Twenty-Five Delectable Mountains

 

Shizo Kanakuri was born in Japan in 1891. His family lived on the island of Kyushu. Every day, Shizo would run nearly four miles to school and back. When he was twenty, Shizo set a marathon world record during the domestic trials for the 1912 Olympics. He was one of two Japanese athletes invited to compete in Stockholm. The journey to Sweden took an exhausting eighteen days. The Olympics were held during a record heat wave, and the sun never set during the entire event. Shizo had trouble digesting the local food. Several competitors dropped out with hyperthermia. Dazed and sick, Shizo left the race after sixteen miles. Embarrassed, he quietly returned home without notifying officials. In 1967, he was invited back to complete the race, finishing with a time of fifty-four years, eight months, six days, five hours, thirty-two minutes and 20.3 seconds. Shizo Kanakuri holds the Guiness World Record for the longest time to complete a marathon.

Four Heart Stars

 

"No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted." – Aesop

"Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see." – Mark Twain

"Shall we make a new rule of life from tonight: always to try to be a little kinder than is necessary?" – James M. Barrie

"Remember, there's no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end." – Scott Adams

"A warm smile is the universal language of kindness." – William Arthur Ward

"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle." – Plato

"Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind.” – Eric Hoffer

“Carry out a random act of kindness, with no expectation of reward, safe in the knowledge that one day someone might do the same for you.” – Princess Diana

Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.” – Maya Anjelou

Three Yellow Houses

 

I started college expecting to fill the general requirements, then settle into a vocal music major. I’d always received better marks in vocal performance than on keyboard. A week on campus changed my mind. All the vocal students I saw seemed paranoid and hypochondrial. They’d walk about with woolen scarves up to their chins. If anyone were to sneeze or cough in their presence, they’d hurry home to their humidifiers and their honey/lemon concoctions. So, I switched to piano pedagogy. Daddy used to say he had a similar epiphany at roughly the same point in his education. He’d been undecided about whether to focus on organic chemistry (which deals with carbon-hydrogen bonds) and inorganic chemistry (which involves mostly metals and minerals). He reached his decision when he learned about Adolf Butenandt, the chemistry student who discovered testosterone by boiling down thousands of gallons of male urine. Daddy knew right away he wanted nothing to do with that.

Three Prickly Pears

 

Robert (Bob) Wade was born in New Zealand in 1921. He taught himself to play chess by reading books from his local library. After winning the New Zealand Chess Championship in 1944, 1945 and 1948, Bob traveled to Europe to improve his game. International chess was starting up again after a hiatus during WWII. Bob earned the title of International Master in 1950. The following year, Bob decided to play chess against thirty Russian schoolboys – all of them fourteen and under – in a simultaneous play exhibition. Maybe he didn’t realize Russians have been obsessed with chess for ages, or that the Russian government had been funding chess training for decades. After seven hours of play, Bob drew ten games and lost twenty. He ended up setting a record for the worst simultaneous exhibition given by a master. The moral of this story: you may only be a big fish until you leave your little pond. 

Sixteen Diversions

 

“We need to avoid contention and be peacemakers in all our communications. This does not mean to compromise our principles and priorities but to cease harshly attacking others for theirs. In this conference four years ago, President Nelson gave us a prophetic challenge for our own day: ‘Are you willing to let God prevail in your life? Are you willing to let God be the most important influence in your life? Will you allow His words, His commandments, and His covenants to influence what you do each day? Will you allow His voice to take priority over any other?’ As followers of Christ, we teach and testify of Jesus Christ, our Perfect Role Model. So let us follow Him by forgoing contention. Let us qualify for His blessings by using the language and methods of peacemakers. In our families and other personal relationships, let us avoid what is harsh and hateful.” – President Dallin H. Oaks

Four Double Irish Chains

 

Margaret Eloise Knight was born in Maine in 1838. Young “Mattie,” as she was called by friends and family, was known for the clever kites and sleds she made. At twelve, she began working in a cotton mill. She had several jobs in her teens and twenties, including home repair, photography, ingraving and upholstery. In 1867, Mattie was hired by the Columbia Paper Bag company. The bags produced there were weak, narrow, and couldn’t stand on their bases. They were ill-suited for bulky or heavy items like groceries. Mattie invented a machine that cut, folded and glued the flat-bottomed grocery sack we use today. Charles Annan, a machinist who’d visited the shop where her machine was being built, tried to steal her invention and patent it first. When Mattie filed a patent interference lawsuit, Charles claimed “no woman could possibly understand the mechanical complexities of this machine.” Mattie responded with blueprints, journals, models and witnesses, resulting in victory.

Two Dozen Delectable Mountains

 

When we moved here, a friend from our old neighborhood gave me a going away gift: some chocolates and a nice card in a gift bag full of shredded paper. I was tossing the bag and shredded paper in a bin when I realized there was one more gift at the bottom. It was a 3-inch pot with a tiny succulent inside. I didn’t think it would live, but I watered it and stuck it in my new kitchen window. That was nearly a year and a half ago. Today, the plant is more than six inches tall, and it’s giving hints that it would like a bigger pot. It cheers me whenever I see it. Today is Houseplant Appreciation Day. This is the perfect time to pay more attention to the greenery inside your house. Christmas is well and truly over. Everything, inside and out, is looking slightly drab. Now’s the time to give your potted plants some extra TLC.