Happy Birthday Jon

25 today. I will never forget the wonder of your birth or the joy we all felt when you were born and were brought home from the hospital. You have enriched our lives and brought much happiness over the past years. May the next 25 years and beyond be successful ones in which you attain all your dreams. Uncle j

Addendum:
And I just found out that 50 years ago today Ford introduced a new car
Just think what one in good shape would be worth today!

Labor Day

Labor Day marks the end of summer and the beginning of fall. It was meant to commemorate the working man and became an official holiday in 1894. It is celebrated on the First Monday in September. Now I may have told you one thing you didn't know but there really isn't much else to say about it.


It is the day of the dog swim at Carr's Pool and the closing of the pool. The dogs enjoy that and I am sure the kids watching will also

Labor Day was always a "catch up" day for teachers. We had one or one and a half weeks with the kids and this four day week because of the Labor Day holiday gave us time to make sure the had a good handle on our new class and had begun to know the kids and their parents. It also messed up our schedules. It especially messed them up when we had the Ten-day schedules and all of the "special" (so-called) classes would switch the day of the week and we would have to revise our thinking and our plans. until the next holiday. I don't know who it was that thought up that "bright/wise" idea (must have been an administrator) but I never liked it.

The kids would finally realize that yes, they did have to go to school and no, it wasn't (by some miracle) going to be canceled for the year so they might as well make the best of it. So they would begin to work on their plans for their Halloween costumes. Yes, they started that early, even in sixth grade. They are good at finding other things to think about than classes and learning. I suppose it fosters creativity.

Then, or course, the Christian right got a hold of this innocuous little holiday and did their best to cancel it. I will never forget the disappointment of my nephew when the display he and his group had been working on for table decorations were not allowed to be finished or used when "some lady" (his words) made Mrs. Haggard (principal (but no pal)) cancel the Halloween decorations and parties because it was not "Christian." And this is a public school! Oh well she won her little victory, the kids were disappointed and it was one more nail in the coffin of my opinion of the "Christian" right (or wrong if you prefer).

Speaking of Jonathan - tomorrow is his 25th birthday. Feel free to send him a birthday e-mail. JoncoleJ@gmail.com.

We both have the same middle name. We used to drive our mothers (his and mine) with a little litany we said - What's your name? Then we'd give out names - "discover" that we had the same middle name and say "Wow, we must be related!" It would drive them both up the wall and we (or at least I) had fun doing that. Eventually he grew out of it. I never did. That is one of the advantage of having a child like (don't say childish) mind.

Have a great day today and don't labor too much. Speaking of Labor the kid next door has finally gotten a chain-saw and chopped down the lovely bushes on the south side of the yard. Privacy is gone but Max will be able to see more to bark about. Be loved. Hugs, j

A very special wedding

My friends, Mark and Terry were married today at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship here in Ames. (You can read the ministers remarks on the web site) It was a "standing room" only event. They have been together for thirty years and were able to be married because of the courage of a judge here in Iowa who set aside the unnecessary and unworthy law that said that "marriage was only between a man and a woman."

The minister did a marvelous job with the service (but he did choke up with emotion a couple of times.) Their family stood behind them on the stage while they took their vows and the audience gave them about a five minute ovation (part of it standing) as they signed the legal documents and were pronounced married.

I heard someone say it was an historic occasion and yes, it was, but more than that it was a momentous occasion of their love for one another. I congratulate them on their wedding and wish them another 30 years together.

The directions to the website for the pictures is here:
The other site has our photographs: http://www.onesmalldog.com/ then click on "clients" in the lower right hand corner. Our password is: 30years



This is part of what their son read at the service.

On Love

When love beckons to you, follow him,
Though his ways are hard and steep,
And when his wings enfold you yield to him,
...

Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;
For love is sufficient unto love.

When you love you should not say,
'God is in my heart,' but rather,
'I am in the heart of God.'
And think not you can direct the course of love,
for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.

Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself.
But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:...
And to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.

Kahlil Gibran
1923

Be loved. Hugs, j

Dues

I just sent out dues notices to about 20 Masons. Dues are an important part of the life of the Lodge. They enable the Lodge to do its business. There have been a lot of posts on dues lately (well at least one or two)

Here is Chris Hodap's take on them on Freemasons For Dummies.

Masonic Minute has this to say.

He did a "quick poll" here.

While not discussing dues per se The Burning Taper discusses lodge renewal in several posts and has this to say:

In the Golden Age of Masonry, when it was a force for improving society, lodges were smaller than today. It worked pretty well for them, so let's take a few pointers from that age. Let's not fight declining social capital by diluting our own social capital. That is, lets not let in thousands of new Masons in one day classes and do nothing but collect their annual dues. That's the path to making Masonry a mailing list.

Let's counteract these forces in our own lodges by allowing our lodges to naturally contract. A small lodge where new petitioners are carefully vetted is a lodge where we all know one another and more likely have trust in one another. In other words, there is social capital. There is brotherhood.

Back in April the Maonic Observer had this to say about dues.

The Rocky Mountain Masonic Conference discussed dues and it is summarized here. Some good points are made.

The Lion's Paw has this to say:

The fact is, though, that most of our Lodges aren't charging anywhere near the percentage of household income for dues that they were even 50 years ago. The burden of Lodge dues is not nearly as great for today's retirees as they were in earlier times. Even a lodge charging $100 a year -- as mine does -- is asking for less than $10 a month to fund its programs. You probably can't get the senior citizen's plate at the local cafeteria for $10 anymore, and your monthly newspaper subscription probably runs at least that much, and probably more. And let's not get into how many -- or in fairness, how few -- Starbucks lattes you can buy for that.

None of these even mention the cost to the Lodge of the members who do not pay dues because they are 50 year members. In Arcadia Lodge ($80.00 dues) we have 25 50 year members. You can do the math. One or two of these members do send donations just as one or two of the members send extra donations along with their dues. Many of these are not even able to attend the Lodge because they life out of state or too far away to attend regularly. Yet their membership still means a lot to them and they are interested in what is happening in their lodge.

I pay a lot of dues (or at least I used to) and I don't really begrudge paying them. They enable my Lodges and Masonic organizations to function. I am not really fond of getting solicitations in the mail asking me to give more or to selling me things I don't want or need so that the Grand Lodge or the Scottish Rite can operate. I think perhaps, that my friend Jerry Marsengill was right about this comments on the Albatrosses that hang around our necks in the way of Lodge Buildings that are old and outdated and expensive to maintain and we should look at how much of our dues money has to go to paying them. We need to look at our Lodges from a business standpoint and live within our means or increase our dues to enable us to at least break even.

Be all that as it may be, as a Secretary of the Lodge charged with collecting those dues I just want to say that I appreciate those who pay their dues early or on time (January 1) and for the rest of you I found this:

Forget the hasty, unkind word:
Forget the slander you have heard;
Forget the quarrel and the cause;
Forget the whole affair, because,
Forgetting is the only way.
Forget the storm of yesterday;
Forget the knocker, and the squeak;
Forget the bad day of the week.
Forget you're not a millionaire;
Forget the gray streaks in your hair;
Forget to even get the blues -
But don't forget
To Pay Your Dues!

Be loved, Hugs, jcs

September

September used to be the seventh month, In Latin Septem means "seven" and September was the seventh month until 153 BC. September has 30 days. It marks a beginning and an end. The beginning of the school year and in some places (the Northern tier of states) the beginning of Fall and the end of summer although we can still have some hot days at least the nights are getting cooler. It is nights like this that makes me wish I had a bed on the porch. I probably couldn't sleep out there anyway because the dogs would bark and the neighbor is culling down the big bushes on the south side of my property (actually the bushes are on his property) and while I am in favor of cutting down Bushes this one will diminish my privacy.

There is a lot going on in September as evidenced by the calendar printed in today's De Moines Register. I probably won't attend much of anything on the list. The one that really would interest me would be the Renaissance Fair.

September's birthstone is the Sapphire.

One September event is my nephew's birthday. Jonathan turns 25 next Tuesday. I'd congratulate him here but he doesn't read my blog so there would be no point. If you want to send him a birthday e-mail his address is: joncolej@gmail.com. I am not sure how much he reads his e-mail but you can try anyway. He is a good kid (guy) and he might get a kick out of it. This completes the cycle I start every year. I turned 65, Mother would have been 95, Ginny 55 and Jon 25. It makes it easy to keep track of things.

Wikipedia has this bit of Trivia about September that I find interesting.

World War II started on September 1, 1939 with Adolf Hitler's invasion of Poland. It ended on September 2, 1945 with Japan's formal surrender.

September 11 is a day that will be forever etched in the world's memory. The video below commemorates that event.



And for those who want to remember a different "kind of September" Here is Ed Ames at Age 80 singing "Try to Remember." Beautiful



Be loved. Hugs, jcs

Just Because

I love her and this song.