NO 839 EVERYONE HAS A STORY!
No. 839
Jim Davidson -- NEWSPAPER COLUMN
EVERYONE HAS A STORY!
Several years ago one of the network television stations in nearby Little Rock had a weekly feature called, “Everyone Has a Story.” The on-air reporter had a unique way of selecting those she featured in the following week’s program. The station had a large map of Arkansas affixed to one of the walls in the studio, and this female reporter would face in the opposite direction, take a dart and throw it back over her shoulder. The city or town where it landed is where she would travel to select someone to interview for the following week. It was a neat idea and a lot of interesting stories came as a result.
Since we all have a story, this begs the question: what is the story of your life up to this point in time? Are you happy with the way it has been unfolding? If not, I want to offer you a word of encouragement. It is seldom too late to improve, make amends or change direction. We only have one life to live, and it’s important to make the most of it while we are here. Every person has a story, especially those who live long enough to make choices that affect his or her environment, and there have been billions of people in this planet since time began. As I thought about this, I realized that most of us would fit into one of the following categories.
Obviously, I must be concise here because of space limitations, but I want to invite you to think about people who come to mind, in addition to the examples I give. There are people in our world and nation we could call --
1. Traitors: The most famous of all in American history is Benedict Arnold. Then there is Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, along with Aldrich Ames and several others. What other names come to your mind that could be called traitors?
2. Patriots: The number here is endless, but George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Audie Murphy, Dwight Eisenhower and General Douglas McArthur are my choices.
3. Villains: Charles Manson, Adolph Hitler, Ted Bundy, Pol Pot and Benito Mussolini come to mind.
4. Legends: Babe Ruth, Martin Luther King Jr., Will Rogers, Amelia Earhart, Albert Einstein, George Washington Carver, Benjamin Franklin are names right off the top of my head. It would take volumes to include all the legends, past and present, who have made a real difference.
5. Heroes: Members of our nation’s Armed Forces (past and present), policemen and women, firefighters, all those who risk their lives to save others who are in peril.
6. Public Servants: Those who run for public office, federal, state and local, and those who are employed by various agencies of our government. (Sometimes we forget about all the good people who sacrifice to make life better for the rest of us.)
7. Your Average Joe: Of course, everything is relative, but this is the category where most of us can be found. We just have a job, pay taxes and obey the law. But as producers and consumers, we are also the backbone of our nation’s economy.
While there are exceptions, the vast majority of people can be found in one of the aforementioned categories. What is truly exciting is that God created each of us as unique, one-of-a-kind human beings, with no one on earth exactly like us. When we reach the age of accountability, we have the opportunity to write the story of our own life. Why not make it a masterpiece?
One story I forgot to mention. The greatest story of all is about the life of a Jewish carpenter, who would change the world forever. His name is Jesus.
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(EDITOR'S NOTE: Jim Davidson is a public speaker and syndicated columnist. You may contact him at 2 Bentley Drive, Conway, AR 72034. To begin a bookcase literacy project visit www.bookcaseforeverychild.com. You won’t go wrong helping a needy child.)
