What will be the gift...

[BasicGreatGuy]

I realize that for many, this is a place to relax and have fun. Be that as it may, I want to inject solemn reality into the heart and mind of those that view my thread. So often, people are apt to speak without listening, walk without seeing, and to touch without feeling. So often, many people live their lives as commas or periods, when they could have lived their life with an exclamation point.

What kind of life are you leading? What will be the gift you leave the world? When I say gift, I am not talking about money or property. Think about the gift you have.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPELd225kSY]YouTube - Morningside-Neil Diamond[/ame]

 

[Mr. H.]

I'm registered with the National Marrow Donor Program. Also a designated organ donor. I give shit to charity. You post one more Neil Diamond song I'm cutting you out of my will.

 

[Si modo]

Dammit! I am more than punctuation!

 

[Ringel05]

A good laugh.

 

[Setarcos]

The White Plague

 

[Ringel05]

The White Plague

Chicken Pox and Measles?

 

[American Horse]

I realize that for many, this is a place to relax and have fun. Be that as it may, I want to inject solemn reality into the heart and mind of those that view my thread. So often, people are apt to speak without listening, walk without seeing, and to touch without feeling. So often, many people live their lives as commas or periods, when they could have lived their life with an exclamation point.

What kind of life are you leading? What will be the gift you leave the world? When I say gift, I am not talking about money or property. Think about the gift you have.

Beautiful BGG.

In my thirties, when I seriously began my life career, I thought I would leave something behind that would last, and remain beautiful for hundreds of years. It was conceivable that my work would influence what happened in my geographical area for what I thought was the better. I turned a “few score acres” into something beautiful, for a number of families to enjoy, to physically enhance their lives, and those of their children. And I was able to work in my own neighborhood for 20 years, building houses, and do other things for the families who would live there; I saw their children being born, grow up and go to college, become doctors, scientists, business owners, mothers, fathers, housewives.

I thought when I began that only a huge government project would be able to wreck what I was creating, due to the great expense of buying out these really beautiful, park-like properties, subsuming the restrictions and covenants, and overcoming the resistance of the owners against such radical change. I was wrong;

Amazingly it almost happened within just 35 years. When an interstate highway (I-69) was routed within a couple of miles or so of my creation, a “clover-leaf” was contemplated to be laid over the top of it, and thus it could have potentially been obliterated. But plans instead have solidified a distance away for the highway, and my youthful “dream” survives, but with an awareness now, that it is tenuous. Still I have had some influence, by influencing many lives maybe for generations, in some subtle and positive and lasting ways.

Not what you expected, nor even what lots of people find "desirable" but each is guided by his or her own character.

A Foggy Morning On Tanglewood Road
(Click on Thumbnail to magnify)

 

[Setarcos]

The White Plague

Chicken Pox and Measles?

The theoretical supervirus that would wipe out all Mankind

 

[Ringel05]

The White Plague

Chicken Pox and Measles?

The theoretical supervirus that would wipe out all Mankind

The primary killers of the American Indian.

 

[chanel]

I teach reading to severely dyslexic teenagers. The results haven't been 100%, but I honestly believe I've saved a few from embarrassment, unemployment, and jail.

My children go to Catholic school and have been raised to believe they must leave this world a better place. I honestly feel they will do that. One wants to go in the service, and the other is a missionary in Africa.

Ok. Enough bragging. I will also be leaving a huge carbon footprint. Bad, bad Chanel.

 

[random3434]

I'm raising a great, smart, funny, kind, compassionate daughter.

I also teach special needs kids. By the time they get to me they don't have much self confidence left, since they can't do the things most kids in the gen ed classroom can. But I make sure they CAN do many things, to the best of their abilities. Non-readers learn to read site words and simple books, others are learning to read on grade level with adaptations. I make sure and tell them every day how smart they are, and give them plenty of hugs. They know I care, and that makes them want to learn even more.

I love my daughter, I love my job~

 

[dilloduck]

Life can be absurd and painful. I try to help people when they experience that. I like to think it's a gift but ultimately I guess I will never know. Can't think of any other gifts that might be of more value tho.
(maybe giving Paulie's new g/f a total make over would benefit us all tho)

 

[BasicGreatGuy]

I realize that for many, this is a place to relax and have fun. Be that as it may, I want to inject solemn reality into the heart and mind of those that view my thread. So often, people are apt to speak without listening, walk without seeing, and to touch without feeling. So often, many people live their lives as commas or periods, when they could have lived their life with an exclamation point.

What kind of life are you leading? What will be the gift you leave the world? When I say gift, I am not talking about money or property. Think about the gift you have.

Beautiful BGG.

In my thirties, when I seriously began my life career, I thought I would leave something behind that would last, and remain beautiful for hundreds of years. It was conceivable that my work would influence what happened in my geographical area for what I thought was the better. I turned a “few score acres” into something beautiful, for a number of families to enjoy, to physically enhance their lives, and those of their children. And I was able to work in my own neighborhood for 20 years, building houses, and do other things for the families who would live there; I saw their children being born, grow up and go to college, become doctors, scientists, business owners, mothers, fathers, housewives.

I thought when I began that only a huge government project would be able to wreck what I was creating, due to the great expense of buying out these really beautiful, park-like properties, subsuming the restrictions and covenants, and overcoming the resistance of the owners against such radical change. I was wrong;

Amazingly it almost happened within just 35 years. When an interstate highway (I-69) was routed within a couple of miles or so of my creation, a “clover-leaf” was contemplated to be laid over the top of it, and thus it could have potentially been obliterated. But plans instead have solidified a distance away for the highway, and my youthful “dream” survives, but with an awareness now, that it is tenuous. Still I have had some influence, by influencing many lives maybe for generations, in some subtle and positive and lasting ways.

Not what you expected, nor even what lots of people find "desirable" but each is guided by his or her own character.

A Foggy Morning On Tanglewood Road
(Click on Thumbnail to magnify)

Thank you so much for taking the time to share AH. I appreciate it.

 

[Big Black Dog]

Morningside is a great Neil Diamond song and one of my favorites. What gift am I going to leave behind me when I'm gone? I will leave the world with some idea of what a "bad example" really is!

 

[goldcatt]

I'd like to think I'll leave behind the kind of gifts I've received from those who went before me.
My great-grandmother's naughty stories and her gentle hands, her accent and the way she always knew just what would make everything better - usually in the form of a little something from the kitchen, a pat on the hand and a quiet smile. My great-grandfather and his Old World dignity, his gentle humor, and the way he always ALWAYS won at cards. My grandparents who worked hard their entire lives without an extra penny to their names, through disability and tragedy, but who never, ever complained - or turned away someone in need. The aunt who rescued not just stray animals but also lost people, who first taught me to dance and who lived every moment of her life out loud without a care in the world for what anyone else thought. The friend who left us far too soon, who was the greatest example of quiet strength I've ever seen.
If I can leave behind half of what I've received, I'll be more than satisfied.

 

[froggy]

I'd like to think I'll leave behind the kind of gifts I've received from those who went before me.
My great-grandmother's naughty stories and her gentle hands, her accent and the way she always knew just what would make everything better - usually in the form of a little something from the kitchen, a pat on the hand and a quiet smile. My great-grandfather and his Old World dignity, his gentle humor, and the way he always ALWAYS won at cards. My grandparents who worked hard their entire lives without an extra penny to their names, through disability and tragedy, but who never, ever complained - or turned away someone in need. The aunt who rescued not just stray animals but also lost people, who first taught me to dance and who lived every moment of her life out loud without a care in the world for what anyone else thought. The friend who left us far too soon, who was the greatest example of quiet strength I've ever seen.
If I can leave behind half of what I've received, I'll be more than satisfied.

its funny how grandparents are better grands than parents.