Blog 1921 – 12.28.2020

Happy Thanksgiving, Curious George

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1I3WGFY-xy9WPuztOopi6O0_k-O_ieF7O/view?usp=drivesdk

Happy Thanksgiving, Curious George

Trick or Treat, now Happy Thanksgiving, Curious George, with Christmas and New Year and all the other holidays going on this time of year, today’s offering may seem a bit off, but I often quote the Elvis Presley song, “Why can’t everyday be like Christmas?” I think it true of Thanksgiving Day too. To me the secret of a happy and satisfying life is in maintaining an attitude of gratitude every day and in every situation. The first national holiday called Thanksgiving in the United States was established during one of our most horrendous times, our Civil War, when few if any families were untouched by the death and destruction of the war. Even still, people were called upon to search their hearts and lives for all the things that they had to be thankful for.

With so many families separated from loved ones in the hospital or lost in death it may be a stretch to find something to be thankful for in this year almost passed of 2020, but we can if we try. And if for nothing else we should be thankful that we are still here and that there are yet many opportunities for us to love and make this a new and better world for our children and our children’s children.

Curious George has entertained children for four generations, a generation being twenty years. He made his first appearance in 1939 in a book called Cecily G. and the Nine Monkeys. Curious George was Forest Gump and Forest Junior’s favorite childhood book in the book and movie, Forest Gump.

I had never read any of the Curious George adventures till I first read and recorded them a year ago. But, then I did not learn to love to read till I was an adult, being a poor reader as a child. I was a child of television and there was no Sesame Street or Reading Rainbow to encourage me to read back then, but then there was Captain Kangaroo, Beanie and Cecil, Shari Lewis and Lamp Chop, and a few other such entertaining and educational children’s TV programs, yet even as a young boy I preferred the old reruns of black and movies and their wonderful well-told stories. Most of those movies were based of the best selling fiction books of all time. So, though slow in maturing, in my case, my love for a good story was always there.

I heard someone say the other day that reading fiction is a way for us to experience many lives in this one lifetime. I so agree and having experienced so many lives it helps us to appreciate the varied lives of those around us. I think it is dangerous to think one’s near family, clan, or country is all that we should be concerned about. This nearsightedness is a source of division and turmoil in the world. One of the most quoted verses from the New Testament John 3:16 begins, “For God so loved the world…” yet how often individuals or groups think themselves uniquely “blessed?” Blessed is a word that simply translated means “happy.” I believe any good parent wants all of his or her children to be happy not just one or a few.

It is a curious thing to me, more curious than Curious George, that anyone could seriously believe that the Universe picks favorites or will allow individuals or groups to cheat others with no reckonings or reshufflings.

Whether one believes in judgement or karma or just equality I think we all eventually get to know and have it all. That may take many lifetimes for some of us. Let us make the most of this one and not be over eager to hit the reset button.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David White

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Z0Ne1WH37sKNx6Hhpv1DOzLY8tevfZa4/view?usp=drivesdk

A Whole New World