I hope you enjoy our program this week and I thank Sofka for taking charge of the weekly newsletter while Robin and I are in Sydney, Australia for the Rotary International Convention. She picked an excellent and entertaining program about a boy wanting to dance so that he made his mother happy. In the June 2014 issue of the Rotarian magazine there is an article about “happiness.” It claims that 50 percent of happiness comes from our genetics, which we have no control over. It claims that 40 percent of happiness comes from our thoughts, which we do have control over.
In his book The Anatomy of an Illness, Norman Cousins chronicles how he overcame a potentially fatal illness after deciding to lock himself away and watch funny old movies. Laughing, instead of mourning about his diagnosis, he gained back more and more strength, and eventually his disease went into remission.
Laughter is great for the body. It increases heart rate, breathing activity, blood pressure, body temperature, and natural pain killing chemicals. Muscles contract and we laugh and then relax profoundly. Muscle tension, heart rate and blood pressure drop below pre laugh levels for up to forty-five minutes.
There is a very real, if not fully understood, connection between health and emotions, including humor. Perhaps we all need to periodically take off a week and lock ourselves in a hotel room while we watch old Marx Brothers movies and laugh from way down deep inside. As I like to say,
"He who laughs, lasts."
Once upon a time there was a boy who lived with his parents on a ranch in Oklahoma. He liked to play and have fun instead of doing chores. He learned how to rope from a cowboy, and became so good that he could lasso almost anything that moved. He wanted to become the best roper in the world. His mother wanted him to be a minister. His father wanted him to go to school and work hard, and eventually sent him to military school for discipline. He ran away from school, and went to a ranch and got a job as a cowboy. Eventually he built a stage and practiced rope tricks. Then he told funny stories and made cowboys and cowgirls laugh. He became a champion roper, and people paid money to watch him. He traveled with rodeos doing his rope tricks.
Then one night when he was on-stage something good happened to him, he made a mistake! He tangled his rope around his legs. He looked silly, but now he could laugh at himself. He grinned and said, "A rope isn't so bad to get tangled up in, if it isn't around your neck."
The audience roared! They liked the way he made them laugh even more than they liked the way he roped. He began talking more than roping. People came back again and again to hear what he would say next. He began to talk about the funny side to what happened to people in the newspaper. People began to see that there was probably a funny side to most of the things that happened to them too. They began to laugh at themselves. And they felt better. The roping cowboy was Will Rogers. Will Rogers became one of America's most famous humorists and philosophers, poking fun at hypocrisy, smugness and greed. The psychology of humor is complex, but poking fun at our problems and ourselves helps us learn to laugh at the world, get a perspective on our problems, and remind ourselves that most of our problems are not unique and that we are not alone.
"If you cannot laugh at yourself, you will find plenty of volunteers to do it for you!"
Father Watson was about 50 years of age living in the southwestern part of the United States. Cancer was discovered in almost every major organ of his body. His doctor informed him that he had only three months to live and suggested that he begin to get his life in order. Father Watson decided that he would go to Mexico City to a small church for this final period of his life. After about two weeks in Mexico, Father Watson saw a boy steal the money from the collection plate, ran after him and caught him. He discovered the boy was an orphan who had been physically abused. The boy needed the money just to survive and eat. He decided even though he was only given three months to live that he would adopt this boy. There was a television show made about Father Watson. Twenty-five years later he was still adopting youngsters and had worked with over 5000 adopted youngsters.
There is no doubt in my mind that the good we do as Rotarians in our vocations, communities, internationally and with our youth will extend our lives. When we lead a meaningful life, then that will to keep living and do more good buys us years. A happy person spends more money on others than themselves, and acts of kindness will enhance moods.
"We must rearrange our lifestyles in order to accommodate greater exercise of the positive emotions - love, will to live, play, fun, laughter, purpose.” - Norman Cousins
Nguyen T. Nguyen is born in Vietnam, and came to United States at the age of 9 years old. He graduated from University of Houston - Downtown with a BBA degree in General Business, minor in Small Business.
After college, he worked in Financial Service industry at MassMutual, and now started his own company to expand his career. He's an aspired entrepreneur by day, an artist by night. His previous non-profits experience includes Board of Directors at Vietnamese American Chamber of Commerce, Board of Advisor at BPSOS, and co-founder/pass-president of Galleria Rotaract. He joined Rotary E-Club of Houston as Director - New Generation 2014-2015 to help built the bridge between Rotaractors and Rotarians while expand Rotary E-Club globally.
At TEDxCambridge, Michael Norton shares fascinating research on how money can, indeed buy happiness — when you don't spend it on yourself. Listen for surprising data on the many ways pro-social spending can benefit you, your work, and (of course) other people.
"We may not be able to do any great thing, but if each of us will do something, however small it may be, a good deal will be accomplished."
~D.L. Moody
Our Club Installation Event of our Club Officers for the 2014-2015 Rotary Year will be conducted on June 21st, 2014 in the Rio Ranch Restaurant in Houston, Texas. The event will start at 10:30AM CT. More information about this event will follow.
$7.00 Pitchers of Shiner Bock, Miller Lite or Bud Light can be purchased. They also sell soft drinks, water, mixers, and snacks. Outside beverages and ice (except wine or liqour) are not permitted and will be checked at the door. No coolers of any kind are allowed in the lodge building.
Bingo pads are $5.00 each. Doors open at 5:15pm. Early bird special starts at 7:00 pm with regular bingo games beginning at 7:30 pm.
* Once capacity of 700 people is reached they will close the doors to unaccounted players.
The Rotary Club of Houston Skyline is sponsoring a Car Rally from 10 am to 1pm at Cedar Creek Cafe Bar & Grill which is located at 1034 W. 20th Street (in the Houston Heights), Houston, Texas 77008. Admission to the Car Show is FREE to all attendees of all ages. Check out unique rides from classic Cobras, to antique taxicabs, to modern day exotics. You will also get to meet a former NASCAR driver, and community leaders. Cedar Creek offers beautiful outdoor patios to enjoy food and refreshing drinks!
Proceeds will go to Rotary Skyline's Annual Step Forward Day Project. This includes installing an edible garden, water cisterns, education program on sustainability and nutrition and much more at Port of Houston Elementary School (in Houston's East End). On a Work Day the goal is to restore the community garden/flower beds, develop mulch storage, organize the library, and repair the Julia C. Hester House (in Houston's Fifth Ward), develop a playground specifically designed for children on the Autism Spectrum, add a solar powered fountain to the garden area, and set up a huge puzzle mural created by students of the Westview School (Houston's only school exclusively serving children on the autism spectrum.
Rtn. Jim Kite has released information about the next Rotarian trip to Nicaragua beginning on August 6, 2014 and returning on August 12, 2014.
Getting group rates for tickets has gotten increasingly difficult. People are coming from so many different places and usually you can get much better prices on line than we can get as a group rate. So we are asking everyone to buy your own tickets directly but, you must coordinate your arrival and departure to match within an hour or so of the United flights shown above. I know that American and some others have flights through Miami which closely match this schedule. The ground travel, meals and hotel charges will be $570.00 per person (double occupancy in hotels). Add $180.00 per person if you require a private room. We will co-ordinate all of this as we always have in the past. If you will be on flights other than these United flights Please send me a copy of your tickets so that we will know when to meet you. Payments and sign-up sheets for this should be sent to:
Hope & Relief International Foundation, Inc.
10700 Gerke Rd.
Brenham, Texas 77833
Fax 979-836-0614
We will schedule everyone on a first come, first served, basis as of the date we receive your payment. No one will be scheduled before payment is received. Attached is a reservation form which should be sent in by everyone, with the information and your payment. Please provide ALL the information. In order to secure all the hotel reservations we need to have your registration by November1,2013 or we will not be able to be sure that we can have hotel reservations for you. We will be staying at a different hotel in Managua than the one we have stayed at in the past and our cut-off date for reservations is November 1, 2103. AFTER THIS DATE WE MAY NOT BE ABLE TO GET ADDITIONAL RESERVATIONS.
The group will spend the first night in Managua and leave the next day for Chinendega to visit the city dump, the clinic for the children of the dump, and the school built for children of the dump. Lunch will be served at La Batania, a trade school built in partnership with Rotarians and the Quen of Spain. Rotary donated all of the machinery and equipment used in their metal and woodworking shop. A tour of the San Martin Hospital will take the group to the new wing for hemodiali sis which was donated by Rotarians. The House of Santa Lucia will also be toured which is a house for the blind. The next day the group will visit the Refugio Belen, a pregnant women's shelter where the mother's receive Rotary bags filled with layette supplies for their newborn babies before heading home. Other Rotary built villages will also be toured. Some vacation time is also planned at an all inclusive resort, Montalymar Resort. Shopping at Mercado and visiting the volcano park near Masaya are also planned activities before the trip ends.
The Four-Way Test is a nonpartisan and nonsectarian ethical guide for Rotarians to use for their personal and professional relationships. The test has been translated into more than 100 languages, and Rotarians recite it at club meetings:
Of the things we think, say or do
First, Is it the TRUTH?
Second, Is it FAIR to all concerned?
Third, Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
and Fourth, Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?
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Our Club Installation Event of our Club Officers for the 2014-2015 Rotary Year will be conducted on June 21st, 2014 in the Rio Ranch Restaurant in Houston, Texas. The event will start at 10:30AM CT. More information about this event will follow.