Latest / Everyday Motivational Affirmations / Paul Harvey - Christmas 2000, Story of Birds, Mr Washington

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Paul Harvey - Christmas 2000, Story of Birds, Mr Washington · Everyday Motivational Affirmations

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  Bellow Americans. This is Paul Harvey. Well, maybe we can talk about
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  some less horrendous things this date than what's usually accepted as news. But first
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  I have a word for you on page two. When I'm traveling, I
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  like to stay in a Hampton Inn, and I'm want to tell you what
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  sold me on that idea. We travelers these days have a lot of choices,
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  and most of them are better than most any place else in the world.
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  But Hampton Inn is something different, with two room suites in which we
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  big guys can stretch out and Paul Junior is even taller than I. They're
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  always clean, they're always comfortable, the laundry service is right on the premises.
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  Free breakfast in a free USA today every morning. But what really sold
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  our family is when they told us about Hampton Inn's unique one hundred percent satisfaction
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  guarantee. You get clean, comfortable accommodations, you get friendly, efficient service,
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  or they do not expect you to pay. And that did it for
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  me. If it does it for you, telephone for a resure one eight
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  hundred Hampton. You might want to figure after the holidays to have a weekend
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  away with the family, And they have some special weekend rates at Hampton Inns.
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  You can also log onto Hampton inn dot com or for reservation information just
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  telephone one eight hundred h amptom. You know, the real miracle of Christmas
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  is that any religious significance remains despite the gaudy tinsel wrapping. The meaning of
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  the christ Mass remains somehow intact above the cacophony of rasmatazz. There's yet audible
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  the simple grandeur of the Carolin Mercenary. Merchants decorate bottles with images of angels,
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  and yet somehow failed to drown them. And though our eager eyes now
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  search the skies for man made stars, we yet remember best the one which,
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  once upon a time should steal over a stable. This is the miracle
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  of Christmas, not that so many profane to day with self indulgence, but
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  to so many still trudged through the snowe of an early service or in a
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  nightmass. The unbelievers are the greatest proof of what they professed to disbelieve.
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  For two centuries they've tried to destroy Christmas. They coined ribald greeting cards to
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  divert the devout. They sought with finite science to deny the infinite, They
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  negotiated with union contracts for Christmas gifts. They crowned the day with imitation gold
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  and hung it on an artificial tree and said, see. But when they'd
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  done their worst, Christmas was still there, haunting them, shaming them,
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  calling out to them. Believe, if after generations of effort, we still
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  tend to disparage the day, what do you suppose would happen if we instead
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  renewed it? There are no more links to which we can go to dilute
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  its significance. Perhaps we should revert to reverence. Or if this magic day,
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  despite the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, has somehow survived and thrived
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  my goodness with property, are intending the love it represents might heal all of
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  our hurts. The faith we could not starve to death, properly fed just
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  once each ear might overwhelm the world. Anyway we've tried everything else, The
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  revitalization of Christmas will be as tedious as its erosion was. Gradual that there's
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  no better time than right now, because it's later than it's ever been.
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  Where do we begin with prayerful thankfulness? I think Merry Christmas would traditionally say
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  to one another. Merry Christmas. Yet that's not the larger meaning of the
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  day. It's his birthday, not ours. And now Stage two our nation's
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  food and drug administration, after a diligent three years study has concluded that something
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  you and I can buy in any grocery store reduces the risk of heart disease.
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  Soy stoy delicious soyed milk or soyed burgers, or say in any food
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  or buy itself in Nova soy in the health food store. You know,
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  the soy capital of the whole world is the Kata, Illinois, the home
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  of Archer Daniels Midland and their new and extended facilities are turning out more soy
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  and soy products than ever before. Today, ADM plants are processing ninety thousand
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  metric tons of oil seeds. You know what coline is important in the function
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  of the new road transmitters in your brain. Codeine comes from Lesterton, which
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  comes from where from soy. In the interests of your health, read the
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  fine print on the grocery store labels and whenever you can buy the product which
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  is heart healthy because it includes soy. ADM using the old bean to make
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  us healthy and wealthy and wise until right now. The story I'm about to
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  relate was told by Mary Cleaver of Sealinas, California, only to her own
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  children, but I asked her permission to share it with you. Every Saturday
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  morning, Sarah Michaels, Robin Michaels, and Missus Michaels went to Harmony Manor
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  to visit Allati. Sarah liked going to Harmony Manner because everybody there was so
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  cheerful. That is almost everyone. Mister Gerhart, who used to be a
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  clown in a circus, told funny stories, and everybody laughs, almost everybody.
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  Missus Escobar, who used to be a great dancer when she was younger,
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  waltzt around the room, and everybody swayed back and forth, almost everybody.
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  Then there was mister Washington. When Missus Weinstein played the piano, he
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  did not staying, and he did not laugh at mister Gerhart's funny stories,
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  and he did not sway back and forth when Missus Escobar waltzed around the room.
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  The fact is he just sat in his chair looking at the wall.
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  One morning, Sarah asked, your mother, why didn't mister Washington ever smile?
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  The mother said, maybe he doesn't have anything to smile about. No
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  family ever comes to visit him, not ever, far as I know.
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  Mother said, not ever. But I thought about that for a little while,
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  and then noted that there are people all around mister Washington, and yet
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  he never speaks to them. He's never spoken even wants to me, Sarah
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  said. Mother said that sometimes people appear unfriendly when they really are just shy.
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  Well, Sarah thought that was very sad, and began to wonder what
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  she might say or do to cheer up the lonely mister Washington. And then
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  Sarah remembered one Christmas gift that had meant more to her than any other.
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  When she was very young, she'd lived in an orphanage in San Francisco,
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  and then she had no family, nobody to visit. But on Christmas Day
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  when she was five, somebody had handed her an envelope with her name on
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  it in big red letters. She opened it ever so carefully, and inside
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  was a card with Santa Claus on the front, wearing the most beautiful red
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  velvety suit that you can imagine. She brushed her fingers over it back and
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  forth. She placed the red belt against her cheek and it was so soft.
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  Wanting to be sure it was really for her, she opened the card
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  and inside it said, Marry Christmas, Sarah, from your friends the San
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  Francisco Firemen. Sarah had carried that card with her for a very long time,
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  even slept with it, and whenever she felt sadness coming back, she'd
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  brushed them that he sent against her cheek. She rubbed the velvet so much
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  that one day it was all rubbed away, and finally the card just fell
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  apart. But by then she had been adopted by the Michael's family and didn't
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  need it anymore. After the conversation with her mother, and before Sarah went
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  to bed, she got out paper and markers and glue and scissors and some
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  velvety material that she had been saving for something very special. And the next
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  day Sarah and Robin and Missus Michaels went at the Christmas party at Harmony Manor,
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  and Missus Weinstein was playing the piano, and mister Gerhardt was telling funny
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  stories, and Missus Escobar was waltzing around the floor and everybody was singing and
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  swaying and laughing, But there sat mister Washington looking at the wall. This
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  time Sarah walked up to mister Washington and said, sir, this is for
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  you. Mister Washington appeared at first surprised. He looked at the envelope to
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  be sure it was for him, and sure enough, there in big red
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  letters, it said, mister Washington. His fingers were shaking as he slipped
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  the card from the envelope, and then he saw the most wonderful Stanta Claus,
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  wearing the most beautiful red velvety suit. He brushed his fingers across the
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  velvet, back and forth, back and forth, and he lifted to his
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  face and rubbed it against his cheek, and when finally he opened the card,
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  he saw inside the words Marry Christmas, mister Washington, your friend Sarah.
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  When mister Washington held that card against his chest, near his heart,
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  sears began to spill down his face, but Sarah knew they were happy tears
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  because the corners of his mouth turned up. She gave him a kiss on
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  his cheeks. She said, whenever you feel sadness, mister Washington, just
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  take out your card and remember how spectral you are and that I care about
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  you. And Sarah tiptoed away, and mister Washington was swaying back and forth
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  to the music. Later, when they were leaving, Sarah's mother said,
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  you gave mister Washington the best gift of all. Mom, Sarah said,
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  do you remember what mister Washington did when he was younger? Oh? Yes,
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  Mom said, he was a San Francisco fireman. Marry Christmas, Sarah,
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  Stage three. I'll never forget her first davy steps. She walked right
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  into my arms. The first book she ever read she read to me,
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  the first skin me. She wanted me to make it all better. I
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  took her to her first day of school. She came to me when she
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  had trouble with her homework h and when she learned that coodies aren't real,
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  when that boyd from math class wouldn't stop pulling her hair. I was the
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  one she came to. And when word about the birds in the bees started
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  to travel in her circle, she came to me. So why did she
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  come to me the first time some one passed her a joint? Don't wait
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  for your child to come to you when it comes to drugs. Talk to
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  them first. If you're not sure where to begin, call one eight hundred
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  seven two nine six six eight six for a brochure, you'll learn all you
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  need to know to take that first step. It's not too early to talk
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  to your kids about drugs. A message from the Partnership for a Drug Free
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  America. So that I can respond properly to a perennial request of yours,
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  you might if I leave frog your head the page four. I've been telling
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  you how most of a million seniors lost their HMO provided Medicare supplement coverage this
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  past year, and how for the third straight year, the independent insurance industry
• 10:18
  rating service VICE Ratings advised seniors who lost their HMO Medicare coverage do not do
• 10:24
  not join another HMO. Now, choosing the right Medicare supplement policy is important,
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  and I want to tell you about United American Insurance, which has been
• 10:33
  around since the start of Medicare, and it will be around whenever you need
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  them. Because I'd like you to have a copy of something called a Guide
• 10:39
  to Health Insurance for People with Medicare. This booklet is free and it will
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  help answer your questions about Medicare and Medicare supplement policies, including the exclusions and
• 10:48
  the limitations. The United American has no connection with Medicare, but This helpful
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  information will be provided at no cost if you'll just let me have your address
• 10:58
  telephone one eight hundred two four seven thousand before the new year begins. Now,
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  let's telephone one eight hundred four two four seven thousand. Write down that
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  number. It's an eight hundred number four two four seven thousand, and all
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  you need to do is ask for the free Guide to Health Insurance for people
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  with Medicare one eight hundred and four two four seven thousand. The Christmas story,
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  I mean, the God born a man and a manger in all that
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  escapes some moderns, mostly, I think, because they seek complex answers to
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  their questions, and this one is so utterly simple for the cynics and the
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  skeptics and the unconvinced. May I submit a modern parable. The man I'm
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  going to describe was not a scrooge. He was a kind, decent,
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  a mostly good man, generous to his family, upright in his dealings with
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  other men. But he well, he just didn't believe all that incarnation stuff
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  which the churches proclaim at Christmas time. It just didn't make sense. He
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  was too honest to pretend otherwise. He couldn't swallow that Jesus story about God
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  coming to earth as a man. I'm truly sorry to distress you, he
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  told his wife. But I'm not going with you to church of this Christmas
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  Eve. He said he'd feel like a hypocrite, that he'd much rather stay
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  home, but that he would wait up for them. So he stayed and
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  they went to the midnight service. Shortly after the family drove away in the
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  car, snow began to fall. He went to the window to watch the
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  flurries getting heavier and heavier, and then he went back to his fireside cheer
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  and began to read the newspaper. Minutes later, he was startled by a
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  thudding sound, and then another, and then another. At first he thought
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  somebody must be throwing snowballs against the living room windows, but when he went
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  to the front door to investigate, what he found was a flock of birds
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  huddled miserably in the snow. They had been caught in the storm, and,
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  in a desperate search for shelter, had tried to fly through his large
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  landscape window. Well, he couldn't let the poor creatures lie there and freeze,
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  so he remembered the barn where his children stabled their pony that would provide
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  a warm shelter if he could direct the birds to the barn quickly, he
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  put on a coat and galoshes and tramped through the deepening snow to the barn.
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  He opened the doors wide turned on a light, but the birds did
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  not come in. He figured food would entice them, so he hurried back
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  to the house and fetched breadcrumbs and sprinkled those on the snow, making a
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  trail so they yellow lighted wide open doorway of the stable. But to his
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  dismay, the birds ignored the breadcrumbs and continue to flop around helplessly in the
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  snow. He tried catching them. He tried shoeing them into the barn by
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  walking around and waving his arms. Instead, they scattered in every direction except
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  into the warm lighted barn. And then, of course he realized that they
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  were afraid of him. To them, he reasoned, I'm a strange,
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  terrifying creature. If I could only think it some way to let them know
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  that they can trust me, that I'm not trying to hurt them, trying
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  to help them. But how can I do that? Any move he made
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  tender to frighten them, to confuse them They just would not follow, They
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  would not be led, they would not be showed, because they feared him.
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  If only I could be a bird, he thought to himself, If
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  I could be a bird and mingle with them and speak their language, I
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  could tell them not to be afraid. I could show them the weight of
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  the safe, warm barn. But I would have to be one of them,
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  one of them, so that they could see and hear and understand.
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  I would have to be one of them. At that moment, the church
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  bells began to ring, and the sound reached his ears above the sounds of
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  the wind. And he stood there listening to the bells at Stfdaylers, listening
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  to the bells peeling the glad tidings of Christmas, and he sank to his
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  knees in the snow. Paul Harvey, Merry Christmas, seven ninety k ABC