Have you ever heard the phrase, "There are no small roles, only small actors?"
It’s a reminder that we all have an important "part" to play in one another’s lives this Christmas season, even if our "part" isn’t exactly the one we were hoping for!
A church was putting on a Christmas pageant which included the story of Mary and Joseph coming to the inn. One boy wanted so very much to be Joseph, but when the parts were handed out, a boy he didn’t like was given that role, and he was assigned to be the inn-keeper instead.
He was pretty upset about this, but he didn’t say anything to the director. During all the rehearsals, he thought about what he might do the night of performance to get even with this rival who got to be Joseph.
There’s a famous quote that says, "It’s better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt."
Under normal circumstances, that is such good advice. However, there are times where you simply MUST open your mouth!
Professional golfer Tommy Bolt (who was better known for his temper than his swing) was playing in Los Angeles and had a caddy with a reputation of constant chatter.
I don’t know if you’re anything like me but, sometimes my mouth works faster than my brain. If only my mouth would slow down and consider the consequences of what it’s about to say, I could avoid so much embarrassment. Then again, maybe what I need is a faster brain! Consider this modern day parable:
A young man had just started his new job in the produce department of a grocery store when a woman came up to him asking to buy a half head of lettuce.
As politely as he could, the young man said, "In this store, we don’t sell half heads of lettuce, we sell whole heads of lettuce."
With summer's arrival comes a journalistic convention that seems more and more dated. It is the "summer reading list" of books, often beside a graphic showing a bathing suit and sunglasses.
Sure, I'd like to check out Douglas Brinkley's biography of Walter Cronkite and Hilary Mantel's sequel to "Wolf Hall." Heck, I'd love to read Joan Rivers' funny and shorter book, "I Hate Everyone ... Starting With Me."
Problem is, few of us worker bees will be packing a steamer trunk of volumes to while away the lazy afternoons. Average working Joes now put in a month more of labor a year than they did 25 years earlier, and much of that time comes out of summer vacation's hide.
Whenever an overly generous soul praises me for my alleged "success," I thank them and gently remind her (and myself) of the unearned luck of my life.
Consider the following: I was born during the Great Depression, after the nation's birthrate had reached a new low, and I was one of approximately 11 people born that same year. This meant that when I graduated from high school, college admissions offices - desperate to fill empty dorms and classrooms - were eagerly recruiting almost anyone who wasn't under indictment or detox, and maybe some who were.
This also meant that when I got out of college and the Marine Corps, and sought to enter the revered "private sector," it was the decade of the 1960s, during which the gross national product of the United States was actually doubling - and because there were so few people in my generational cohort, for us lucky ones there were almost more jobs than there were young people to fill them.
Last week, I wrote about our expanded news staff and the freelance writers who continue to contribute to the quality of our newspaper.
Much to my chagrin, I failed to mention one of the most important people on the staff. She's not a reporter or photographer, but she certainly keeps the wheels of business and commerce going for EastWord News. Her name is Kristina Boehlke and she's our operations director.
