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| My parents, Bryan and Anita Havens circa 1935 |
Fifty years ago my favorite album of all time was released: Abbey Road by the Beatles. And I have dear friends in town for their 50th class reunion this weekend. While I could be amazed by the way a lifetime passes by in a heartbeat, I’ve chosen to remember the simple ways my parents taught me to live. Even though it wasn’t very exciting to be an only child of older Christian Science parents, I am extremely grateful for the education I received at their hands. For years we bought nothing other than flour and sugar; everything else was raised and canned or frozen. I learned how to grow food and how to drive an old Chevy truck with three gears in the column. I learned to love reading and spent many hours hiding in the back field with my dog. But I also remember that they fell for the “poison is safe” rhetoric pushed on us by the pesticide companies. I have vivid memories of my daddy with one of those hand-pump sprayers full of poison, chasing the flies away from the watermelon at a picnic. But they also showed me how to be content, to know a loving God, and to be grateful for everything. This is why I look back at the last five decades with a smile of thanks. I’m certain they would have learned to be better stewards of the land today than they were then — just as I try harder every day.
"You may know when first Truth leads by the fewness and faithfulness of its followers. Thus it is that the march of time bears onward freedom's banner. The powers of this world will fight, and will command their sentinels not to let truth pass the guard until it subscribes to their systems, but Science, heeding not the pointed bayonet, marches on." Mary Baker Eddy
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