Saturday, November 14, 2009
♥The Love♥
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
the sad story
On Saturdays Gogarty's wife helped out in the store. Customers liked Margaret. Not that they did a booming walk-in trade, but those customers who did wander in to buy a pen or a pad of paper would hang around after making their purchases to talk. Men especially. Leaning on the glass countertop, fogging it, smudging it with their fingerprints, they would stand there forever, flirting with Margaret.
They sold from the highest and lowest shelves on Saturdays. The silver and gold-plated pen and pencil sets in the bottom of the glass cabinet were as popular on any Saturday as they were at Christmas and graduation time. The red ink stamp pads on the top of the tall shelves behind the counter became essential in a way they never were during the week when they accumulated the dust that Margaret blew off their lids when she climbed the step ladder to reach them.
"Anything else for you this morning?"
"How much for the White-out, Margaret?"
Margaret would squat down behind the counter, giving the customer a clean view through the glass down her freckled cleavage.
"I could use some butterfly clips, Maggie, the number two size."
And up she'd go on the ladder again. To reach the highest shelves she had to stand on tip-toe, coming out of her shoes, her legs on display.
Gogarty didn't like this only because it reminded him that the bloom was not yet off his wife. She had begun to use a rinse on her hair and the stylish oversized frames of her glasses hid the lines around her eyes, but she still had her figure and those fine slender legs. Gogarty told her that he didn't like to have strangers keeping her from her work.
"What's there to do, Vin?" she'd ask, not sniping, not intending to remind him of the store's meager business, but actually asking him to assign her a task. She'd always been the busy one. As soon as Vince, Jr. was old enough for school, she'd gone to work in the Cambridge City Hall as a secretary to her sister's husband's brother, the city planner. She had asked to come to work in the store and was hurt that Gogarty hadn't wanted her to. "Don't I have enough people sitting around on their thumbs all day?" he'd said, but in those days he hadn't been able to hire help fast enough to keep up with all the orders and an extra pair of hands should have been welcome.
So she'd started coming in on Saturdays to do the typing and handle the correspondence. She typed up the invoices, sent off the orders to distributors and suppliers, and when she finished that she gave herself little chores to do, even when Gogarty said she was in the way, so that on Monday mornings Gogarty would find some trivial attempt by Margaret to brighten up the place---geometric stacks of pencil leads on the counter; rainbow fans of pocket folders in the window; flowers on his desk. Gogarty felt as though Margaret was going behind his back, doing these things. Of course, anything she did these days had to be behind his back, since that was the part of him he most often showed her. He avoided her, routinely spending all day in the stockroom where she was too dainty to follow. Still, he told her to ask before she put up her cheery little signs advertising The PERFECT Graduation Gift!!! and The Finest in Leather-bound Date Books.
"She just wants to feel needed, Dad," his son would say when he complained.
"Chowdah-head," Gogarty would mutter, taking care not to be overheard, although not really caring if he was.
Gogarty's Stationery and Office Supply. On Causeway Street, under the elevated tracks of the Green Line. Dust on the window. Dust on the shelves. Dust on the stock in back. Old orange pasteboard account books stacked up to the ceiling, the record of thirty years of business, twenty-seven at the same location. Stanbart Stationers. Bart and Vin's Office Supply. Tighe and Gogarty Co. Gogarty, solus. Fat times and lean times and leaner recently. All of it gathering dust.
From his desk Gogarty could survey the whole store, a long high-ceilinged shoebox of a place, and the view was like peering down a long trough of shadow and dust. The office was separated from the shop floor by a wooden rail and a flight of three stairs. Over the narrow aisles long fluorescent lamps of insufficient wattage quivered and shivered suspended from shaky pipes that carried and magnified the vibrations of trains clattering down the tracks. When a trolley rolled by, the lamps cried dust.
A dad's story
On July 22nd I was in route to Washington, DC for a business trip. It was all so very ordinary, until we landed in Denver for a plane change.
As I collected my belongings from the overhead bin, an announcement was made for Mr. Lloyd Glenn to see the United Customer Service Representative immediately. I thought nothing of it until I reached the door to leave the plane and I heard a gentleman asking every male if he were Mr. Glenn. At this point I knew something was wrong and my heart sunk.
When I got off the plane a solemn-faced young man came toward me and said, Mr. Glenn, there is an emergency at your home. I do not know what the emergency is, or who is involved, but I will take you to the phone so you can call the hospital."
My heart was now pounding, but the will to be calm took over. Woodenly, I followed this stranger to the distant telephone where I called the number he gave me for the Mission Hospital. My call was put through to the trauma center where I learned that my three-year-old son had been trapped underneath the automatic garage door for several minutes, and that when my wife had found him he was dead.
CPR had been performed by a neighbor who is a doctor, and the paramedics had continued the treatment as Brian was transported to the hospital. By the time of my call, Brian was revived and they believed he would live, but they did not know how much damage had been done to his brain, nor to his heart. They explained that the door had completely closed on his little sternum right over his heart. He had been severely crushed.
After speaking with the medical staff, my wife sounded worried but not hysterical, and I took comfort in her calmness.
The return flight seemed to last forever, but finally I arrived at the hospital six hours after the garage door had come down. When I walked into the intensive care unit, nothing could have prepared me to see my little son laying so still on a great big bed with tubes and monitors everywhere. He was on a respirator.
I glanced at my wife who stood and tried to give me a reassuring smile. It all seemed like a terrible dream. I was filled-in with the details and given a guarded prognosis. Brian was going to live, and the preliminary tests indicated that his heart was OK, two miracles in and of themselves. But only time would tell if his brain received any damage.
Throughout the seemingly endless hours, my wife was calm. She felt that Brian would eventually be all right. I hung on to her words and faith like a lifeline. All that night and the next day Brian remained unconscious. It seemed like forever since I had left for my business trip the day before.
Finally at two o’clock that afternoon, our son regained consciousness and sat up uttering the most beautiful words I have ever heard spoken. He said, "Daddy hold me" and he reached for me with his little arms.
[TEAR BREAK]
By the next day he was pronounced as having no neurological or physical deficits, and the story of his miraculous survival spread throughout the hospital. You cannot imagine, we took Brian home, we felt a unique reverence for the life and love of our Heavenly Father that comes to those who brush death so closely.
In the days that followed there was a special spirit about our home. Our two older children were much closer to their little brother. My wife and I were much closer to each other, and all of us were very close as a whole family. Life took on a less stressful pace. Perspective seemed to be more focused, and balance much easier to gain and maintain. We felt deeply blessed.
Our gratitude was truly profound.
The story is not over!
Almost a month later to the day of the accident, Brian awoke from his afternoon nap and said, "Sit down Mommy.. I have something to tell you." At this time in his life, Brian usually spoke in small phrases, so to say a large sentence surprised my wife. She sat down with him on his bed, and he began his sacred and remarkable story. "Do you remember when I got stuck under the garage door? Well, it was so heavy and it hurt really bad. I called to you, but you couldn’t hear me. I started to cry, but then it hurt too bad. And then the ‘birdies’ came."
"The birdies?" my wife asked puzzled. "Yes," he replied. "The birdies made a whooshing sound and flew into the garage. They took care of me." "They did?" "Yes," he said. "One of the birdies came and got you. She came to tell you I got stuck under the door."
A sweet reverent feeling filled the room. The spirit was so strong and yet lighter
than air. My wife realized that a three-year-old had no concept of death and spirits, so he was referring to the beings who came to him from beyond as "birdies" because they were up in the air like birds that fly..
"What did the birdies look like?" she asked. Brian answered, "They were so beautiful. They were dressed in white, all white. Some of them had green and white. But some of them had on just white. "Did they say anything?" "Yes," he answered. "They told me the baby would be all right." "The baby?" my wife asked confused. Brian answered. "The baby laying on the garage floor."
He went on, "You came out and opened the garage door and ran to the baby. You told the baby to stay and not leave." My wife nearly collapsed upon hearing this, for she had indeed gone and knelt beside Brian’s body and seeing his crushed chest whispered, "Don’t leave us Brian, please stay if you can."
As she listened to Brian telling her the words she had spoken, she realized that the spirit had left His body and was looking down from above on this little lifeless form.. "Then what happened?" she asked. "We went on a trip," he said, "far, far away."
He grew agitated trying to say the things he didn’t seem to have the words for. My wife tried to calm and comfort him, and let him know it would be okay. He struggled with wanting to tell something that obviously was very important to him, but finding the words was difficult. "We flew so fast up in the air. They’re so pretty Mommy," he added. "And there are lots and lots of birdies."
My wife was stunned. Into her mind the sweet comforting spirit enveloped her more soundly, but with an urgency she had never before known. Brian went on to tell her that the "birdies" had told him that he had to come back and tell everyone about the "birdies." He said they brought him back to the house and that a big fire truck, and an ambulance were there. A man was bringing the baby out on a white bed and he tried to tell the man that the baby would be okay.
The story went on for an hour. He taught us that "birdies" were always with us, but we don’t see them because we look with our eyes and we don’t hear them because we listen with our ears. But they are always there, you can only see them in here (he put his hand over his heart).
They whisper the things to help us to do what is right because they love us so much. Brian continued, stating, "I have a plan, Mommy. You have a plan. Daddy has a plan. Everyone has a plan. We must all live our plan and keep our promises. The birdies help us to do that cause they love us so much"
In the weeks that followed, he often came to us and told all, or part of it, again and again. Always the story remained the same. The details were never changed or out of order. A few times he added further bits of information and clarified the message he had already delivered.
It never ceased to amaze us how he could tell such detail and speak beyond his ability when he talked about his birdies. Everywhere he went, he told strangers about the "birdies." Surprisingly, no one ever looked at him strangely when he did this. Rather, they always got a softened look on their face and smiled.
the story of a hardworker girl
Oprah Gail Winfrey grew up extremely poor in Mississippi. In 1971 she graduated from East Nashville High School in Nashville, Tennessee. She went on to Tennessee State University, graduating with a degree in Speech and Performing Arts.
With Native American as well as African ancestry, she has risen to historic heights in the entertainment industry. In 1994 she was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca, New York. In February 2003 she became the first African American woman to make the Forbes Magazine Billionaire List. Indeed, she was the first African American woman in history to become a billionaire. In 2006, she took the Number 3 spot on the annual Forbes Magazine Celebrity 100 List.
Oprah is the first woman in history to own and produce her own talk show. The Oprah Winfrey Show is produced by Harpo (Oprah spelled backwards) Productions. She is Executive Producer. Harpo 'creates and develops original TV programming and operates Oprah.com, a premier women's lifestyle website.' The company produces feature films as well. In partnership with Hearst Magazines, it publishes O Magazine.
Oprah made her film debut in 1985. She received a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award nomination for her portrayal of Sofia in Steven Spielberg's The Color Purple (1985). She was also nominated for a Golden Globe. She has received acclaim for roles in TV movies Before Women Had Wings (1997), There Are No Children Here (1993) and The Women of Brewster Place (1989).
In 1998, after receiving a Lifetime Achievement award, she withdrew herself and her TV show from future consideration for a Daytime Emmy, saying, 'After you've achieved it for a lifetime, what else is there?'
On February 22, 2007 Oprah produced an Oscar special on ABC TV. She featured some of her own Oscar-winning friends interviewing the Oscar-winners they most wanted to speak with. Julia Roberts chose George Clooney, Nicole Kidman picked Russell Crowe and Jamie Foxx talked to Sidney Poitier.
With her Sun in Aquarius, Oprah is freedom-loving, strong-willed and independent. She insists upon living her life as she sees fit. On a personal level, she is willing to share herself with another, but does not adjust easily to the emotional give and take of a close relationship. Though intellectually open, she can be enormously opinionated and stubborn on a one-to-one level. She often lets her head rule rather than her heart. She seems self-sufficient and detached emotionally because she is capable viewing things dispassionately. But once she makes up her mind on an issue, she is difficult to sway.
She thinks in broad terms and is concerned with the world beyond her own personal sphere. She is likely to become involved in community affairs, social organizations and groups of all kinds. She enjoys being part of group endeavors and often finds herself organizing or supervising such activities. Her strong points are her concern for human welfare and social betterment, her democratic spirit and her vision.
Sun square Saturn means that feelings of personal inadequacy often plague her. She has a cautious attitude toward life and is highly disciplined with regard to her obligations. She tends to struggle more than she needs to, and to take herself too seriously.
With Mercury in Aquarius she is a progressive thinker, open and receptive to the latest discoveries in any field. She has high expectations and a deep belief that mankind's problems can be solved through the use of our creative intelligence. She has no patience for people whose conservative outlook limits their capacity to find solutions and envision a better future. She has a strong humanitarian impulse and knows that what happens in one part of the world affects everyone.
Mercury quincunx Uranus tells us her mind works in a rather electric, sometimes brilliant way. She grasps new concepts readily. However, her retention may be poor, as she tends to leap from one idea to another in a flash. Her mind may race so quickly that it is hard for her to sit still for any length of time. She has a highly sensitive nervous system and needs a calm environment to be at her best.
Uranus conjunct Jupiter/Pluto shows that she has the ability to quickly exploit every situation and is able to turn circumstances around in her favor. She is likely to achieve great success, but should beware of succeeding at someone else's expense.
Venus in Aquarius means she is open and unconventional in her attitude towards love, romance and sex. She enjoys socializing, bringing people together and having many friends of both sexes. She values friendship very highly and is, in fact, more comfortable being a friend than a lover. 'My idea of heaven is a great big baked potato and someone to share it with,' says Oprah. She desires an intellectual rapport or spiritual bond with her love partner, but deep intimacy does not come easily to her. The role of 'wife' in the traditional sense doesn't appeal to her. She abhors jealousy since she feels that no person truly 'belongs' to another. She appreciates a love partner who will allow her plenty of freedom and is not emotionally demanding. In December 2006, she and twenty-year companion Steadman Graham moved in together.
Venus square Saturn suggests she is so serious she finds it difficult to enjoy herself in a lighthearted way. She rarely does something purely for pleasure. She is very cautious about getting close to people, perhaps due to painful separations in her early life. At age 14 she had a baby boy who died from complications of being born premature. Needing to learn to love and value herself before she could find happiness, she shared this process on her show for the benefit of others.
Venus opposition Uranus/Pluto indicates she has a constant longing for new and exciting adventures. She likes to be admired and has a tendency to fish for compliments. Her creative power is strong, and she may have a desire to create some entirely new form of art.
Mars in Scorpio says she pursues her goals and desires with dedication and determination. She is capable of total concentration and tremendous discipline and, again, is very difficult to influence once her mind is made up. She can be secretive about the intensity of her aims and intentions. Quite forceful without being overtly aggressive, she is a formidable foe if she meets opposition or aggression from another. She is courageous with a primitive, raw side as well.
Mars trine Uranus makes her decisive and somewhat impulsive. She responds spontaneously to challenges and enjoys vigorous physical activities that require fast reflexes and a good sense of rhythm and timing. She has an abundance of energy and a restless desire to see progress. She makes a good leader, spearheading new projects and inspiring others to act.
Mars square Pluto gives her a powerful will; when she wants something, she pursues it relentlessly until she achieves it. Intense power struggles are likely. She is capable of great achievement if she uses her energies for constructive purposes.
Jupiter in Gemini suggests she has the ability to see connections between seemingly unrelated ideas or worlds, and to bring them together. She excels in any field requiring a clear intellect and communication skills. She has an insatiable curiosity and may read or watch television constantly in order to satisfy her need for mental stimulation. Her mind never stops. 'Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down.'