Spike, Ted, Help!

10/2/2018

SIMH today is really something: “In Some Secluded Rendezvous —that overlooks the avenue….” from the early 1930s. This was recorded by scads of singers in the 30s,40s,50s, from people I never heard of to Bing Crosby to Louis Prima/Keely Smith in 1958. But, when I looked it up, the version which appeared was Spike Jones’ version—crazy as all get out!

Spike had a way of making funny that which had been done in all seriousness. His sound effects gave visuals to recordings. When The Lawrence Welk show became popular in the 50s, part of his show was to come on with “champagne” bubbles all over the place. Spike Jones did a version of Welk’s theme song where he couldn’t get anyone to “turn off the bubble machine!” By the time the song came to an end, one could nearly see billions of bubbles and hear the “glub, glub” of the band drowning in bubbles. Spike was to the world, a “oner”—No other like him.

I hope all of you are familiar with TED Talks. These short talks will give 15-20 minute snippets of 100s of areas of thought, progress, regress, funny stuff, scientific stuff, ridiculous stuff, out and out lies, profound truths——the whole gamut of thoughts presented by children, rank amateurs, experts in their field, innovative people, and old folks who’ve “been there!” And yes, some make you angry, some make you cry, some make you want to do something, others make you just sit and think. If you haven’t yet, just visit and scroll through subject matter, or enter a descriptive word or two and see what comes up. It’s better than watching cartoons!

Today, I wanted to see what a man was going to say about his topic—“4 Things We Tell Ourselves About Dying” —it was ruined for me before he got to what they were because he told us we were the product of evolution. (He was English, so he said “ee-volution.”) With that exposed, I knew he was not going to be talking about the will of God, so I wouldn’t waste my time. If I had never heard an evolutionist’s version of it, I might have listened. But, I have heard what they say, therefore, even if his 4 things were different, they would have just been another attempt to denegrate the Creator of the universe and try to destroy the belief in salvation through His Son, our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. So I went to something else.

In the “Omnibus” category of self: we often want people to not be disappointed in us when they see us or hear us, so we improvise our exposure toward what those people want. Much of the time this is very helpful. A sales person, for instance, wouldn’t  approach a potential sale with a scowl or unfit language. This isn’t going to improve chances for a sale—might not kill the sale, but will not help.

In another area of what people see in us can be whether we truly help those we are in contact with or, when we help does it come off almost begrudgingly? Leaving the person to think, “well if I had known I was going to put you out, I would have done it myself” or they give you a never mind look. Helping people, from opening a door, carrying their load, or raking their leaves, or what ever may be the task, should always be because we want to do so. If you think you should want to help, but you don’t really want to, you must discipline your “want tos” to match your “I shoulds.” And you are the only one who can make that change. Self-discipline is the only discipline that exists. As Jim Rohn used to say, “for things to change, you’ve got to change.”

Thanks for reading, the Elder