Don’t Quit

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
Galatians 6:9

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I don’t know who gets to make up the National Day Calendar. But today is Singles Awareness Day. Seems a bit cruel. I think they were all pretty well aware of it yesterday.

But maybe it’s today because chocolate is 50% off.

Our Valentine’s Day was pretty low-key. After all, we spent the weekend celebrating the younger offspring’s birthday and seeing three, that’s right, three, theatrical performances.

After thirty-six years of marriage, the romantic dinners, the flowers, the ten dollar cards…well, we’ve got better ways to spend our money.

And if my cooking dinner for the whole family doesn’t say “I Love You,” a hundred dollars worth of roses that will be dead by the weekend won’t either.

The emotional impact of The Diary of Anne Frank playing through this weekend at The Theater Company of Ft. Lee will stay with me a long time.

Anne wrote:

“In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can’t build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery, and death. I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness, I hear the ever approaching thunder, which will destroy us too, I can feel the sufferings of millions and yet, if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come right, that this cruelty too will end, and that peace and tranquility will return again.”

She did not survive the concentration camps.

The production we saw was masterful. As I told the director, I do not have adequate words. You have three more chances to see it this weekend. Go if you can.

Like I said yesterday, seeing three shows over the weekend made me miss my involvement in theater. But I thought later hat perhaps what I want to do is tell great stories. I can do that as a writer, and I’m working on it.

Thing is, sometimes I have to tell bad stories to get to the good ones.

I need to keep telling the stories, writing the things, doing the work.

Most of all, no matter how difficult it gets, don’t quit.

It is extremely unlikely that any of us in the U.S. will ever experience anything like Anne Frank’s family. I should noted that in my occasional work with Jewish Family Theatre, I have been blessed to know some who did.

Certainly, there are those around the world experiencing similar situations now, or perhaps worse. We shouldn’t lose site of that.

I know from Last Summer’s Great Unpleasantness (TM), that when you’re in the middle of your own struggles, it’s hard to think about what others might be going through.

But we’ll all be better off when we remember that everyone is struggling with something. The intensity and severity may vary, but most days, we’re all doing the best we can.

Hang in there. Don’t quit. Remember others are struggling too.

That’s it. That’s the message.

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American singer-songwriter and original member of 2nd Chapter of Acts, Matthew Ward, was born on this day in 1958.

THINGS YOU SHOULD READ

‘I Will Vote No’: Manchin Slams The Door On Another Biden Nominee
The Daily Wire
Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) said in no uncertain terms that he would not support President Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Robert Califf. Read More.

BREAKING: Trump Responds to Spying Allegations Against Hillary Clinton Operatives
Chicks on the Right
Trump responded, “The latest pleading from Special Counsel Robert Durham provides indisputable evidence that my campaign and presidency were spied on by operatives paid by the Hillary Clinton Campaign in an effort to develop a completely fabricated connection to Russia.” Read More.

Two-thirds of Canadians ready to drop COVID-19 restrictions
National Post
Closing schools and airport arrivals testing are the restrictions that should be eliminated first, say respondents. Read More.

Lesley Stahl Slammed for Unearthed Trump Interview After Durham Report
NewsMax
The backlash comes after new allegations by special counsel John Durham in the inquiry into the origins of the Russia investigation support the former president’s suspicions. Read More.

Yesterday I Was Levi’s Brand President. I Quit So I Could Be Free.
Jennifer Sey at Substack
In the fall of 2021, during a dinner with the CEO, I was told that I was on track to become the next CEO of Levi’s—the stock price had doubled under my leadership, and revenue had returned to pre-pandemic levels. The only thing standing in my way, he said, was me. All I had to do was stop talking about the school thing. Read More.

ALSO BORN ON THIS DAY

1809 – Cyrus McCormick, American journalist/businessman, co-founded International Harvester (d. 1884)
1820 – Susan B. Anthony, American suffragist and activist (d. 1906)
1907 – Cesar Romero, American actor (d. 1994)
1909 – Miep Gies, Austrian-Dutch humanitarian, helped hide Anne Frank and her family (d. 2010)
1927 – Harvey Korman, American actor and comedian (d. 2008)
1951 – Jane Seymour, English-American actress, producer, and jewelry designer

WHAT I’M READING

 

BENEDICTION

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Ephesians 3:20–21