Brown Co. Soil & Water Conservation
Jan 2000
San Francisco Harbor…. Alcatraz
Life is 10% what happens to you, 90% how you react to it. I’ll ask you to buy into this premise, or the rest of my speech won’t make any sense at all.
Most of our happiness depends upon our reaction to life, not the events in it.
Helen Dickens: MS. I’ll call her with prayer request: “Oh, Praise God!” “Jesus Loves you and I do, too.” Helen’s response to a life of tragedy is “What an opportunity!”
I’ve known this for a long time, but it’s never more evident than when traveling with students… some from Brown County. I’ve taught rural children for 29 years. I’d have chosen no better way to spend my life. We are blessed to live in a part of the world where most kids still have a decent chance… in fact, they’re ahead of most of the world in terms of opportunity.
I have been told by every tour guide since 1979: There is something different about your group… and Midwest kids in particular. One, Richard, brought his wife to Arenzville and Perry on holiday just to show her the people.
I want to talk to you tonight about some of those travels.. I spoke on travel to the J’ville Lions Club last summer.. Frail, little lady beside me, “Thank God you’re hear. I’m getting damned tired of those travel speakers.”
They say before you marry someone, you should first travel with them. Nothing tells what a person is like as much as traveling. It’s too long, too hard to keep up any pretense. … the true you will show.
Mark Twain: I HAVE FOUND THAT THERE AIN’T NO SURER WAY TO FIND Out WHETHER YOU LIKE PEOPLE OR HATE THEM THAN TO TRAVEL WITH THEM
Began ‘79 Inspiration: a freshman girl, preacher’s daugther, detassled, walked beans.. now.. 400 kids later.
Robert Benchley: IN AMERICA THERE ARE TWO CLASSES OF TRAVEL: FIRST CLASS AND WITH CHILDREN.
But you don’t have to be a teenager to show this attitude toward life. ---Beardstown Ladies...King’s Cross...Sydney Australia
---MUST BE SENSITIVE TO PARENTS....Tahiti (Maroa), Jeremy, Paul Gogan Landed in Hawaii: FBI. (“My mom found out about the pictures.”) Jeremy Scott, international terrorist. Jeremy entered his photos in a National Geographic photo contest: won the JR division. Life is 10% what happens to you, 90% how you react to it.
John Stenbeck: A JOURNEY IS LIKE MARRIAGE. THE CERTAIN WAY TO BE WRONG IS TO THINK YOU CONTROL IT.
---Beth K & Eric M...Bullfight (Beth: J’ville’s 1st lady firefighter)
...Air Italia...cockpit window.
I enjoy rating airlines: S’field, Boston, (American, United, TWA) Air New Zealand: by far the best.
---Worst airline ever: Aeoflat..Aro-flop.. Most takeoffs and landings landed three times each time. (But best security) (no flight attendants.. they got off…. Russians: drunk. Kids took charge)
Russia was a challenge: Kenny: lost passport. Dave: Give me every pack of prophylactics and every pair of panty hose you have. Champaign Dave...getting out of Soviet Union. Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.
Takes a very positive outlook on life to handle foreign CUSTOMS: ..Unisex Toilets...concentration.. Jodi and Susan...bathtubs.
Southern Spain…. brushed teeth with Pepsi … rabies epidemic ..French Bidet...Rick: (now a J’ville lawyer) Sock washer...wet pant legs ..Greatest shock: “What time would you like your girls knocked up?”
Life is truly 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.
TRULY UNFORGETABLE MOMENTS: ..Ladies in rags waiting for hours to take communion in Soviet Union. ...Seeing St. Basil’s cathedral in Red Square for the first time. ...Highest point in Kremlin: A cross. ..Sadness of Finnish bus driver.. tears in his eyes as he drove.
..Ireland...Preacher Frank from West Virginia clearing out a bar for church ..Assisi... Two olive-skinned ladies on tour Life is 10% what happens to you, and 90% how you react to it.
--The Alps.....Thomas Gray in 1739 on viewing the Alps: THERE ARE CERTAIN SCENES THAT WOULD AWE AN ATHEIST INTO BELIEF, WITHOUT THE HELP OF ANY OTHER ARGUMENT> --Craig, Lucerne, Richard, communion
....FINALLY: The story I never tell if any future travelers in the audience. Part of it was printed in USA TODAY last year. (Eric: now one of your UPS men) .Paris-Madrid train.
The nation’s leading architect, Johnstone, (90 years old) said on Charlie Rose some time ago…. “The hottest places in hell are reserved for whiners and complainers. If life were 100 times longer, there would still be no time for negativity.”
24 hours ago I left London.. My body is still on London time. It may be ____ p.m. in Mt. Sterling but it’s four in the morning in my head. I have two choices… wishing I was home in bed or thanking God that I get to be around nice people like you.
Chances are, you are normal.. you will be or have been hit by the same tragedies that hit us all… You have a choice .. not of what happens, but of how you react. Life is truly 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.
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