Feeling Under-Valued? Cease to Fret!

How-De,

My eyes are fine. The doctor didn't dilate the pupils so I was able to shop for Aunt Tod this morning and then visited with her for a couple of hours before she went into dialysis. She slept most of the time. Her doctor has bumped up the levels of her synthroid, so that should help her feel more like being awake than she has been feeling. She has been complaining of being tired all the time and falling asleep everywhere. I was attributing it to the facts that she's 94 years old and at least 15 pounds underweight -- all of which certainly affects her energy levels -- but finding the thyroid levels too low and correcting for that will certainly help her rebound.

I picked her a new bunch of roses from my garden and replaced last week's vase with a new one to give her fresh, new posies for the week. They really makes her days.

After that, I went to H&L Produce for some fruit and read about twenty pages in the Charles Stanley Life Principles Bible, then took a nap with Ashley cat atop my lap for a couple of hours. When I awoke, I read some more from the Stanley book. That has been the extent of my day so far, and it's almost over now! Time to get busy on this blog!

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Yesterday evening I watched one of my new YOU ARE THERE DVDs. Bobbie Bobstein told me there are some professional DVDs of YOU ARE THERE on the market and that De is in a number of the episodes available, so I went to Amazon and got two of them, used. They arrived this past week and last night I saw the one containing the episodes about the first big oil strike in Beaumont, Texas (Spindletop) and the capture of John Wilkes Booth. I have another one containing Gunfight at The OK Corral in which De portrays Ike Clanton. This is the episode Hal Wallis saw that convinced him that De should portray Ike Clanton again in his upcoming movie GUNFIGHT AT OK CORRAL with Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster. Alas, De was already under contract to do an AC Lyles Western that was shooting at the same time, so Wallis gave De the smaller role of Morgan Earp in his movie.

De's Ike Clanton is hair-raising. He's a minimalist actor -- he doesn't have to do a lot to grab the audience's attention and captivate or intimidate it. His bad guys are among the best ever seen on the silver screen or on the smaller TV screen. If you can manage to divorce yourself from ever having known him as "Dr McCoy" and just experience him in any of his earlier bad guy roles, it can bring on nightmares. I've had a couple dreams where "bad guy" De arrived and intimidated the starch out of my sister and me. I wouldn't want to meet THAT hombre in a dark alley or arroyo. How he ever managed to be that convincing a badass is beyond me, as gentle a man as he was, and is one of the reasons I believe he should have taken home a Best Supporting Actor Oscar or Emmy many times in his career. I think if he had portrayed Ike Clanton in the motion picture, he would have.

But that's all water under the bridge... for now.

Some writer or speaker (can't recall who) said that in heaven we will receive recognition we didn't receive on earth. As an example, this expositor said that it's highly likely that some unknown little girl who died at age eight would be recognized as the greatest pianist who ever lived-- far above any noted names -- but that she had died young from smallpox or polio and had not been given the chance to reveal her passion for music and the gift it would become to the world, given time, before she died. That makes some sense to me...

There are many, many people in the world whose gifts are local, quiet, and far greater than the noted "givers of" music/art/acting/ministering that are emblazoned across our screens. It only makes sense that these lesser-known folks will receive some of the loudest applause in heaven from their peers who recognize their greatness. Mother Teresa will applaud some unknown assistant in a nursing home who gave all she had and was far from the limelight, out of the goodness of her heart; Caruso will applaud someone who was not known to the world who could sing circles around him... That kind of thing.

I think De will be among those who receive "extra credit" not only for being an underestimated, under-used and under-rewarded actor but for being an exemplary servant (giver of grace) as he offered his gift to the world. He had an ego, but it was under the control of the Holy Spirit. He had quiet confidence -- he didn't bluster or come across as arrogant... He knew that his gift and fortunes came from above and were not entirely attributable to his own efforts or worthiness.

It makes sense that people will recognize, once they get to heaven, what their true legacy to the world is. On this side of eternity, it's pretty impossible to tell.