THURSDAY, JANUARY 19, 2023 - DISCOVER NEW SHORES

 THURSDAY, JANUARY 19, 2023 - DISCOVER NEW SHORES

Monday I wrote about Martin Luther King.  He wanted a new world order - a world based on love and not hate, a world based on freedom for all, a world that was “colorblind”.  

Tuesday I wrote about being to Belarus - and meeting those evil Russians (and finding out we were pretty much the same). 

Yesterday, my main emphasis was on loving others with Columbus.  He had to leave his land to find a new land.  He had to lose sight of the shore.  I want to expand on that just a little today.  

So, Columbus crossed the ocean and was followed by a lot of explorers and ships.  England colonized a lot of the world (India, Australia, South Africa, and North America, and peddled influence in other places - like China).

In North America, by the middle of the 19th century, immigrants were arriving almost every day.  The White family, Smock family, Youtzy family, Quaas family (my grandparents), and then their parents and grandparents) left their family homes in Europe for the land where the streets were paved with gold.  (I have yet to see a street paved in real gold.  I’ve seen a few where the streets have been painted with gold-colored paint).

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We had a lot of explorers - Carter, Ponce de Leon, Cortez, Hudson, Marquette, Joliet, and others.  Then we had inventors - Fulton, the Wright Brothers, Henry Ford, and others.  We’ve had explorers to the North Pole and the South Pole.  Explorers who climbed Mt Everest and went to the greatest depths in the ocean.  

Then we had space explorers - Alan Shepherd, Yuri Gagarin, John Glenn, Neal Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and others!!!  

Lately, we’ve seen others talk about missions to Mars - Elon Musk being one of those promoting space exploration.  

How was it for Columbus to recruit 90 able-bodied seamen to go on this uncharted exhibition?  How was it for Chuck Yeager to exceed the speed of sound in a jet plane?  How was it from Yuri Garagin to go up in a cramped space capsule for the first flight in space?  How was it for Neal Armstrong to open a hatch and walk on the moon?  

Was it scary for these people?  

How will it be for the first person on Mars?  On Venus?  On Jupiter?  On Planet XYZ?  

*****

Maybe you’re not the traveling explorer type.  Maybe you could be the first in your family to have a black person stay overnight in your home - or a Chinese communist to stay overnight in your home.  (Maybe you could be the first in your family to have a lesbian or gay couple as friends or a transgender man or woman as a friend.) 

Or, you could be the first in your community to put up a tent for a homeless person in your backyard (with indoor plumbing available).  Or, the first to house an immigrant family from Honduras or Ukraine in your spare bedroom (or bedrooms).

You have to get out of your comfort zone (or leave sight of the shore) to do new things.

I LOVED Dakota State University. I wasn't ready to leave - but my wife was. I left sight of "my shore" to go to Connecticut. And, a lot of good things happened there - working with a foreign professor, becoming an ABET accreditation person, taking students to Ireland, and being recognized in different areas. (And, becoming a better writer).

I LOVED Quinnipiac University. I wasn't ready to leave - but I had two twins in Texas who were needing a Papa!!! I had to leave sight of that shore.

I WASN'T ready to retire, but I did and had health and mental health issues that have changed my life. I had to leave sight of that short.

Aside - when I was in high school, on New Year’s Eve at midnight, I went out of my front door to be the “first person in the new year to go outside barefooted!!!  (I was such a radical? <grin>)

In this new year can you be nice?  Can you be kind?  Can you go out of your way for a friend?  Can you go out of your way for an enemy?  Can you turn the other cheek?

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Yes, I am preaching.  But, you can do it!!!

LOVE WINS

LOVE TRANSFORMS

KAREN ANNE WHITE, © JANUARY 19, 2023

(Happy 47th Birthday, Steve White)