Blog 394 – 09.04.2016

Will Rogers left quite a mark on the world. He was part Cherokee – a Native American tribe, a cowboy, a humorist, and a humanist in the very best sense of the word. At a very challenging time, the 1920’s an 1930’s, he entertained world wide with his rope tricks and plainspoken humor. He made us laugh, he made us think, and he helped make the world a better place. And when he passed from this stage suddenly at the height of his career in 1935 he was missed by a multitude of friends, family, and fans.

There is a line from an upbeat country song that says, “I’m gonna be the cotton picking rage of the age; I’m gonna be a diamond someday.” Will Rogers was that in his day. He was one of Florenz Ziegfeld’s shining stars in the Follies of the 1920’s. He was a movie star and had a daily newspaper column that touched the lives of hundreds of thousands.

One of his more famous quotes is, “I never met a man I didn’t like.” And like me you’re probably thinking he didn’t meet, fill in the blank. But that’s just it, in all his travels he met countless people. There is even some evidence that he might have met Adolf Hitler. I am sure Will Roger’s was not endorsing the terrible acts Hitler committed or anyone else.

I think he meant he never met anyone that he could not find something to like about. Grant you some of us make it quite a challenge to see the good in us the way we act from time to time. But I believe there is a divine spark in all of us. And if a part Cherokee cowboy from Oklahoma whose people were force marched from East Tennessee and North George on The Trail of Tears where a great many perished can say he never met a person he didn’t like, well by God, I can look a little harder to see something to like in everyone I meet. How about you?

Your friend and fellow traveler,
David White