Mixed Bag

Iowa Grand Lodge has a "Lodge Service Committee" which has an under publicized web site which you will find here.

Tim Bonney references our next Grand Master's Web page on his blog here.

Both sites have a link to my article Seven Steps to Success which was printed in the Knights Templar magazine. I am proud of the article.

A young mason is blogging about his experiences as he joins the fraternity here. It will be fun to follow him as he goes through the experience.

Linda sent me the following. I don't know if you have been following the Vick story (If not, I ask what planet are you living on?) but I really find the entire thing despicable. Those of us who love dogs cannot see how this man could even justify his actions by saying that "He didn't gamble on the dogs." One of the things wrong with our society and is some respects all societies is that some people think that they can do anything they want and get away with it. Leona Hemsley comes to mind in that respect but at least she made sure her dog was taken care of. (I do think that $12. million is a bit much, however - Bailey only gets $3,000.) So we have both ends of the spectrum this week.

I think it is entitled - "A Jury of his peers."

I am not going to comment on the political spectrum and hypocrisy of the politicians in our society but I will tell you that I have decided to support Governor Bill Richardson in the pre-caucus time. I find him to be reasonable and balanced and I think he deserves a good listen.

I have re-discovered native American Wisdom. A friend and I were discussing death and dying and he wondered about how the indigenous people took care of their elders and dealt with death. So, I googled and found some interesting sites. I had forgotten about how wise the people we stole this land from were.

In an earlier post I mentioned diversity training with Ruth Ann Gaines One of the sessions had a group of native Americans come in and demonstrate some lessons from their religion complete with drumming. It was an awesome experience and even though we were in a modern classroom at the Area 11 center I could feel the presence of something surround us as they sang and drummed.

Here are some quotes.

Honor the sacred. Honor the Earth, our Mother. Honor the Elders. Honor all with whom we share the Earth:- Four-leggeds, two-leggeds, winged ones, Swimmers, crawlers, plant and rock people. Walk in balance and beauty. Native American Elder

Treat the earth well. It was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children. Ancient Indian Proverb

When you were born, you cried
and the world rejoiced.
Live your life
so that when you die,
the world cries and you rejoice.

White Elk

I love this last one:
Cherokee Prayer Blessing

May the Warm Winds of Heaven
Blow softly upon your house.
May the Great Spirit
Bless all who enter there.
May your Mocassins
Make happy tracks
in many snows,
and may the Rainbow
Always touch your shoulder.

Mom had a plaque with the last five lines on it. I wonder what happened to it?

You can find more Native American Wisdom at this site.

One more thing.  I see where the Ames Schools want to become "World Class" schools.  We were talking about that 20 years ago.  The more things change the more they stay the same.  Also we used to have a Curriculum Director - now we have an Executive Director for Curriculum and Instruction.  Seems like the Schools are just as impressed with titles as the Masons are.  Oh well!

One nice thing about blogs is that you can go way back to the very beginning and edit them when you want to and the greatest thing about the computer is the delete key.  Deal with it.

Enjoy your day. Be loved. Hugs, j