Monthly Archives: November 2016

My 2 Cents on This and That

by Woody

STRAW_CoverWoody’s highly anticipated new book “STRAWBERRIES IN WINTERTIME: Essays on Life, Love, and Laughter” is NOW available! Order your signed copy HERE!

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Serving Up Some Leftover Notes and Quotes

Before I resume taking down some pumpkin pie and turkey leftovers, here are some leftover notes, quotes and observations I have been saving in Tupperware for today’s column . . .

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My two cents on the flap, by some, over being charged 10 cents for a paper bag at grocery stores: quit forgetting your reusable bags and quit complaining. It’s that simple.

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Add bags: No stores asked me, but it might be good public relations to take the “Leave a Penny, Take a Penny” dish to the next level and have a rack where customers can borrow a reusable bag if they forget one – and then return it the next time they come in.

I think people are generally so honest it would actually work.

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There is no shortage of rude drivers on the road, especially during the gridlocked holiday season, which makes it all the more remarkable when a freeway lane is closed and the cars in it are allowed to seamlessly merge into the next lane, cars politely and perfectly alternating and coming together like teeth on a zipper.

Well, until some selfish jerk snags the zipper by squeezing in when it’s not his turn or cutting off someone when it’s her turn.

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A wise thought for today – or any day – from Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.”

Enthusiasm alone, of course, doesn’t guarantee success. As author Alex Franzen advises: “Be patient with your dreams. Everybody wants to be an overnight success. Nobody ever is. Keep working steadily.”

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Considering how amazingly sharp the video shot on any cell phone or nanny cam is, how come the surveillance video – and, hence, still photos – from convenience stores and banks that are shared with the public after a robbery always seems more grainy and out of focus than the Loch Ness Monster?

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Regarding the kerfuffle which had parents filing a complaint seeking a temporary restraining order against a local AYSO league due to a 10-and-under team’s disqualification from the playoffs: how about a permament restraining order against all adults having any invovlment in youth sports and just let the kids run things?

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“We choose the kind of life we lead one choice at a time,” advises one of my role models, who also happens to be my son, Greg. “Choose wisely.”

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“The best way to overcome our fears is to embrace them,” says my wise daughter, Dallas, echoing Eleanor Roosevelt’s wisdom: “Do one thing every day that scares you.”

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Speaking of Mrs. Roosevelt, I know many will disagree but my personal opinion is she now has company as the co-Best FLOTUS (First Lady Of The United States) Ever in Michelle Obama.

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“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts,” wrote Mark Twain. “Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”

Perhaps all Americans need to travel our own country more.

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I not only remember rotary telephones and 8-track tapes, and was thus excited when newfangled push-button phones and cassettes came along, but I also recall when boys were named Mike and Jim and Bob and Bill and were embarrassed to be called formally Michael, James, Robert and William.

Now, for anyone under age 30, the reverse seems true.

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Today is “Small Business Saturday” where we are all urged to celebrate and support local small businesses with our patronage.

Small business owners didn’t ask me, but how about if Ventura County residents go a step further and shop small and locally every day through Christmas?

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While we’re at it, “Giving Tuesday” is next week with the goal of increasing support for nonprofit and charitable organizations. In other words, it is the perfect day to make a contribution to The Star’s annual Julius Gius Bellringer campaign in partnership with the Salvation Army.

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Woody Woodburn writes a weekly column for The Ventura County Star and can be contacted at WoodyWriter@gmail.com.

Wooden&Me_cover_PRCheck out my new memoir WOODEN & ME: Life Lessons from My Two-Decade Friendship with the Legendary Coach and Humanitarian to Help “Make Each Day Your Masterpiece”

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Giving Causes Joyous Chain Reaction

by Woody

STRAW_CoverWoody’s highly anticipated new book “STRAWBERRIES IN WINTERTIME: Essays on Life, Love, and Laughter” is NOW available! Order your signed copy HERE!

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Help a Child Have a Ball in Life

Before sharing a story of a small boy and a tall NBA star, as I do annually before kicking of “Woody’s Holiday Ball Drive,” I want to share two other stories about receiving joy by giving.

The first is about two brothers in middle school, in Los Angeles, in poverty. In fact, the brothers faced such hardship that they had only a single pair of shoes between them – shoes that were a tad too small for the older brother and too big for the younger brother. Moreover, the shoes had been repaired with duct tape.

But here is the real tragedy: the brothers alternated wearing the tattered shoes to attend school on alternate days.

Some of the gifts from "Woody's Holiday Ball Drive" last year.

Some of the gifts from “Woody’s Holiday Ball Drive” last year.

My son learned of this heartbreaking misfortune through a letter to his nonprofit organization, Give Running, from a third party who requested two pairs of gently used running shoes. Instead, my son bought two new pairs of in-fashion basketball sneakers in the correct sizes.

The obvious joy was that each brother now had his own pair of well-fitting shoes and could attend school every day, and without embarrassment.

But here is something more: the joy was magnified threefold. You see, my son also received joy in buying the gift shoes and the kind person who made the original request felt joy in delivering them to the brothers.

A similar chain of joy happened on my most recent birthday when a donation was made in my honor to an educational charity allowing me to select a specific teacher recipient. I chose a high school librarian and soon thereafter received my real gift: a warm letter of thanks.

But then something even more wonderful happened. The librarian opted to use my gift to her to help another teacher buy a classroom set of the award-winning YA novel “Chains.”

Here is part of the thank-you letter the librarian received and shared with me: “Thank you so much for your generous donation. I can’t tell you how thrilled the students are that you care enough to support their education. The majority of my students are from lower socio-economic circumstances, English language learners, and potentially the first member of their family to attend college – that’s the goal!”

And so the chain of joy went from the kids to the teacher to the librarian to me and to the person who gave me the original birthday gift.

Which brings me back to the boy and NBA star. About 20 years ago, I was at a local youth basketball clinic when Cedric Ceballos presented autographed basketballs to a handful of lucky attendees.

Leaving the gym afterward, I happened upon a 10-year-old boy who won one of the prized keepsakes – which he was dribbling on the rough blacktop outdoor court and shooting baskets with while perhaps imagining he was Ceballos.

Meanwhile, the real Ceballos’ Sharpie signature was wearing off.

Curious why the boy hadn’t carefully carried the trophy basketball home and put it safely on a bookshelf, I interrupted his playing to ask.

“I’ve never had my own basketball,” he answered matter-of-factly between shots.

That Christmastime, thinking of that boy – and other boys and girls who don’t have their own basketball to shoot, soccer ball to kick, football to throw – my Holiday Ball Drive was born.

This year, with the shoe-sharing brothers and bookless middle schoolers above in mind, I am asking you to multiply your joy by donating a new sports ball in honor of a family member or friend as a gift to them as well.

You can drop balls off at any local Boys & Girls Club, YMCA, youth club or church and they will find a worthy recipient.

Or drop them off (weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Dec. 19) at the Ventura County Star offices at 550 Camarillo Center Drive or at Jensen Design & Survey at 1672 Donlon St. (near Target on Telephone Road in Ventura) and I’ll take it from there.

And please, no matter where you live, near or far, email me at woodywriter@gmail.com so I can add your generosity to this year’s tally. Together, we can unchain a lot of joy.

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Woody Woodburn writes a weekly column for The Ventura County Star and can be contacted at WoodyWriter@gmail.com.

Wooden&Me_cover_PRCheck out my new memoir WOODEN & ME: Life Lessons from My Two-Decade Friendship with the Legendary Coach and Humanitarian to Help “Make Each Day Your Masterpiece”

Part IV: Peak and Valley

by Woody

STRAW_CoverWoody’s highly anticipated new book “STRAWBERRIES IN WINTERTIME: Essays on Life, Love, and Laughter” is NOW available! Order your signed copy HERE!

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Peak and Valley at Mount Vernon

This is the final in a four-column series chronicling my recent father-son road trip to the homes of two Founding Fathers – and more.

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George Washington’s Mount Vernon estate is the most popular historic home in America with more than one million visitors annually. People make the pilgrimage to see the 21-room mansion, the spectacular panoramic view of the Potomac River and, of course, the tomb where the “Father of Our Country” rests eternally.

Paying respects at the white marble sarcophagus, adorned with a raised eagle and shield and the simple inscription “Washington,” was a far more emotional experience than I had anticipated. The moment filled my heart with esteem, my eyes with moisture.

Arched entryway to the Slave Memorial and Burial Ground at Mount Vernon.

Arched entryway to the Slave Memorial and Burial Ground at Mount Vernon.

Following a brief downhill walk into the nearby woods, a few of the pooled tears overflowed. My son and I were at the Slave Memorial and Burial Ground.

A red-brick archway, similar to one at Washington’s Tomb, serves as an entrance to a lovely tree-shaded clearing. At the end of a narrow pathway is a cylindrical stone marker bearing this inscription: “In memory of the Afro Americans who served as slaves at Mount Vernon this monument marking their burial ground dedicated September 21, 1983.”

The marker rises from a circular stone foundation, framed by manicured shrubs, and adorned with three words around its perimeter at the 2 o’clock, 6 o’clock and 10 o’clock positions: “Faith”, “Hope” and “Love.”

At the Mount Vernon Museum, faith, hope and love were joined by heartbreak, tribulation and injustice in the “Lives Bound Together” exhibit documenting slavery at the plantation.

In its own right, the exhibit is powerfully moving. I found it fivefold so because a young family consisting of a father, mother and three sons – the oldest being age 10 – were perusing alongside me and at the same pace. Moreover, the African-American parents took turns reading the information plaques aloud to their sons.

For example, the dad read this: “George Washington was born into a world where slavery was common. At age 11, he inherited 10 enslaved people from his father.”

He then explained to his eldest son: “That would be like you, on your birthday next month, inheriting 10 slaves.”

I am not certain about the son, but this statement hit me like a flush roundhouse.

“Most enslaved people never had the opportunity to become literate,” the mom now read, adding: “If they did manage to learn, they could be punished for it. Can you imagine being whipped for learning to read?”

1sslavegravevernonAnd so it continued for an hour, a history lesson becoming more painfully real because slavery could very possibly be in this beautiful family’s roots. I felt a rising anger and disappointment at Washington.

And yet, to his credit, Washington recognized marriages between his slaves, even though the law did not. He also did not separate enslaved families.

Too, importantly, in his will Washington freed upon his death the 123 slaves he owned. It can be argued this was too little, too late, but also know this: of the Founding Fathers who owned slaves, Washington is the only one to give emancipation.

In his eulogy for Washington on December 29, 1799, Richard Allen, founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, put this final deed into perspective: “Unbiased by the popular opinion of the state in which is the memorable Mount Vernon – he dared to do his duty, and wipe off the only stain with which man could ever reproach him.”

Earlier, sitting contemplatively at the Slave Memorial and feeling downhearted about our greatest Founding Father’s ugly “stain,” something beautiful happened. All afternoon, walking the grounds from hilltop to riverbank, I had seen one lone butterfly – at Washington’s Tomb. Now, I spotted a second, fluttering above the stone marker honoring the slaves.

Butterflies serve as the archetype of metamorphosis and a symbol of resurrection. So it seemed fitting to see these two butterflies – or was possibly it the same one? – as a metaphor, not only for how our country changed in regards to slavery, but also how George Washington did.

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Woody Woodburn writes a weekly column for The Ventura County Star and can be contacted at WoodyWriter@gmail.com.

Wooden&Me_cover_PRCheck out my new memoir WOODEN & ME: Life Lessons from My Two-Decade Friendship with the Legendary Coach and Humanitarian to Help “Make Each Day Your Masterpiece”

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Part III: Visiting Mount Vernon

by Woody

STRAW_CoverWoody’s highly anticipated new book “STRAWBERRIES IN WINTERTIME: Essays on Life, Love, and Laughter” is NOW available! Order your signed copy HERE!

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Goose Bumps on the Potomac River

This is the third in a four-column series chronicling my recent father-son road trip to the homes of two Founding Fathers – and more.

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The evening before leaving New York City for Virginia on what we nicknamed our “Founding Father’s Field Trip,” my son took me to one of his favorite haunts, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. There was a specific painting he wanted to show me to set the mood for one of our primary destinations.

After a long hike, for The Met is the largest art museum in the United States, we arrived at a cavernous room, Gallery 670 to be precise, in the labyrinth American Wing, and there it was: George Washington, standing commandingly in a row boat with the flag raised behind him, crossing the icy Delaware River on Christmas night 1776 to attack by surprise the Hessians at Trenton.

George Washington's mansion at Mount Vernon

George Washington’s mansion at Mount Vernon

The oil-on-canvas painting by Emanuel Leutze is much larger than expected. Indeed, it is truly massive, a movie theater screen almost, measuring more than 21 feet wide by nearly 13 feet high. In other words, in the framework of how we tend to view Washington, it seems about life-sized.

Washington’s mansion at Mount Vernon, by contrast, in person comes into focus smaller than anticipated. Nonetheless, the impact of visiting the historic home and surrounding grounds is immense.

Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello manor, which we had toured the previous day, is grander and fancier. No matter, Washington’s home surpassed it in goose bumps delivered, not least of all for the breathtaking view of the Potomac River below.

As Washington wrote in a letter to a friend in 1793: “No estate in America is more pleasantly situated than this . . . on one of the finest rivers in the world.” He did not seem to be telling a lie.

“History is marble, and remains forever cold, even under the most artistic hand, unless life is breathed into it by the imagination,” historian Charles Gayarré wrote. “Then the marble becomes flesh and blood; then it feels, it thinks, it moves, and is immortal.”

Walking the halls and rooms at Mount Vernon, including the bedchamber where Washington – “first in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen” – took his last mortal breath at age 67 on December 14, 1799, breathes life into one’s imagination; the cold statue, the profile on the quarter, becomes flesh and blood.

From the mansion, Washington’s Tomb is 10 minutes by foot. Within the iron-gated red-brick vault lie two white marble sarcophagi: the one on the left is inscribed on top “Martha, Consort of Washington” while the companion on the right has a raised eagle and shield, and one word: “Washington.”

George Washington's Tomb

George Washington’s Tomb

The latter’s inscription may be simple, but the emotions evoked standing before it are complex and powerful. One by one and in pairs, visitors take their turn viewing. All pay their respects; most snap a photo; many seemed to pray, their lips moving silently.

Even with a constant gathering of dozens, the tomb site remains eerily quiet, void even of whispering. Occasionally, songbirds break the contemplative hush in a lovely way.

Too, the solemn silence ceases briefly at 3 p.m. daily with the changing of the wreath. The ceremony includes a reading aloud of “George Washington’s Prayer for the Nation.” On this day, a lone butterfly fluttered over the tomb entrance.

Standing in this hallowed spot, looking at the cold marble where the “Father of our Country” rests eternally, my imagination breathed to life. Images of George Washington – from Independence Hall to Valley Forge to the Delaware River and beyond – flashed in my mind’s eye.

The great man’s presence seemed almost palpable. Truly, I was caught off guard by how overwhelming were my emotions; my gratitude, awe and affection. Leutze’s famous painting of Washington more than ever seemed life-sized.

For that moment, the noticeable tear in the giant canvas of Washington’s life disappeared. However, this blot was nearby just down the pathway: the burial ground and memorial to the slaves he owned.

We will walk there in this space next week.

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Woody Woodburn writes a weekly column for The Ventura County Star and can be contacted at WoodyWriter@gmail.com.

Wooden&Me_cover_PRCheck out my new memoir WOODEN & ME: Life Lessons from My Two-Decade Friendship with the Legendary Coach and Humanitarian to Help “Make Each Day Your Masterpiece”

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