Tag Archives: Bible

Top Grade Literacy

11 Mar

My Take

DiVoran Lites

jungle divoran

I’ve always liked kids, reading, and books. That was the reason I took on a once a week job with reading challenged kids. It was fun. I learned a bit about ADHD, Dyslexia, and people who can read, but don’t comprehend what they read. We had young man stuck in the sixth grade because although he could mentally photograph a page, he could not explain what the words meant.

Several people I know have severe dyslexia. One is on welfare for it; the other is a brilliant doctor who gets books for the blind from the library so he can enjoy adventure books in his spare time like anybody else.

That’s one side of the coin. The other side is a friend who could go through ten romance novels a day and still take good care of her husband, children, and home. She ended up going to adult classes to get her college degree and supporting her children when her husband left them.

I know a couple of people who have turned reading into a fine art. One is Albert, a tall brown fellow about ten years old who is a wonderful natural athlete, especially as a basketball player. The first time I heard Albert read aloud in Sunday school I was thrilled and amazed. He had inflection; depth, tone, rhythm. I asked whether they  recognize his skills at school, and he confirmed that they do. He reads the announcements over the intercom every morning. When asked, his mother said she had read to him with those same embellishments since he was a baby and he had picked it up from there.

The other artistic reader who was an English teacher, taught her children to read before they went to school. Now she is frail and cared for by a daughter and a son who is a policeman. I never have heard one word of complaint from this dear lady. She’s always telling other people how wonderful they are.

She tells me that, frequently, her daughter calls her on the phone and reads to her from Jane Austen. They just finished, “Northanger Abby.” Every night her son reads a chapter from a James Herriot novel. “I get a bedtime story,” she says, happily.

Does that thrill you as much it does me? I’m not going to say reading aloud is a lost art. Obviously, it is not and someday perhaps someone will read to me in just that way, but for now, I’m thoroughly enjoying my IPod, http://www.audible.com, and my all time favorite author whose books are recorded for a new generation: D. E. Stevenson.

The best book to read, aloud or silently is, of course, the Bible, which can change your life for the better forever.

Matthew 4:4

But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

*kids.

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A Moment with the Master

28 Jan

My Take

DiVoran Lites

DiVoran Lites

 

A friend of Bill’s invited us to the dedication of the new pipe organ at his church. We went early and waited long. When we finally got into the church, we sat down facing the front wall where some of the organ’s pipes were worked into a beautiful and artistic cross.

The church held 350 people, but we found out later the crowd had swelled to 600 in the foyer and around the aisles and were grateful for the suggestion to arrive early.

One thing we had time to do was to read the excellent program we’d been given. Here are a few of the things we learned about the organ: The pipes we could see were just a sample of the number of pipes behind the wall, 2,197 of them to be exact, each with its own voice. The A. E. Schlueter Pipe Organ Company, pipes are made by hand one at a time, no assembly process there. The organ is assembled at the factory and tested for sound, then disassembled and taken to the church where it is put together so voicers could adjust it for the acoustics of the building.

The organist, Peter Beardsley, who is a wonder in his own right, played. “The Carnival of the Animals,” by Camille Saint-Saens, and several other pieces and we immersed ourselves in the music. We learned from him that if the organ as instrument had a patron saint it would be Bach.

The concert was almost over when one little pipe decided it did not want to stop sounding off. It wasn’t too loud, but no more music could be played while it was stealing the show. Mr. Beardsley rose and the pastor went to the front along with several other people. Everyone looked puzzled and helpless.

Down the aisle from the pew behind us strode a very big man in a black suit who had been introduced to us earlier as A. E. Schlueter, himself. A wave of relief swept over the crowd. He spoke to the puzzled professionals at the front and then came back to his seat. In a moment, the pipe quieted down.

So now, maybe you think the point of this story is to tell you that the master organ maker made everything right. Yes, that’s what I thought at the moment. But just to make a good thought better I wanted to know what the master had done to make it happen. As we filed out past Mr. Schlueter he was greeting people and shaking hands within a foot of us.

Oh please let me ask him a question, I thought, and to my delight and surprise he moved closer to where I was standing and looked right at me. Out of six hundred people, I was to get my answer without having to try to find him and talk to him at some other point, which I probably wouldn’t have done thinking he might be too busy for me.

“Did you do something to fix the organ?” I asked.

“I sent a man up to release the stuck valve,” he answered.

“Oh, the master was here. That’s the theme.” I said with delight. He understood that I was writing even though it looked as if I was just standing in front of him.

“The Lord has a sense of humor,” said Mr. Schlueter. “He likes to keep me humble.” It seemed as if he wanted me especially to tell my readers that, so I have–your own special message, dear reader, from the master.

And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying: this is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.

 Isaiah 30 : 21

Pipe Organ

 

 

 

 

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Just Passing By

30 Jul

My Take

 

DiVoran Lites

 “Oh, hi,” I say to the dinner plate sized gopher tortoise off to one side of the trail. Our woods are a kind of sanctuary for them and we see them often. Is this one a boy tortoise or a girl tortoise? Our son, an expert on gopher tortoises, could tell us, but he’s not here, right now.

I walk toward the pass-through into the neighborhood where I live, but before I get there, I spot a smaller gopher tortoise, this one about the size of a Corning salad plate that looks as if he’s about to go into the subdivision.  I’ve never seen two tortoises at the same time so my imagination begins to take over as it usually does when I’m about to meddle in somebody else’s business.

Maybe the big one, is the small one’s, mother. Maybe she’s worried that he’ll go into the subdivision and be run over or attacked by a dog. Anyhow, subdivisions are dangerous for wildlife so I pick him up by the shell and take him over to the big one. If she is his mother, she can look after him and I can go on home.

The minute I set him down, the big one starts bobbing its head so hard I’m afraid it will get a crick in its neck. Right away, I remind myself that gopher tortoises are vegetarians and they don’t have any equipment with which to hurt each other. I hope. Otherwise, it might have been a mistake to bring them together.

Everything seems okay except for the emphatic bobbing. The small one doesn’t bob back, but then he doesn’t pull into his shell either. Now what?The big one starts walking away. The small one follows. Phew. Surely, they are mother and son going home just as I imagined. Wait, though, suddenly the small one dashes around the big one and slips into a hole exactly the size of his shell, leaving the big one on the outside looking stunned. It waits a moment then begins to graze.

We’ll have to talk to our son and see what its all about. Stay tuned. Maybe it’s just one more lesson in minding my own business.

Proverbs 26:17

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