IT'S WHAT YOU SCATTER

Three red marbles

By W. E. Petersen

This story first appeared in the October 1975 Ensign Magazine

I was at the corner grocery store buying some early potatoes... I noticed a small boy, delicate of bone and feature, ragged but clean, hungrily apprising a basket of freshly picked green peas.

I paid for my potatoes but was also drawn to the display of fresh green peas. I am a pushover for creamed peas and new potatoes.

Pondering the peas, I couldn't help overhearing the conversation between Mr. Miller (the store owner) and the ragged boy next to me.

'Hello Barry, how are you today?'

'H'lo, Mr. Miller. Fine, thank ya. Jus' admirin' them peas. They sure look good.' 

'They are good, Barry. How's your Ma?'
'Fine. Gittin' stronger alla' time.'
'Good. Anything I can help you with?'
'No, Sir. Jus' admirin' them peas.'
'Would you like to take some home?' asked Mr. Miller. 

'No, Sir. Got nuthin' to pay for 'em with.'

'Well, what have you to trade me for some of those peas?'

'All I got's my prize marble here.'

'Is that right? Let me see it', said Miller.

'Here 'tis. She's a dandy.' 

'I can see that. Hmm mmm, only thing is this one is blue and I sort of go for red. Do you have a red one like this at home?' the store owner asked. 

'Not zackley but almost.'

'Tell you what. Take this sack of peas home with you and next trip this way let me look at that red marble'. Mr. Miller told the boy.

'Sure will. Thanks Mr. Miller.'

Mrs. Miller, who had been standing nearby, came over to help me.

With a smile she said, 'There are two other boys like him in our community, all three are in very poor circumstances. Jim just loves to bargain with them for peas, apples, tomatoes, or whatever. 

When they come back with their red marbles, and they always do, he decides he doesn't like red after all and he sends them home with a bag of produce for a green marble or an orange one, when they come on their next trip to the store.' 

I left the store smiling to myself, impressed with this man. A short time later I moved to Colorado , but I never forgot the story of this man, the boys, and their bartering for marbles. 

Several years went by, each more rapid than the previous one. Just recently I had occasion to visit some old friends in that Idaho community and while I was there learned that Mr. Miller had died. They were having his visitation that evening and knowing my friends wanted to go, I agreed to accompany them. Upon arrival at the mortuary we fell into line to meet the relatives of the deceased and to offer whatever words of comfort we could.

Ahead of us in line were three young men. One was in an army uniform and the other two wore nice haircuts, dark suits and white shirts...all very professional looking. They approached Mrs. Miller, standing composed and smiling by her husband's casket. 

Each of the young men hugged her, kissed her on the cheek, spoke briefly with her and moved on to the casket. Her misty light blue eyes followed them as, one by one; each young man stopped briefly and placed his own warm hand over the cold pale hand in the casket. Each left the mortuary awkwardly, wiping his eyes.. 

Our turn came to meet Mrs. Miller. I told her who I was and reminded her of the story from those many years ago and what she had told me about her husband's bartering for marbles. With her eyes glistening, she took my hand and led me to the casket.

'Those three young men who just left were the boys I told you about.

They just told me how they appreciated the things Jim 'traded' them. Now, at last, when Jim could not change his mind about color or size....they came to pay their debt.' 

'We've never had a great deal of the wealth of this world,' she confided, 'but right now, Jim would consider himself the richest man in Idaho ..' 

With loving gentleness she lifted the lifeless fingers of her deceased husband. Resting underneath were three exquisitely shined red marbles.

The Moral:
We will not be remembered by our words, but by our kind deeds. Life is not measured by the breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath.Today I wish you a day of ordinary miracles ~ A fresh pot of tea you didn't make yourself...

An unexpected phone call from an old friend.... Green stoplights on your way to work....

The fastest line at the grocery store.... 

A good sing-along song on the radio... 

Your keys found right where you left them. 
IT'S NOT WHAT YOU GATHER, BUT WHAT YOU SCATTER THAT TELLS WHAT KIND OF LIFE YOU HAVE LIVED!


H/T  H. Robert for sending me this

Breakfast Saturday

Saturday, October 15, 2011

7:30 to 10:30 am

4133 Urbandale Ave

Des Moines

Adults $6.00 and Children under 5 $3.00

All the trimmings, Pancakes, Eggs, Sausage,

Hashbrowns, Biscuits & Gravy, Milk & O. J.

Help the Masons continue their charitable works

By supporting their local events!!!

Every One is welcome, Bring a Friend!

The Feynman Series

I ran across these three videos and they are wonderful.  The first three won't take long.  The CalTec videos will take a lot longer but I suggest you bookmark it and come back and watch it as you can.  Richard Feynman was a person well worth exploring.  His ideas and vision are worthy of your study. They are not in order 1, 2, and 3 but rather 1, 3, and then 2 as I found them to fit my thinking about them.





This last one should be watched by all those Masonic "Big Necklace hunters" that are so prevalent in our fraternity.  Honors - I have a tendency to agree with him about them.




CalTech TEDx Series Feynman's Vision the Next 50 years.

A ghostly bulding among the foliage - Photo by Bob Kelly

This neglected farm shed caught my eye this week, and I chose to remove all the color from the building, make it somewhat lighter, and enhance the color of the trees around it to provide a kind of visual contrast between the two.  It was fun to do and for better or worse.....this is how it turned out.

Potpourri

 The title of this post has nothing to do with the content.  Except that when you are done reading it I hope you will have enjoyed doing so.  I really had nothing much I wanted to write about (except for one thing but that will come later) and had been collecting all of these items that I found around the web.  The "Occupy" movement is a phenomenal thing going on in our country right now. People are taking to the streets to protest - If you go here, you can hear Keith Olbermann read the statement which they issued.  I think that possibly one of the "matches" that lit this fire was the Supreme Court ruling that Corporations are people and that they can donate unlimited amounts of money to political campaigns, thus opening the door to yet even more corruption.  The Republiscum party is out to "get" Mr. Obama any way they can and are willing to shut the government down.  Some of their ideas are inhumane and in my humble opinion this seems to be the only way to bring their nefarious activities out into the light.  Occupy Pampers indeed.  Pampers usually hold the residue of shitty activities and that is what has been going on...Tea Party/Republithugs.  Same thing.

 Bullies have permeated our society.  We have allowed it to happen and we have not stood up against this behavior.  It is not just the LGBT students who are bullied but also the women and teachers and the students who are perceived as different.  Bullies seem to think they are "entitled" and are often supported by their parents.  As I said earlier and will again.  Bulling of any sort is wrong and people need to identify it in all its forms and stand against it.

 Columbus Day.  No mail...  I love this cartoon.  When a political cartoonist sees something worth commenting on and throws they hypocrisy back at the hypocrite it is poetic..

 The above speaks for itself.  Does not need a comment from me.

This fits into the God is Dog category.  I love it.

 The above is something I ran across and it has the ring of truth from personal experience in it.  I needed to learn the lesson of dependence on myself and that there is no one in my life that I can really trust to be there for me. In the end most people stab me in the back.

I love the above.  The Oxford comma is something I always taught and then I got away from it.  I shall now go back to trying to make sure it is always there.

Speaking of there.  Some of my former students need to be reminded of this little sentence.

They're going to put their apples over there.

It is so difficult for me not to go onto their Facebook page and make a correction.  My nephew had me proof his paper for school the other day and I caught him saying "me and"  I had just corrected him on that the other day and was delighted to be able to write in big red block letters "Never say me and"  You must always put yourself last.

When I was a teacher one of my colleagues seemed to have a problem with the fact that I belonged to the Masonic Fraternity.  I would not argue with her about it for we are taught not to argue with those who "through ignorance" or some other reason may not understand the nature of our association. One of the things about her was that I considered her a friend.  I had taught her son in school and liked him and had a good experience with her.  She would always tell me about what was happening with Scott as she knew I was interested in him.

As he progressed on to college she began to tell me that he had pledged a fraternity at Iowa State.  I asked her how she could let Scott join a fraternity when she was so opposed to the Masonic fraternity. She then asked me about the Lodge and said something about we accepted all kinds of people of different religions into our Lodges.  I said yes, that one of the beautiful things about our group was that no one ever discussed religious beliefs.  That the only requirement was that a member believe in God.

I said that I prayed to (worshiped) my concept of Deity and the other members each prayed to their own conceptions of their God.  Well, that was the problem. She told me that in her church everyone had to hold the same ideas about God.

I have been thinking about Christianity - probably because of the Republi________'s fussing about Mitt Romney's Mormon faith,  That and the Palin/Bachman and Co. use of their "Christianity" as a prerequisite to be president of  the United States.  It got me thinking about just what is a Christian anyway.  It is pretty easy to define a Jew or a Muslim. But just who are these "Christians" anyway.  As always I checked on Wikipaedia and found that there are  reported to be approximately 38,000 Christian denominations.

Well it seems pretty clear (as mud) to me that all of those Christians are not going to have the same conception of Deity that I have so I completely understand why people are leaving the church.  Read two articles about that today  Here and here.  

The mind just boggles.  I guess I will never understand why so many people have so much differing of an opinion on the nature of God and how to worship.  But it is nice to have 38,000 choices.  Thanks for  stopping by.  Oh yes, my friend,  She never mentioned the Masonic fraternity to me again and her denomination.  She was a Lutheran.

Miles on Monday

Miles is over for his weekly visit.  I missed having him last week.

 We had some "back porch time" and it was lovely.

 He is so majestic.

 The view is really nice

 The temperature was perfect 80 degrees.

 After checking out the neighbors...

 He came over for a little tail bone scratching.

 Bailey had to come out to see what was going on.

 He had to look around and then discuss thing with Miles.

 They seemed to be enjoying things and enjoyed being outside as much as I did.

 The "boys" and I say Thanks for stopping by.  Hugs,  

 Oh yes,  Where was Miss Cassie?  Well she was in the garage sitting on a 12 pack of toilet paper that I had not carried in yet. I should have gotten a picture of that also.