Newsletter – October 23, 2017

Art Fettig’s Monday Morning Memo

October 23rd 2017
919-732-6994
artfettig@aol.com

In this Issue

o A Special Talent
o Say Something Good
o Points To Ponder
o A Little Humor
o Quote
o To Subscribe

A Special Talent

When I was in my Junior year as a student at the University of Detroit High school, I was the Staff Poet for our student newspaper called The Cub. Our English Teacher, a Jesuit priest, Father Skiffington, was examining some of my work one afternoon and he said to me, “Art, I believe that God had a master plan and he gave each of us a special talent. Now if we could all discover our talent and if we learn to hone it and put that talent to work for the good of all humankind then this would be a world full of love and peace and happiness.” He paused for a little drama and then said, “I do believe, Art, that God put you on this earth to serve as a bad example.” And I said, “Yes, it is true, Father, and you’ve got to admit that I am doing a great job of it.”
In our class yearbook it reported that I had the distinction of spending more time in detention after school than any student in the school’s history. Over the years, so many writers and speakers have told me what an inspiration I had been to them. They said they observed all of the things I was accomplishing with the few talents I had and just knew they could do much better with their special talents. “It’s true,” I would tell them all. “There is greatness in you.” What is your talent and what have you done for the good of all humankind?

To Serve As A Bad Example © Art Fettig

What nobler calling might there be
Than the one that fate picked out for me
The one I practice faithfully
To serve as a bad example?
I’ve done it since my middle teens
I think it’s something in my genes
A trait I share with kings and queens
To serve as a bad example.
I’ve made my way creatively
Since nineteen hundred and seventy three
And speakers and writers have flocked to me
To learn from my bad example.
It’s really not a mystery
Why I’ll go down in history
I’ve taught them all how not to be
By my fumbling, grumbling, utterly blundering
Service as a bad example.

Click the Right Facing Arrow to Play Art’s Song
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Say Something Good

N C State Fair. OK, so I went off my diet and engaged in a tiny bit of old fashioned gluttony for a few hours. What brought me down was a huge sign at one of the food stands that showed a mammoth Greek Gyro Sandwich. I’d been so strong and resisted all sorts of weird sounding delights standing there in Gluttony Alley watching young and old devouring one or more of those outlandish concoctions that only a State Fair goer might succumb to. And what did I get for my $10. Two meals, as it turned out. I ate to my full capacity and then three hours later at home I devoured the second helping. In between, Jean and I shared a little cup of butter pecan and vanilla soft ice cream. May God bless America and bring us world peace. Points To Ponder We should not judge people by their peak of excellence; but by the distance they have traveled from the point where they started. Henry Ward Beecher

A Little Humor

Starfish have no brains. (I know some people like that too.) ((They know some people like that too, me.))

Quote

Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It’s not a day when you lounge around doing nothing; it’s a day you’ve had everything to do and you’ve done it. Margaret Thatcher