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Amazing People: Dr. John Langdon Down

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  Portrait of John Langdon Down by Sidney Hodges c. 1870 Why does he matter? Have you ever seen or heard of someone being treated unfairly? Someone perhaps being judged or criticized for something they can’t help? Or being refused opportunities or privileges given to others for reasons that just don’t make sense or seem right? Ever wonder if anything can possibly be done about it? There are people throughout history who have decided that there is. These are people who looked injustice straight in the face and said “No. This isn’t okay. I won’t accept it.” They often took great risks and sometimes even came to personal harm to fight for the rights of all people. And a lot of times, they succeeded. They didn’t necessarily fix the whole world for all time, but they made strides. They made improvements, and they made a mark that boosted others and changed the way we think forever. One such person was Dr. John Langdon Down. Biography: Field: Medicine DOB/DOD: November 18
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Dear Wonderful Kid: A Pink Shirt Day Letter.

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With the impending approach of Pink Shirt Day, I’ve had a lot to think about. Pink Shirt  Day, February 22, 2023, is a day for bully awareness and anti-bully activities.  There’s a lot of effort being put into the bully problem that plagues our world, but there is still a long way to go. I began thinking about how I, a bullying survivor in my own right, could possibly help. Here it is. An open letter to all the kids out there who are still struggling every day. Dear Wonderful Kid, You are a Valuable Human Being. Whoever you are and whatever your circumstances, you are a valuable human being. You were put in this world for a reason and you have a wonderful life ahead of you. You have things to offer the world that you may not even be aware of, yet. You deserve to be treated kindly and with respect. Always. People may say awful things about you, but you will decide what kind of person you are. You will decide what kind of life you’re going to live and how you’re going to live it. T
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A Two-Dollar Christmas

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             Every year, about this time, we get bombarded with commercials and ads promising that our friends and family will only truly love us or have a really Merry Christmas if we stuff their stockings with the latest computer devices, extravagant toys and piles of expensive diamonds.            But you know what? It just isn’t true. My grandmother told me so. * * * *            The early 1940s were a tough time for a lot of people as the Great Depression had not completely petered out and a terrible war was roaring overseas. In the winter of 1941, my grandparents were living in a small woodstove-heated cabin with their four little children deep in the Alberta countryside. And they were penniless. With the farm laying buried under impenetrable snowdrifts, Grandpa tried to make his winter living by sawing firewood for the neighbors with a rig he made out of his tractor. But work was scarce and any living was meager. So, come Christmas Eve, there was nothing in his pockets but h
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Christmas Through New Eyes

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              When I say the word “Christmas”, what are the first five things that come to mind? Trees? Wreaths? Bells? Candy canes? Dear old Santa Clause? Any of those answers would be perfectly correct and nearly everyone would probably come up with at least a few of them.                Or would they?                Did you know there are people in this world for whom Christmas conjures up a whole different image? People who would see your Christmas as very strange and unusual? I had the opportunity to find that out first-hand, one amazing evening.                We had a guest speaker in our children’s church group the year I was about 11 years old. She had come to give us a presentation about her work in Sweden. Sweden! I had heard of that place. Daddy told me we had ancestors from there and that’s where our name, Magnusson, came from. The lady showed us pictures and told us a lot about her life and the people there. But the part that really struck us was when she told us Christma
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The Amazing Christmas Truce of 1914

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                   Can the spirit of Christmas survive even the worst of circumstances?               As you recall from your school days studies, a terrible war split the world in two in the summer of 1914. Then called “The Great War” or “The War to End All Wars”, we now recall it as World War I.               As December of that year rolled around, the Christmas sprit really didn’t stand a chance in the dark and filthy trenches of the battlefield. There were no sparkling decorations, no colourful lights or ringing bells, no heartwarming scents of pine needles and gingerbread. There were only crowds of filthy, exhausted men a world away from those they loved trying to survive in the unimaginably cold and muddy conditions of war.               No, they didn’t have a thing to be jolly about.               But someone, somewhere thought they deserved one.               Amazingly, in an act that defies understanding, sworn enemies who had spent the last several months going to e
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