Editor's Message - Finding Happiness Through Sharing Rotary
President Sofka and Membership Chair Dree are encouraging us today to share Rotary: find new members to join this fantastic e-club. Why? People are busy with work and family. We are time pressured and have time poverty. Why put something else on our plate? These questions reminded me of a rabbinical story. A Rabbi asked the Lord about Heaven and Hell. "First," answered the Lord, "I will show you Hell." The Rabbi followed the Lord down a long hallway and a door opened and he found himself in a room where a dozen people were seated around a large round table. The people were moaning from the pain of starvation. In the middle of the table there was a great pot of stew with more than enough for everyone. The delicious smell of the stew made the Rabbi's mouth water. The people around the table held spoons with very long handles. Each could reach the pot to take a spoonful of the stew, but because the spoon handles were longer than a man's arm, no one could position the food back into their mouth. Some were so frustrated they were hitting one another. The Rabbi saw that the suffering was terrible.
"Now," said the Lord, "I will show you Heaven." The Rabbi followed the Lord down another hallway and entered one more room matching the first. There in the middle of the room sat the identical large, round table and the same big pot of stew. The people were holding the same long-handled spoons, but here they were all well nourished and healthy, laughing and talking. For a moment the Rabbi was confused. "It is simple," said the Lord. "You see, they have learned to feed each other."
I challenge each of you to bring in a new member this Rotary year. When you do you not only feed yourself the nourishment from serving others, but you will feed someone else what we have all discovered helps us be nourished with a meaningful and purposeful life of making the world a better place.
"Unhappiness is the hunger to get; happiness is the hunger to give." - William George Jordan
(1864-1928)
"The only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve." - Albert Schweitzer
PDG & Charter President Ed Charlesworth