A Martin Luther King Quote

On this day dedicated to him: I would like to honor Dr. Martin Luther King with the following quote:


"Cowardice asks the question - is it safe?   Expediency asks the question - is it politic?

Vanity asks the question - is it popular?  But conscience asks the question - is it right?

And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic,

nor popular; but one must take it because it is right."


Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

January, 2019..........Welcome!

January?  Man.......You don't mess around.  You are awesome.  I'm glad you are here.  You start things off.  They have started real well so far.  Things are going to get better.  There is much to do.  There  are places to go, and people to see.  There are things to talk about.  I can walk.  I can talk.  I can see.  I can hear.  I can think.  I can use my hands.  I am ready to serve.  I am ready to share good news.  Look out January........cause here I come!

Good-bye, December

It won't be long.  Just a couple more days.  And......you will be gone.  Along with 2018.  You have been good.  You are always good.  You are always special.  I know: you are just a month.  The twelfth one of every year.  The last one of every year.  But what a month.  What a cheerful month you are.  And yes, sad for some.  How ironic.  I once heard a convict who was being interviewed for a documentary about prison life in the state facility where he was serving his time......a long time.  He spoke from the heart.  He declared:  "I miss the Decembers.  I miss the Christmases."  It is interesting to note that he didn't say: "I miss Christmas."  I perceive that he was trying to get the most of his memories.  He remembered different Christmases.  He distinguished them.  He had the time to do it.  December, a time for friends, family, food, parties, fun, celebrations, laughter, Christmas carols, cards, desserts and much, much more.    Yes,  a great deal of money changes hands this month.  Lots and lots of shopping.  Many, many presents, and much activity in the streets and retail businesses.  This holiday is an influencer.  This holiday is powerful.  It will continue to be so.  Why?  Because it is the recognition, remembrance,  celebration, and honoring of the birth of the Messiah.  The King of kings, Lord of lords, Son of God, Savior, Emmanuel. (God with us).  It is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ.  He is the visible image of the invisible God.  Yes, December will continue to be special.............as long as the birth of Jesus is celebrated.
 I have an idea:  *CELEBRATE JESUS EVERY DAY.  Celebrate His birthday in December.

*Why?  Because He is God.

"The Best Tombstone" (Spurgeon)

"A good character is the best tombstone.  Those who loved you and were helped by you will remember you when forget-me-nots have withered.  Carve your name on hearts, not on marble." Charles Spurgeon

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Letter From An Ex Slave

Dayton, Ohio     August 7, 1865        

       To My Old Master,   Colonel P.H. Anderson,         Big Spring, Tennessee

Sir: I got your letter, and was glad to find that you had not forgotten Jordon, and that you wanted me to come back and live with you again, promising to do better for me than anybody else can. I have often felt uneasy about you. I thought the Yankees would have hung you long before this, for harboring Rebs they found at your house. I suppose they never heard about your going to Colonel Martin's to kill the Union soldier that was left by his company in their stable. Although you shot at me twice before I left you, I did not want to hear of your being hurt, and am glad you are still living. It would do me good to go back to the dear old home again, and see Miss Mary and Miss Martha and Allen, Esther, Green, and Lee. Give my love to them all, and tell them I hope we will meet in the better world, if not in this. I would have gone back to see you all when I was working in the Nashville Hospital, but one of the neighbors told me that Henry intended to shoot me if he ever got a chance.  I want to know particularly what the good chance is you propose to give me. I am doing tolerably well here. I get twenty-five dollars a month, with victuals and clothing; have a comfortable home for Mandy, — the folks call her Mrs. Anderson, — and the children — Milly, Jane, and Grundy — go to school and are learning well. The teacher says Grundy has a head for a preacher. They go to Sunday school, and Mandy and me attend church regularly. We are kindly treated. Sometimes we overhear others saying, "Them colored people were slaves" down in Tennessee. The children feel hurt when they hear such remarks; but I tell them it was no disgrace in Tennessee to belong to Colonel Anderson. Many darkeys would have been proud, as I used to be, to call you master. Now if you will write and say what wages you will give me, I will be better able to decide whether it would be to my advantage to move back again.

As to my freedom, which you say I can have, there is nothing to be gained on that score, as I got my free papers in 1864 from the Provost-Marshal-General of the Department of Nashville. Mandy says she would be afraid to go back without some proof that you were disposed to treat us justly and kindly; and we have concluded to test your sincerity by asking you to send us our wages for the time we served you. This will make us forget and forgive old scores, and rely on your justice and friendship in the future. I served you faithfully for thirty-two years, and Mandy twenty years. At twenty-five dollars a month for me, and two dollars a week for Mandy, our earnings would amount to eleven thousand six hundred and eighty dollars. Add to this the interest for the time our wages have been kept back, and deduct what you paid for our clothing, and three doctor's visits to me, and pulling a tooth for Mandy, and the balance will show what we are in justice entitled to. Please send the money by Adams's Express, in care of V. Winters, Esq., Dayton, Ohio. If you fail to pay us for faithful labors in the past, we can have little faith in your promises in the future. We trust the good Maker has opened your eyes to the wrongs which you and your fathers have done to me and my fathers, in making us toil for you for generations without recompense. Here I draw my wages every Saturday night; but in Tennessee there was never any pay-day for the negroes any more than for the horses and cows. Surely there will be a day of reckoning for those who defraud the laborer of his hire.

In answering this letter, please state if there would be any safety for my Milly and Jane, who are now grown up, and both good-looking girls. You know how it was with poor Matilda and Catherine. I would rather stay here and starve — and die, if it come to that — than have my girls brought to shame by the violence and wickedness of their young masters. You will also please state if there has been any schools opened for the colored children in your neighborhood. The great desire of my life now is to give my children an education, and have them form virtuous habits.  Say howdy to George Carter, and thank him for taking the pistol from you when you were shooting at me.

From your old servant,

        Jordon Anderson

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Jefferson's Anger Toward Organized Religion (But Not Toward Jesus)

"Nothing can be more exactly and seriously true than what is there [the very words only of Jesus] stated; that but a short time elapsed after the death of the great reformer of the Jewish religion, before his principles were departed from by those who professed to be his special servants, and perverted into an engine for enslaving mankind, and aggrandising their oppressors in Church and State; that the purest system of morals ever before preached to man, has been adulterated and sophisticated by artificial constructions, into a mere contrivance to filch wealth and power to themselves; that rational men not being able to swallow their impious heresies, in order to force them down their throats, they raise the hue and cry of infidelity, while themselves are the greatest obstacles to the advancement of the real doctrines of Jesus, and do in fact constitute the real Anti-Christ." Thomas Jefferson


(1743-1826), US Founding Father, drafted the Declaration of Independence, 3rd US PresidentSource: letter to Samuel Kerchreview, January 19, 1810

Forgiveness (Five Points Of View)

Forgiveness is not always easy.
At times, it feels more painful
than the wound we suffered,
to forgive the one that inflicted it.
And yet, there is no peace without forgiveness.
- Marianne Williamson

Forgiveness means letting go of the hope for a better past.
- Lama Surya Das

Forgiveness ... is the finishing of old business
that allows us to experience the present,
free of contamination from the past.
- Joan Borysenko

The remedy for wrongs is to forget them.
- Publilius Syrus

 Forgive those who have injured you -
not because they deserve your forgiveness,
but because you can never be happy until
you release your anger and grant forgiveness.
Forgiving is not a gift to someone else -
Forgiving is your gift to yourself - a great gift - the gift of happiness.
- Jonathan Lockwood H