SoCS: Beyond the Headlines

Today’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “page.” Use it as a noun or a verb. Have fun!

So many thoughts flittering around my head like the wind blowing the pages off the calendar in an old movie to show time going by faster and faster. STOP! Time is going by too fast already without that scene.

Remember when we used to read the newspaper? I guess some people still do. Back then, the funny pages were the best, especially on Sundays when they were in color. The front page had the “big” headlines. I’d read those before going to the comics. Like today, the headlines that get the most attention, up front and in your face, or your home page maybe, those are usually bad news. Controversy and conflict that the mainstream media thinks we want. Not to get on my soapbox, but you had to look for the good news and still do.

In small towns or small papers, they would publish things about who visited who or who was in town. I have a clipping one of my aunts saved and mailed from the paper in Green Bay about my dad. I’m sure it was not on the front page. I’m going to go find it.

I confess that I broke the rules by editing out the first couple of lines for privacy/security purposes. I had forgotten that my dad served as an orderly for the admiral on the USS Macon. That was before I was born and in the early part of his 20-year career as a USMC. Maybe my dad offered an element of security in addition to the orderly part since he was pretty tough and 6’2.

Going back to the funny pages, there used to be an expression, “I’ll see you in the funny papers.” Funny papers. Rolling papers. Hmmm. Paperwork sucks. I’m glad I don’t have much to do like I used to. What did pages do in medieval times? I’m surprised I spelled that right. I think I’d rather be a scribe. But maybe I don’t want to live back then. Did they even have toilet paper? Maybe I’m right where I’m supposed to be in time. Trust the Timing.

The last page in my story has a quote from this song:

So, what headline do you want to see on the front page?

To read more streams of consciousness and all about the rules, visit our host, Linda Hill HERE.

Good News Tuesday for August 17, 2021: A Kidney Donation Beyond Borders, Stories of Gratitude, Peseverance, and Trust from the Olympics, and Choosing Your Own Headline

Seeking Balance One Tuesday at a Time

Israeli Teacher Donates Kidney to Palestinian Boy

Idit Harel Segal, an Israeli kindergarten teacher and mother-of-three, wanted to do something meaningful for her 50th birthday. She decided to donate a kidney to a 3-year-old Palestinian boy from the Gaza Strip. Read more about Segal and her decision here.

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Olympic Medal Winner Expresses Gratitude for Truck Drivers

India’s Mirabai Chanu who won an olympic silver medal for weightlifting expressed appreciation to 150 truck drivers who gave her free rides from her village to the training center 15 miles away. This article from Mint provides details and Mirabai’s reminder: “Never forget a favor.”

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The Fastest Blind Man in the World

There’s a new documentary coming out about “the fastest blind man in the world.” The film titled Unteathered tells about David Brown who lost his sight by the age of 13 due to Kawasaki disease. Jerome Avery, David’s training buddy of 15 years, was recently inured, so David will have a new trainer in the paralympics next month. You can read more about this extraordinary athlete, trust, and brotherhood in this article from the Good News Network. Be sure to take a look below at the trailer for Unteathered.

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PS: I found something good on Facebook. It touches on why I do Good News Tuesday:

Got Good News?

Feel free to share your good news headline in the comments!

Bad News or Good News.What Will We Focus On? How will we live?

The following is a slightly condensed sermon with two stories from my favorite pastor, Dan Macgill. Our gospel reading was about the ascension of Jesus.

Jesus is at the end of his earthly work; his victory is at hand. That is the good news, but he is leaving his disciples in a world that will not be easy for them They will suffer and be persecuted and put to death in his name. That is the bad news. So, what will we, in our lives, choose to focus on – the bad news or the good news?

There are two stories that took place not too long ago in the same town. It was Erie, Pennsylvania. In the first story, a local man of limited mental capacity robbed a bank. The incredible thing was that he had a live bomb attached to his body by a metal collar that someone had locked around his neck. He was carrying a note written by his assailants ordering him to go to four different places after the robbery to get instructions about what to do next to have the bomb defused. He never made it to stop number one. The police intercepted this simple man in a parking lot immediately after he left the bank. He did not try to run from them, but begged them to help him. He told the police he had been forced to rob the bank because the bomb on his neck was on a timer. The bomb squad did not reach the sight quickly enough, and there on main street, the bomb went off and the man blew up. The man had lived in a tiny house alone with his cats. He earned very little money and spent little. He did not have the mental ability to plan a robbery. This bizarre story made headlines all over the country.

But there is another story that also took place in Erie, Pennsylvania. It is a story about a nun, a block full of children, a small corner store, and an old, drug infested neighborhood. The nun lives there in the center of town with her 90-year-old father who refuses to move. It is his home and it is where he raised his children. When the nun returned to this neighborhood, she immediately went to meet the neighbors. She organized a set of after-school games. She gave reading classes on the front steps of her house. Before long, they all took on community projects such as picking up cans, filling garbage bags with trash, and planting flowers along the curbs. They swept the streets and planted grass. And for this work, they got coupons that the local grocery store accepted for food. They even painted houses. Soon, the neighborhood, and it’s very nature, changed.

The nun wanted to go block by block and continue this project, but that required a lot of money. The local paper gave the story good coverage, but the national press ignored it. (I wonder why.) The bank story is about the evil, violent murder of a simple man. More than that, it is about the deterioration of the US as a human community. The other story is about the rejuvenation of an old neighborhood by young children living in the evil of its neglect. But it is also about the possibility of rebirth in American life.

So, what is the gospel telling us about ourselves, today? Is it telling us more than we really want to know? Are we any closer to carrying out Jesus’ mission that he left us in charge of? Has it become too easy simply to allow ourselves to be squeezed into the world’s mold?

Angelique Arnold wrote once that perfection consists not in doing extraordinary things, but in doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.

Amen.