Friday, March 2, 2012

thoughts on the news of the day: dr seuss


hmmm…..
                I am a pretty big fan of Theodor Seuss  Geisel.  You probably know him as Dr. Seuss.  Today, March 2, is his birthday, or was his birthday.  He was born in 1904 but died in 1991.  Over his life, he wrote 60 different books, many of which you are no doubt familiar.  Books like, “A Cat in the Hat” and “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and “Oh, The Places You’ll Go” 
                When I was pastoring a church in south Texas, we had a mission project which involved providing school clothes for kids whose parents didn’t have money to buy them.  In conjunction with this project, a young Girl Scout decided to try and provide a book for each child that visited our church for clothing.  She brought boxes and boxes of books she had collected for her project.  When we had completed the distribution of clothing and books, several boxes of books remained.  We debated what to do with them.  Should we put them in our church library?  Or give them to the local library?  We seriously doubted that anyone would want them; they were tattered and torn and didn’t look particularly appealing to most kids.  But I opened up one of the remaining boxes and delighted in a carefully stacked assortment of Dr. Seuss books in near perfect condition.  We were stunned that anyone would so carelessly toss such a fine collection.             
                After making a reasonable donation to the kids clothing project for the books, I carefully carted the Dr. Seuss classics back to my pastor’s study.  I loved sharing them with kids who visited my office.   Most of the popular ones are gone now, given to young readers.  But I don’t regret that they are not in my bookcase anymore.  After all, it was Dr. Seuss who wrote, “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.”
                hmmm…..

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