Chamber Ag Night
March 7, 2002
Reminds me of what my Aunt Margaret once said… “You can pick your friends but you’re stuck with your relatives.”
Some day I want to give a speech on Introductions… ---Once at a writer’s conference in Springfield, as “A man I’m sure you’ll never forget, Ray Bradbury.” ---Once in Peoria, “Ken has written over 100 hundred comedies. I saw a couple that were really funny.” ---Once by a sixth-grader in Liberty, Illinois. “I wrote to some famous authors and Mr. Bradbury was the only who answered me so I asked him to come.” ---My favorite: I.C. convo… “Come on, shut up. The sooner we get started, the sooner we’ll get out of here. Here’s Ken Bradbury.” ---In Charleston.. piano and microphone set up ..must be entertainment afterward so I started cutting my speech short..had to drive home that night .. I was introduced as “Illinois’ Leading Folk Singer, Ken Bradbury.” ---Metropolis Banker’s Convention (a very long drive) Guy who asked me: gone. The speaker, “This is a guy from up north in Cass County. Fred couldn’t be here tonight so he asked me to introduce him. I’ll be damned if I can think of his name, but here he is.” ---Here in Jacksonville for some club of senior citizens who met in the dining room of Centenary Methodist. They were a group of retirement age so I thought I’d speak on my travel experiences. Sat on the dias beside a lady who was honored for being 100 years old. She didn’t know I was the speaker but we had a great conversation. Just after I was introduced she leaned over and whispered, “I’m glad you’re here. I’m getting damned tired of those travel speakers.”
---Dedication of General Garrison’s tombstone…6 months research.. Vern Fernandes..
Cerro Gordo Famous Author’s Day.
I worked for several days on a speech called, “What I learned on the farm.” Couldn’t think of a thing. I wasn’t paying attention.
So…What could I give to you tonight? We work in different occupations, encounter different problems during the day, and by looking at _______’s coat, we make different salaries.
Since I’m a teacher, I thought about giving you some advice on education but you already have Lonnie Johns here in town. Besides, Dr. Basden wouldn’t pay for my meal tonight.
I thought instead I’d talk about the one major thing we have in common. We want to be happy. If we could define our goals each day when we get up, surely the one thing we all have in common is that we simply want to be happy.
You may think that your job is to raise corn or cattle or loans or sales but the bottom line is that at the end of the day you’d really like to be happy.
A quote in my classroom: A. Lincoln: “Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” I believe that. I believe than in spite of disease, in spite of finances, and …in spite of your relatives, Happiness can be a choice and not a product of our circumstances.
I learned that on the farm. I grew up around people who were not wealthy but who were extremely happy. I know that being involved with agriculture puts you up a notch on the happiness level. Like teaching, you can tell yourself that you purposely chose to lose money. You can tell yourself that since you aren’t in it for the money, there must be something else…and that something else is the happiness it brings you.
Sometimes being happy just involves being a little silly. ...My friend: Myron Strubbe...sings full-voice to the songs playing in Walmart. His kids started refusing to shop with him at about age 3.
…My dad is 82 but he still dresses like a clown and walks in parades dropping his pants.
...Jeff W: Always backs through the Drive up at McDonnalds.
I teach a class called Quest… it’s all about self-image. The two main points of the class are simple To be happy, you have to know who you are. Once you know that, you’ll find that your happiest when you’re serving others. Knowing who you are….The Finger Test.
And the second part, serving others. To demonstrate, I often wear a raincoat to class, bring a cream pie and ask for a volunteer to stand two feet away from me and hit me with the pie…without getting it on themselves.. Many volunteers..and, like giving happiness, they always get splashed.
An ex-student of mine runs a huge camp in Colorado Springs. He must hire over 300 staff members per summer and hosts over 5000 kids…a very expensive camp. His main headache is making it financially.. finding 300 employees who will work at a low enough wage to keep the camp afloat.
I run four camps at Green Pastures. Our camper fees are practically nothing. In fact, if a child has no money, we pay their way. I have at nearly four times as many people apply for staff membership than I can use. Why? I don’t pay anything. The joy ..the happiness found in giving.
Do you agree with this? The happiest people you know are those who give the most?
Bryan… nursing homes.
Certainly, the happiest people you know are also the greatest givers.
I’ve only met three really famous people in my life: Roger Ebert, Mr. Rogers, and _____________. ____________________ is here tonight so I can’t tell you what I think of him, but let me tell you about the other two. One was the very definition of happiness… one was not.
First… Roger Ebert…
Fred Rogers.. Mac.. closet.
The chief difference in the two? The reason one had found happiness and the other needed a joy enema. Simple: One was very concerned with self. The other’s concern was with others.
As the famous French actress Sara Bernhardt said “Life begets life. Energy creates energy. It is by spending oneself that we become rich.” It is by spending oneself that we become rich. Is that beautiful or what?
If your happiness is determined by the price of corn and hogs, you will not be happy very often. If your happiness is determined by the state of the economy, your happiness will go up and down daily.
Of course the government might help: President Bush: Salinas, CA, Aug 10, 2000. "I want you to know that farmers are not going to be secondary thoughts to a Bush administration. They will be in the forethought of our thinking."
My favorite: Florence, S.C., Jan. 11, 2000 "Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?"-
The grade school teachers in our district love to scare the Jr. High staff about what’s coming. The group of 7th-graders I have this year have been called The slowest The hardest to reach The hardest to control And the most distracted class to ever pass through our system.
You know what? For once, grade school teachers were right. This class wears their Attention Deficit Disorders like designer jeans… you really aren’t somebody unless you have one of your own. When it comes time for them to take the next round of state mandated tests, God only knows how they will score, but it won’t be high. The state gave the ultimate test last year: The Prairie State. Triopia did the best of any school in the area, but we aren’t bragging. We see this group coming.
The school board knows about them but since they’ll never do well in basketball, we really aren’t that concerned.
Old fashioned school day (explain).. Begin the day by dumping them at the bottom of a hill near a creek and telling them that if they simply climb upward, they’ll find the schoolhouse. It’s probably a trip of fifty yards. All they have to do is climb up…all you have to know is the difference between up and down. Out of 41, 7 didn’t make it. We had to go looking and show them which way was up. But you know what? I can’t remember ever being so happy with a class. Because this class has learned a very important secret..Happiness isn’t something that just happens to the lucky or the rich or the talented or the smart.. It’s something that can be found…It can be created by simply finding out who you are and learning to love that person. We’ve learned to stop comparing ourselves to other people and to other classes. We’ve learned to make ourselves happy by making others happy.
Jacob has learned to stop hitting people as soon as he gets to school..he now waits until P.E. Last week Josh kept his finger out of his nose for an entire period. And some of you farmers thought YOU knew how to use duct tape. Mike has now developed at least a two-second wait between the time a thought hits his brain and when it comes out his mouth. Don’t laugh. This was a major victory. Alicia no longer sits in the back of the class, covers her head and cries when called upon. She still hasn’t had a right answer all year long and her tests scores will be awful, but she keeps her head in the air. I secretly suspect her of being happy.
In short, we started looking for happiness..searching for joy. Every day starts out with ten minutes of good news. You know what? If you know you’re going to have to talk about the good things in your life for ten minutes every day, you start creating good things just so you’ll have something to talk about. …..Granted, their idea of good news is a little strange some days. Tuesday .. a girl.. “The lady next to us died so we get her cat.” “I got part of a calf!” Part? “The cow had a calf in the middle of the other cows and so the calf got stomped to death but dad brought me in a leg.”
Benjamin Franklin said: “The US Constitution does not guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself.”
Sometimes our joy surprises us…. Some of you have heard this story, but it’s one of the funniest things I’ve ever had happen in my classroom. Matt… Baritone.
This has been one heck of a year for the United States..for the world. And it’s doubly hard on Americans because our number one national trait is “We want to be liked.” Casualties are bad, terrorism is hideous, and we hope our economy stays strong, but dog-gone it, it bothers us that a great portion of the world doesn’t seem to like us. And when you think about it, isn’t that wonderful?
Russia has given up. England? Noel Coward said that “The typical Englishman lives in fear that someone, somewhere might be happy.” The French don’t care if they’re liked because frankly they don’t like anyone else. We do want to be liked and that says a great deal about our desire to be happy. We know that it depends upon other people. We know in our hearts that by bringing joy to others, the pie splatters back on us. I do remember one thing about farming on the Meredosia bottom. Seed won’t grow in hard ground, and if it hasn’t rained the ground can be very, very hard. I don’t remember actually driving a tractor on those half mile rows but I remember waiting for Dad on the end rows. One of the best things about leaving the farm is that I’d never see another half mile row. Then to make ends meet on a teacher’s salary I took a job with Burrus Seed Farms. An area supervisor! My assigned area? The half-mile rows on the Meredosia bottom. And the ground was just as hard. Happiness.. seeking it out, putting it into our lives…is the rain that softens the soil. Nothing you do tomorrow can grow successfully without the rain of happiness on your life. And if the rains don’t come, you have the power to irrigate. (need an example here) Thanks for asking me to be here today. I applaud a Chamber of Commerce that knows where it’s strength comes from…the agricultural community.. And thanks again to my brother for such a wonderful introduction and for getting my name right. As George Burns, said: “Happiness is having a large, loving, caring family ……in another town.”
Be Happy!
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