Good
morning,
Quote
of the day:
“I
believe in strict gun control. If there is a gun around I want
control.”
Clint
Eastwood
I
recently met a man that is a writer. I am a historian he is a
soul-searcher. This man is bearing a cross that I will not discuss
but he has one thing more...he has heart as will be obvious in this
rendering.
Water
and Rocks
Jeff
Jennings
Recently,
while hiking in the foothills of South Carolina, I happened upon a
small, yet briskly flowing whitewater creek. While relaxing and
enjoying the solitude, I sensed a battle for superiority between the
highly spirited water and the large boulders resting on the creek bed
along the edges of the stream.
At
first, the rocks, stubborn, immovable and unyielding seemed to have
their way with its adversary. However the water, determined yet
forgiving, seemed merely inconvenienced by the presence of the rocks,
as it effortlessly changed course re-charting a path towards its
original destination.
Soon
it became clear that the rocks, although remaining strong and
steadfast, were losing this confrontation as the waters’ total
indifference began to slowly reform these obstacles into smooth and
beautiful polished stones.
You
see, there seemed to be total lack of struggle associated with the
water's trek. Struggle is like bondage forcing conformity and the
water would have none of that. To the contrary, the water seemed
perfectly content to move around the rocks when necessary, following
some preordained route God had originally intended.
I
paused for thought. Maybe people need to be more determined and less
steadfast and stubborn. Maybe human beings need to always be open to
different points of view, not afraid to readjust their direction as
life presents all of its new and unforeseen challenges.
Thanks
Jeff
A
little trivia couldn't hurt:
Does
anyone know how the custom of clinking the rim of your glass with
someone else before taking a drink came? It certainly was not for
the purpose of fellowship. Among royalty of the middle ages the act
of poisoning someone became a common route up the ladder of power.
So they began exchanging a little of their beverages from glass to
glass to show that there had been no poisoning.
Some
of you have probably heard this but the tradition of hand saluting in
the military also began in the Middle Ages. When two knights in
armor approached each other, they would raise the visor on their
helmets if there was no hostile intent.
And
finally, the act of shaking right hands as a show of friendship began
with the knights once again. When two knights approached each other
they would show the palm of their right hands to indicate that there
was no hidden knife. That did not get the job done so they began
grabbing each others hands and wrists to make sure there was no knife
hidden in their sleeves. I wonder if the act of groping came from
the middle ages.
This
Date in History November 14
1862 On this date
President Abraham Lincoln approved US General Ambrose Burnside’s
plan for the capture of the Confederate capitol of Richmond,
Virginia. Burnside was the replacement for US General George
McClellan who had been fired by Lincoln for being an obnoxious
horse’s ass. McClellan was the architect of landing troops
southeast of Richmond and attack Richmond up the James River
Peninsula. He ran into CSA General Robert E. Lee in a series of
battle over the span of seven days and McClellan had his ass handed
to him and he retreated back down the peninsula and took he and his
troops back north. However, he ran into Lee again near a small town
in Maryland named Sharpsburg. The battle took place near a body of
water named Antietam Creek. This was the bloodiest single day in
American history and the battle was called a draw. Both armies were
beat up badly which forced Lee to retreat back into Virginia to
regroup and refit. McClellan, remembering what happened to him in
Virginia before, decided to wait a couple of months near Sharpsburg
and refused to follow Lee into Virginia. This was the last straw and
Lincoln canned him in favor of Burnside. Burnside’s plan was to
march down the east bank of the Rappahannock River cross over to the
west side near the town of Fredericksburg, Virginia and attack
Richmond from the south. Lincoln would have rather had not have
Burnsides to try and crush Lee’s army but for the lack of any other
choice he approved Burnside’s plan. Burnsides’ went down the
river bank until he was opposite Fredericksburg but he had to wait
for two days because of the weather. By then Lee’s army had
deployed on Marye’s Heights facing the River and had pre-registered
(aimed) his artillery. Burnsides sent his troops on the attack a
regiment at a time and those poor guys were literally chopped to
pieces. This did not slow Burnside down he kept sending more and
more troops into that cauldron for 14 separate charges. All of them
failed. Can you imagine what those soldiers that were in the 14th
charge were wading through? Anyway, Burnside ordered a retreat but
then there came three days of torrential rain which turned the roads
into quagmires. Burnsides’ retreat bogged down and the
Confederates on the opposite bank was sniping at them from cover and
was yelling taunts at them. Burnside finally completed his retreat
after suffering horrendous losses. This was an ignominious end to
the combat command of US General Ambrose Burnside.
1851
Earlier an author named Herman Melville had published a novel
named Typee about his experiences aboard a trading ship in the south
Pacific. But on this date he released one of the most engrossing
books ever written. He gave us Moby
Dick.
This novel is based on Melville’s experiences on a whaling vessel.
The first line of this book is famous: “Call me Ishmael.” It is
a story of the revenge of a whaling vessel captain named Ahab against
an albino sperm whale, that he named Moby
Dick
for taking off his right leg on an earlier expedition. His desire
for revenge was absorbed by the rest of his crew and their whole
being became aimed at killing the great whale. I will let it go at
that and y’all can find out what happened on your own. It gives
you an insight to the depths that human hatred can descend.
1882
This is a tale about one of the lesser known gunmen in the old
west named Franklin “Buckskin” Leslie. According to him he was
either born in Texas or Kentucky depending upon his mood at the time.
He also said that he went to medical school in Europe. No one
really knew much about him except he was a very capable gunman. He
gained a reputation as a bad-ass long before he arrived in that
famous city of hell called Tombstone, Arizona. He was not as well
known as the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday but he was just as
deadly. He got into a cuss-fight with man named John Killeen about
Killeen’s wife. They drew down on each other and Killeen was
killed. Very shortly afterward Leslie married the former Mrs.
Killeen. After a while of him beating her up, his wife and Leslie
were divorced. Leslie then took up with a Tombstone prostitute.
Then one night he got drunk and chose to shoot and kill the
prostitute. Even in Tombstone, the killing of a woman would not be
tolerated and “Buckskin” went to the slammer for ten years.
After he was released he returned to Tombstone and resumed his life
of before. He had a drinking partner named Johnny Ringo that was
just as mean and deadly as Buckskin. Ringo was found dead outside
Tombstone near Turkey Creek and yet another gunslinger named Billy
Claiborne blamed Buckskin as the murderer. No one knows why, but on
this date Claiborne proclaimed all of this in public which was
essentially a challenge to Buckskin to fight and fight they did.
Claiborne lost. After this the trail of Buckskin becomes obscure.
Some claim that he made a fortune in the Klondike gold fields no one
really knows but Buckskin Leslie faded from the pages of history. By
the way, Wyatt Earp later claimed that it was he that had killed
Johnny Ringo at Turkey Creek.
1940
On this date German Luftwaffe bombed the hell out of the English
city of Coventry. There is a story that Winston Churchill knew that
the Germans were going to attack Coventry because they had broken the
German code named Enigma which is what the Luftwaffe used. He could
not warn the people of Coventry that a raid was coming because then
the Germans would know their code had been broken. War is hell.
Born today:
1951
US songwriter Stephen Bishop. He wrote a song named “I am so
miserable without you; it is almost like having you here.” I think
I was married to this woman
1952
US Representative Maureen Murphy. She said “The reason there are
so few women politicians is that is so much trouble to put make-up on
two faces.” I think we all know a female politician that has
multiple faces, don’t we? Her initials are Nancy Pelosi.
Thanks for
listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
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