Blog 541 – 02.10.2017
Winner, Winner Chicken Dinner

I do not think anyone is a loser but I am sure we have all felt like we were at one time or another in our lives. It is the job of ole ego both our own and the egos of others to perpetuate that myth. And if we believe it, shame on us. It tickles me the way some people will post frequently on Social Media things like, “I am not lucky but blessed.” Please, I hope you are happy (blessed) but you act as if luck had nothing to do with it. You were born where you were born and believe me you can thank your lucky stars for all the good breaks you have had in your life. Winner, winner chicken dinner.

Many people were dealt a poor hand to use a poker analogy and those less fortunate individuals are loved by the Universe no less than you. I was informed that a childhood friend who I attended middle school and high school with passed out of this life this week. He was sixty eight years old and had a learning disability and cooked at the same diner back home for the passed thirty years. Jimmy always had a smile and was one of the kindest people I ever met. And, yes, he was blessed and lucky to have been able to graduate high school and to get a job doing something he enjoyed doing. Was his life what most of us would call, Winner, Winner Chicken Dinner? Probably not but he played the hand he was dealt pretty admirably.

I think most of us have a rather skewed view of what success and happiness really are. We live in a society that puts way too much emphasis on material success as if what you do and what you have are an accurate measure of your worth. You are worth the whole world and everyone is. But isn’t it wonderful when you meet someone who sees that inestimable worth in you. One of my favorite lines in the thousands of books I have read is a line spoken by Dave Wilkerson, a young preacher, to Nicky Cruz a teenaged gang bangers. Dave had been telling Nicky that God loved him and wanted the very best for him. Nicky was getting pretty tired of that story and told Dave if he said it one more time that he would take out his switchblade knife and cut him into a thousand pieces. Inspired by the Love that dwells in each of us Dave replied, “And if you do, Nicky, everyone of those thousand pieces will lie there loving you.”

As lucky as it may seem to find someone to love you like that the really blessed or fortunate person is the one who can find that love in the mirror every morning. If you do not remember a word I ever write I hope you will remember that Love dwells in each and everyone of us. Ego would deny that love to you but don’t believe his lies. Winner, Winner Chicken Dinner.

Your friend and fellow traveler,
David White