Category: Inspiration

(Tom: Here’s a man making a positive difference in people’s lives!
Not many of us cannot do something this simple.
Doesn’t take an iron will, superhuman strength or millions of dollars. Just a bit of money, time, care and the intention to make the world a better place.

And if you want to start with zero dollars down, here’s a great quote I saw yesterday:
“You cannot add to the peace and goodwill of the world if you fail to create an atmosphere of harmony and love right where you live and work.” – Thomas Dreier

So, on your list of things to do today, what are you going to add that makes the world better than it was yesterday? Here are some suggestions.
Smile more. Especially when you first make eye contact and answering the phone.
Compliment people.
Hold a door open.
Let someone merge into your lane when driving.
Smile and wave or say thank you when someone lets you cut in or is otherwise polite to you.
Pay more attention when someone is talking to you.

Make a game of this.)

Every weekend, 93-year-old Bob Williams walks into his local dollar store in Long Grove, Iowa, and buys a box of Hersheys. Not those small, regular-sized candy bars… but the really big ones.

Bob, however, typically doesn’t enjoy them himself. He gives one to the cashier, and then to the person waiting behind him in line. And then he walks the downtown area handing them out to everyone he sees… …young, old, men, women, happy, sad… …everyone. He has been doing this for the past 11 years and he’s known as “The Candy Bar guy.”

It’s estimated that over the years, Bob has handed out about 6,000 chocolate bars.

So why does Bob do it? Because it puts a smile on everyone’s face. And THAT’S always worth it.

“I graduated High School this week. When my dad said he had a present for me I thought I was getting some cheesy graduation card. But what I received was something truly priceless. Following the ceremony he handed me a bag with a copy of “Oh The Places You’ll Go” by Doctor Seuss inside. At first I just smiled and said that it meant a lot and that I loved that book. But then he told me, ‘No, open it up.’

On the first page I see a short paragraph written by none other than my kindergarten teacher. I start tearing up but I’m still confused. He tells me, ‘Every year, for the past 13 years, since the day you started kindergarten I’ve gotten every teacher, coach and principal to write a little something about you inside this book.’

“My early teachers mention my “pigtails and giggles” while my high school teachers mention my “wit and sharp thinking.” But they all mention my humor and love for life. It is astounding to receive something this moving, touching nostalgic and thoughtful.”

Issue 546 | Date: Friday, October 27, 2023

I don’t like hunting myself but I never supposed that gave me the right to tell others what to do or think. On a far more serious note, we had Stalin and Chairman Mao slaughter nearly 100 million people for having dissenting views. They make Hitler with less than 10 million seem like a loser! The modern technofascists—Google, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram—have dared to close down the accounts of Donald Trump who is STILL (at the time of writing) the President of the USA. The abominable conceit of these dudes who think that nobody else matters and that their views should—by right—be forced on other people, regardless of their express wishes, is the blight of the world just now. After all, 74 million people voted for Trump. They want him! That’s the most number of votes for any president in the past. Yet these Trump supporters are now classed as UN-people, according to the technofascists. They are being tracked down and eliminated (literally erased) by the powers of overwhelming evil who are now, even as I write, trying to photoshop history in their image. If you express even dissenting thoughts, you’re gone. Google and Facebook (who own almost everything else anyway) will cancel your account. They have become the new Thought Police. They think they own our minds! Shades of George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty Four! (who wrote his famous novel into the teeth of post-war Stalinist Russia, remember) So, be a grey rock! Don’t draw their fire. Be invisible What we can do instead, for those of you who want to become like counter terrorists, is lie low for the moment. Attack them in sneaky ways: like BEING MORE LOVING! They won’t understand that. It’s beyond their puny range of thought. Every time you shout out for caring and humanity, that’s a blow for truth and freedom. It’s an anti-Google statement! He he! The thing is that we are all connected anyway and nothing happens on the opposite side of the fence that does not affect us. Too bad these techno-sociopaths to get that. It disarms a lot of hostility. Remember the words of Elizabethan poet John Donne (pronounced Dunne): ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee. Which in turn was taken as the title of a book by Ernest Hemingway. “No man is an island” Donne also wrote. No getting away from it: we are all in this together and the fools who think they can force ideas onto people just simply do not, CANNOT, learn from history! Put another way, there is no point in attacking and hating, because it’s reflexive; it comes back on yourself. Unfortunately, we are going into a period of torpor and hibernation, where nothing good will happen to the human race. In internet terms, original ideas will be shut down! No developments. New ideas will be ostracized, radicals reviled, anything not familiar will be withdrawn from us as unsafe and dangerous. Well, I have words for these techno-dudes… anything worthwhile is dangerous! Jesus got clobbered for his ideas; Nicholas Copernicus didn’t dare publish his math showing that the Sun was the center of our nearby space, for fear of being burned by the Inquisition;  Galileo came within a hair of being tortured and killed by the Church, because he said that Jupiter had moons, just like earth’s; and poor old Bruno Giordano did get flamed—literally—because he said God was within us all and that there were infinite universes out there: too much truth for the Catholic Church. Bruno Giordano who was burned alive in 1600, with a metal bridle in his mouth, so he couldn’t “infect” other people with his truths (Google censorship anyone?)  This statue is in Campo Dei Fiore in Rome. But it’s personal as well. My parents (and Vivien’s) went through the last war. In a way I’m glad the older folks are gone. They suffered and wept as the world went to war to fight fascism. There was pain, fear, loved ones were lost… and for what? They believed they were fighting for freedom. A future. Indeed, they thought they’d won. But it all came to nothing in the end. Politicians today are just stooges and the real power brokers are the nerdy geeks, who hardly ever wash (Bill Gates stank at one time). They pose as rich and successful but the truth is that they just pulled the wool over everyone’s eyes as to what they were truly up to; they sit astride human endeavor siphoning energy from it, capitalizing on it, like the parasites they are. Google, Facebook and Amazon are really just an extra tax, being ripped from the public coffers, and nothing being given back. I repudiate such specimens of humanity as Zuckerberg, Bezos, Page and Bryn. They are disgusting to me and I do NOT want to be like them or—God forbid!—even think like them! Yet they want to FORCE me to be like them. It is my wish instead to uphold the wonderful traditions of humans I admire, like Shakespeare, Beethoven, Jane Austen and Michelangelo. I’m in an invidious position. I can’t hide and be a grey rock. I have to stand up and speak my truth. I may get shot. Probably not, I’m not seeking sympathy. But I want YOU to go underground. Be subversive. Think love. Think humanity. Rejoice in all goodness and think only of the future: what can we bequeath of worth to our children and children’s children? “Think on”, as my father used to say (never wasted a word!) To your good health, Prof. Keith Scott-Mumby The Official Alternative Doctor

“No Letting the Old Man In!”

That’s the response the admired nonagenarian actor Clint Eastwood gave to country singer Toby Keith when asked about his secret to staying active and vibrant at his age.

“Every day when I wake up, I don’t let the old man in. My secret has been the same since 1959: staying busy. I never let the old man into the house. I’ve had to drag him out because he was already comfortably settled, bothering me all the time, leaving no space for anything other than nostalgia.

You have to stay active, alive, happy, strong, and capable. It’s in us, in our intelligence, attitude, and mentality. We are young, regardless of our ID. We must learn to fight to not let the old man in.
That old man awaits us, stationed and tired by the side of the road to discourage us. I don’t let the old, critical, hostile, envious spirit in—the one that scrutinizes our past to tie us up with complaints and distant anxieties, or relived traumas and waves of pain.

You have to turn your back on the old murmurer, full of rage and complaints, lacking courage, denying himself that old age can be creative, determined, full of light and projection.

Aging can be pleasant and even fun if you know how to use your time, if you’re satisfied with what you’ve achieved, and if you still maintain enthusiasm,” adds Clint Eastwood, a legend with ten Oscar nominations, of which he has won four statues—all after crossing the threshold of sixty.

That’s called “not letting the old man into the house.”

These words resonated so deeply with country singer Toby Keith that they inspired him to compose the song “Don’t Let the Old Man In,” dedicated to the legendary actor.

Imagine what the world would be like if more of us did such things.