President's Message

The “Rotary Rocks the Boat” district conference cruise was held last week and our new e-club was represented by two active members. There is so much good being done in our district that you cannot leave such an event without feeling a great sense of pride in Rotarians and their ability to leave the world a better place.  A district conference provides a platform for clubs to present outstanding projects and the district governor awards deserving Rotarians and honors clubs for their service and contributions.  In addition to the plenary sessions we also have great fun and fellowship.  Thanks to the conference committee lead by Rtn. Ronnie Hallenburger of West University Rotary and to Governor Bob Gebhard for a great conference!

In 2009 my wife, Robin, and I joined 37 other Rotarians from District 5890 to travel to India to participate in polio immunization. Since that time India has been declared polio free. While in India we visited another Rotary project in Jaipur where prosthetic limbs were manufactured and fitted for those who had lost limbs from accidents, land mines, etc. What became known as the “Jaipur Foot” gave freedom to many for less than $100 and at no cost to the victims thanks to generous Rotary donors. Since that time our gains in helping those with lost limbs has made tremendous leaps as we have witnessed Olympians running races with prosthetic limbs and wounded heroes gaining incredible fine motor control through sophisticated electronics and mechanics. The advances in the world of prosthetics continue to make the world a better place and I hope you enjoy the program this week.

The greatest filter in the whole world is the human brain. It filters out stimuli that are not relevant to your ongoing functioning. Stop for a moment and quietly observe what your brain is filtering out for you as you are reading this article.  It is filtering out visual and auditory stimuli that are really not necessary.  In fact it would be very distracting if you were unable to filter them out.  In order to read you need to be able to focus, attend and concentrate.  There may also be slight noises where you are reading from outdoors, such as a dog barking, traffic or an airplane passing high in the sky.  The sophistication of this filter is seen in the example of a mother awakening from sleep because her baby turned in the crib or coughed.  Any stimuli "out of the norm" may pull our attention in that direction to assess if a response is needed. This weekend is not a normal weekend in America. This weekend we celebrate those mothers who filtered many of their own needs to listen to our needs and the needs of our children. My personal thanks goes to my deceased mother, and my lovely wife and mother of my children for making the world a better place.

 

Paul Simon