My Unforgettable Moment at Ten Years of Age

Pilgrim on a Long, Long Journey

It was around November of 1955. I was ten. We had just moved from Dayton, Ohio to Miami, Florida. I had picked up more of an interest in school by fifth grade in Dayton and looked forward to the experience in Miami.

In Miami, the students had advanced in math to fractions. I knew absolutely nothing about them.

The teacher began a lesson on them one day by asking me to go to the blackboard before the class. She placed a fraction problem on the board and asked me to figure it out. I was dumbfounded. The class began to laugh. The laughing got louder and louder.

In some portion of my mind deep down I can still hear them laughing. This was hands down, the most embarrassing, humiliating moment of my entire life. I hope if you have children they will never have to experience anything like what I…

View original post 21 more words

Reflections on the Married State

“I can’t wait to read Walter Isaacson’s new book, “The Code Breaker,” when it comes out in a couple weeks. It’s about Jennifer Doudna, who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry last year for her work on the CRISPR gene-editing platform.”(Bill Gates, By the Book, New York Times, 2/11/21.)

I guess after the power couple recently announced their divorce this takes on a new light. His spouse, Melinda, is and was a strong advocate for women. He said the right thing but it was not enough. In the world of the super-rich what did Melinda have to lose, financially? She will walk away exceedingly wealthy.

I would argue marriage goes far beyond the financial. It is a place where we learn to love. It seems a place where, though compatibility may be a delusion when one starts out, some measure is possible, by the grace of God, after 25-50 years sharing each other’s lives.

Nobody said it was easy. It certainly is humbling. It appears respect will be lost for a spouse who simply obeys the other invariably, who takes no stands. It requires when successful some measure of speaking the truth to one another in love, an ancient Biblical concept and quite a challenge. I believe it is a holy matrimony, whose rudder is our sweet Lord.

Bill Gates, who’s IQ exceeds mine by an almost infinite amount, apparently couldn’t cut it. I blew my first marriage 45 years ago in less than a year.  I need all the help I can get, so I have placed it in God’s hands.