In Our Community
Ever since I was a little boy, I was fascinated with magic. When my children were growing up, I had some magic tricks that I kept in a shoe box. When the occasion arose, I could do some simple little tricks for the children and neighborhood kids.
There were several radio programs during the golden days of radio that dealt with magic. One most notable was Mandrake the Magician. Mandrake was based on the King Features comic strip by Lee Falk and was syndicated in 1940, running in 15-minute serial format on WOR between November 11, 1940 and February 6, 1942. As in the strip, Mandrake lived with his servant, Lothar, a giant who could “rip a crocodile’s jaws apart or break the back of an anthropoid ape.” They lived in a “house of mystery and many secrets.” Mandrake, Lothar, and the beautiful Princess Narda battled evil elements, serving up generous portions of mysticism along the way. Raymond Edward Johnson, who would later gain fame as the host of Inner Sanctum Mysteries, played Mandrake. His voice was ideal as the man of a thousand secrets, whose chant “invovo legem magicarum” involved the laws of magic and set into play the bag of tricks. Listen to AM 1370 KDTH’s Big Broadcast from 6 to midnight on Sunday nights during February and you will hear the mystical sounds of Mandrake the Magician. 
Helping Veterans in 2023Recently retired or unemployed, at loose ends and wondering what your next steps should be? If you’re looking for ways to help other veterans in your area, this year could be your most meaningful.
— Is anyone building homes for veterans in your area? Are any organizations ready to break ground and start building in the spring? Do you have construction, plumbing or electrical skills? Even if you don’t, there are jobs you can do to move the project along: reading blueprints and ordering materials, supervising deliveries, providing overnight security, painting walls and trim and much more. As a place to start, ask if the Habitat for Humanity near you is building a home for a veteran. You might end up as a Habitat employee in charge of volunteer resources or running a Habitat ReStore full of building materials. — Raise a service dog puppy. These little guys need to spend the first year of their lives in a loving environment to get them ready for their all-important service dog training. You’ll get the pup ready by teaching him initial basic commands, keeping him healthy and getting him socialized out in public. At every step of the way you’ll be giving the puppy what he’ll need to help a veteran with PTSD, a physical disability or mental trauma. Look around online for organizations in your area that are raising and training service dogs for veterans. — Volunteer on an Honor Flight. Keep an eye on the schedule in your area for the Honor Flights, those all-expenses-paid trips that take hundreds of veterans to Washington, D.C. They need volunteers for every trip to escort mostly elderly veterans to see all of their monuments and spend the day together. The 2023 schedule of trips will be up on the website in February (www.honorflight.org). Look for the map on the list of hubs around the country. Is 2023 going to be your year to help yourself by stepping up to help other veterans? © 2023 King Features Synd., Inc. 
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Choose the Third “B”
Sometimes ideas for my weekly writing come while I take my morning walk. On one particular morning I started thinking of the different ways we can look at life. Suddenly my thoughts coalesced on three words, all beginning with the letter B. Life can be viewed as a burden, boring, or a blessing. I’m sure there are other ways to look at life, but these three will occupy us adequately for a few paragraphs.
Life can be viewed as a burden. There are certainly enough troubles, problems, and tragedies that can make life burdensome. The Christian faith, based on the Bible, affirms that this is a broken, fallen, and sinful world. Yes, burdens abound! I’ve known people who spend most of their time lamenting how messed up the world is. They tend not to be very happy people, as if they had a glass of lemon juice for breakfast. If there’s a negative side to a situation they’ll find it and fixate on it. When you factor God into life, then the burdens can become manageable. If He doesn’t remove the burdens, then He has a plan to help us deal with them. “Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens.” Psalm 68:19 Life can be viewed as boring. Most days are routine. There’s a sameness about most of our schedules. If we’re not careful, days can slip by without us taking much of a notice. How sad that among the very young we most often hear the complaint, “I’m bored.” As we grow older we may learn to not wear such an emotion on our shirt sleeve, but there are times when we wonder if there shouldn’t be something more. When you factor God into life, you see that everything that exists, all of creation, is His design. It’s an insult to Him to see the life He’s given us as boring. We need to open our minds and hearts to the truth that there are wonders all around! “Great are the works of the Lord; they are pondered by all who delight in them.” Psalm 111:2 Life can be viewed as a blessing. This is the best of the three options I determined on my walk. Life’s not to be seen as a burden or boring but as a blessing! When you factor God into life, then in the midst of a broken world and a daily life filled with routine, you realize that God is at work! His intentions are all good. He has our best interest at heart. He blesses us with Himself, and so we are blessed and can be a blessing to others too! “Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim you, who walk in the light of your presence, Lord.” Psalm 89:15 
Mature peers, brace yourself for unexpected “happenings.” Let’s say, you have paced your everyday lifestyle to meet your aging and waning physical abilities, but life is good. You have someone to wheel out your garbage bins each week and then return them to their spot behind the garage. If you can’t drive your car one day, you can take the senior citizen bus. You can order groceries from a super market. If you can’t make it to the YMCA for an exercise class, you can march around the living room and kitchen. If you can’t meet your buddies at the local restaurant you can sit in your lounge chair and watch sports. Life is good.
But, here comes the bump. A “happening” just pops out of nowhere. The proverbial apple cart tips over. There are red apples spilling out all over the street. They are rolling everywhere and are cluttering your pathway. Who is going to pick them up? Yes, you are. I am. Recently, many “happenings” occurred in my house. The kitchen window has to be replaced. The bathroom facet is leaking. The toilet tank is leaking. My oven is broken. The living room carpet pad is moving and causing bumps. These things seemed to happen all at once. What did I do at this point? Well, the first thing I did was to up right the apple cart. Then I picked up the number of apples I would need in order to get my bathroom toilet tank fixed. Presently, I am still picking up red apples and putting them in the apple cart. By the time the apple cart is filled I should have conquered all of my unexpected “happenings.” Ironically, there is some solace in this dilemma. You can share these experiences with family and friends because they may also have unpredictable “happenings” they are dealing with on a daily basis. As a matter of fact, recently a couple I know needed to replace both their washer and dryer at the same time. But their dilemma was in the delivery and setting up process. First the washer leaked and the delivery men couldn’t fix it so the couple had to wait on doing their wash until a repair person could come out to the house and get it to work. And then the dryer didn’t work well so they had to wait again on a service call appointment. My friends are still picking up apples and placing them into their up right apple cart. But, soon they will be saying, life is good. |
