When I sit to write in the morning, there’s no telling what will happen, especially in the sometimes strange connections that show up. Today’s wandering began with a reminder of the feast of St. Athanasius, who spent his life fighting the Arian heresy in the fourth century, and ended with a man named Arnold Glasgow (or, as I was corrected by answers.com, Glasow – no second g).
Early on in my meandering I read a quote by Glasow that caught my eye. It said: “Make your life a mission, not an intermission.” Catchy, right? So I wondered if he said anything else of note and found out he was a businessman from Fond-du-Lac, Wisconsin who worked for 60 of his 93 years (until 1993) writing a humor magazine that he marketed to firms nationally who used his quotes to send to customers for their own marketing. Interesting? Maybe, but for me the most interesting thing was the fact that he wrote his first and only book at the age of 92, entitled “Glasow’s Gloombusters,” a title he often put on his work during his career.
So what’s the point? The internet told me he was often cited in magazines like the Wall Street Journal and Forbes but also was a regular contributor to the humor section of Reader’s Digest – rather an eclectic audience, I would say. The internet’s evaluation of his life’s work included the following:
“Sixty years of productive work. Many attributions. A real American thinker, self-effacing and generous of spirit, he shunned the national spotlight.”
That sounds to me like someone whose mission was simply to make people smile, not such a bad gig. I’ll bet he did a lot of smiling himself for the benefit of others and the upliftment of the planet. I may have to add him to my list of saints and remember to take his advice!
Today we celebrate Pope John XXIII, canonized (some would add “finally!”) by Pope Francis in 2014. The website 