A couple of things have been brewing--slowly, kind of like sun-tea--for a while.

The first, the least brewed of the three, I talked about in another blog of mine.  It has to do with that can-do spirit that made America--and I'm sure a lot of other lands as well--great.  I fear it is something we are losing, but maybe not.  A couple of days after I saw the old gent I wrote about on the other blog, I was helping with a big ladies event that our church pulled off.  It was one of those events that you folk involved in church work understand.  Somebody says, "Let's do it."  to which some other folk say, Let's!"  And they're off.  Folk take a limited resources and produce maxi-results.  (See here) 
In this case the limited resources included a group of guys who volunteered to make the women's special evening more special for not having to prepare the food--don't forget the limited resource part. Catering was out. Anyhow at the end of the evening, when the work had turned the least attractive--cleaning up--a teen guy, a son of one of the other guys showed up.  Without any prompting that I saw this young man started busing tables and putting stuff away, all with a kind spirit and sweet attitude.  In addition to accomplishing a lot of work, he sure encouraged me.

Whether we are young and healthy like my teen friend, or old and nearly worn out like the man in the other story, each of us needs to ask, "What can I do?" and then, at least a great deal of the time do it.  I'm thankful for a couple of reminders about the virtue of just plain old hard work.

Soon to come, some thoughts on background checks and jumping to conclusions, prejudice.