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WITandWISDOM(tm) - June 30, 1998 THOUGHTS: 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 H. Spurgeon (Bits & Pieces, January 10, 1991, http://www.epinc.com/) SPECIAL THOUGHTS: "Bankrupt! The word has a sinister ring. It was what happened to someone else's family business, never to yours. But this time "bankrupt" seemed to be plastered all over the walls that for four generations had held our family enterprise together. 'The plant is closed,' my dad said over the phone. 'Boarded up and barred. The bank owns it now.' His voice sounded tired. What does a sixty-two-year-old man say when his life's blood has just been clamped off? A million thoughts jostled around in my mind. I had wanted so much more for my parents in their retirement years - more than frozen assets, a lost inheritance, and a boarded-up industrial complex. Hadn't they lived through enough financial headaches? Sacrificed more than enough to put their five children through school? Experienced more than their share of lean years? Why couldn't they enjoy a taste of 'the good life?' If two people ever deserved it, my folks did. I had wanted them to retire in comfort. Nothing extravagant. Just enough security to enjoy some extras that life had never afforded them - a trip to Equador to visit a missionary friend, Sunday dinners out, a new carpet for their upstairs bedroom. 'This whole thing is like a car rolling downhill backward,' I thought last week when we visited Mother and Dad. 'Here they are, working harder than ever with less to show for it. Odds and ends of house-painting jobs. Long, hot hours and a few commission sales for a local monument company. Do-it-yourself projects. Canning and freezing to cut the cost of groceries.' I wished I could reverse the trend, pay to have their leaky faucets fixed, buy them a new mattress, a new carpet for their upstairs bedroom, a year's supply of steaks. 'The only treasure you take to heaven with you is your children,' Dad said one night as he looked proudly around the table at his children and grandchildren. He prayed with us, then left to visit a man who had lost an arm, three fingers, and both eyes in a dynamite accident. It was time for their weekly Bible study. As I watched Dad disappear into the silent evening, I remembered what Jesus said on the subject: 'Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth . . . but lay up . . . treasures in heaven' . . . Then it dawned on me that my folks "were" enjoying the good life. Giving them a new carpet for their bedroom suddenly didn't seem so important after all - not when compared to their lifetime of contented service to others." Ruth Senter, Startled by Silence ISBN 0-310-38840-6 (Shared by Martin Lee) THIS & THAT: WHAT'S IN A NAME? KODAK - No meaning. George Eastman, founder of the company, wanted a name that began and ended in the letter K. "The letter K has been a favorite with me," he explained. "It seems a strong, incisive sort of letter. CHANNEL NO. 5 PERFUME - Coco Chanel considered five her lucky number. She introduced the perfume on the fifth day of the fifth month of 1921. EX-LAX - Short for Excellent Laxative. REEBOK - An African gazelle, "whose spirit, speed, and grace the (company) wanted to capture in their shoes." AVON PRODUCTS - Named for Stratford-on-Avon, William Shakespeare's birthplace. RANDOM HOUSE - America's biggest publisher started out in the 1920's offering cheap editions of classic books. But founder Bennett Cerf decided to expand the line by publishing luxury editions of books selected "At random." TOYOTA - Sakichi Toyoda made the first Japanese power loom. His son Kitchiro expanded into the automobile business. XEROX - The Haloid Company originally called its copies 'electrophotography' machines. In the 1940's they hired a Greek scholar at Ohio State University to think up a new name. He came up with 'xerography' for the process (after the Greek words for 'dry' and 'writing') and called the copier itself a Xerox machine. (Shared by Greg Ozimek via Keith's Mostly Clean Humor & Weird List Ksullivan@worldnet.att.net) ~~~~~~~~~~~~ I refuse to have a battle of wits with an unarmed person. By trying, we can easily learn to endure adversity. Another man's, I mean. -M. Twain When you are saying something which doesn't mean much, you must say it with a great deal of authority. (Shared by Keith's Mostly Clean Humor & Weird List KSullivan@worldnet.att.net) TRIVIA: Find a Great Name for Your Baby! Trying to choose between Kaitlyn and Rebecca, or Austin and Brandon? Get some terrific help here. You can specify ethnic origin, number of syllables and first and last letter you'd like the name to have, and the Baby Name Center will return a list of choices. You can also research the meanings of names (or find a name that fits a meaning you like), and see which names are currently popular. http://inside.excite.com/c/000015006022458405 |