Our mantra for this weekly Hindsight ritual continues to be: Those who do not learn history are condemned to repeat it. As always, I don't guarantee you won't make the same mistake twice, but you may smile more than once.
There was a lot of death going on this week. Statistically not any more than any other week of the year, but you wouldn't know it by the news coverage. There was death by tornado. Death by flooding. Death by post earthquake mudslide. We talked about some of that in Friday's blog, Catastrophic News Network. Depending on who you are and who you know, death is either a quiet passing or its a circus.
Tim Russert, the famously witty, aggressive political anchor of Meet the Press died suddenly on Friday of a heart attack capping a week of untimely deaths. Time magazine named Russert to this year's list of the one hundred most influential people in the world. They didn't offer a definition of influence, but more than likely its a measure of popularity. Its just too hard to influence the world when you're volunteering on the second shift in the hospital gift shop. Its even harder to go quietly when all your friends either own a major network or they preside over a cable news outlet.
I was at a local funeral home last year when I happened on the parlor director making final preparations for a viewing later that day. I didn't know the woman, but the personal history on the table spoke of a kindly life inclined toward serving others. The funeral director closed the middle partition of the main parlor to reduce the size of the room in half. Two thirds of the chairs had to be removed and the floral arrangements went up in front of the south doors. They only needed a single entrance to handle the small number of anticipated guests. It was a quiet viewing.
Hindsight: The meek are usually not popular souls, but they do tend to inherit the earth. And please take a moment to remember all those lesser known souls whose lives ended unexpectedly in this week's disasters.
Thanks for joining us at the end of another week and come back next week when posts will include James Sullivan, the story of a young man who refused to give up. Another post titled Inspiration explores where all that inventiveness comes from. And don't miss the fun and funny post about summer when our Top of the Morning number one summer fun enthusiast recounts some real winners. We're also unveiling the Promised Land post where author David G. Woolley goes in depth on the research and inspiration behind the characters and story lines of his Book of Mormon Promised Land Historical Fiction Series. This week on the Promised Land its a post about an ancient old world Arabian setting for Lehi's Dream of the Tree of Life. And don't forget to come back at the end of the week for another installment of Hindsight.
Until then, Top of the Morning to you
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Join author David G. Woolley at his Promised Land Website. He is also a weekly contributor to the Latter Day Authors blog and he writes commentary and opinion at the Utah Ranger's Far Post blog
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