Friday, August 20, 2010

Working Out Salvation With Diligence


BE A LAMP UNTO YOUR OWN FEET.

LOOK NOT TO ANYONE ELSE
BESIDES YOURSELF FOR HELP.

WORK OUT YOUR SALVATION
WITH DILIGENCE.

~The Buddha
From His Last Sermon

Of Note: A few blogs ago, I touted Warren Buffet's efforts to influence fellow billionaires to give at least half of their income to charity. A few more pieces of information have drifted my way in regard to this amazing request. The USAID monthly newsletter noted that Buffet said one percent of his income is enough for him and his family and "neither our happiness nor our well-being would be enhanced by keeping more." According to calculations made by Fortune magazine, his plea to the other billionaires could move $600 billion dollars toward philanthropic work. The president of the Rockefeller Foundation said this could easily double or triple the amount of charitable contributions in America. In another source, his son is quoted as saying they did not expect to inherit their father's money and learned to earn a living the hard way--in his case as a farmer. It was not until money was made available for his foundation following his mother's death, that the son had the funds to pursue charitable work in Africa. Warren Buffet has made a name for himself in moneymaking for many years, but this current endeavor, if successful, could be the crowning glory of his career.

Today's Weather Report: Sears came out to fix my lawn tractor yesterday so I was set to mow all day if necessary. However, rain intervened. Thus instead, it's been a quiet day at the computer catching up on emails and blogging. The weather may clear now, but mowing will have to wait because the grass will be too wet for quite some time. We officially had 3 1/2 inches in an hour earlier in the week--I've never seen such a deluge in Wisconsin. Texas where I'm from originally, yes; Wisconsin, no. That was the day the door flew open without our knowledge, and we had a deluge in the house for a short time as well. We used every towel in the house to pick up that mess but I can say the floors are cleaner than they've been for quite some time.