Wait and See

You are not stuck where you start. The titans of American business, those who have made the greatest contributions in American commercialism, from everything I have read or studied, started out low and rose rapidly. The secret to success in business, as shown by Sam Walton, Warren Buffet, Thomas Edison is to study, work hard, have something to sell. Now as always, with real estate, securities, “widgets”, buy low and sell higher. It is the profits involved in capitalism that has always made this country great and so many people who got ahead of the herd.

I do not have one item in my house, one article of clothing in my closet that was purchased new. Now, totally blind for so many years, my days of thrift stores, discount warehouses, yard sales are over. But as an example, living alone and taking care of myself, everything I have has to be simple to use. My long-time, second-hand, coffee percolator quit on the job recently. We looked for a used one online, went to all the second-hand stores in town, found nothing, but I had put the word out that I needed a percolator. One of my friends came in with one he found at a yard sale and I am back in business again.

Younger, still with some vision, I went to every fire sale, closing business sale. Once, a farm supply place had a fire, I stopped by to see if there was anything in their fire sale which I could use. There were many plants, a large tub which had been scorched by the fire, the fire department with its water had eradicated all labels. They were selling the plants for practically nothing. I bought two bunches of the plants for 50 cents. When I got home, my wife said, “do you have any idea of what you purchased?” I said, “no, the plant may be a tree, a bush, a flower, or a vegetable, you'll just have to wait and see.” I carefully put each plant in the ground, packing the soil around it, then you wait and see what develops.

So it is in life, you have some idea of what to expect. You cannot buy a Timex and hope it will become a Rolex. You cannot buy a bicycle and expect it to become a Cadillac. You do not buy a 5-room house and expect it to become a mansion. A throw-away puppy or kitten on the street, with loving care, may become the best pet you could ever want. The secret is planting them well, giving them the care they need and waiting for their development. Everything in life, as we find in the scriptures over and over, involves sowing and reaping. You never understand God's Book, God's plan for the world, until you understand sowing and reaping. You reap what you sow, just wait and see. Often you make critical decisions in sowing and reaping, faith enough to wait and see.

It is more difficult to wait than it is to work. The thing I remember most about farm life, it was always too wet or too dry. But, my father, a man of commitment, convinced, confident in his faith, at times of drought, would say, “the roots of these plants that seem to be drying up in the hot sun, are going further and further into the ground, seeking moisture. When the rains come, and they will come, as they always have, these plants will take off and grow up almost overnight...just wait and see.”

Only one who has been real thirsty, such as I have been many times in my life...most memorably in Egypt, near Abu Simbel...you walk in the desert until you spot an oasis. The story is told of a man in the desert approaching the oasis. There was a well and hand-pump in the oasis with two objects at the side of the pump. One, was a container of water, the other, a sign which read, “you must use this water to prime the pump, if you drink it, there will be no water to prime the pump for any other traveler.” To a man dying of thirst, this was an awful decision. Realistic man as I am, I believe I would have taken a few swallows of water, but it might take all of the water to prime the pump. Once the pump is primed, you have plenty of cool, delicious water, and can fill a container full for the next traveler.

For one not raised on a farm, where we had these type hand pumps all over the farm, in order to water crops, animals, etc (always with a large can of water close-by used to prime the pump). Water is poured into the pump on top of the plunger to lubricate and expand the valve, so it can bring up water in the pipe to the mouth of the pump. The valve is made of a leather-type material which responds to water, giving the plunger the energy needed to bring up water in the pipe. Before the hand pump, and even back into Biblical times, water was drawn up from the well with a rope and bucket. Pity today's schoolchildren who are taught nothing about the labor of their ancestors...they all think that water has always come from hot and cold faucets, that meat has magically appeared on the grocery store refrigeration counters, that eggs are manufactured in some factory, and that flour and all the delicacies of modern eating just appear magically like the favors of fairy land.

For most of my life, I have been an antiquarian book collector. Someone had purchased a book on butchery from me; two of my employees, looking at the pictures of the butchery of meat, became ill. I said to one, “I bet you would not be able to “dress” a rabbit.” He said, “in clothes?” Such is our education system, such is the heritage of our youth, just wait and see. Never dampen the spirits of any child, interested in anything, athletics, music, art, dancing, cooking, farming.

Last week, one of my friends was buried. His parents were tenant farmers, I never saw his father in a church. His father was a hard-working dirt farmer, his only interest was in athletics, he attended all the local schoolyard ball games. In the backyard of this modest, rural tenant farmer home, the father had erected a basketball goal to exact specifications. He stood there, after working all day, and coached his son in throwing hoops; with two gloves, he taught his son to throw a baseball. The father had only a third grade education but he had read every book on sports. His son went to the university on a baseball scholarship, later on to graduate school, writing books on sports. Dr. Edgar Hooks, ECU, was buried a famous athlete and coach.

I can give you the names of many successful artists from ordinary homes whose parents encouraged them to practice their talent. When you have talent, you are that much further ahead than the rest of us. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, General of the US Army, a man successful in every way, missed his father's funeral on July 12^th, 1942 because he was away in a war. He said his father encouraged him in everything, even painting on canvas. Would you like to know what an Eisenhower painting sells for these days?

Satan's greatest weapon is discouragement. Encourage your child, and indeed everyone you know, in every way possible. The greatest encouragement is to know that regardless of ambition, accomplishment, your life on this earth is just a transition place. The greatest tragedy of my life: the casket of a lost person taken to a hopeless grave, a valuable jewel in a velvet box...parents and friends caring more for the box than the jewel inside of the box.

Oasis

Into each life some rain must fall
But too much is falling in mine
Into each heart some tears must fall
But some day the sun will shine
(Sung by Ella Fitzgerald)

Those of us in the sunset years can still hear Ella Fitzgerald singing this marvelous song. There has always been such a disparity in life. For instance, one-half block from my house, taxpayers have spent millions for a river walk, I have never been on it. It is the sighted folks who enjoy river walks, bicycle trails, parks, libraries, concert halls. The country's largest minority, the disabled, are just expected to keep working and pay taxes.

If anything could affect my relationship with God, it would be the uneven “playing field” of life. Because, through the eyes of the world, not through God's eyes, things seem so unfair, the word fairness is not found in the scripture, rather “God is Boss”. He expects us to thrive because of His sovereignty.

The true oasis is found in desert areas of the world, you can ride for many miles, just sand, and then, all of a sudden you find a small area of arid land, trees, flowers, a watering hole. Can one even imagine the splendor of this place to people living in the hot sand of a desert.

Reared in poverty stricken eastern North Carolina (if eastern North Carolina from Highway 95 to the ocean were a state, it would be the poorest state in the union), farm people who worked hard the entire week, on a Saturday afternoon, would find an oasis at the country crossroads, where usually was located a country store where ice was available, cold drinks, snacks, this was usually the location of the country school. Always, without exception, the location of large ball-fields, this was the gathering place, on Saturday, of farm families, where younger men could play baseball, the old men could watch, the women could visit. There was usually areas where children could play games, this was the oasis of the poor people, both rural and urban. You could always hear one say to the other, I'll see you in church tomorrow, another oasis/escape for the hard-working people of the world. The wealthy have their country clubs, their golf courses, their swimming pools, and I suppose you could call this an oasis for the elitists.

In the world of the jet-set, I have had the privilege of sticking my nose into a few jet-set extravaganzas. I am not one of these people, just an observer, just passing through. On the Island of Majorca, in the Mediterranean, an island which you can always identify by their many windmills. A beautiful resort island of mountain retreats, and coastal, lavish hotels. One older man at one of these hotels, plainspoken, “nouveau riche” (newly rich), took a liking to me because I was someone who could never identify him (I have been totally blind since the Korean war). He had developed and owned the manufacturing company for a milk container, he had sold the engineering patent, the company, to a large conglomerate. This multimillionaire and his wife, just spent their time traveling from one wealthy “watering hole” to another. Occupying the most expensive rooms, eating the most expensive food, playing tennis in the morning, golf in the afternoon, if a casino were available, he spent his evenings in the casino. He and his wife's lives were devoted to self-indulgence. He said, “I have already given my two children all the money they will ever need. It is up to them to do the rest.”

You find this type Americans and Europeans all over the world, I found that the Asians just enjoyed life at home, rich or poor. In Greece, I met a couple from St. Louis, two married lawyers, I later visited them in their home. He had been left a tremendous trust fund, and they spent their entire lives traveling and visiting wealthy friends. They ate out every meal, in fact, I do not believe there was a cook stove in their house.

On a ship to the Arctic, I made the acquaintance of a woman lawyer from Maryland, she told me that she spent her entire life traveling the world. I said, “you must have had a very successful practice.” She said, “no, I never practiced law. My father left me well off...he was extremely successful, made more money than any man I have ever known, he was a connector. Connected politicians at Washington and elsewhere with people of wealth. The people in Washington who think they are lobbyists, know nothing, they should have known my father.“

60 years ago, when I was in college, few graduates hankered for government jobs. Firstly, in North Carolina, you had to be a Democrat to get a government job, whether working on the highway or even teaching school. Not much has changed during the last one hundred years, you still have to have the Democrat county chairman's approval to even drive a school bus. But, salaries and job benefits cannot be surpassed by the private sector. As bad as the corrupt situation appears in North Carolina and most other states, perhaps the zenith in political corruption has taken place in the poor California town of Bell.


Oct 22 (Reuters Legal) - California's attorney general asked a state court on Thursday to appoint a monitor to oversee the finances of the city of Bell, California, which has been embroiled in a scandal over the excessive compensation of some of its former top officials.

Attorney General Jerry Brown's move came as eight current and former Bell officials, including its former city manager, who was paid a salary of nearly $800,000, pleaded not guilty on Thursday to public corruption charges.

The eight defendants, arrested on September 21, are collectively accused of bilking taxpayers in the blue-collar city of 40,000 out of roughly $5.5 million through excessive salaries, benefits and illicit loans of public money.

They were charged in nearly two dozen counts of misappropriating public funds, including salaries they received for "phantom" meetings that never occurred. Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley has called the scandal in Bell "corruption on steroids."

LINK: (http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE69K3YU20101022)


In Bell, part-time city council members were earning $100,000 a year, City Manager Rizzo was arrested for conflict of interest and falsification of public records. It should not amaze anyone, included California attorney general Brown, now running for governor, again, ALL Democrats. Democrats have the art of corruption down to a science. But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth. (1 Timothy 5:6) Money brings pleasure, money gives man measures of comforts, but it is just dead people walking.

Perhaps the world's great Oasis is Washington, DC. News reports tell us that the nation's capitol has been little affected by this great
recession/depression...that expensive restaurants are full. Housing prices have continued high. There are more federal workers now than ever before, now ~2.7 million. Senator Sessions (R- Alabama) “Over the time that President Obama has been in office, we have lost 2.5 million free enterprise system jobs, and, yet, 500,000 federal government jobs have been added."

When I analyzed the street on which I live, a small southern port city. Like most coastal states, prime retirement areas for government employees. I think of those living on my street, a retired state department official, a retired county official, a retired state judicial official, etc. and as is the case in most places, all drawing healthy government checks.

A retired New York state police official, and they draw the best retirement checks known to man, told me, “I make more in retirement than I ever made in working”. This is the oasis of life for most retired government officials and workers, including former presidents, former senators, former judiciary, former congress persons, former military personnel. Do we actually think we can provide an oasis for everyone, when we conclude that we have $202 trillion dollars in entitlements, and $46 trillion to which the government is responsible in the current foreclosure fiasco? Because of the government monetary policy's lack of regulation, everyone working for government, banking systems, healthcare systems and anything else involving government regulations are now government employees.

They are rioting in France, protesting in England, bitter across America, everyone wanting an oasis. The oasis is a place of refreshing and comfort after the daily trials of hard work and free will. Life on this earth is short at best, most of us are content to wait out time of eternal joy.