New Day

Ernest Hemingway's greatest novel and his first (a first edition of this novel, if you have one, is worth much money), The Sun Also Rises, finds its title in the book of all books, God's Word.

"The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose." (Ecclesiastes 1:5 )

I never knew my father not to get up and go to work in the morning; no matter how bad things developed, he always faced the new day with optimism. Even the morning after the barn burned the night before, he got up and went to work. Even when the crops were drowning because of too much water, even when the crops were drying up due to lack of water, he got up and went to work. And, to this day, I get up early every morning for work.

Recently, a young man of limited acquaintance came to me, (an old man) seeking advice because in this depressive, regressive, economic environment, his business was failing, his wife had left to return to another state with his two children, he was having trouble paying the mortgage on his home, and amid all his other debts and obligations, he was having some medical problems. He said, “What am I going to do?” I said, “You will get up tomorrow morning, put on your socks one at the time, get ready for work as usual, and then go to work!” I told him about the first public poem I ever gave, to a Sunday School convention, at the age of 4. The title of the poem was Keep on Keeping On. One of my aunts, before she died, never stopped reminding me of her pride in my performance that day and since. She said I had on a white suit with short pants and red bow-tie. She said, “I knew then you would be a marvelous speaker.”

Many has been the time when I just wanted to stay in bed and forget the challenges awaiting me on the other side of the door. School tests, licensing boards, divorce, sick and dying parents, critical surgery, and later, for the past 40 years, the challenge of life as a totally blind person. Often times, when I hear a person give a resounding “AMEN” for a sermon or song in church, I wonder if they truly know the meaning of the word. It means, “I would stake my life on what you just said.” Talk is cheap. Until you get knocked down, until you even have a 'sucker punch', you do not know of what you are made.

After the most recent severe hurricane here on the North Carolina coast, thank God, my beach house was not damaged, even though just 2 houses from the ocean. But much sand had washed up, deposited under the house and in the driveway (it is a house on stilts). My housekeeper said, “You are going to have to get someone to get that sand out from under that house so we will be able to park your car.” I said, “I will move it.” and she said, “How?” “The way my entire life has been lived, one shovel at the time.”

It is an unusual life that does not have valleys as well as mountain peaks. We go from day to day, but few things last forever.

Blessed is the man whose strength is in You,
Whose heart is set on pilgrimage.
As they pass through the Valley of Baca,
They make it a spring;
The rain also covers it with pools.
They go from strength to strength;
Each one appears before God in Zion.
(Psalm 84 5-7)

I will never understand how those who lived before us, those who planted the flowers which we now pick, lived the lives which they lived, usually without any complaint. One man, who I knew quite well, was married to an invalid wife, totally crippled, in a wheelchair or on a hospital bed all the time. Yet, he got up every day, prepared food for his children, who left for school in a school bus, went to work at a business in town so he could take home a paycheck each week, went home at the end of the day to take care of a wife who would never get any better, children who had all the needs of normal children in and out of school, did the laundry, cleaned the house, and persevered with an attitude of love and consideration toward everyone.

One of my father's brothers was in a severe accident from which he never recovered and was house-bound and bed-ridden for many years until he died. His wife, Aunt Louetta, would leave her responsible job as Dietician at a children's hospital and spend her lunch hour each day caring for him and making sure he was comfortable.

Recently, I had a discharged sailor and a discharged Marine working for me. Both had served overseas and both thought they were really tough, but they do not know what toughness is until faced with the challenges of the terminal illness of loved ones. Both, when things were not exactly pleasant at their work for me, just got up and walked out. You can not walk away from the responsibilities of those whose very day depends on you.

This is the day the LORD has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24

Most of today's young people are too spoiled to work, they just want everything handed to them. I said to a young man recently, “I will teach you everything I know about real estate and the stock market, but you will have to read the books and do some studying on your own.” He said, “I would just like to get a check every month.” (referring to the fact that Congress retired me with a check for my years of service as an Army officer) I reminded him, I still work, in spite of everything, I have never given up. When you see an urn full of my cremated ashes, you will know that I have quit.


Keep On Keepin' On
If the day looks kinder gloomy
And your chances kinder slim,
If the situation's puzzlin'
And the prospect's awful grim,
If perplexities keep pressin'
Till hope is nearly gone,
Just bristle up and grit your teeth
And keep on keepin' on.
Frettin' never wins a fight
And fumin' never pays;
There ain't no use in broodin'
In these pessimistic ways;
Smile just kinder cheerfully
Though hope is nearly gone,
And bristle up and grit your teeth
And keep on keepin' on.
There ain't no use in growlin'
And grumblin' all the time,
When music's ringin' everywhere
And everything's a rhyme.
Just keep on smilin' cheerfully
If hope is nearly gone,
And bristle up and grit your teeth
And keep on keepin' on.