10/19/2018
Well, I have a day off! You might think of me as being retired—nothing could be further from the truth, I just don’t ever seem to make any money. Just kidding. I think I’m getting paid about what I’m worth, so it just looks like I don’t get paid. I believe it was a famous Baptist preacher who once preached a sermon called, “Pay Day, Someday.” Though I expect a loss for some works, I’m still looking for “Pay Day.”
A fuzzy morning for a SIMH, then when I sat down with my computer, “Just a Little Talk With Jesus” was there. I began to think of all the artists and plain church folk I’ve heard sing it. I sang it with a very stiff quartet in the 60s. We were (well, the other 3) not cut out to sing this song. It should be sung with verve and I’m pretty sure we lacked in that department. But, some of the best Southern Gospel quartets and many country stars sang it wonderfully, including Elvis. It was a favorite of Jimmy Dean’s.
Written by Cleavant Derricks, not the actor, but a small church pastor in Texas. He was robbed of an income from at least three top selling songs by the early 20th century practice of selling the rights to publishers and not getting residuals for one’s work. This was corrected only about two years before he passed away in 1977. What an injustice!
Speaking of injustices, there are so many things we could hone in on and exclaim,”that’s not fair” about. In the largest sense, the world is not known to be fair, having no conscience toward God or godliness. Those who would claim “there’s a little good in all of us” are walking around in a dim lighted world wearing rose-colored glasses. The larger truth about us is as J. Edgar Hoover once said (and as it turns out, he would know): “there’s a little larceny in all of us!”
What little good is ever to be found in members of the human race comes from someone (parents, siblings, teachers or random strangers) teaching us what is good for us to know, and that learning bringing about a practiced nicety in which we learn to enjoy life and from which a certain profit is derived.
Being nice or doing nice things with and for people is not so very profitable in terms of personal gain or wealth. Rather, it is a sense of having done the right thing and not having done harm. Most commonly, none of us consciously have in our mind the affect on those with whom we come in contact. Early in life, I did something that brought a look from a boy I never wanted to see again. He was a couple of years behind me in school (I was in about 6th grade, still going out for a morning recess.) I was alone and walking around the corner of the school building wondering what it would be like to double up my fist and hit someone (like a boxer would.) And there he was, a tall thin boy who had always been friendly to me, but I did it! I doubled up a fist and hit him square on the jaw!
He had this startled look come on his face and an immediate hurt expression. He didn’t cry nor say anything, he just lowered his head and walked away, as did I. We never became enemies, but we also never became friends. Forty years later, I told his sister, who was in my class, about it and asked her if she would tell him I was always sorry I did that. Later, she said he didn’t remember it happening. (Obviously, no power in the punch, no wonder he didn’t cry.)
But, his look at me made a lasting imprint. The awful feeling of having done something that hurt another, that brought about that look. Perhaps I’ve done that since, but never on purpose. And I’m glad he cannot remember it. Reading the story of when Moses fled from Egypt because he had killed an Egyptian and two Jewish men knew about it, put him on the spot about it, I’ve often wondered if he had the same feeling. (I know, I was just a kid—Moses was a grown man.)
Didn’t really sit down here to bare my soul, but thanks for reading,
the Elder
the Elder's Blog 