You can raise the dignity of people, places and things by the way you treat them…including yourself!

It all begins in our thoughts. How we view things and others, the value we place on them will determine how we continue to think, talk and act.

“This car is old and clunky” (sign of disrespect) Instead, raise the dignity of it-and you-by keeping it clean, polished, vacuumed and organized. Old cars are in style anyway!

“My house and yard are old, need painting, and the sidewalk is crumbly.” Raise the dignity without a new paint job…rake the yard, keep the sticks and trash picked up, wash the windows, keep the walk swept and plant some flowers…maybe trim the bushes too. Shabby chic is in!

“The check-out lady looks rather old and frumpy, didn’t even smile at me.” Raise the dignity by smiling at her, thanking her for helping you, say something kind to her or others in line. She will feel better and so will you.

“Did you see how sloppy he looks? You’d think…” Raise the dignity. Don’t make rude comments about others, or to others. You don’t know what they’re going through. Be friendly to them. Kindness is always fashionable.

“Our neighborhood is going down-hill. Nobody seems to care about things anymore.” Raise the dignity. Keep your place up and maybe organize with a few other families, get some trash bags and walk the streets to elevate the appearance. Others will notice and eventually might want to join in. Maybe check into turning a vacant space into a neighborhood garden.

My high school government teacher always dressed well and treated every student in his classes respectfully and earnestly no matter how they looked or talked. He raised the dignity in his classes by doing those two things. He treated himself in a dignified manner, which everyone noticed, and he treated others with dignity, which everyone noticed.

How can we raise the dignity of people, places and things in our lives beginning today?

Think on it.

Good-finders are also good-fighters!

Who will win?

• Good or evil?
• Peace or chaos?
• Beauty or destruction?
• Stability or confusion?
• Diligence or lethargy?

Who will we (you and I) let win?

We each have a say, a choice, in this matter!

This isn’t a fist-fight – it’s often just remaining standing, not giving in, pressing on, doing the one thing you can think of that is right for that moment, no matter how small. It is the inch by inch, the moving forward, keeping the wheel moving and the momentum going.

Today, right now, I am choosing…

Somewhere in this blogs chronicles, I thought I’d written on lighthouses, maybe it was only a light inside my head not released yet…

Growing up stories told how the family living in the lighthouse had to go up everyday and wash the lens so it would shine its brightest to alert ships of danger. I envisioned it (actually until just this year) that the lens was like a large 2 or 4 sided smooth convex glass shape, (similar to the smooth side of a telescope) and to clean it you took your big rag and wiped it off. Simple enough, even though it was often over 100 feet high or higher and in the wind and cold…brrr!!!

This summer we toured a maritime museum off the coast of Detroit in the Huron River and saw a number of those lighthouse lenses. I was shocked! Instead of them looking like a RR semaphore light, these were extremely complex rings of crystal glass, (which the wind could blow through) tiered and layered in such a way so when the lamp was lit inside, the light would reflect and refract and so forth to shine out with maximum brightness. It is said some of the lenses shone 20 miles out to sea! (out to see!)

The lenses were 2-3 feet in height or width and it would take some concentrated effort to clean each piece of glass to clarity. (Interesting side note, it was discovered fish glue was heat resistant making it perfect for glass lens repairs.)

While the lenses are called Fresnal lenses, after the Frenchman who contributed so much to its development, there were many others before and after who helped perfect the lighthouse light.

Why? Why are you telling us this story. Anybody could find out about these things and who cares anyway. We have radar now, etc., etc., etc.

The point is it shows care and concern for another human being. We don’t know who might be stuck in the storm at sea, their names, their families, or what they’re doing on a stormy night in the dark. But somebody else thought to shine a light for them so they didn’t crash into a precipitous coastline and be killed.

Yes, we are to watch out and care for one another.

Interesting finale to the story of Fresnal, he died at only 39 after devoting his life to perfecting the illuminating brilliance to save others. He was sick for several years, but kept working on his designs. From the symptoms he had, and I am no doctor, it sounds like he died of TB, a disease which comes upon people who have overworked themselves and neglected proper care 😦 ) He did this while helping others.