Looking back to a century ago in PV, this was the year of our first water tower being built, four stories tall and the tank being a fifth. It was when Teddy bears began, named after president Theodore Roosevelt. Aviation began with the flyght at Kitty Hawk and the first Model A Ford was sold in Chicago. Celebreties born in 1903 were Edgar Burgan, Lawrence Welk, Dr.Spock, Clara Boothe Luce, Bing Crosby, Barbara Hayworth, Bob Hope, Lou Gehrig,Geo. Orwell, Claudette Colbert and Vladimir Horowitz--those familiar to me. I've seen on my great grandmother Rebecca Jane Hightower's tombstone that it's was also her final year. Since her grave's at the entrance of Olivet cemetery, I'm guessing it was brand new in 1903. The old cemetery was abandoned in 1902. Just wonder if she got to see work on the tower before she died. Her husband's name, James M. Hightower, isn't in Olivet; I've been told by my sister, Rebecca Jane Oden, that he died in CA where they had moved from Altus. Then Rebecca came here to PV as a widow. Ps.13:5 on her stone says "But I have trusted in Thy mercy; my heart shall rejoice in Thy salvation." Her year of birth and mine match (a century apart). Add verse 6 as my text:"I will sing unto the LORD, because He hath dealt bountifully with me." And her son Edward Glen (7th mayor of PV) married Amy Vaughn Allen, who became "Gram" to all us Hazlitts. Grandmother Hightower could have told us about the tower construction, which was in her 29th year. Or EG, who would have been 47 then, though he died in '29 when I was only two. Gram is linked by their last name (in my childhood memories) to the "high tower" I'd see from the Greyhound bus front window each time I'd come down old #77 for visits in PV. Now it's just an old tower that hasn't held water since '69, year that the new one was built out in our industrial park. The old one's rust is visible from the depot and as you drive downtown going west. Yet it has a much nicer look from almost any other direction; coming in on # 19, driving up on S. Chickasaw or S. Willow and even from the old cemetery down below Rush Creek. All these are good views, while from The Democrat where I look up daily, a spot seems rusty and neglected. So I often drive under it and pause to pray for PV, then for the whole county as I proceed north up the alley while seeing the couthouse straight ahead.
Yesterday marked a month since PV's scarey day of terrorism in hostage taking. The non-lethal outcome should be reason indeed for a special Thanksgiving celebration this year. We were also blessed with a tranquil Halloween in Garvin county, unless that suicide attempt up at Paoli had some link to the holiday. Here in WW's Savage stadium we won another game just like the Sooners on the next day up at Norman. I marveled at how diplomatic Jeff Shultz could be in "Exit 72" about the bedlam game. And I was more pleased to read his blatent comments about tobacco companies now showing duplicity in their advertising. I'd wondered about Phillip Morris trying to dissuade young folks from becoming smokers, so I finally punched up their web page. The bottom line implied "We have employment opportunities for you selling our product if you'll just ignore what's been said."
Being bought off seems so universal as we recall Enron's fall a couple of years ago and then the subsequent collapse of WorldCom and Global Crossing. Now it's mutual funds where corruption is being exposed, thanks to Eliot Spitzer who is New York's attn.general. I hope he can put these rakes out gathering piles of autumn leaves instead of their own fortunes from profits investors should have made. We finally get a president of integrity and then find so many scoundrels betraying him and his administration. Now, instead of female interns exploited in DC, it's greedy old lovers of money. Avarice is it's name. Isn't that kind of lust just as wicked as it was for young women back when we had a playboy president who carried his Bible quite openly to church each week. I'm reading from Jeremiah 2:11: "Has a nation changed it's gods to what are are not gods? But My people have changed their Glory for what does not profit... 13 They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, And hewn themselves cisterns--broken cisterns that can hold no water."
PBS had a show Wed.nite of how the press covered WW II. It was totally patriotic and without that "fair and balanced" reporting of today. No wonder we felt that winning the war was the highest priority. We were eager to get out of high school and enlist. I'd often wondered about that long ago feeling of such loyalty by everyone. It was a universal cause that no war since has generated. So here we are debating whether this war on terrorism should even have been launched. And the media help keep doubts alive. Yes, we need a free press. But it was all black and white back then. In fact there wasn't even TV, just radio and news papers. Of course the public's far more sophicticated today and harder to stir up into a common purpose, secular or religious. "Wiser and weaker" is the familiar designation. Jesus told of "men's hearts failing them for fear" in the last days. Oh that America's heart could be set on the Lord as were our pilgrim forefather's.
UNPUBLISHED COLUMN ABOUT PV's OLD CEMETERY ANGELFIRE Jan.2003 centennial year of the old tower still standing in downtown PV.
The old cemetery was closed a year before our first ever water tower was erected. Now I've read and re-read the history of that old cemetery that was abandoned in 1902. It was never an Indian burial ground as legend has told. They usually buried where ever their people died on the plaines. I even had to quit calling it "the old Indian cemetery" myself. I may have heard that from my dad, JMHazlitt, who was secretary of the chamber of commerce here in the mid fifties. He pushed a refurbishing plan that fenced off the grounds and restored fallen tombstones. But PV's founder Smith Paul, a century earlier, had allowed the Indians from Cherokee Town down near WW to bury their many dead from a collera epidemic up here . Indians did not dig graves but placed stones over the bodies which were laid on their side. It was to keep animals from eating the corpses. And they didn't mark the graves either. So the first marked site in our old cemetery was Smith Paul's 8 month old son who caught the disease. Many Indian babies were also buried there unmarked. Thus 1868 is the first dated tombstone for the Paul baby. It's a sad story that the compassion and generosity of Mr. Paul should result in his personal loss. But more and more marked stones were placed there, with some as half way Indian style burials. Until in 1901 a nineteen year old girl was the final marked grave. She had been engaged to the famous attorney, Morman Pruitt. Of course it's likely that many bodies placed at the north near Rush Creek were washed downstream in the frequent overflows. But by 1902 it was deemed too full for any more burials, though no platts were ever made. Indians rejected the notion of owning private land. So Olivet became PV's new main cemetery thereafter. I'm so pleased to see Sunday's photo of SMITH JASON Paul, of Stratford, first child of Caleb and Ashley Paul in Stratford born Oct.29.And I want more told about his great,great,great,great,great,grand-father's founding of PV. So dedicated to this child, here's the full account prepared from the 1937 cemetery refurbishing that had to be redone in 1954 when my own father led the undertaking: Official Presentation of The Old Cemetery, Pauls Valley, Oklahoma 1868 - 1901_______
The legend has grown that Indians used the Old Cemetery as a burial ground before the coming of the whites. There is no proof of this idea and it is probably untrue. Before the Choctaws and Chickasaws were moved to this section, the plains Indians, the Comanches, Kiowas, Apaches, Wichitas and possibly some others, hunted in this area but had no permanent abode here. The plains Indians usually buried their dead near the place they died. The first marked grave was dated in 1868, and the last known burial was in 1901. Time has taken its toll. Located near turbulent Rush Creek, many floods have swept over the burial ground, tipping over and displacing some of the smaller stones. Domestic animals have been tethered to graze in the Old Cemetery and in many instances displaced the stones to which they were tied. Vandalism, too, has played its part. Members of the Paul family report that as late as 1937 vandals removed some of the stones which covered the grave of Jesse Paul. A restoration of the cemetery began in 1954. A fence was built around the cemetery, the grounds were mowed and cleared, and the gravestones were repaired when possible. Maintenance of the cemetery has been assumed by the City of Pauls Valley. The types of graves reflect several influences. Several tribes of Indians such as Comanches buried their dead on the ground and then covered the grave with stones to protect these dead from wolves and other animals. Some of the Southern Indians used a gravehouse, which was in actuality a small house that covered the grave. A few of the graves in the cemetery combine these methods of burying with the familiar way of burying beneath the ground. Some of the graves in the Old Cemetery were covered with symetrically cut stones placed in a systematic pattern. They combine the white man's way of placing the body in a dug grave and improved the Indian's manner of covering the grave with a mound of rocks. The Old Cemetery contains the only known graves of this type. The Old Cemetery is representative of life and times in Pauls Valley during the last half of the nineteenth century. Notable personalities that contributed to the growth and development of the area and laid the foundations for statehood are buried there. In 1868, the Caddo Indians in Cherokee Town (north of Wynnewood) were suffering from a severe epidemic of small pox. They were over-crowded, poorly housed, and had little or no food and medical supplies. Smith Paul, moved by the unfortunate conditions of these Indians, wrote to the Office of Indian Affairs in Washington, D.C., requesting aid for the Caddos. The office wrote back, appointing Paul as the Indian agent. He immediately moved the Caddo Indians to Pauls Valley so they could be properly cared for. The Indians who died from small pox were buried in unmarked graves on South Walnut (area of the Old Cemetery). Unfortunately Paul's grandson, at age eight months, caught the small pox from these Indians and died. His grave was the first marked grave in the cemetery. The Paul family contributed much to the state of Oklahoma, and several members are buried in the Old Cemetery. Smith Paul was one of the earliest settlers in the area and is credited as the founder of Pauls Valley. He married Ellen McClure, a Chickasaw Indian woman, who arrived in Oklahoma on the "Trail of Tears". Ellen had two children, Tecumseh and Catherine, from her previous marriage. Smith and Ellen had four children of their own, Hogan, Sam, Sippie, and Jesse. All of the Pauls mentioned, except Sippie, are buried in the Old Cemetery. The half brothers, Samuel Paul and Tecumseh McClure, were both active in the Chickasaw legislature, and both served as heads of the Senate. Tecumseh was a leader in the Nationalist Party, which wanted to halt the thrust of white civilization and prevent white domination of the Chickasaw Nation. The original settlement of Pauls Valley was on land controlled by Tecumseh. The railroad wanted to build a line through Pauls Valley, but Tecumseh refused to cooperate. Samuel Paul invited the railroad engineers to his land which was to the north of Tecumseh's and invited them to build their road there. The engineers accepted and Pauls Valley was eventually relocated. Samuel was a leader in the Progressive Party, which wanted to join with white civilization in developing the area. Samuel Paul was the first Indian to advocate the acceptance of Indian allotment in severalty in the Curtis Act of 1898. Samuel started the Pauls Valley Enterprise and later set up newspaper press in Ardmore. Jesse Paul served as a scout for Custer during the raid on Black Kettle. When he returned to Pauls Valley, there was a great victory celebration called the 'scalp dance'. Jesse died at the age of twenty-three and was buried with his sleigh bells. His funeral was put off a month after the burial because his spirit was believed to be restless. His sister Sippie, took food to his grave everyday until the funeral. Among other interesting people buried in the cemetery is Chisholm Barnett. He was a lawyer and one of the early settlers. At one time he intended to write a history of Pauls Valley. John Burks was the first lawyer to practice in the area. His mother was instrumental in starting the Methodist Church in Pauls Valley. F.T. Waite was Speaker of the House in the Chickasaw legislature in 1889 and was a candidate for the Senate of the Progressive ticket in 1890. Earlier he had been a member of the Indian Police and from some accounts also rode with Billy the Kid and was in the Lincoln County Wars. One man buried in the cemetery rode with Quantrell's Raiders and was visited by Jesse James.
No plots of land were at first set aside in the cemetery. The Indians did not conceive of individual land ownership, and then the Curtis Act of 1898 set aside certain lands for public use, including the cemetery. People were buried where one could find room. The cemetery ceased to be used because there was no space left. The last person to be buried there was Myrtle Thrasher in 1901. She died at the age of nineteen and it was said she was very beautiful. She was engaged at the time of her death to the later well-known lawyer, Moman Pruitt. There are many infant graves in the cemetery. Many of these children died in their second summer. T.A. and Mary McClure had five children buried there, with at least four of them being under two years of age. J.G. and Nancy Thompson had five infant children buried in the cemetery. Some of the tombstones bear the Masonic emblem. Masonry was introduced to this area by Albert Pike when he was recruiting for the Confederacy. Father Morrow was also influential in spreading Masonry. The old Cemetery contains a variety of types of people. The West was wild, not only in terms of violence, but also in the combination of people who came together and contributed their part to the settling of the frontier. The Old Cemetery contains both Indians and white men. Of the Indians, some welcomed the advance of the white men and others opposed this advance. Lawmakers and law enforcement officers are buried with outlaws. There are both lawyers and farmers. There are people that came to Indian Territory voluntarily and those that came on the "Trail of Tears". Many were born in Pauls Valley. Confederate and Union soldiers are side by side. Men who were involved in building newspapers, churches, and businesses are in the Old Cemetery. Each of these persons had a contribution which helped to mold the character of the West. Indian Pioneer Papers, Volume 111, Microfiche #6016976 Founded about 1870 by Russ Mitchell and Hill. Abandoned 1902 due to growth of city. Pesent owner - City of Pauls Valley. Original owners--Russ Mitchell and John Hill. (see above information) Approximate number of graves - 250. Approximate number of marked graves - 95. General condition of headstones, including inscription - Fair (Feb. 3, 1937). Condition of premises well kept and fenced.
What a remembrance that was for Cal Barton at 1st UMC Monday. And right before Veteran's Day couldn't have been timed better. Like Bob Kanary, I liked to call him Colonel at Rotary, especially after we lost our Bosa colonel. So much of Veteran's Day was honoring fallen comrades that it seemed like another Memorial Day. Surely we need both days to express the our sense of loss as well as gratitude. Thus, Memorial Day has spread out to include all our deceased. It's not just for our military as first observed. I can recall when Armistice Day (Nov.11) was an echo from WW I, "the war to end war." Pacifism was very strong back in the thirties, of my childhood in IL. The world had been rescued in the eleventh hour from self destruction by that armistice called the Treaty of Versailles. Of course it turned out to be the seed of a far greater cataclysm, WW II, but was a delusive dream from 1918 till 1939. The truce was signed at eleven oclock on the eleventh day of the eleventh month at a place outside Paris that symbolized peace. Cities in the USA became "Versailles" in CN, IL, IN, KY, MO, OH and PA. Always for shalom, I had a dream or "vision" in 1937, when I was just nine, that has come back to haunt me in recent years. Now as we remember a century ago how the Wright Brothers used their knowledge of bicycles to build the first successful airplane. Hence, l tell of my first near-fatal bike ride. It wasn't mine but my brother's, and I had been secretly learning how to stay up balanced on it. Trikes were my joy before then, but I wanted to be a big boy. So a bunch of us were over at a friend's house on the highway and I wanted to show John and the rest how I'd learned to ride his bike. He'd left it in front of the garage where I climbed on and started peddling down toward the highway, saying "Hey look, everyone." Then I saw a car coming and suddenly froze, as I had no idea how to put on the brakes. Just before I went in front of the oncoming car, I heard "You're going to see God and all the holy angels." When the car hit, I flew up in the air and the bike was demolished beneath. The next thing I recalled was waking up next day in the hospital with a fractured skull. Seems I had landed head first on the concrete. Had to stay a week and then home in bed for a month from my fifth grade class there at Lincoln school in Mt.Vernon, where I had been one of the "patrol boys" who directed classmates across the highway. I heard that the principle called an assembly and told them I'd gotten my head cracked open (by being so careless?). No one ever knew that I just didn't understand how the brakes worked. Had to spend my tenth birthday confined to bed. And some jokingly called me "cracked" when I finally got back, relieved of my patrol boy belt. It was all a painful time and I completely forgot that yell I heard from heaven until becoming old: "You're going to see GOD and all the holy angels." Since I wasn't killed then at nine, I hope now to live to see Jesus coming back in clouds of glory, just as I heard that day. You can call me nutty or "cracked," though I'm thankful to have lived this long past age nine clear up to 76.
UNPUBLISHED COLUMN that may have seemed far out
This week's is on my very favorite subject, seventh word in the Bible: HEAVEN. In Hebrew it "shamayim" which means "things heaved up." So you can see the root of our our English name in all that's overhead. It's been heaved up there (by the Creator GOD, Elohim). Now we humans have come up with a lot of our own designations for the heraafter. Here's a list I made just off the top of my head: Promised Land, happy hunting ground, far off sweet forever, beautiful isle of Somewere, Bulah Land, peace in the Valley, Place of Quiet Rest, Paradise, Sweet Bye & Bye, Land that is fairer than day, Home over there, Beyone the sunset or Higher ground. Most come out of songs I've sung. Yet there's plenty more with the river theme that's set in Revelation: a river of life flowing out through the middle of the street of that new Jerusalem. Of course the earthly Jerusalem never had any river, just the Gihon spring that Hezekiah cut a tunnel to bring inside it's walls. The citie's location up in the mountains made a river impossible. Most other major cities on earth do have one i.e. London's Thames, Cairo's Nile, NYC's Hudson. So GOD adds one to His renewed creation in Rev.22, where John saw a pure river of the water of life flowing out from the Throne through the midst of the city. And on either side of it were the twelve trees of life, each beariing fruit in it's month. So that the leaves of the trees were for the healing of the nations.
Revelation uses poetic symbols to describe things beyond our limited awareness. So these images are not to be literalized into concrete objetivity. That's why they never grow old or tiresome. Heaven is not just a fantasy, but a higher realm where GOD and all the holy angels have been dwelling since before creation of our natural universe. In fact they were all else but the ETERNAL GOD. Seven is a number of completion in Scripture, which says "In the beginning GOD created the heaven (word seven) and the earth." In my mind, that could be linked to the Big Bang that astronomers affirsm, by seeing the BANG as everything first spoken into existence by the Creator. That would really heave things up and out, leaving earth (our physical universe) far behind and still here below the outward thrust of an expanding natural universe. His further work of creation continues as the six days in Genesus 2. I've spoken of highest heaven, though there's also the firmament below it, and the atmospheric beneath that all three mentioned in Scripture. And astrophysics teaching is that in the sub-atomic realm we are learning of entirely alternate universes, which might include the supernatural realm. Those former laws about particles being only in one place at a time no longer apply down there in the microcosm. Now they're seen as ribbons or bands insead, and string theory is the possible "united field formula" that Einstein so longed to see. Different vibrations of those strings are what cause various particles inside the quarks to form. It would seem then that harmonics are the ultimate way our Creator orders His handiwork, from the vast realm of it's macrocosm down to the smallest quanta. And natural law no longer has absolute rule. It's probabilities that we calculate rather than absolutes. That leaves everything open to the supernatural instead of closed in natural science only. A divine plan can be controlling everything rather than mere random outcomes of process. Natural order must make way for the supernatural, a concept long discarded by western philosophy. Immanuel Kant was called the "man who destroyed metaphysics," but now in postmodern thought it's coming back in vogue. We who believe in the Living GOD have been vindicated. Halleluhah! Just because we can't find Him with our computer generated calculations doesn't mean He's absent. The Bible has told all along of His transcendence. And He dwells in highest heaven, from where His only Son came to dwell among us for a time. Soon that son Jesus will return in glory and majesty to judge the world in righteousness. Accept Him now and be prepared.
Did you see that full page picture in the Oklahoman a week ago Saturday of coach Stoops dressed up like Superman? It was in full color and and the day of the big Bedlam game. Of course we know now how suitable a suit it was for his career. But I had almost forgotten about that superman character. Now I'm recalling some of the mythology of it. He was born on an imaginary planet that orbits the sun just opposite of Earth; wgucg us the reason it's never been seen. Krypton was it's name as I recall. So kryptonite is a supercharged "element" from that world. He came in disguise to Earth as a very ordinary guy named Clark Kent, who worked for a newspaper in Metropolis. But whenever the emergency arose, he'd jump into his suit and cape to become the all powerful one, "faster than a speeding bullet, stronger than a locomotive, and leaping over skyscrapers." Even movies were made of him, but the actor became a paraplegic from an accident. So then, as I recall, he finally died and the comic strip ceased. But the actor became a true superman in the way he has faced his calamity. His who career shifted to caring for other such victims as himself. So it made me rethink what some far out theologians had said early in Superman's popularity, that he was a Christ figure: Had come to this world from a higher one, made entry in a secret manner, had lived largely unknown and unacknowledged by human authorities and yet was man's greatest ally in the war against evil. So maybe the whole episode was a twentieth century effort to make the Gospel contemporary, though it fell far short. It startled me to see the Oklahoman bring it up again with that picture of Stoops. I think Superman's time ended in the second millennium where a maniac in Europe had tried to take over the world by telling a whole nation they were supermen and destined to become the master race.
Here before Christmas is a time to think of our Lord's first appearing. In the New Testament His designation is Jesus of Nazareth, not bar Joseph. He's linked to the town where He grew up instead of a father who reared HIm. Of course Joseph was much older than Mary and probably died while Jesus was still small. Though at least once our Lord is called "the carpenter's son." And that was surely by those who though He'd been born there in Nazareth. His birth in Bethlehem down in Judea marked Him of far greater status, but it seems to have been a secret only revealed later. To be King of the Jews, His origin had to be in the most Jewish territory of Judea. But the leaders in Jerusalem didn't seem aware of that. So they thought of Him as a mere Galilean form the insignificant town of Nazareth. And his disciples were from that Gentile region too, all but one (of Kerioth which was very near Jerusalem in Judea).
Roast turkey has another meaning this year than Thanksgiving. It pertains to the nation by that name, which is getting so many terrorist attacks these days. One of the unique features of Turkey is that it's a secular state instead of a Muslim theocracy. I remember as a youth how their national hero brought democracy there. So it's been one of our allies for many decades now. And the radical Islamists surely feel a special hatred for such a state on the edge of the mideast. The 22 members of that Arab League are all Islamic. That means their citizens must be Muslims by law. In Turkey it's by choice instead. And in the new Iraq we are trying to build that will be the same rule, freedom of religion. Lou Dobbs of CNN has made a distinction between Muslim and Islamist. The former submits to Allah while the latter is an absolutist about his religion; meaning not only he but everyone else submits. Such is the mentality of those radicals using terrorism.
As we come again to our national holiday, Thanksgiving, I suggest that "turkey" is a very contemporary menu. Though we recall our Pilgrim fathers feeding on it, we should sense our freedom tested in that land being roasted by religious hate. And we can give thanks for Roger Williams, who was run out the Pilgrim's state of Mass. into Rhode Island, where free choice of religion was first proclaimed in the new world. There had been a Peasant's War over the issue back in Europe in the 16th century, and even that great Reformation leader Martin Luther, had opposed it then with his wicked words against the Anabaptists, "shoot, stab or kill." The Pilgrim leader had fled to Holland first where the idea began. But in America it was finally realized in our smallest colony of the 18th century where Baptists flourished as Rhode Island, then included in our Constitution. Let's thank GOD for that brave preacher, Roger Williams. As a Methodist, I've heard so much about John Wesley, but he wasn't even an American. Williams truly was.
First it was priests of the Catholic church molesting boys, then William Bennett who had a gambling weakness, then CEO's ripping off their corporations, and next Rush Limbaugh of all people with a drug problem. Now Michael Jackson seems addicted to messing with little boys. Who or what will be next on the parade of downfalls? Certainly shows that our final faith can never be in man, but only the Lord.
I get a little crazy on the next subject, but it was a century ago when our Old Tower was erected in PV, which was for water then; but since '69 it's been for the sheriff's radio antenna. Though the tank has been long empty, it's become a symbol of our town. I've called it the leaping tower of PV'eesa, a tower of praise (TOP) and tower of endurance (TOE). But you might have a better designation at this centennial. If you tell me, I'll list them before the year ends. When I think of Toe, I see our head up at the depot with Paul Ave. as the spine. But that's PV on it's back, which certainly isn't true. Still the tower would be our Big TOE, from that perspective. Just don't know where the other one would be.
Date: Mon, Nov 24, 2003
Revised THANKSGIVING column of Angelfire
I'm thankful for people I've known through the years and also for new friends made more recently. Remember that song "Make new friends and keep the old. One is silver and the other is gold." RP Quinlin is a guy I like to see here in WW. It's often on a tractor or mower. But since his wife is Corene Abbot, I see him most often at the WW Steakhouse. As we visited last week the subject of my late father-in-law, Sprout Layton, was mentioned and RP said he'd known him very well. Sprout (or Alfred) passed away over a dozen years ago, but we both recalled his love for life, especially hunting. RP said that hunters came from near and far to go with him and to buy one of his dogs, as his were the best anywhee. I recalled how he'd go every evening out along the river hunting coons. He also had some cattle on his place several miles west of WW which he went to feed daily. The Layton brothers-Roy, Buck, Dude and Sprout- were well known in these parts. But I'll bet that few folks knew Sprout was also a fiddler. Niece and I still have one that he used to play. And I remember what a happy person he seemed to be, though he died of cancer in '90. Back when I asked him about marrying his daughter, Niece, he just laughed and said "You'll have to get her consent about that." None of the old fashioned stuff for him. RP told me how everyone liked him so much. Then he died the year before we eloped to Norman for our wedding, Still, I've long felt that I had his blessing. So I'm thankful and glad that I asked him. Everyone loved Sprout Layton.
Here's a four word verse that's come to me for this holiday, "An attitude of gratitude: more latitude, less platitude." I sense an open feeling in being less judgemental toward others, especially when we consider the Lord's forgiveness of our own faults. Back when I pastored churches I didn't want Christmas season beginning before Thanksgiving Day. We'd probably be burnout by the Lord's birthday I thought. Now I see that the greatest thanks we have to offer is for that divine gift from heaven Dec.25. And eucharist, the other term for Communion, means "Thanksgiving." It's the Greek word for prayer in our New Testament and could even apply to saying the blessing before meals. So our National holiday serves as a proper preparation for the International one of Christ's coming to Earth. Now how's that for "latitude of attitude?" As 2 Cor.9:15 says, "Thanks be to GOD for His unspeakable gift (the Son, our Savior)."
Have you seen that commercial where a moderately plump Santa asks "Am I that fat?" With one in five Americans suffering obesity, it does seem a fitting question for everyone's favorite guy in the red suite. I, for one, can't imagine him being slim and trim. Jolly and chubby have been permanently linked for me. Yet I hate to see our Yuletide icon selling or giving tobacco, wine, beer or liquor. Neither would I like him telling white lies, pocketing stuff, flirting with women or getting on drugs or spirits. After all, his original name was Saint Nicholas. So I sure don't want him excessively over weight. Guess I want a Johnny Cash kind of cultural hero, one that walks the line.
That reminds me of a song I've liked, though the preacher discredited it Sunday night. He said "Me and Jesus got our own thing going. Me and Jesus got it all worked out" doesn't measure up to the Gospel. He admitted that he liked the song too, but that all our brothers and sisters in Christ are also involved. So it's not just a private affair. I've reflected that, "Jesus and Me" would better express the true personal relationship. Thus He turns our hearts from self centered love out toward the others He died to save, especially our fellow followers. We know that He did link the Hebrew shema, so central to Judaism, with the "royal law" that says we must love our neighbor as ourselves. So "Jesus and me got our own thing going, Jesus and me got it all worked out...".
Wasn't it great for the president to visit our troops in Iraq. Made me recall back on May 1 when he landed aboard that carrier in the Pacific to greet those returning back then. Everyone thought he was back home in Crawford TX, resting from that stressful visit in London with Tony Blair. But he knew our troops and the Iraqis both needed encouragement. So he made a surprise trip and was on the way back before any media got hold of it. Wow! He has a boldness like Theodore Roosevelt, whose international policy was "speak softly and carry a bit stick." That Teddy (not today's) was in office a century ago when our old PV tower was built (1903). I'd be for calling it the Teddy Tower if it weren't for possible confusion with TK. TR sent the first telegraph message around the globe in that year, but I've never learned what it said. He also led his Rough Riders into Cuba for a victory at San Juan Hill. And he opposed the liquor industry by imposing a ban on the sale of spirits, even before Prohibition as I recall. I think of him looking through that monacle he carried aristocratic style. And his name means "gift of God." I had an uncle with that name and I named my first son after him, as well as for the town where my Ted was born, Erick OK.