Getting Involved

Art Fettig’s Monday Morning Memo

Originally published on October 3, 2011

In This Issue

o Getting Involved
o Say Something Good
o Points To Ponder
o A Little Humor
o Quote of the Week

Getting Involved

Did you ever notice how some people seem to be involved in just about anything that needs doing? Whether it is at work or church or the schools their children attend, they just have a habit of saying “yes”.

And then there are the rest of us who have to be cornered, trapped in chores and we somehow fail to have the right spirit for such things. Here is a poem that I found in my file. I had this habit of writing special poems for the people in an audience. I was speaking for a group of doers, and I tried to capture their spirit. You know something I learned watching them? Doers, givers, those who busy up their lives making this a better world seem to be the healthiest, happiest people in the world. Avoiding all that brings unhappiness and makes a person plum unhealthy. Thing about it…And GET ER DONE!

Involvement
© Art Fettig

The problems of the world are resolved
By people who bother getting involved.
If you want to be happy then take off your coat.
Pitch in! Get busy! Start rocking the boat!
Get involved! Dive in, the water’s just fine.
Total involvements more heady than wine.
Sound off! Go on! Say what you’re thinking!
Write it down! Shout it! Start those eyes a blinking!
Wake up! Do something! Greet life with a smile!
This getting involved is what makes life worthwhile.

Say Something Good

Sunday we attended the 253rd Old Bluff Church Reunion on Cape Fear River in Cumberland County, NC and we had dinner on the grounds. The service was inspiring and the bagpiper, Rev. Arnold Pope served up a sermon that was worthy of a massive cathedral anywhere in the world. I learned what “dinner on the grounds” means in old Cumberland County. It means long covered tables just loaded with the best Southern cookin’ you ever reloaded your plate with. Bar B Q, of course and southern fried chicken but oh, what fixins. Corn and field peas, okra, butter beans and a small army of casseroles, plus roast beef, ham and corned beef, slaws and potato salads and oh yes, chicken pastry, three renderings. There was a variety of corn breads and country biscuits and something called liver mush which many of us avoided. They had red hot dogs too and I watched a teen age boy walk all around those tables and place just one red hot dog on his plate and then later when he rounded those tables again he placed two red hot dogs on his plate. You figure that one out.

And oh those deserts. There was a heavenly chocolate cake and this nice lady stood by and watched me take a big slice and she explained that she makes it every year for the homecoming. I sampled two chocolate pies, a tiny slice of apple pie, pecan pie and passed up pumpkin pie, the banana pudding and other cakes but finished up with a delicious berry pie containing both black and blue berries. It was scrumptious. There were so many other tasty items I overlooked that a person could go back for thirds and fourths if he had a mind to. Inside the church they had these two big potbellied stoves for winter and those little hand fans in the pews donated by the local undertaker and there was a slave gallery in the church, built so the slaves could attend services.

Gimme that old time religion with dinner on the grounds. May God bless America and bring our troops home safely.

Points to Ponder

Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive! Howard Thurman

A Little Humor

A juggler, driving to his next performance, is stopped by the police. “What are these matches and lighter fluid doing in your car?” asks the cop. “I’m a juggler and I juggle flaming torches in my act.” “Oh yeah?” says the doubtful cop. “Let’s see you do it.” The juggler gets out and starts juggling the blazing torches masterfully. A couple driving by slows down to watch. “Wow,” says the driver to his wife. “I’m glad I quit drinking. Look at the test they’re giving now!”

Quote of the Week

Minds are like parachutes; they only function when opened. Lord Thomas Robert Dewar