Americanism

#1747

What thoughts are conjured in the mind of any human being?.. Surviving the rising tide of evil. Sometimes you feel like the windshield, other times the bug. When we are young, we feel as abrasive- powerful as a windshield. As we age, the golden age, which should be the best, we feel more like the bug, being smashed and "flicked" around.

As a totally blind veteran, your government first took away my identity... Then, my security, and now, my dignity. When you don't have family, when just about everyone else is attempting to see how deep they can get their hands in your pockets, you wonder if it was all worth while.

I was born on a dirt road, no power, no phone, no inside water lines, as with everything else in Eastern NC, "just a Democrat party stronghold of poverty. From a country school with 13 in my graduating class, I was blessed by God to get to the university, and by working at night, going to class during the day, sometimes starving, I matriculated through 8 years of university training to have a "DR" in front of my name.

Then, the war, all doctors draft, and I am back at home, having jumped through every hoop and barrier, the government through my way, depending on the largess of government and others. Never any prospects for real family. Your real friends dissociate themselves from you, "out of site out of mind." You manage to survive, day after day, you refuse to be a victim, because you are a victor in Jesus Christ. He assures you over and over, "I am all you need." So, a man with a brilliant mind, at one time able to chase a blood sail throughout every pathway of the human body, I made a living buying and selling junk. It was difficult to forgive those who worked for me, those who stole from me, those who stared at me, but, I look forward to the time, eternal time, that I will be normal again. 

Appifiny of the Unwashed

#1745  All things by immortal power,
Near or far,	30
Hiddenly
To each other linkèd are,
That thou canst not stir a flower
Without troubling of a star; -Francis Thompson

Henry Kissinger once said, "The boundaries of history have been marked by the masses of the unwashed."

This writer never takes a shower, never turns a faucet in the kitchen, without thanking God for water. What water means to life, both animal and plant. The fact that water has made the determining factor of almost every event in history. 70% of the Earths crust is covered by water, and makes up 70% of any animals body weight, water determining all plant life (mystery of the ages, routes in the soil, and the magnetism involved in water traveling even to the top of the tallest tree).

I never get out of the shower, without thinking that my ancestors never knew what it was to have a decent bath... The unwashed. 

This world traveler has seen unwashed people, the world over In Africa- Asia, Hundreds of men and women in rivers, beating their dirty clothing against rocks, washing their laundry in a river. 

From one side of the world to the other, people spending their day, with great jugs many times on their heads, transporting water from a creek to their home. 

As with characters in the bible, as with our ancestral forebears, to understand them, we must put flesh and blood on and in their bodies. I fully realize that today and in the 21st century, their are children born who never know their  parents, or knew their grandparents. 

Please God forgive those who do not have "precious memories," who do not have "family ties" to hold onto. 

I have all the empathy in the world, for the unwashed masses whose life is a struggle, in remote corners of the world, which God has blessed me to visit. I must remember, however, my own family. 

In-between the ancient farm homes of both my mother and father, my grandparents, and great- grandparents before them, a distance of about two miles, a curve in the dirt country road. In the grave yard at that curve, are the tomb stones of these, "saints of old" who I want to remember. 

Their were very few photographs back then, most of their ephemera (paper products), destroyed in their activity and just survival of daily life. People just did not prize old things. Every time this world traveler was near a monastery, I thought of the monk who found the sisters in 

Saint Catherine's Monastery

 at  Mount Sinai, burning old biblical scrolls, just trying to stay warm.

We think that God is tough. My ancestors were really tough. Think of their horror story, before leaving England, flaying to keep their Christian belief. Crossing the treacherous Atlantic in a small ship... Sick, some buried at sea. Landing on the shores of this promise land, near Morris town, NJ 1677. Battered by the sea and the New England winters. Think of what they encountered with their very few possessions, clothing- food- tools- medicine. But they eek out of existence out of the soil of New Jersey, founding Morris town. Then the hard working farmers moved south to North- Carolina. 

To show how tough they really were (and only a few family members know this). In my lifetime, few automobiles, cousin Barney, who owned a car, drinking liquor, drove his car into the ditch right there at the graveyard. His family had built our church in 1874, still there- still beautiful. His own family "kicked" him out of the church for drinking. So many times I wanted to tell his beautiful Christian wife and children (now dead and in Heaven), that story.

how things have changed at the church house, the school house, the court house, and all my relatives houses. Places which have had such a tremendous influence on my life. 

I still want to meet a perfect man, other than my blessed lord. My own "warts," "sins," though forgiven, still bother me. But even though we fail him, he never fails us. 

Not only did those folks buried in that graveyard, never have a decent bath, how they suffered from disease, not only wants but needs, at the one room school-house, which even my own mother attended, my grand-parents along with NC education governor Charles B. Aycock, they had to go to the woods and cut wood for the stove. Also buried in the graveyard, aunt Catty, the teacher... Uncle Turner, who once a year would go into a nearby town, and buy ice for everyone's once a year treat, ice-tea and ice-cream (July 4th celebrated at the school house). In the graveyard is my mothers 2 year old brother, who died from a dread disease. Until her death, my grand-mother thought every young boy looked like Seth. 

There is a long line of those in the graveyard who I can remember from stories which were told to me. Such stalwart ancestors, who knew nothing but handwork-hard times, and the all preserving power of God, will keep those of us who had it much easier, from complaining. They never heard a radio, but heard the voice of God from beautiful birds in the trees. They never saw a television set, but saw the hand of God in the lives of the sick and lonely. They never tasted "fast food" but knew the thrill from healthy- green- real food. They did not worry about diet or exercise, because farm work, walking most places, kept them in shape. 

In a world of political correctness, were the price of a soul is so cheap, God help us to remember the values of real Americans, real "Christ like" individuals. 

Reality, Perception: Morality, Dilemma

#1744

"When you're weary, feeling small,
When tears are in your eyes, I will dry them all;
I'm on your side. When times get rough
And friends just can't be found,
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down.
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down" - Simon and Garfunkel 

The amateur photographer enjoys photographing sunsets. This world traveler has photographed sunsets all over the world, even with almost sightless eyes. The best sunsets are behind mountains or across large expanses of water. 

There are many things in life I can not explain, like people praying as they read self-help books. When I get to heaven, I will have many questions to ask God.  I want to question many ideas about nothingness to somethingness. I want to question about all matter being energy... Einstein shows us this in his equation. Energy = mass x the speed of light squared. We know that our entire universe is electricity, everything about the human body. For some strange reason, we just expect the human body to keep functioning in spite of its treatment, in spite of the nourishment we put in it, in spite of the stress and strain we put on it. The evolutionist has never been able to explain why everything wears out, all matter. 

Recently, two deaths in one day, men this writer knew... two very different men. 

I have joined, for many years, a group of veterans every Monday morning for breakfast. Rapidly we are dying off. The last, a veteran named Fred, who always boasted about never going to a doctor and he just fell over dead, no warnings. He was just beginning to enjoy his retirement. 

The same day, the death of James Forbes Nash and his wife in a traffic collision, returning from Europe where he had just received a prize for mathematics. 

The following day, A ship capsized in the Yangtze River, a storm just out of nowhere. 432 people died. (Chinese have souls too). This world traveler has crossed that river, been in a ship on that river several times. 

The writer C.S Lewis said, "Joy is a serious business." The only joy we can observe in the death of anyone, particularly a family member, is the joy of knowing that there is life after death... last breath here, first breath there. The Catholics would have you believe there is a buffer zone. A place and time between clinical death and heaven, a place called purgatory, where sins can be purged, by others, praying and giving, attempting to influence God. There is absolutely nothing in the scripture to support this. The sovereign word of God tells us that at clinical death, every opportunity is over for purging or repentance. Of course we are taught, in no uncertain terms, that those who live in sin are dead while they live. 

It is incomprehensible that anyone, with nominal intelligence, knowing that everyone will die (the mortality rate is still 100%, no options) And knowing just how short life is compared to eternity, knowing how unpredictable life can be ( Nash and his wife were killed in a taxi on their return from Europe, plane, to their home.) That one would want to be well prepared for exit- death. Everyone does not "fade away" in a hospice. 

Modern science will have you believe that, life is a matter of genetics, genetic intervention to make living better. In England, the popular notion is to have a nurse in the home with a child, for the first 3 years of a child's life. In the notion that the nurse can teach the child right from wrong, and prepare an individual for person hood. 

The Christian message, "Christ-like," the new birth, born again, the righteousness of Christ replacing within the individual. The old man of sin and rejection. The new birth means, that when God looks at you through his spectacles, he sees not you and your indifference, but in you, the righteousness of Christ. 

We are a new creation, different. The problem with most believers I know, they do not want to be different. THEY LIKE THEIR LIFE AS IT IS. Much like the lives of their family and friends who are not believers. They want popularity, to chase the idols of success- money- notoriety. Most people I know, much prefer the lives of "The Rich and Famous" to the servitude life of Christ. Only twenty percent of Catholics go to mass. Thousands of Protestant- Baptist churches, close their doors every year. 

The parel, golden age, the white haired saints still in the fuse, watching their church and its pastor compromise, and become politically correct... The church, a country club with a steeple. Compromising with "Gods word," in order to dance to the tune of Madison Avenue... God becoming just a bell hop; prayer becoming just a quick fix. There is no real joy or genuineness in just pretending. 

The Christian life is not complicated, just tough. Our faith gives us freedom. The grace of knowing that "whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's" (Romans 14:8). Can anyone think of a greater joy than this? 

Fathers Day and Heros

Nothing between, like worldly pleasure;
Habits of life, though harmless they seem,
Must not my heart from Him e’er sever;
He is my all, there’s nothing between.

There is a balm in Gilead (Jeremaih 8:22). There is a retrovi (rediscovery), magnificence in thinking again of your own father on this fathers day.

My mother and father were singers, at the old family church house, built by my ancestors (1874), They did not just "mumble" the old hymn's, as do most pretending Christians. You could hear them singing above the crowd. Much later in life, in my private practice which I enjoyed for a few years following the military, many members of churches and other communities (and my parents visited churches everywhere), would say to me, "our church revival never got started until your parents came to the meetings, and we could hear them singing."

Perhaps the earliest memory of my own father, was hearing him sing early in the mornings, as he was around the farm, feeding the hogs, work animals, and milking the cows. I can still hear him singing, his favorites, nothing between and, "I'll take my vacation in Heaven." He never took a vacation, in his entire life. He was the workingness man anyone could know. He never had anytime for the "worldly pleasures" of most men such as, hunting, fishing, sports events, he was always busy. could find more work for his sons on a wet day, then most men could find for their boys on a dry day. If nothing else, he would say, "Thomas go to corn-crib and shuck corn." we had a large farm which had been in the family a very long time. Mules or tractor, he would keep us all busy from early morning to darkness. Then, on Saturdays, holidays, he would be up early doing the usual chores (hogs, cows, chickens etc.), and then drive the 5 miles into town, to stand on his feet all day long and cut hair. This he did my entire life. One of the many preachers at his funeral said, "There is no telling how many heads he cut for 10 cents a head during the great depression." Of course his funeral was held at the old family church, with its many additions over the years, which he and my cousins mostly built. I still remember the day that he and I were working on one addition at the church. I was holding up the drywall for him to nail. I said, "why are not others here to help us at the church?" I still remember the tears rolling down his face, as he said, "They don't love our church as much as we do."

Every church member has a 168 hour week. Most think their salvation is adequate just for that one hour on Sunday morning. He believed Christianity involved every hour- second, of every day. Early on Sunday mornings, Winter: building fires in the wood-burning heaters throughout the church. Summer: opening the windows throughout the church in all Sunday school rooms. He would always go the mile to the church to make it comfortable for others. If the weather were so bad that the preacher- pastor could not get there, then he would conduct the service. When I was a child, Church service, only one Sunday a month. But, there was always Sunday school, prayer meetings, visitations, etc. The men of the church were responsible for these services. My father was also chairman of the school board, small- poor country public school. This writer, like his sister and two brothers, like his parents- grand-parents went to this same school for 12 years. I still remember the principal of the school driving to the farm, going up to the field to find my father on the tractor, and discuss problems with him. Often, my father would come to the house, put his toolbox in his truck, and head to the school house to take care of a building. It was much easier for my father and principal to repair something, then to do paperwork and the county finally get around to it.

Once, when I was a student at Chapel Hill, I told the founder of modern education in North Carolina, Dr. Guy Phillips, that story. He said, "Your father might not have been a college graduate but he was a real educator."

Children must have good memories. I so pity those who do not. As poor as we were, dirt road- no power, phone, or running water (the embarrassment of outside bathrooms both at our home and the church). Prominent people would often visit our church because they had heard of its beuty and the great song services there. I still remember the walkers, owners of the Ford dealership. My parents invited them to go to our home for lunch. They hardly knew them, but the Walkers went to our home, and years later, as my patients, they both said to me, "In our many years of church life, that was the first real Christianity we had ever seen."

I remember another time that a couple, the Sassers came to the church, my parents remembered through their ancestors. They invited them to our home for lunch. My mother usually had two large tables of people every church Sunday. In later years, this couple, school teachers, told me the same thing, that they had never forgotten that hospitality.  

At my fathers funeral, packed house, after I had led the family in as the oldest child, one floor reef was brought in late. It was by far the largest there. One of the funeral directors, came over and handed me the card that was on it. I just stuck it in my pocket. Later, a friend read the card to me, "In memorial to the only man I ever knew, in church, or out, whoever spoke to me about the welfare of my soul." The card was signed by an NC state senator.

His last years, my mother having died of cancer at age 62, I would call him and tell him I was coming up for a visit, to take him out to lunch. He was so proud to see me in my Cadillac. My driver would always say, "He will be sitting on the front porch watching for you." He gave me many of the values, that have kept me going during my years of disappointment, blindness. He was the sermon, instead of a message. He was the example of hard work. Disciplined living. I believe he will be sitting on another porch, watching for his four children.  

#1735

Need for Shepherding

"Savior, like a shepherd lead us,  much we need thy tender care;  in thy pleasant pastures feed us,  for our use thy folds prepare.  Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus!  Thou hast bought us, thine we are."

He will carry the lambs in His arms!

(Arthur Pink)

"He will feed His flock like a shepherd. He will carry the lambs in His arms, holding them close to His heart. He will gently lead the mother sheep with their young." Isaiah 40:11 

Our Lord has . . .
  many weak children in His family,
  many dull pupils in His school,
  many fearful soldiers in His army,
  many lame sheep in His flock. 
Yet He bears with them all, and casts none away.

By Christ's gracious aid, the believer is preserved from being totally submerged by his doubts and fears. 

By His renewing operations, the spark of faith is maintained, despite all the fierce winds of Satan which assail. 

By His mighty enabling, the sorely harassed and groaning Christian is kept from sinking in abject despair. 

By His quickening power, hope is still kept alive, and the voice of prayer is still faintly heard.

There is no danger of the individual saint being overlooked amidst the multitude of supplicants who daily and hourly present their various petitions--for an infinite Mind is as capable of paying the same attention to millions, as if only one individual were seeking its attention!

"For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are . . . Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." Hebrews 4:15-16

 Dr. Morris, world traveler, has seen shepherds in the 20th century. Both in Africa, and the Scandinavian countries. I remember talking with a Shepherd near Bergen Norway. He talked about how dumb sheep really are, "That he must keep his eyes on them all the time." Of course, Christianity was a foreign language to him, but I said, "We are all so much like dumb sheep, so easy to stray, we so need direction."

In my personal life, I so need direction, so wish I had a shepherd tell me what to do with most decisions I have to make.

I was talking with two officials from a local University just yesterday. I said, " I get so tired of these paid advertisements about how people should respect veterans, do you know the VA pays the NFL and other sports programs to tell the public how they should respect veterans? The VA does not respect veterans at all, they talk about the disgrace of so many veterans committing suicide (3 each day). The VA would like it if all veterans committed suicide, it would be so much cheaper for the country to buy a cheap 'tin' casket and a flag, and burry every veteran. Instead of the continued expense of sick care, such as it is, at a veterans hospital." I have written about this before, and will not go into it again. The insult to the veteran, and the embarrassment to the nation, is the VA "sick care." Each time a VA doctor asks me, a totally blind- 100% disabled- Medical officer veteran, if I have any thoughts of suicide, my reply always, "everyday." But that gives me the opportunity such as the opportunity I get in every area of life, to present my Christian testimony. Because, without flinching, "my faith keeps me going." I did not wear the uniform, to get free healthcare. In fact, I keep paying for my healthcare. Not that I have not paid for VA care, but my civilian doctors want me to keep coming to them.

In the poverty ridden home were I grew up, and the images just as vivid now in my blinded eyes, as it was as a child when I could see, there was a picture which my parents had acquired early in their marriage, of Jesus carrying a small lamb next to his heart. I used the scripture above, I would always say in prayer at any church or institution were I was asked to pray, that we can "find grace to help in time of need." Our faith is all based on grace and I so need that grace to walk blinded in faith. "For we walk by faith not by sight" (Corinthians 5:7)

#1732

Narcissism

Vanity and narcissism — the compulsive need to be admired and praised — undermine one's courage, for one then fights on someone else's conviction rather than one's own.

    Rollo May - Man's Search for Himself (1953)

Most of us make the mistake of weighing and measuring others with the same scale and yardstick that we measure and weigh ourselves. When this writer lies down to die, he wants to think and remember that every fellow human being he ever met, anywhere, on his many trips around the world, even among his most personal associates and family members, that in the souls of them all, whichever way they went, Heaven or Hell, that their was some goodness in the soul of all of them. Please don't let me think that I was narcissistic enough to judge anyone else, when I was only a sinner saved by grace. 

When Hitler started his book burning, attempting to cleanse the third right, everything bad in his nation, the first book on his list was the biography of Helen Keller. There have been many great person hoods in the history of the world. But, perhaps no person as great as Helen Keller... A women born deaf, and blind. Most of us who heard her speak, could not understand anything she said. But, other than Jesus himself, few people have had the influence on the lives of others that she had. 

Is it a coincidence that she is buried in floor of the National Cathedral, in Washington DC, right next to president Woodrow Wilson, who has been declared the most Narcissistic man who ever lived. It has been said that president Wilson was so narcissistic, that he wanted to be the bride at every wedding, the corpse at every funeral. A more recent president, William Clinton, is said to be just as narcissistic... That he wants to be the commanding prescience in every room that he enters. We have all known people so narcissistic, that way, because they were blessed with good looks, A truly gravatosk personality, or had in some way become powerful because of money, or ancestry, or brain accomplishment. Lets face it, their are those who just stand out above the crowd. 

God despises pride- narcissism, he allowed the children of Israel to wonder around and then die, for forty years in a wilderness desert in order to "humble" them. Jesus, God- man, God who put on a tent of human flesh and lived among us, said in the most famous sermon ever preached, "Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth" (Matthew 5:5).  Paul said, "Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves" (Philippians 2:3). Would it not make 21st century Christians, Christians so despised by the world, feel better, if Jesus, when harassed by Pilate, and his unlawful judgment, had done some small miracle, such as a swarm of bees going in circles around Pilate's head, and showing the accursed Roman leader, as he has always shown the world, just who is "boss." But would it have made any difference? Those Romans who arrested him in Garden  of Gethsemane saw him restore the ear to the servant of Malchus which Peter had cut off with his sword, and it did not seem to have any affect. Jesus broke up every funeral procession he ever met, healed the sick, fed thousands, with one boys lunch, still he had very few followers. I am convinced that only his resurrection  made an eclylsmic change in the lives of  his disciples.  Jesus, Paul, saints throughout history, "those of whom the world is not worthy" (Hebrews 11:38), were humble in their greatness. Many humble grandparents, teachers, pastors, neighbors, have died never knowing their influence on someone's life. Those who have had the greatest influence on this old blind veterans life, have not been people with power or money, but those with a humble and contract spirit.  

This old soldier found that veterans don't talk about the war, they just get over it. The healing profession should be more humble, our immune system is all we have going for us. The poisons we put in our body from most doctors, generally do more harm than good, shutting the healing process down. Effectively killing the kidneys and liver. This old veteran, world traveler, is made happy knowing the enjoyment of life by others, than in the darkness- loneliness- exasperation of his own. I have concurred the feeling that I had contributed something to the world. I believe there is healing in forgiveness. I have forgiven the employees whom I was paying good money to help me, as they were stealing from me. I have forgiven the many dealings with people who I knew had only one thing on their mind. Whether a real-estate transaction, car repair, or even shoe repair, "how much money can I get out of him." It was my business that I have lived so frugally, never bought anything unless it was on sale. I once found a Kennedy silver half dollar in the mud, it was so ugly, but I washed it and it shined. That is my hope and joy. I have been so rotten and dirty, like everyone else in the mire. But, Jesus took me up and washed me of all my narcissism, even my sinful nature. 

#1731

What Works For You?

School days, school days
Dear old Golden Rule days
'Reading and 'riting and 'rithmetic
Taught to the tune of the hick'ry stick
You were my queen in calico
I was your bashful, barefoot beau
You wrote on my slate, "I Love You So"
When we were a couple o' kids

“School Days” (1907) - Will Cobb and Gus Edwards.

The greatest memories in family life and school (primary, elementary, high school, even college and university), as I tell every college student who works for me, as I told my own son and my two grandsons, “Enjoy, it is the best time of your life.” Here are the Morris 10 rules for success in school whether first grade or professional school.

1.No TV on weeknights.

TV is a waste of time. At one time, it was worthwhile. I enjoyed hearing my relatives who had never been exposed to entertainment laugh at “I Love Lucy” or “The Ed Sullivan Show”. I never listen to TV now. (I am totally blind and have not seen a television set in 50 years.) But I understand it is mostly trash. And what thrill does anyone get from looking at a garbage can? Lucille Ball (“I Love Lucy”) the wonderful redhead, said about getting old, “Be honest, eat slow and lie about your age.” One night, looking in a window at Saks Fifth Avenue, I engaged conversation with a woman who turned out to be Lucille Ball. We were looking at men's clothing and I said, I never spend much money on clothing, certainly not from a store like this. She said, “I have learned to be good to myself.”

2.Set # of family meals.

Make a family meal a rule at your house. Our ancestors lived like civilized people. They set the table, nice flatware, drinking cups and glasses. Children learned to participate in family conversations. As poor as we were, my mother had discipline at the table as everywhere else. We went to the table fully clothed. We did not eat like pigs at the trough. Have you seen children so misbehaved in public restaurants? Can you even imagine what it is like in the home?

3.Dress for Success:

Children should go to school dressed appropriately. In medical school, we were required to wear white shirts. (I can still remember, I could get six laundered for $1. Now it costs me $1 per shirt.) And, we always wore a tie. We were dressing for success in the real world. I understand, now, in some churches, the so called, “preacher” wears a golf shirt. A pastor came to me some months ago, asking my advice about how church members were dressing in his church. I told him that if the new people looking at the older members who “dress up” for church did not get the message, he should remind them that never have people “dressed down” for worship, the greatest human endeavor on earth. I still like to see a professional man or woman, dressed for success if not successful. In the military, a large part of the discipline was presentation.

4.Good breakfast.

The most important meal of the day for a student or anyone else, is breakfast. It is incomprehensible that today's parents will send their children to school without breakfast, or even more incomprehensible to expect the school to provide breakfast when they get there. A school official told me, black children bussed from a housing development, looking out the windows, travel through the better sections of town where there are beautiful homes, arrive at the school where they are marched off the bus, to a cafeteria where they are served breakfast, isolated from the other students. We expect dissemination but the same students already with the sensibility of being different, go to the classroom where they can only learn if seated between white students. Of course, they get a free lunch before being herded back on the bus to go back to their part of town. Black parents, patrons, pastors, should wince at this attitude which they have promoted. Sixty years ago, before cafeterias, children from every economic level carried a lunch box to school. Even worse, is the information that many of the cafeteria lunches are just thrown in the garbage. So spoiled are these children about eating only what they want to eat. I would like to have one of these free lunches every day. Food is not thrown away at my house. Across the globe, I have seen too many hungry children.

5.Family Prayer:

Parents who love their children, pray with them. If no other time, blessing the food before they eat, a practice which your children will never forget, and I pity those with no home memories. It is important to have the daily reading of scripture and prayer before eating.

6.Dedicated homework place:

Each student should have a dedicated homework site for his completion of homework assignments, a place for good posture, good illumination, away from distractions. I still remember the day my mother bought a card table for this. One of her students used the card table, one the kitchen table, etc.

7.One extra-curricular activity at a time:

The school is a good place to learn that you cannot do everything, that you cannot become involved in everything. Involvement in too many extracurricular activities leads to stress with everything, including school subjects. One athletic competition, one art activity, one music activity, one humanitarian activity. All school activity is important, too many a total burden. Everything in school involvement should be enjoyed.

8.Keep everyone busy.

I have never had a boring minute in my life. There is no reason why any child should be bored at any time, with so much school work, extracurricular activities and books on the shelves. On the farm, there was so much activity, so many chores to be done. A mother of several students, along with her own activities in life, must have a computerized mind to keep up with everyone's activities. My mother had a basket where she kept all notifications from school and a notebook where she could enter dates of things. She did not want to miss any chapel program, in which one of us participated, ball game, or other extracurricular activities where parents could attend. God's greatest gift to a couple is a child later in life after the others have left home for college, so that they can remain active in school activities until their social security age.

9.One chance in life for education:

The young mind is sharp and attentive. The young mind soaks up knowledge like a sponge. Life is a long time learning experience, if you are blessed. I have learned more in the past 20 years than in the previous 60.

10.All aboard.

This is a one time ride.
The train only goes on this track one time. Get aboard, you will be amazed how quick the trip. To youth, God gives the energy and vitality for rapid accomplishment. In old age, where we move so slow, we have the memories of climbing stairs two or three steps at a time, of running everywhere in our daily activities. Get aboard, life is to be enjoyed.

Hector Berlioz said, "Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils."

During the years I participated in and attended funerals, I often felt in burying an old person, a library was being buried. I participated in the funeral of the first graduate of NC State University who died at age of 100. He had told me, “I never stopped learning, but it came so much easier when I was young.”

Next to the Holy Spirit of God in your life, becoming educated, I attended a country school for twelve years of my life. It was the greatest education opportunity afforded a human being. Each day, I passed the large one-roomed school located next to the school I attended (Nahunta School, Wayne County, NC) which Governor Charles B. Aycock attended along with both my mother and father's fathers. The large, two room, country school was right across from the home in which my mother and her ancestor's lived, my great aunt was the teacher in that school. Family, church, and school were the great interests of the Americans that made this country great...all seeking truth, and the truth is the truth whether any one believes it or not.

What Works for You?

What Works For You?

School days, school days
Dear old Golden Rule days
'Reading and 'riting and 'rithmetic
Taught to the tune of the hick'ry stick
You were my queen in calico
I was your bashful, barefoot beau
You wrote on my slate, "I Love You So"
When we were a couple o' kids

“School Days” is an American popular song written in 1907 by Will Cobb and Gus Edwards.
The greatest memories in family life, school, primary, elementary, high school, even college and university. As I tell every college student who works for me, as I told my own son and my two grandsons, “Enjoy, it is the best time of your life.” Here are the Morris 10 rules for success in school whether first grade or professional school.
1.No TV on weeknights.
TV is a waste of time. At one time, it was worthwhile. I enjoyed hearing my relatives who had never been exposed to entertainment laugh at “I Love Lucy” or “The Ed Sullivan Show”. I never listen to TV now. (I am totally blind and have not seen a television set in 50 years.) But I understand it is mostly trash. And what thrill does anyone get from looking at a garbage can? Lucille Ball (“I Love Lucy”) the wonderful redhead, said about getting old, “Be honest, eat slow and lie about your age.” One night, looking in a window at Saks Fifth Avenue, I engaged conversation with a woman who turned out to be Lucille Ball. We were looking at mens clothing and I said, I never spend much money on clothing, certainly not from a store like this. She said, “I have learned to be good to myself.”

2.Set # of family meals.
Make a family meal a rule at your house. Our ancestors lived like civilized people. They set the table, nice flatware, drinking cups and glasses. Children learned to participate in family conversations. As poor as we were, my mother had discipline at the table as everywhere else. We went to the table fully clothed. We did not eat like pigs at the trough. Have you seen children so misbehaved in public restaurants? Can you even imagine what it is like in the home?

3.Dress for Success:
Children should go to school dressed appropriately. In medical school, we were required to wear white shirts. (I can still remember, I could get six laundered for $1. Now it costs me $1 per shirt.) And, we always wore a tie. We were dressing for success in the real world. I understand, now in some churches, the so called, “preacher” wears a golf shirt. A pastor came to me some months ago, asking my advice about how church members were dressing in his church. I told him that if the new people looking at the older members who “dress up” for church did not get the message, he should remind them that never have people “dressed down” for worship, the greatest human endeavor on earth. I still like to see a professional man or woman, dressed for success if not successful. In the military, a large part of the discipline was presentation.

4.Good breakfast.
The most important meal of the day for a student or anyone else, is breakfast. It is incomprehensible that today's parents will send their children to school without breakfast, or even more incomprehensible to expect the school to provide breakfast when they get there. A school official told me, black children bussed from a housing development, looking out the windows, travel through the better sections of town where there are beautiful homes, arrive at the school where they are marched off the bus, to a cafeteria where they are served breakfast, isolated from the other students. We expect dissemination but the same students already with the sensibility of being different, go to the classroom where they can only learn if seated between white students. Of course, they get a free lunch before being herded back on the bus to go back to their part of town. Black parents, patrons, pastors, should wince at this attitude which they have promoted. Sixty years ago, before cafeterias, children from every economic level carried a lunch box to school. Even worse, is the information that many of the cafeteria lunches are just thrown in the garbage. So spoiled are these children about eating only what they want to eat. I would like to have one of these free lunches every day. Food is not thrown away at my house. Across the globe, I have seen too many hungry children.

5.Family Prayer:
Parents who love their children, pray with them. If no other time, blessing the food before they eat, a practice which your children will never forget, and I pity those with no home memories. It is important to have the daily reading of scripture and prayer before eating.

6.Dedicated homework place:
Each student should have a dedicated homework site for his completion of homework assignments, a place for good posture, good illumination, away from distractions. I still remember the day my mother bought a card table for this. One of her students used the card table, one the kitchen table, etc.

7.One extra-curricular activity at a time:
The school is a good place to learn that you cannot do everything, that you cannot become involved in everything. Involvement in too many extracurricular activities leads to stress with everything, including school subjects. One athletic competition. One art activity. One music activity. One humanitarian activity. All school activity is important, too many a total burden. Everything in school involvement should be enjoyed.

8.Keep everyone busy.
I have never had a boring minute in my life. There is no reason why any child should be bored at any time, with so much school work, extracurricular activities and books on the shelves. On the farm, there was so much activity, so many chores to be done. A mother of several students, along with her own activities in life, must have a computerized mind to keep up with everyone's activities. My mother had a basket where she kept all notifications from school and a notebook where she could enter dates of things. She did not want to miss any chapel program, in which one of us participated, ball game, or other extracurricular activities where parents could attend. God's greatest gift to a couple is a child later in life after the others have left home for college, so that they can remain active in school activities until their social security age.

9.One chance in life for education:
The young mind is sharp and attentive. The young mind soaks up knowledge like a sponge. Life is a long time learning experience, if you are blessed. I have learned more in the past 20 years than in the previous 60.

10.All aboard.
This is a one time ride.
The train only goes on this track one time. Get aboard, you will be amazed how quick the trip. To youth, God gives the energy and vitality for rapid accomplishment. In old age, where we move so slow, we have the memories of climbing stairs two or three steps at a time, of running everywhere in our daily activities. Get aboard, life is to be enjoyed.

Hector Berlioz said, "Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils."

During the years I participated in and attended funerals, I often felt in bearing an old person, a library was being buried. I participated in the funeral of the first graduate of NC Sate University who dies at age 100. He had told me, “I never stopped learning but it came so much easier when I was young.”