Cee’s ‘Share Your World, 2015 – Week 24

1. What’s your favorite charitable cause and why?

Well, to begin with, I am extremely wary of charitable organizations in general. I’ve learned that in a majority of cases — no matter how altruistic the original motives were for founding the organization — once a group of human beings begin to control it and experience the power and the monetary benefits of that control, the organization becomes something less that what it was intended to be. There are a very few organizations that are considered “charitable” that I do support, however, and I’ve listed two.

The Salvation Army — because they genuinely care more about the needs of hurting people, both physically and spiritually, than they do about their own comfort, their own power, and their own financial advancement. I find that so many charitable organizations have an agenda that includes careful planning for the folks in charge to line their own pockets and advance their own careers, with only a partial amount of attention and money going to actually meeting the needs of those whom they claim to be representing. The Salvation Army’s only agenda is to lift up hurting people, feed them, clothe them, give them a safe haven, and restore them to the solid, healthy, productive person God intended them to be.

Another cause that I readily support is the work of children’s orphanages and children’s homes that are honest, above-board, and totally open to public scrutiny, making it undeniably clear that they devote the vast majority of time, effort, and money to the children themselves and their betterment, rather than to lining the pockets of the ‘administrators’ of said programs.

I probably sound cynical as I give my reasons, but I have had good reason to question the motives and the outcome of so many organizations who try to make their work sound good to the general public, but at the level where the rubber meets the road — in the everyday lives of the people who are supposed to be helped — there’s a different story to be told.

Question # 2: What color do you feel most comfortable wearing?

I seem to look best in blue, brown, pink, yellow, and red — and sometimes green.  Well, dang, I look good in anything!  So I guess I don’t have a “most comfortable” color.

Question # 3: If you had your own talk show, who would your first three guests be? (guest can be dead, alive, famous or someone you just know)

1. Chuck Norris: He’s one of the most straightforwardly honest American’s that I know — and a straightforwardly, honest Christian as well. He has great wisdom and intelligence, as well as creative ideas for helping other Americans — especially youth — to recognize and appreciate — and protect — our heritage. I would like to sit with him in an interview and let him expound on those subjects for a couple of hours and let the world benefit from his wisdom.

2. Author Harper Lee the way she was in the 1980’s. I would like to have the opportunity to sit and talk with her when she was in good health, both physically and mentally. Since there is great speculation right now —  and investigation— concerning whether or not she is even mentally healthy enough to permit the publication of the newly discovered book, I wouldn’t want to subject her to an interview in such a questionable state. However, could I interview her as she was in the 80’s — when she was refusing to be interviewed and refusing to allow anyone to know about her personal life or to know whether or not she had written anything else that was special to her — I would treasure the opportunity.

Why?

Because I do not believe that any writer capable of such a wonderful work does not write a lot of other stories as well. We know there was one other book  To Set A Watchman — written prior to To Kill A Mockingbird and told from the perspective of Scout as an adult —  then  laid aside in order to write basically the same story from the point of view of Scout as a child. But there must have been other books — or at least other stories. I’d like to know about them and about the true reasons for keeping them hidden.

3.  Author Margaret Mitchell.  I guess I’m just into authors today, but I have always felt a great sadness that Margaret Mitchell died before she could give us her own sequel to Gone With the Wind. I’m certain that her own sequel would not have been anything at all like the attempt made with the book titled “Scarlette” several years ago.

Gone With the Wind is such an ‘American’ novel, and it says so much of importance while, at the same time, entertaining us.  (In much the same way as Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird does). And I suppose I have always been so deeply saddened by the thought that a great creative mind didn’t have the opportunities to share all the wonderful works that were resident within it before it was snuffed out. I’d like the opportunity to bring it back to life and give it another chance to give something to us, the ever-hungry-for-more reading audience.

Question # 4: List:  What are at least five places you’ve enjoyed visiting?

Well, you all know what’s going to be at the top of my list, so here goes:

1. The Great Smoky Mountains
2. Sanibel Island in the Gulf of Mexico
3. New England
4. Charleston, South Carolina
5. New Harmony, Indiana

Bonus question:  What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I’m grateful for the opportunity to spend time with my step-mother, who is home from having spent the past year in Colorado Springs to attend a Bible College. She will be going back for another year, but we will get to spend a good deal of time together this summer.

This week, I’m looking forward to being involved in a minsters’ conference at my home church. Generally, there are ministers from various places around the world as well as several different states. It’s always a blessed time of worship, prayer, and fellowship around tables piled high with great food.

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