What Would Jimmy Do?

Amen is a word that we’re all familiar with and it’s usually used at the end of a prayer, especially in church. But a few days ago, we had a discussion about what amen really meant. I thought it came from Hebrew and meant “so be it.” My friend thought it meant “in agreement.” I suppose we both were pretty much in agreement as to its meaning, but I thought this would be a good occasion to practice my extensive research.

From what I gather, amen is a word that came to English from Latin, which got it from Greek, which got it from Aramaic, which got it from Hebrew. It turns out that the word is difficult to translate directly, so, like some other words, rather than translate it, we just borrowed it.
If you check the dictionary, it says something like ….uttered at the end of a prayer or hymn. It’s interesting to note that “amen” is not used to conclude any prayers in the Bible. The word is usually used to begin certain passages or sayings, e.g., “Amen, amen, I say to you…”

Amen was used in the Old Testament only thirty times, and five of those it was used as a double word (amen, amen) so it’s only found in 25 passages.
The word is used 129 times in the New Testament and 99 of those are spoken by Jesus, Himself. He often began a sentence with amen or used it to give emphasis to what He said.

Exactly when amen began to be used to conclude a prayer isn’t clear. One theory is that today many people pray with their eyes closed and amen signals that the prayer has ended. In Bible times people prayed by lifting their eyes toward heaven with outstretched arms, so everyone could easily see when the prayer had ended.

Even though the meaning of amen can be translated different ways depending on content, it basically conveys the idea of agreement. So when someone says “amen” after a statement such as, “This is a really great blog,” it means they agree…..
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There’s an old saying that it’s better to be lucky than good. I guess I mostly agree with that, but sometimes I find myself noticing that some people are “lucky” more than their fair share of the time. So that got me to thinking — are some people genuinely luckier than others? Are they born blessed with some mysterious predisposition that regularly brings them good fortune?

When good or favorable things repeatedly occur for some people, seemingly against the odds, we usually attribute it to good luck — and — when misfortune strikes us, we attribute it to bad luck. But maybe there’s more to these happenings than just ‘luck.”

If we buy into this luck theory, we’re saying that our fortune, and misfortune, are caused by external factors that are beyond our control. But is that really true?
Maybe some people seem to have better luck because they believe in themselves, or they’re always curious, or they work harder, or they have a clear purpose.

Luck may be only an illusion. Some people believe that you can make your own luck. That’s at least partially true. Instead of attributing everything to luck, good or bad, maybe we ought to explore taking steps to make things happen, not just rely on luck.
If you look closely at “lucky” people, you’ll probably notice that most, if not all, of them work hard, are usually focused on a goal, they take action, they believe in themselves, they’re curious, and probably don’t believe that they were “born lucky.”

So I guess if you want to be luckier in life, maybe you should think about changing things — if you’ve been doing what you’ve been doing and the results are less than satisfactory, why not try a new strategy. It’s been said that luck is when preparation meets opportunity….
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Emily has been attending Dance Camp this summer and Friday we attended her “recital.”
There must have been about 20 or so in her class and they all did a great job — of course Emily did much better than the rest, but I knew she would. Apparently the camp had a “Frozen” theme (what else?) and a couple of the Frozen Princesses showed up to attend the show.

After the performance, we went to lunch, and then it was off to Maine for the Giffords to spend some time with the other Grammy and Poppy.
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When I was a kid and went to the movies, the “previews” of movies to come (and there were never more than 1 or 2 shown) were called “trailers.” Today, they’re still often referred to as trailers even though they’re shown before the movie.

For both my faithful readers who are too young to remember how things used to be, let me explain.
When I was growing up, the movie theater started showing the movie —at, say, one o’clock. It always started with a cartoon and during the week, a newsreel came next and then the movie. You paid your money (10 cents for kids and a quarter for adults) and came in any time you wanted — before the movie started or in the middle — didn’t matter. After the movie ended, the screen never went blank. At the end of the movie “trailers” showing scenes from the next movie (or two) the theater was gong to show came on and when they were finished, the cartoon, newsreels, and movie started again. It didn’t matter if you set through the movie two or three times, it still just cost a dime, or quarter. They never cleared the theater until the final showing and the theater closed.
So obviously during my younger days the term “trailer” made a lot of sense.

The first movie trailer was shown at the end of a “serial.” Serials were kind of like TV shows that lead up to some dramatic climax and then flash on the screen that the episode will be continued next week. When I was a kid, all the movie theaters showed serials after the cartoon and before the movie on Fridays and Saturdays. Anyhow, at the end of each serial episode, there wold be a short film teasing you to come back next week to see what happens…. just like a “preview” today — an advertisement for a coming attraction. These were called trailers and the name stuck.

Hollywood has periodically attempted to introduce other names for these advertisements, like Previews and Prevues of Coming Attractions, but for some reason trailer has remained the preferred name in the movie industry.

So trailers aren’t just for trucks and people that live in West Virginia, they’re for the movies too — even if they are shown in the wrong place….
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You’ve probably noticed that a lot of the news lately has centered on the Confederate flag. There’s always been a controversy over the flag, but it pretty much came to a head over the killings of nine black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina.

Shortly after we moved to West Virginia, we drove by our local cemetery on Memorial Day and there were a number of Confederate flags displayed on the graves in one section. Claire was astonished that the Confederate flag was being flown instead of the Stars and Stripes. That section of the cemetery contains the remains of Confederate troops that fought in the battle of Antietam. That’s the flag they fought, and died, under. For whatever reason, they believed in something enough to give  their lives. I thought at the time, and continue to think, that it’s appropriate to display that flag on their graves. I suspect that a great many — probably most — of those soldiers buried here in Shepherdstown did not own slaves — they fought to defend what they perceived, rightly or wrongly, to be unjustified Northern aggression.

I absolutely agree that removing the Confederate flag from the South Carolina statehouse grounds was the right thing to do. But more and more over the last few days, I’m seeing the (typical?) over-reaction to the flag and the trend to seemingly consider anything related to the Confederate states offensive and vindictive. Apparently a lot of people are using this one incident to promote their own “causes.” It falls into the category of grandstanding that seems so prevalent in politics today. A part of Route 1 that runs from the Washington area south is named Jefferson Davis Highway. There is a move afoot to rename that section of the road. I’ve read just in the last couple of days of movements to change the names of highways, schools, public buildings and pretty much anything and everything that in any way refers to something or someone related to the Confederate states. Of course politicians are going to jump on this — it’s a great political tactic, an easy way to raise their profile, especially if they’re a legislative newbie. According to some of the political speeches I’ve heard, we’ll be able to eliminate all residue of racism by taking down these signs. If only it were that easy.

Removing the flag from the statehouse grounds in South Carolina probably serves as some sort of a symbolic victory but removing the flag won’t eliminate racism and in fact may make things worse in some regions where whites and blacks believe the flag only exists as a symbol of slavery.

Like it or not, the Confederate flag is a piece of history — it has no place flying over government buildings, but the display of the flag is appropriate at historic sites, museums and, yes, graves of Confederate soldiers….
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The annual family picnic was held in Cleveland this weekend. I’m told there were a couple of Ohio residents that couldn’t attend, but otherwise it was well attended….
It was good to see and visit with all the family again, the weather was just about perfect, the food was good, the beer was cold and everyone seemed to have a good time.
Thanks to Chris and John for pulling this together every year. Looking forward to trying to find it again next year…..
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We’ve had a lot of rain this year and everything in our yard has grown a lot. But it seems like the one thing that’s grown the most is the weeds. Everyone has this problem and if you look around it obviously bothers some people more than others.

I understand that a weed is just a plant in the wrong place but I’ve spent a fair amount of time to create and maintain a fairly decent lawn and Claire has picked out flowers that appeal to her. I like grass and I like flowers, but I don’t want grass growing in the flower beds and I don’t want flowers growing in the lawn.

Sometimes when we’re driving, I notice wildflowers and weeds along the road and often I think they look pretty nice — but not in our lawn or flower beds. But I give them credit — weeds are survivors. Someone said that a weed is a plant that has mastered every survival skill except for learning how to grow in rows. Seems like that’s true….

So — I think I’ve decided to come to terms with weeds on a philosophical level, and take action by having a cold Margarita and watching those weeds grow. Man is the only critter that feels the need to label things as flowers or weeds…..
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Happy Birthday to Locke’s parents.

Hope Dave and Chassie have a great day!!

Love you guys….
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