Celebrated lives. We see them on award shows. The audience stands in honor of lives well lived with great accomplishments according to the standards of the film or music industry. Those lives are spent acting out a part, pretending to be someone they are not to entertain people.
What makes for a celebrated life? Just as babies are always good news so is life itself.
Witnessing a spider being put to death for its crimes recently made me rethink the death penalty. How’s that you say? Well to make a long story short, back in the summer our grandson was over for the weekend. He plays all kinds of games that he has made up.
One of them that day was putting spiders in a jar with pushpins and then rolling them down the slide. If they survived that and were repentant of their crimes then they were let loose. If not then they were put to death.
Well, I was quite horrified seeing a spider with a push pin sticking in it. When questioned about it our grandson said that the spider wasn’t sorry for the bad things it had done.
We then had a discussion about how precious life is and that once the spider was dead, if it could think and had a mind to be sorry it couldn’t because it was dead. We decided it was best not to play games like that with living things.
The whole scenario set me to thinking about the death penalty. Once someone or the spider was dead, it couldn’t repent of its crimes. It couldn’t ask for forgiveness and could not have a change of heart. In fact I think genuine remorse was felt for the spider that day!
Billy Graham once shared in a biography that he felt remorse over stepping on an ant, because God had given it life. It had a purpose and fit into the master plan. Every life is precious and one worthy of being celebrated.
Celebrated lives are noted every day on the obituary pages of the paper. While sometimes those features are short and others are quite lengthy they speak of a life lived, a celebrated life.
The year 2009 saw the home going of some of the best among us. People like Marsha Humphry Cox, Ocho Scott Pell, Grier Stout, Lynden Craven, Eli Jones, Glenn Patterson Jr., Pep Watkins, Clara Phillips Cain, C.T. Hardin, John Workman III, Mabel Moore Bray, Vera Needham Asbill, Martha Sutton York, Hoyt Clark, Alvin Roddy, Louise Wilson Grimes, Jessie Whitehead and others too numerous to mention here.
Their span of days varied. Their quest to live itself spoke of their courage and determination.
Their joys, passions and commitments to life and living has made us better people.
Celebrated lives … yes. A celebrated life is ours to live in 2010. May we find life worth the living as we find our place in the master plan.
Simply Sandy is written by Sandy Jarrell and appears the first Wednesday of each month. Simply put, it’s Sandy waxing wordy once a month about life as she knows it. Jarrell is a native and life-long resident of Coleridge and a librarian at Ramseur Public Library. She can be reached by e-mail at wjarrell@rtmc.net
Sandy Jarrell
Simply Sandy – Celebrate your life
- Sandy Jarrell
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Simply Sandy – January 2012
By the time you read this the ball will have already dropped in Time Square and the curtain will have closed on what was 2011.
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Simply Sandy – December 2011
While it has been a long time since I was an angel clad in white, I still remember memorizing and proudly proclaiming the news of the Savior’s birth. There is still good news to tell.
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Simply Sandy – November 2011
We've tightened our belts, rolled up our sleeves and still have a mind to work and make things better for ourselves and our country. There are even those among us who dare to dream, against all odds have started businesses, are working and have put other people to work.
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Simply Sandy – October 2011
Count with me: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12. It's fundamental, pretty basic math. Let me ask you this question: When is a dozen not a dozen?
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Simply Sandy: September 2011
Danny Burgess of East Randolph Cabinet Shop is in the business of making things of value that are meant to stand the test of time.
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Simply Sandy: August 2011
Oh to see better! With more than one million people in the U.S. termed as legally blind, being able to see better is a major issue.
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Simply Sandy: July 2011
There is something to be said for “the first” in our lives, each bringing back a memory all its own. First step, first tooth, first day of school, first date, first kiss, and the list could go on and on. Life is full of firsts.
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Simply Sandy: June 2011
I’ve taken many a trip and not left Coleridge. So it was with the reading of “Deep River … the Little League Years” by Jones Lamar Howell.
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Simply Sandy: May 2011
This week I was hacked or, I should say, my e-mail account was.
- Simply Sandy: April 2011
- More Sandy Jarrell Headlines
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Simply Sandy – January 2012
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