Pillsbury

"Pillsbury called, they want you to star in their commercial for turnovers." Tom Boheman

 From drawception.com

The response of coach Boheman on guard play.

The Synergy

Photo from Sarah Brown

A group of Jesup middle school players recently played in a basketball tournament in Waverly, Iowa and were the champions in their division. They played under the team name the Synergy. Some teams they defeated were from Waverly and Mason City. Playing on that team are from the front left Hannah M., Sydney A., Payton J., Emily T., and Kylie W. In the back row you have Karson S., Laken B., Kelsi B. and Jama T. The Coaches were Sarah Brown, Kyle Borrett and not pictured Alissa Brown. Congratulations.

River Road

My very good friend Jasmine Banks penned a short narrative about my Nirvana I call the 'River Road'. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I do.

"I love...a place called the River Road. For me it's a place comparable to the enchanted forest. It's a place not only can you get lost but you would be happy being lost there forever. It's a place where dogs run free and horses are your neighbors. It's a place where timber thickly grows while bald eagles and hawks fly free. The place where an Amish horse and buggy are common. I love this place called the River Road a place where as the seasons change in this enchanted place the heart and soul stays the same.

I love the smell of fresh country air, the crunch of the gravel, leaves and snow beneath my feet. I love chasing sunsets and eating apples from the trees on this place called the River Road. I love closing my eyes and standing still as I get lost in the timber listening to the leaves falling silently into the arms of Mother Earth. The smell and sound of the river that runs through is like none other. I dream of sleeping under a sky lit up by twinkling stars instead of city lights.

Here on the River Road is where love lives and peace lies. Every time I leave this place, I leave a piece of my heart. Knowing that one day I will travel to the River Road never to return from where I've come."

Eulogy of Stan Musial

Bob Costas eulogized the great St. Louis Cardinal Stan Musial this past week. We could all be so lucky to have such kind and compassionate words said about us. Click here and listen to him lament.

Understood

Picture From the Poetryfoundation.org

 

“Is it so bad to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Robert N. Test

From The Emma Willard School Website

It has been years since I have seen this poem by Robert Test, and when I read it again I had to post it. Let alone when you are on your death bed, when you are alive, strong, and  healthy you should give to people in need.

Not just to the people you love, but to the people that need you more than you need them.

Read this heart felt poem then go out and help people that need you.

"The day will come when my body will lie upon a white sheet neatly tucked under four corners of a mattress located in a hospital; busily occupied with the living and the dying. At a certain moment a doctor will determine that my brain has ceased to function and that, for all intents and purposes, my life has stopped.

When that happens, do not attempt to instill artificial life into my body by the use of a machine. And don't call this my deathbed. Let it be called the bed of life, and let my body be taken from it to help others lead fuller lives.

Give my sight to the man who has never seen a sunrise, a baby's face or love in the eyes of a woman. Give my heart to a person whose own heart has caused nothing but endless days of pain.

Give my blood to the teenager who was pulled from the wreckage of his car, so that he might live to see his grandchildren play.

Give my kidneys to the one who depends on a machine to exist from week to week.
Take my bones, every muscle, every fiber and nerve in my body and find a way to make a crippled child walk.

Explore every corner of my brain.
Take my cells, if necessary, and let them grow so that, someday a speechless boy will shout at the crack of a bat and a deaf girl will hear the sound of rain against her window.

Burn what is left of me and scatter the ashes to the winds to help the flowers grow.
If you must bury something, let it be my faults, my weakness and all prejudice against my fellow man.

Give my sins to the devil.
Give my soul to God.
If, by chance, you wish to remember me, do it with a kind deed or word to someone who needs you. If you do all I have asked, I will live forever."

Robert N. Test (1926-1994)

Norah and Willie

 The sweetest sound in the world is that in which you mix Willie Nelson and Norah Jones together. Click here and listen to them sing "The Wurlitzer Prize" and let a warm feeling come over you as they do the duet on Willie's birthday.
picture from last.fm