A Poem for Peace
A poem for peace by Virginian, Nancy Byrd Turner
The earth is weary of our foolish wars.
Her hills and shores were shaped for lovely things,
Yet all our years are spent in bickerings
Beneath the astonished stars.
April by April laden with beauty comes.
Autumn by Autumn turns our toil to gain,
But, hand at sword-hilt, still we start and strain
To catch the beat of drums.
Knowledge to knowledge adding, skill to skill,
We shrive for others' good as for our own--
And then, like cavemen snarling with a bone,
We turn and rend and kill....
With life so fair and all too short a lease
Upon our special star! Nay, love and trust,
Not hate and violence shall redeem our dust.
Let us have peace!
A poem for peace by Virginian, Nancy Byrd Turner
The earth is weary of our foolish wars.
Her hills and shores were shaped for lovely things,
Yet all our years are spent in bickerings
Beneath the astonished stars.
April by April laden with beauty comes.
Autumn by Autumn turns our toil to gain,
But, hand at sword-hilt, still we start and strain
To catch the beat of drums.
Knowledge to knowledge adding, skill to skill,
We shrive for others' good as for our own--
And then, like cavemen snarling with a bone,
We turn and rend and kill....
With life so fair and all too short a lease
Upon our special star! Nay, love and trust,
Not hate and violence shall redeem our dust.
Let us have peace!
Our speaker last Tuesday, Robert Keiper, was 91 years old but could pass for 70. In the Q&A, there were a question about how he kept his mind so sharp and another about how he kept healthy, in general. The answers to both were to live the way we're all supposed to: with activity, exercise, rest, nutritious food, and no alcohol or tobacco.
In his career, Robert has been a movie actor (Ladder 49, A Haunting, Sophomore), a corporate executive, a speaker and trainer, and a writer. He read a poem from his book, "My Poetry," which we thought was excellent. It has a five-star rating on Amazon.com. Also, he has narrated audiobooks, presented many times, a one-man show entitled "Voices of Liberty-- a Tribute to the American Revolution," and prepared an early book on telecommunications systems for the CIA.
The first part of his talk was about storytelling in presentations that are designed to be persuasive. He has given many talks on how to do this. The second part was related to leadership. "A leader should be a source of good ideas," he said. A leader should help others to become leaders, but in their own style, not one that is dictated to them.
There were insightful questions from our group, as always, to understand and explore the topics mentioned above.
In our Zoom Meeting on October 28th, Jacque asked us to please respond to the invitation for Charter Night on November 8th. She needs to know who will attend and what each person or couple will take for the pot luck dinner. She also mentioned the Peace concert on November 15th, for which tickets are available on the Rockville Rotary website. Then, we will play Santa at Asbury Methodist Village on December 16th and will hold a holiday dinner on the 17th. A busy club, we are.
President Priscilla reported on our shredding event. More than 170 cars passed through, and numerous Scouts were there to receive documents for shredding and donations of food and money for Gaithersburg Help. One person donated $100 because she had received a Rotary scholarship several years ago. It took two cars to deliver all the cans and packages of foodstuffs. Also, we met possible Rotarians and a potential speaker.
Finally (before the speaker), we were asked to take unwrapped toys for children of any age to our meeting on November 4th. That means next week, folks. It's time to get a move-on.
When it was time for Happy Dollars, nearly everyone gave one or more for the speaker. Stu said his daughter was here from Guatemala, to help him pack for a move to Texas. Other bills were for the shredding event (Jacque), preaching at his church (John C.), and the upcoming Peace Concert.