LOVE WORKS DAILY 01/10/07 - Won't You Be My Neighbour

LOVE WORKS DAILY 01/10/07 - Won't You Be My Neighbour

Hello Friends! I hope today finds you happy and welland filled with the infinity that is love and thecapacity to give and receive it freely today!

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INSPIRATIONAL MOMENT:(Great Thoughts By History's Inspired Thinking Men and Women)
It's not the honors and not the titles and not the power that is of ultimate importance. It's what resides inside.
--Fred Rogers

TIM's BLOG (Random Thoughts and Tim's Daily World):

Here we are 10 days into 2007 and we are preparing here forwhat may be one of the coldest snaps in at least recenthistory here, Predicted temperatures the next few days aredown to about 0 degrees F with wind chills down tomaybe 30 or 40 below.
Good news is as of last night, Tonya's fathers cancer surgeryhad been a success and he was resting and doing well.
That does leave the kids and I here on our own to face thecold cold weather. We'll do great, I know we will. But having usall together would have been a preference.

I am so happy for our neighbours, who until a few days ago,did not have electricity (as in no power poles goingtheir property) and were depending on a generator torun a pellet stove for heat. They are all hooked upand toasty now. I see the lights up there at their place,it's nice to know that we have some neighbors besides my dadthat we could turn to in an emergency.

Wow...is that a another segueway? Could be...

Oh yeah, before I forget...I reread Joshua's response onLETTING GO this morning, and didn't realize just how powerful itwas until I took the time to "really" read it. If youhaven't it's worth going back for.
Anyone else got anything to say on LETTING GO?
Remember if you don't want to post, just email me private

at loveworksdaily@wildblue.net and if I use it I can keep it

anonymous if you like.

IN THE NEWS: A Love Works Persective

(Today's News From A LOVE WORKS point of view)

"Sen. Kennedy seeks universal health plan By KEVIN FREKING, Associated Press Writer Wed Jan 10, 7:37 AM ET

WASHINGTON - The federal government should join his home state of Massachusetts in enacting universal health coverage, says Sen. Edward Kennedy, the new chairman of the Senate committee with jurisdiction over numerous health issues."

Yes, there were other top news stories today.Bombings.Troop Build-ups.Attacks in Somolia.N. Korea Nuke Test Planned.

But, you know what, I decided to skip to news item #5.
One of the factors that has kept me from addressing the newsin these columns, and knowledge of current events are keyto having compassion and addressing today's problems, isthat every freaking newstory (minus one or two) is aboutkilling, death and destruction.
We LOVE to hear about death!
Why?
I have no idea whether a univeral health plan would work,or even should be attempted. But the idea is a good one...it a utopian type of world anyways.
But my real question is....Why don't we but triumphs and successes at the top of the page..and the explosions anddismemberments and hangings toward the back for those whoare morbidly curious.
Why do we give the violent front page coverage...
and spend so few words covering sometime like...say....
Poverty..and health care...
Why should we be spending money and shooting bombs off...when we still have sick and hungry in the world?
Is this upside down or WHAT?


FOOD FOR THOUGHT: (Brand New and Classic Love Works Essays 2001-2007)

In 2003, Mr. Rogers of the PBS childrens show Mr. Rogers Neighborhoodpassed away. It was a difficult for many people to acceptthat the man who invited them into his home each day witha happy welcoming smile and a wave was gone.
But to be honest, I really never liked the guy....or the show.As a kid, the show gave me the creeps and I didn't really know why.
He was just so NEAT and TIDY. He seemed obsessively complulsive about his sweaters and shoes, and the mailman, and feeding the fish, and more and more.
He just wasn't a role model to me.
I remember thinking to myself, THIS is a MAN with ISSUES.
He always kept staring at the camera, right at me, and saying mushy stuff like "let's be friends" and "I Love You" and "won't you be my neighbor?"
Well....no...I hope not.
And what was with the "Land of Make Believe" with all the sock puppets in which he provided all the voices himself, and all the puppets had all these "FEELINGS" all the time.
Did he have to hide behind "toys" to express his deepest fears and insecurities.
He was just so WEIRD!!!
Other men I knew were not like this. There must be something WRONG with Mister Rogers. After all, that's why he got his own miniaturemake believe neighborhood to live in.
I would have never watched Mister Rogers at all except it was after Sesame Street and before The Electric Company (anyone remember that one). So it was kind of a package deal. If I got up and did something else after Sesame Street I might miss the beginning of Electric Company and that was the best part, because that was when Spider-Man introduced the MYSTERY WORD of the day. And I couldn't have that.
So I watched this creepy guy and his neighborhood every day for several years of my childhood. (P.S. I always had thought these shows where in Black and White because our TV in the family room was black and white. I was surprised to find out as an adult that he had different colored sweaters - To add to that I'm colorblind so I still am not completely sure he had more that a few different ones.:)
I didn't learn anything about the actual man until I was much older.
From 1968 to 2000, Rogers, an ordained Presbyterian minister, produced the show at Pittsburgh public television station WQED. Rogers composed his own songs for the show and began each episode in a set made to look like a comfortable living room. His message remained simple: telling his viewers to love themselves and others. He also studied early childhood development at the University of Pittsburgh and consulted with an expert there over the years.
"He was certainly a perfectionist. There was a lot more to Fred than I think many of us saw," said Joe Negri, a guitarist who on the show played the royal handyman in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe and owner of "Negri's Music Shop."
Negri said Rogers refused to accept shoddy ad-libbing by guests who may have thought they could slack off during a kid's show.
But Rogers could also enjoy taping as if he were a child himself, Negri recalled.
Rogers taught children how to share, deal with anger and even why they shouldn't fear the bathtub by assuring them they'll never go down the drain.
During the Persian Gulf War, Rogers told youngsters that "all children shall be well taken care of in this neighborhood and beyond — in times of war and in times of peace," and he asked parents to promise their children they would always be safe.
"We live in a world in which we need to share responsibility," he said in 1994. "It's easy to say 'It's not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem.'
"Then there are those who see the need and respond. I consider those people my heroes."
I never knew any of this when I watched Mister Rogers as a kid.
But, Mister Rogers turned out to be alot more like the MAN I turned out to be. And maybe that's why he always creeped me out so much.
I was the little boy with all the extra feelings pouring out.
It did matter to me that people were nice to each other and loved each other.
I worried the fish wouldn't get fed if I missed the show.
I did care about things being predictable and reliable.
And I secretly enjoyed when that little train went into the dark tunneland appeared in a magical new place. I escaped to my land of make believe all the time.
I believe Mister Rogers made me so unconfortable because he WAS ALOT LIKE ME, but unlike any other MALE ROLE MODELS I had in my life.
And if Mister Rogers was WEIRD, and I was like Mister Rogers, thanI WAS WEIRD.
Well I'm all grown up now, I still don't think much of the Mister Rogers Show (which continues in reruns), but I think the world ofFRED ROGERS.
Mr. Rogers was a man who dedicated his life to a simple message,and he did it quietly and without alot of fanfare.
His message was one of LOVE and UNDERSTANDING.
It's OK to express your feelings and say that you love someone (even if you are male) and it's OK to be different.
Fred Rogers was a great man and will be missed....even if he was a little DIFFERENT...which I have come to learn is JUST FINE.
I wish him the best as he leaves THIS "Land of Make Believe" and journeys on to his next destination.

Love In Thought! Love In Word! Love In Action!
Love To You Today!

"May we endeavor today to increase our understanding and appreciation of what others have given and contributed to us. And develop constant, mindful consideration of how our thoughts and actions will BENIFICIALLYCONTRIBUTE to others"
The best to you today in discovering the answers to life's difficult questions!

A Final Thought:
Love is always the right thing to do. Even if it isn't the easiest thing to do.
May we have compassion for the struggles of others, wisdom to acknowledge our own, and courage to address them both every day.
Respectfully,Tim

This is a daily newsletter of LOVE WORKS DAILY:A collective of individuals of different beliefs andbackgrounds, dedicated to a better world by living LOVE in thought,word and action. Compassion. Wisdom. Courage.

Nam Myoho Renge Kyo

Peace be with you.

Adapted from LOVE WORKS DAILY 03/05/03

(c)2003 T.Thomas Henry