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“Life’s Poetry”… Food for thought…
May 16, 2019 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
As I was searching through our inventory of mid-1850’s Correctors (Sag Harbor) for an historic ad for “Douglass & Van Scoy – PHOTOGRAPHS and DAGUERREOTYPES” – pioneer American photographers, I came across the poem shown below which caused me to pause and smell the roses. Enjoy.
“A self-worth reality check… Isaac Newton edition”
May 22, 2017 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
“How valuable am I?” “Am I indispensable?” “Will I be remembered when I’m gone?” Truth be told, if our value, degree of indispensability, and/or staying power in regards to remaining in the forefront of people’s minds is what determines our ultimate worth, we’re all in big trouble. This point was recently brought home when our staff discovered Isaac Newton’s burial report in a London Gazette dated March 30, 1727. As is typical, once discovered, we began to search the issues surrounding it for additional mentions of him, and quickly unearthed an article in the very next issue which hit us like a ton of bricks. By the time this follow-up issue went to print, Isaac Newton’s position and office had already been filled! No multi-week vigil. No adherence to mourning-etiquette before filling his shoes. No appreciation for his abundance of contributions to humanity through the claiming of his “space” as a memorial. No tour-bus route altered to include the very office where he likely pondered, explored, and then detailed some of the greatest thoughts of man. No! Within less than a week his position and office were filled, and life moved on. Quite sobering isn’t it. I don’t know about you, but this tandem of events reminds me of my own mortality, and the need for a worth which reaches beyond life’s veil. Please “enjoy” both reports shown below.
The tension revealed between Halloween and All Saint’s Eve…
October 28, 2016 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
Who decides what is right and what is wrong – what is evil and what is good? Is it man – and therefore a moving target based upon a majority view, or is it static – absolute, established by a Supreme Being who calls the shots? Is truth relative, or fixed? This philosophical question has been debated since the dawn of time. If the answer is “man”, then we had better get “it” right, or the consequences to the human race could be catastrophic. If the answer is a Supreme Being, then 
the debate is meaningless – regardless of who comes out on top.
Whereas most historic newspapers printed in Europe and the United States have shown to be rooted in a Judaeo-Christian ethic which promotes the latter view, one 19th-century Chicago title stands out as having embraced the former – elevating itself to a position of being a bearer of self-determined truth. There is no doubt the identification with another bearing this name is no accident. Read for yourself what it says about itself, and make your own decision as to the truthfulness of its claims:
Of course if the latter answer (Supreme Being) is correct, your (and my) opinion as to whether its claims are true will have no bearing on the truth. 🙂