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Thread: Daily Bread

  1. #321
    Williamsmith
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    Perhaps one of the greatest talents my parents developed in me was the ability to be alone. I can’t think of a time when I truly felt loneliness for another humans company. I have felt sad. I have been despondent. I have been depressed. But I have never felt like another humans presence would reverse those feelings. This is a somewhat strange admission to see in writing. It makes it appear like I am a narcissist or don’t value people. Not true. It is simply a coping mechanism that was required as a child and that matured into a primary feature of my character.

    My parents were strict adherents to the law surrounding the “Day Of Rest.” We kept quiet until the church service benediction which occurred sometime after noon. We ate lunch at home and my parents retired to their bedroom for the afternoon. My brother and I were expected to remain quiet and not disturb them until they appeared for the afternoon supper. And then we would don our Sunday clothes again and attend church until 9pm after which we would stop at my grandparents house and I would get to watch grandpaps color television, the only one I knew existed.

    Because of this routine, my brother and I learned to invent silent games, value collecting silent objects and learned how to speak in whispers. We also learned how to explain to our friends why we weren’t permitted to leave our property or play with them outside or have them over. I learned to be still and contemplate things.

    In grade school I remember the teacher asking each of us in class what their favorite word was. Some said their dogs name, some had to do with fun or sweet food, some were about sports. I confused more than one person when I responded that my favorite word was, “Sshhs!”

    One of my favorite quiet games was created with a pair of socks, a small brown paper candy bag, scissors and some tape. I took the bag and cut the bottom out. I taped the bag to the woodwork archway between the dining room and the living room and then I rolled the socks into a ball. With this setup, we could play a silent game of basketball. The sock ball would fit nicely through the bag, could be banked off the ceiling or wall and would make little to no noise.

    I also spent hours sorting, cataloging and examining the hundreds of baseball cards we kept in shoeboxes under our beds. Each card had a small cartoon story and statistics for the player. They could be arranged by team, by year, by position or by batting average. Or usually we would make an all star team and keep them in a separate special place.

    If we wanted to pay less attention to the volume of our speech we would go outside but the problem with this is we were tempted to make too much noise and disturb our parents. That would inevitably earn you a chore like washing all the woodwork in the house with Murphys Oil Soap or trimming the grass below the chain link fence by hand with shears.

    I have to admit that as a child the reason for all this quietness escaped me, sometimes confused me and on more than one occasion made me angry. And later on in my young adult life, I made up for it with loud muscle cars, ear piercing rock n roll amplification and pyrotechnics smuggled into the neighborhood as M80s and Roman candles.

    Later in my life when I was bedridden for three months due to an acute illness, I searched for an explanation why such a thing had happened to me at seemingly the worst possible moment of my life. I began reading through the Psalms and frankly had gotten nowhere with it. Nothing was speaking to me. And then I got to the 46th chapter 10th verse. It said, “Be still, and know that I am God.” Well, the one thing I knew how to do was to be still. Now all I had to do is wait.

  2. #322
    Senior Member Teacher Terry's Avatar
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    Really interesting but I don’t think it would be good to have to be that quiet as a kid.

  3. #323
    Senior Member razz's Avatar
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    Self-government is an important skill to learn as a child. Many children today seem to lack that focus and the poor teachers have to teach the kids about it before they start to teach anything else.

    What I am amazed at is the amount of detail that you recall, WS. Neat to read.
    As Cicero said, “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.”

  4. #324
    Senior Member catherine's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Teacher Terry View Post
    Really interesting but I don’t think it would be good to have to be that quiet as a kid.
    I took from it that WS only had to be quiet on Sunday, the Day of Rest. It appears that this "noise fast" one day a week awakened a lot of other internal resources, so I don't see it as a bad thing. Plus he had his brother to play with, and it seemed they were very creative with their quiet time.

    I was naturally quiet as a kid, and living quietly in the summers with my aunt and grandmother was a great blessing. But I'm sure that everyone's temperament is different.

    When my kids were young, I had a similar rule, but daily. Every night after dinner was "Quiet Time for Adults." We had to institute that policy with 4 kids, otherwise I would have gone crazy. They still bring it up, but I don't think it harmed them at all.
    "Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it--every, every minute?" Emily Webb, Our Town
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  5. #325
    Williamsmith
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    Quote Originally Posted by razz View Post
    Self-government is an important skill to learn as a child. Many children today seem to lack that focus and the poor teachers have to teach the kids about it before they start to teach anything else.

    What I am amazed at is the amount of detail that you recall, WS. Neat to read.
    I suppose my ability to recall detail is both a blessing and a curse. I considered including the benediction word for word from memory but felt it was possibly too much religious speak in one short post. During my career, the benediction came to mind just before I entered a situation which called for a certain amount of wreckless courage or while in the presence of a departed person whether natural, accidental or by violence. It was paraphrased by my childhood pastor from Jude 24-25 as follows:

    ”And now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the throne of God, the only wise God our Saviour, Be glory, majesty, dominion and power both now and forever, Amen.”

    He would raise his hands to the heavens, palms held high, close his eyes and as if to launch his flock out into its pasture filled with all the dangers of exposure to hungry wolves or thieves - declared that God Almighty alone would be the final arbiter in the game of life and death.

    Later, details would and still do at times return unwelcome. It’s part of the risk of allowing oneself to be still I guess.

  6. #326
    Senior Member Teacher Terry's Avatar
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    My kids all loved to read so often we would all be in there reading together. Of course with 3 boys we were plenty noisy too. A guaranteed quiet time was when they napped and they went to bed early so had plenty of time. I just found it strange as I don’t know anyone that did this. Being able to self govern comes from kids not being entertained all the time by adults or devices.

  7. #327
    Senior Member SteveinMN's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Williamsmith View Post
    ”And now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the throne of God, the only wise God our Saviour, Be glory, majesty, dominion and power both now and forever, Amen.”
    I haven't heard that benediction (word for word, I don't think it was a single syllable different) since my ex-wife and I left the evangelical Christian church we were attending when we moved across town to a newer home church that did not issue such a benediction.

    Even though I am no longer married to that woman and left organized religion and it all seems like a couple of ilfetimes ago, I thank you, Williamsmith, for that flashback. Not an unpleasant memory at all.
    Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome. - Booker T. Washington

  8. #328
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    Looking back, my favorite part of my entire religious childhood experiences, was when my great uncle (the pastor) would raise his hand toward us and say the benediction. Almost Word for Word as you quoted it, William Smith.

    I’m not sure if the words themselves meant a lot to me or if I was just happy that church was out!

  9. #329
    Williamsmith
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    I just returned from a pilgrimage of sorts. From my place in rural Pennsylvania its just a short jaunt across the heartland of Ohio, circumventing it’s Capitol of Columbus and plunging in to the hills of north central Kentucky, one can enter a societal time machine and explore the roots of distilled spirits.

    Here where the limestone filtered water springs from the mountains, “immigrants” from western Pennsylvania and West Virginia settled bringing with them small private collections of yeast with which they had been fermenting grains for production of Whiskey. Here and there and over there , sprang up untold hobbyist and local productions of bourbon with various blends of rye, wheat, barley, and corn formed into a mash of proprietary formulas.

    Names like Makers Mark, Buffalo Trace, Four roses, Wild Turkey, Heaven Hill, Bartons and Jim Beam are held in high esteem in the region. Visting these places, one can pass majestic horse farms, arrive via one lane asphalt paved “cow paths” and sometimes fail to get out of the way of a local trying to get to his destination a few miles per hour more than the speed limit allows. At times I thought I could picture speeding moonshine delivery cars tearing across the ridges and valleys of the area. Based on the way people drive there, I’d say it’s in their genes.

    My main purpose was to visit the Makers Mark distillery near Loretto, Ky. As an ambassador, I was looking forward to discovering the location of a barrel of bourbon that had my name embossed on it. After a nice two hour tour of the awesome facility I sat and sampled some of the best bourbon produced in the world. I’m not sure exactly when sampling fine whiskey turns into overindulgence but I suspect it is just before your wife elbows you in the ribs, sticks out her hand palm up and demands you relinquish the keys to the car.

    A side trip trip through the county which bears the name of my ancestors who migrated here also turned up no evidence of them being master distillers. My guess is they probably had a still out back somewhere that made some white dog whiskey and never learned the finer points of aging it in oaken barrels. After all, it was illegal for quite a long period of time. Long enough to see most production facilities go into disrepair.

    In any event, it was a fine trip back in time and one which reminded me of how important history is to the current condition of our country. This is beautiful territory and is inhabited by a gracious but very independent people who value their right to pursue happiness and live in a free state without onerous government intervention. That should be no surprise for a state represented by one such as Rand Paul. Perhaps another reason Kentucky ranks right up there as one of my favorite places to hang my hat.
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  10. #330
    Senior Member razz's Avatar
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    Lovely lazy day for exploring a beautiful area

    May I ask a question that has puzzled me for some time? I am a teetollar now so pardon my lack of knowledge but back when I was exploring different drinks, I could not understand how people could drink such strange tasting stuff - gin, bourbon, rye - but I could understand the appeal of some rums. Dry wines were a major puzzle as well. I was really uncomfortable with the 'buzz' that so many report as enjoyable. When did you discover the enjoyment of bourbon - is it the taste, the associations over a lifetime or is it like a kind of chocolate or coffee?
    As Cicero said, “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.”

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