Opinion

Here's the good news

Thursday, April 9, 2009

There have been many scary and tragic things happening recently. Sometimes I think I would like to go live in a cabin in the woods away from any news. But I would want someone to bring me something to eat once in a while.

I know that when they came I would be like the grateful participants of Meals on Wheels. I would be so glad to see someone to talk to that I would keep them talking for an hour. And of course, since inquisitive people want to know, I would ask about what is going on in the world.

So there would be no use in being isolated and away from comforts if I really don't get away from the news either.

However, I have thought of a better way to handle all the bad news. I will counteract it with lots of good news. It really isn't hard to do if you pay attention to the little things.

This last week I led a class at an Elderhostel at the YMCA of the Ozarks over near Potosi, Mo. One of the women in my class asked if I was going to write about any of them in my column this week. At the time I hadn't thought of anything I would write about. I had the usual amount of PEO members who were delighted to quiz me about Cottey College. I was able to tell them I had just written about Dr. Glenn Rogers and they wanted to know more about him. That was fun. But the good news in the week was that I had a chance to reunite with a college house-mate and her husband, meet many wonderful new friends, and find hundreds of reasons to laugh together. Also I didn't have to cook a meal or wash a dish all week.

Two of those who were attending wanted to buy one of my books. I promised to mail them one the next day after I got home. I packaged and addressed the two separate books ready to mail and put them on a bookcase by the door. I also prepared a gift and birthday card for a great-grandson and put it on the bookcase. Later Marilyn was planning to take a walk so I asked her to please mail Nathan's birthday card up in the mailbox. She did, but she also took the two packaged books at the same time. That was fine except I had not put any postage on them. When I realized my error, I called the post office and was assured that they would catch the books and let me come in on Monday to pay the postage. However on Monday, our own carrier called and said he would pay the postage and give us the bill so that the books would go out quicker. Lester was already going to town so we didn't take him up on his offer, but knowing that our carrier was so helpful really made our day.

Speaking of warm feelings, on Sunday when the weather turned so cold we came home from church to a very warm house. Our son figured we wouldn't have had time to start a fire in our supplementary heating stove, so he came over while we were gone and fixed a nice cheery fire for us to come home to.

Another bit of good news is that the predicted snow did not come, the red buds are blooming everywhere we look, and even though it is cold today as I write this, two Canada geese and five ducks are enjoying the sunshine on our pond. When we step outside, "our" geese come toward us hoping we have a handout for them.

And our housecat, Pumpkin, is sleeping on my desk, flipping his tail when I say his name. That tells me that everything is perfectly all right in the world.