When I awakened this morning and looked outside, it appeared as though it had rained once again in the night. For some reason it seemed a repeat of yesterday, only being without the rain.
I had a very good chat with several of my relatives this morning regarding my visit to various grave sites yesterday, and was surprised that we hadn’t run into each other since our times of arrival and departure were very close.
It’s all good stuff when having the time to chat with those who’ve walked similar paths with us over these long years and able to place it all in perspective. It seems the older we get, the more clear our understanding is of family dynamics. What we believe to be forthright and true about a family member early on in our growth and development, becomes illuminated later in life as being nothing more than a charade.
One of my dear ones dropped by just to say “hi” and give me a hug since I’d not seen her in some months. She was a little distressed over something another had so wickedly done to her recently which was for no other reason than to create an embarrassing situation for herself and her immediate family.
After telling me the how’s and why’s of someone doing such a vile thing, I believe she actually felt better knowing how much I empathized with what she was going thru. Before she left, I sternly said, “Please don’t think you’re alone when suffering thru such craziness created by mindless idiots who can’t find anything better to do with their pathetic lives, because I’ve also had to endure similar badgering from rogues of like stripes, and not but a week ago, I finally had enough by giving it all back to the universe in hopes it will open its floodgates upon them.” Thank goodness she left in a far better mood than when she arrived.
Just after I parked in front of my office before noon, a long-time colleague of mine pulled up beside me. I was delighted he stopped because I was going to call him and tell him I was going to post on tonight’s journal page, a photo of Winnebago Lutheran Church which he and his wife were members of an number of years ago.
How I just happened to see it, was during my travels to graveyards yesterday morning. In spite of it being dark and rainy, I was shocked to find a church that old being so well cared for. I asked my colleague how it was that a country Lutheran Church would still be so vibrantly active.
His answer was, “Because they’re all really good people up there who’re more selfless than selfish as the likes we’re finding across America.” I couldn’t have praised his words more while listening to some of his stories being told about the selfless giving back that took place in that congregation of faith over those very many years. Before he drove off, I promised to take in one of their Sunday morning Services, because he piqued my curiosity all the more by telling me how beautiful its interior is. For sure, that church structure has to be well over a 100 years old.
After he drove off, I compared in my mind the idea of churches like that being similar to multi-generational families where it all goes back to honest and selfless nurturing of the group as a whole. It’s no wonder we find fractured families and deteriorating houses of worship in these times, which mostly stems from the mode of all the many more being, “Don’t ever stop looking at me, because it is all about me!”
Late this afternoon I listed a most charming little home that’s located at 215 – 3rd St. NW here in Mason City. It’s an exceptionally solid home, and the more I investigated its structural history, the more I’m now convinced that it’s the very last standing remnant of Mason City’s frontier homes that were dotting our now Downtown area. Believe it or not, I discovered visible square nails in its basement timbers. In spite of our illustrious City Assessor saying it was built in 1900, she is 1,000 percent wrong because they stopped selling and freely using those nails decades before 1900.
Now if any of you are looking at owning a real piece of our City’s history after seeing how our County’s so-called “fathers” so quietly acquired and scrapped off that frontier home not a block away from the one I just listed, give me a call and I’ll give you a free showing.
By the way, the zoning on that home is “Central Business District”, so you’d be free to open a business, and just for your information, the previous owners used it as “Birthright” for a number of years.
Tonight’s one-liner is: Nothing is more terrible than to see ignorance in action.
