The World of Grandpa Don  

Marilyn Marx has been promising to get a list of her family for my gigantic family tree. Hers was the missing link in the all inclusive tree that will be available for all my grandchildren (& great grandchildren). She gave me a partial list at the party and I have already started, not only to incorporate the Jordan information into my tree but to do a little research into the past that Marilyn did not have. Marylyn  had the names of her grandparents on her father's side, Edward J Jordan (1886-1956) and Honore O'Grady (?-?) as well as the names of their siblings. She also knew her grandfather was born in Merriton province of Ontario, Canada. With the aid of the 1920 census, I found that Edward's father Lawrence was living with him and that he was born in Pennsylvania in 1860 of Irish immigrant parents. That census also revealed that Honore, was also known as Hanna and was born in Canada of English immigrant parents. And so another generation and a bit more has been added to our knowledge of their tree.

I enjoyed the gazebo all Monday afternoon, finishing Till We Have Faces. I could not put the book down once getting into the final chapters. C S Lewis took an ancient classic tale, re-spinning it as only he can. What did I get from it? To start with, I hope it influences the way I write and think He uses words as magic wands to stimulate the imagination and he presents a story in such a way as to expand the mind so the reader delves deeper and higher than the mere story on the page. He makes one crave what is to come. But this story, although he is never crass enough to actually say it, left me with the message that our lives are mostly an illusion of our own making, never actually being what it seem to be and our self inflicted concerns are more dream, or rather nightmare, than reality. He presents a vision of Heaven in the last chapter, without ever calling it that, which reveals to us the real world, shattering the faulty gods which we have been worshiping. These gods are exposed to be faulty, which they must be, since they were created by faulty men in their mistaken delusion of what must be good. This was a great book, fiction, yes. But fiction with a profound message. At least that is what I got from it. But ... I caution you not to skip to the last chapter to get the glorious vision of Heaven, for in doing so, you will not see it. It is only by seeing the folly of ourselves in the rest of the book that the light is recognized. Maybe that is why, in life, there must be good and bad, joy and sorrow. In any case, I think I have a better view of life by standing on Lewis' shoulders. 

Jean Dean sent a story. No, ... she sent a great story. At least I think it is. Her email attributes it to Eddie Ogan . I found the same story on a web site which lists the author as unknown. In any case, I want to share it with you. see The Richest People in Church . We are what we think we are. That is not some hocus-pocus or wishful thinking or anything of the sort. If we see ourselves as rich ... we are indeed rich. And even if we have more money and possessions than everyone around us, if we want more, we are poor and always will be. If we see ourselves as always unhappy, forever with illness and all kinds of trouble, we are indeed the unfortunates of this world. But if we count our blessings in spite of diversity, we are the blessed of the land. It is not our condition or what happens to us that is important, but our attitude toward life that makes us happy and content or, unfortunately, miserable. It is a matter of attitude. We can chose to be happy or we can walk around with a dark cloud over our heads. Be warned, ... if we chose the latter we will also drive others from us. They will not want to be near us and share in the negativity. In that condition we seek sympathy ... or is it pity? We may get some but for happy people, it gets stale and depressing and they will avoid it. The happy people want to be around other happy people. It may be time to go back to last week's page and listen to "Accentuate the Positive". Or maybe just scroll back up and watch Bella and Hunter again.

Wednesday morning was an "indoor" morning. I worked on a new genealogy page. I have had a page that featured Fredrich Wilhelm Husmann and Heinrich August Lossner, both born in Germany, but it lacked defined connections to their descendants. I decided to create a page to do not only that but to include a time line connecting them to American history. I hoped to have it ready this week but it proved to be a very ambitious project for several reasons. The page includes a huge table that makes the entering of information very slow and tedious. It also includes a Pop-Up generator for each person featured on the page and a separate Pop-Up page for each of them. At this point, it is only about half done but most of the bugs have been worked out. It will include only the line of ancestry to me but will give a detailed account of each of these ancestors. Well, ... as detailed as I can get with what we know.

The afternoon was dedicated to a visit to my urologist ... always fun time, and sometimes an adventure. I saw him last, six months ago, at the time, not recovered from my surgery and still in distress as things were not functioning properly. By this visit, these troubles were all but forgotten. Upon my arrival, a urine sample was taken as well as a blood sample. The urine sample showed that all was normal, except for some sugar present, but I expected that and is why I will see the endocrinologist next week. The blood test showed a perfectly normal PSA result ... the first that I remember. The doctor's exam of the prostate itself showed it to be a "normal" size. I was, as far as he was concerned ... Perfect! He took me off of one of the two medications I had been taking with instructions to call him if any of my old symptoms reoccurred and to come back in six months. What a glorious afternoon! 

I had been having trouble sleeping the last several nights. Days have been warmer with cool nights but even with windows open my bedroom has been warm. And, what air that does come in at night has been damp. Since warmer temperatures are in the forecast and there were storms predicted, I turned on the air conditioning Thursday afternoon. I had the best night's sleep in days in spite of the thunderstorms during the night and woke Thursday morning totally refreshed and with Thursday's euphoria well in tact.

Bible study seemed to be extra succinct. In this chapter of Paul's letter to the Romans he speaks of severing the attachment to the things of this world and concentrating on the things of God. That fit right in with the message that I got from Lewis' Till We Have Faces. The group spoke of the persecutions of the early church and how fortunate we are that we do not have to endure things like that. But I feel that our faith is being challenged just as much or more. It is indeed a current persecution as modern materialism is attacking our Christian values on all sides with the media, advertising and peer pleasure trying to promote hedonism, greed and instant gratification. The insidious thing is that we don't recognize it for the persecution that it is. There are people who do not feel the need to put their faith in God and they try to justify themselves by presenting their way as normal. Are they being used by the devil? I suspect that they are. Oh yes, I believe in the devil. I also believe that he is in the same situation and he still thinks he can be equal to God ... (But of course he can't). However, since misery loves company, he wants to get as many of us on his side as he can. To do so, he uses as many of us of whom he can gain control, to do his work. Since he can not directly control us, our free will prevents that, he tries to make his views as attractive as possible, using God's gifts to his own advantage.  

In my researching family members for the new page I am working on I realized that my grandson Joe is now involved in employment that became my grandfather's life work. Richard Frederick Lossner was a clerk in a shoe store and then became its manager. Do the genes carry, for some, a penchant for selling shoes? Probably not ... but who knows? Joe, your second great grandfather raised a family selling shoes. And ... a well made shoe, matched to a foot, can make a person's day a pleasure.

Here at the end of the week, Mikey's patience has triumphed. The blackbird has quit his attacks. He has either learned that they are futile or that Mikey poses no threat to his nest. Again, nature's creatures show wisdom and pass it on to us if we pay attention. In any case, we should not get upset about the things that bother us. Both the bird and Mikey eventually knew that all will be well if we leave it alone.

It has been a great week. At my age, when you go to a doctor and find that something has improved, it is indeed great ... almost unbelievable! But he had said it would improve and I had faith and rode out the tough part with all its discomfort and inconveniences. I said a few prayers to help me through. I have decided that in whatever state I am in, it will be my "normal" condition for the time. I will always expect that "normal" will be changing. There is an old song ... "Maybe what's good will get a little bit better and maybe what's bad will get gone". ... and maybe not. But whatever happens is my life  I will deal with it knowing that if I keep my eye on the prize and not get mired in the things of this world, all will be well.

 Indeed .... 

Grandpa Don Plefka

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Free JavaScripts provided by The JavaScript Source	Anne wanted everyone to be 'Nice'. This button was in one of her dresser  drawers I cleaned out in August of 2004