If you want to write a column or blog like this on any kind of a regular basis, then you must be looking or ‘mining’ for discussion topics at all times.
So, this week, I want to help you reduce some of your stress and anxiety issues that we all seem to face nearly each and every day.
A number of my friends asked if I was going to watch or did, I watch the presidential speech earlier this week. As I have said before, I will not get into a discussion of my politics on this space.
So, having said all of this, I think you will agree with me that we have a number of issues in this country that we are pretty well divided 50/50.
I think I would be wasting my breath and your time trying to convince you of my viewpoints on gun control or you trying to convince me of yours on say, abortion.
We are probably too far apart to even enter into a civil discussion of any kind.
A friend of mine this morning told me he still takes the local paper but hates reading it as it makes him mad every day. My suggestion is to stop torturing yourself over things you have no control over. Why watch the ‘news’ on any channel, whether liberal or conservative if it is going to make you angry and mad at the world? Ask yourself what can you do about it exactly? Nothing. We all know what is going on since we are bombarded with news and events of the world through various media sites 24 hours of each day. Choosing to get upset over it, is your choice. I don’t want that stress on me.
So, I will bring it back to my point of this week.
Recently I just finished reading a book about the life of Cicero and another one about Napoleon and finally one this week on Suleiman the magnificent. These books take place in 48 BC….1500 AD as well as the 1800’s.
The common theme in all of them is that the politics of these time periods were just as convoluted and corrupt as they have been during my lifetime. Nothing changes.
Bear with me here.
A few weeks ago, we had a locksmith out to fix a couple of our locks. He brought his 10-year-old son with him. Well, my wife started talking to the little boy and found him to be very bright. He was interested in reading and coin collecting.
She told me about him and I called his father and asked for him to come back and I would give him some coins to work with. I had a big bag of old stuff that I had saved from my trips around the world along with a bunch of coins from when I was a kid collecting stuff. Nothing was really very valuable but could certainly be of more use to a curious 10-year-old than it was to me. Then I went on line and bought him several books on how to start collecting coins and how to take care of them.
After they came and picked them up, he showed up one afternoon with 2 of his friends on their bicycles with at thank you note in a envelope thanking me for the coins and books.
This is a good kid.
When I was his age, I was all into reading the “Hardy Boys” mystery books. I looked on line and sure enough they still have them, so I bought him the first 5 and sent them to his house.
The other evening, I hear my wife open the garage door and a few moments later I hear someone calling me as they came up the stairs.
It was my new friend Abraham with another letter in a envelope thanking me for the mystery books. He states in his letter that he has now formed a coin club with 4 of his friends and they are sharing and swapping coins and information. Then he goes on to tell me he has read the first of the 5 books and is starting on the 2nd one. He passed the 1st one onto his youngest brother and they are taking turns reading to their younger siblings. There are 10 kids in this family.
Now, I don’t know about you but, I tend to think that my wife and I can be of a much more positive and productive impact trying to help kids like these learn and grow than I can have any impact upon anything happening in Washington D.C. or other part of the world.
We can vote and we can pray and that is about the extent of our influence upon matters on the world stage.
But I think the dollars we spend on books or coins or whatever else will be vastly more productive in the long run.
Don’t you?
See you next week…thanks for listening…Peary
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