Cheerful Curmudgeon

My friend, Dan Suffian, wrote Swimming with Cripples and it’s absolutely beautiful. It’s just a long paragraph, too short for me to paraphrase it here, and anyway, if I were to try all I’d do is rob you of the joy of discovering Dan’s story through his own words. Go read it and share it with your children and your friends.

Sometimes a man stands up during supper
and walks outdoors, and keeps on walking,
because of a church that stands somewhere in the East.

And his children say blessings on him as if he were dead.

And another man, who remains inside his own house,
dies there, inside the dishes and in the glasses,
so that his children have to go far out into the world
toward that same church, which he forgot.

Ranier Maria Rilke
translated by Robert Bly

That is from one of my favorite books, The Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart: A Poetry Anthology by Robert Bly, James Hillman, and Michael Meade.

The Cheerful Curmudgeon web site is one year old today! Since we all know that birthdays mean presents, join me in celebrating.

I like the Hobbit’s tradition that the one having the birthday gives presents to other people. (You have read The Fellowship of the Ring, haven’t you?) So here’s the deal:

You, Gentle Reader, simply leave a comment on this posting. Tell me a tiny bit about yourself, like how long you have been reading the Cheerful Curmudgeon and what you like about it. Maybe add something witty if you are feeling particularly gregarious.

I, in turn, will donate $1.00 for every comment to MAZON which, “funds emergency food providers, food banks, multi-service organizations and advocacy groups both in this country and abroad.” Hurry, though, I will send in my donation based on the number of donations (up to 100) at the end of this weekend.

Help me celebrate and help the hungry, too. What could be better?

Simon Wiesenthal, holocaust survivor and hunter of Nazi war criminals, passed away in his sleep this morning. He was 96. May his life be remembered as a blessing.

Wiesenthal spent more than 50 years hunting Nazi war criminals, speaking out against neo-Nazism and racism, and remembering the Jewish experience as a lesson for humanity. Through his work, he said, some 1,100 Nazi war criminals were brought to justice.

“When history looks back I want people to know the Nazis weren’t able to kill millions of people and get away with it,” he once said.

Wiesenthal’s own words summarize his life better than I can:

For your benefit, learn from our tragedy. It is not a written law that the next victims must be Jews. It can also be other people. We saw it begin in Germany with Jews, but people from more than twenty other nations were also murdered. When I started this work, I said to myself, ‘I will look for the murderers of all the victims, not only the Jewish victims. I will fight for justice.’
(Quoted in an interview in Penthouse Magazine, 1983)

We need partners. We cannot fight against the neo-Nazis alone. We need friends. We can win them by telling them their history, by talking about the others, the millions of people other than the Jews, that the Nazis killed. The Holocaust began with the Jewish. But it did not end with the Jews.
(from an interview in the Baltimore Jewish Times, April 3, 1981)

There is no denying that Hitler and Stalin are alive today…they are waiting for us to forget, because this is what makes possible the resurrection of these two monsters.
(from a meeting with President Jimmy Carter reported in The Washington Post, August 6, 1980)

For more details, see this AP article in My Way News. You may also wish to visit the Simon Wiesenthal Center web site.

For years and years, I regularly donated blood to the American Red Cross. It was easy, didn’t hurt, and helped other people. Unlike donating money, giving blood did not even deprive me of anything. As a matter of fact, after each donation I treated myself to a good steak dinner. (No, I don’t want to hear medical evidence that the steak dinner was not “necessary”. )

One day I got a letter from the Red Cross. My blood had been screened and “failed” the initial screening. They retested and found that I am healthy and have nothing to worry about. Unfortunately, US law forbids them from accepting my blood because once I came up positive on a screening test. Bummer! Here I sit, healthy, with lots o’ blood that I want to donate, and blocked from doing so.

The Red Cross has been desperate for blood for a long time and the situation has been getting worse because of new medical worries about previously unknown diseases. Katrina has made the situation untenable.

If you are able to donate blood, please do. It only takes an hour of your time. You will save someone’s life.

Give Life — Donate Blood

Do it for that anonymous person who needs blood. Or do it as a personal favor to me. Or do it because it is “the right thing” to do. Just do it!

Thank you.

The Denver Post reports this story about Al Lewis, a man who does much to restore my faith in mankind.

“I just believe things should be done the way they should be done,” he said.

After a cargo strap on his truck broke, spewing about 5,000 spikes on the highway at 60 MPH, Al actually stopped, admitted fault, and made things right with the drivers with damaged tires, having everything repaired or replaced immediately at a local tire shop.

Al is living proof that it is possible to live a life of integrity and honesty.

Today’s the day. My N.E.W.S. Group is participating in the St. Charles Arthritis Walk. If you are in town and can join us at Frontier Park in St. Charles, do. There will be food, music, great weather and lots of fun! This group is part of the St. Peters Chamber of Commerce.

Whether you can come to the walk or not, please consider donating a couple of bucks to a very worthy cause. Thank you!

I am proud of our team. We have raised over $1,300 dollars!

[EDIT 5/15/05] Here are a couple of photos from the Walk.