much will make us happy? When does contentment arrive? Society is consumed with consumption on the premise that it will bring happiness. If only we had enough we'd be truly happy. "Do you really sell that much salt?" a man asks a grocer whose store is stacked with thousands of boxes of salt. "No," says the grocer. "I sell maybe two boxes a month. To tell you the truth, I'm not a very good salt seller. But the guy who sells me salt - now he's a good salt seller!" - Mel Brooks Maybe it is g ood to laugh at ourselves. Such self deprecation may bring us closer to home. To us.