Blog 2218 – 11.14.2021
Encouraging Words
Of all the words that one might choose to say or to write, I believe encouraging words are the most needed. They might not sell newspapers, get political candidates elected, or get the most “likes” on-line, but I think they are the most refreshing and invigorating to hear and to read. For going on almost seven years now I have been using this little platform that I named theencouragingword.co to post, to the best of my ability, just that, a daily encouraging word.
Unlike the proverbial inventor of a better mousetrap the world has yet to beat a path to my door and it is just as well for a few weeks more my door happens to be attached to a rather smallish for entertaining nineteen foot pull behind camper trailer, currently and for the last almost six months parked at a mobile home and RV court in Norfolk, Nebraska, whose biggest claim to fame is being the home town of The Tonight Show’s long time host Johnny Carson.
After I was old enough to stay up late at night I watched Johnny do his opening monologue. It was always topical with his comedic take on the day’s headlines. What grabs the headlines and sells newspapers is as I already said not often the most encouraging of words, but Johnny like all the best funny men had a way of making us see the funny side of life and that in itself is encouraging. A dear friend who saw more than her share of trouble in life used to say, “It is better to laugh than to cry.”
The Roman Catholic long running TV program, The Christopher Hour, that I saw more than Johnny show as a child (it came on early Sunday Mornings) used to begin each program, “It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness.” I still recall their theme song: “If everyone lit just one little candle what a bright world this would be.” Indeed.
That life and even the sweetest of us has a dark side is all but impossible to deny, but like the famous cowboy song, Home On The Range, we can be sure our home, north, south, east or west, on wheels, or firmly planted on the ground, small enough to barely fit one let alone two, or large enough to entertain a large host of family and friends, is a place “Where seldom is heard a discouraging word and the skies are not cloudy all day.” – or put more positively, a place where often is heard an encouraging word.
Your friend and fellow traveler,
David White
When You Say Nothing All
Author’s Footnote:
Mama used to say, “If you can’t say something nice don’t say anything at all.” How much quieter and brighter this world would be if mama’s words and those of the Christophers were followed.
theencouragingword 