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Rev. Joey N. Welsh: Be of Good Cheer, for things could be a lot worse Introduction to this Another Angle column, 'Be of Good Cheer, for things could be a lot worse.' written 1 October 2006. : 'The author is now up and about and traveling from his home in the Louisville area to Horse Cave and Nashville and further afield. There is one change at the very end which I put within brackets,' ROBERT STONE The next earlier Another Angle: HISTORIC ANNIVERSARIES AND UNFINISHED AGENDAS - Part III By The Rev. Joey N. Welsh I have been through some trying times in recent years - complications from diabetes, eight hospitalizations, and 13 surgeries. After two and a half years in a wheelchair I am now at long last doing things I was incapable of undertaking for a long, long time, such as: standing, walking, preaching from a pulpit, and driving where I want when I want. Through it all I have cherished my sense of humor. When one of my dear friends said, "Keep your chin up," my response was immediate. I replied, "Which chin?" People who are "ample" will know of what I was speaking. I found that the ability to laugh at myself was one essential ingredient for staying on even emotional and spiritual keel, and I called on that facility often. Another tool valuable to me has been a knack to view tribulations in context, realizing that my situation could easily be worse. Though I lost several toes and part of a foot in amputation surgery, I have corresponded with enough people over the internet to realize that many folks in similar situations with raging infections akin to mine have lost their lower legs or more. I'm grateful to be walking on that incomplete, but healed up, foot. I always had in my mind's eye a vision of myself as improving, getting stronger and becoming more mobile and independent, but often when I was in my surgeon's office waiting room I was surrounded by people who could have no such hope. Many of them were frail, had lost one or both legs and were struggling with the healing process. "It could have been worse," I told myself, and I was right. After my initial surgeries I recovered at the home of my mother, who watched me like a hawk and inquired about how I was feeling several dozen times a day. She did my laundry, cooked my food, and provided a safe and secure haven. I never for a second worried about having a place to land. When I went to those innumerable appointments, I always was with one of my sons or another friend or parishioner to take me forth and bring me back, remaining with me while I was waiting. I noticed that many other people ended their appointments by calling a cab to take them home. Unlike me, they were alone in the world and had no one close upon whom they could depend. Again, I realized that my lot in life could be much worse. My complications, other than the first days of profound infection, were never life-threatening. During my time of recovery I have had parishioners who have dealt with malignancies, failing hearts, fading minds, and the deaths of loved ones. My difficulties have paled in comparison to theirs. I believe that I'll take what I've been dealt and be cheerful and glad about it! Being cheerful is no small or superficial thing. Proverbs 17:22 says, "A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones." I think the writer of Proverbs is onto something, and besides that, who wants to have a crushed spirit and dried-up bones anyway? It helps me -- and maybe it can help you -- to realize that many of life's low points could be far more bleak than they are. Such low points sometimes even occur in athletic competition, and those games can provide us some teachable moments. This coming week marks 90 years since the historic day in Atlanta when things truly could not possibly have gotten much worse for the hapless Cumberland University Bulldogs from Lebanon, Tennessee. On October 7, 1916, Cumberland met Georgia Tech in football. Cumberland had dropped its football program in 1906 and begun to play again in 1912. Cumberland then discontinued football in 1915 and played only a partial season in 1916 with some hastily recruited personnel. Georgia Tech, coached by John Heisman, still was smarting from a 22-0 baseball loss to Cumberland the previous year, and Tech evidently was looking for revenge in some athletic endeavor. Cumberland would just as soon not have made the trip to Atlanta, but Georgia Tech was prepared to enforce a financial penalty if Cumberland backed out of the game. The Cumberland Bulldogs did show up for the game at Georgia Tech, but showing up is about all they did. The Tech Yellow Jackets led by 63-0 after the first quarter and by 126-0 at halftime. Georgia Tech slowed down a bit in the second half, adding only another 96 points. The final score was 222-0, the most lop-sided tally in collegiate football history. Cumberland never made a first down during the whole game; the team did have a ten yard gain on one play (their best of the day), but it was on fourth down with 22 yards to go, so that gain was for naught. Of course, the Yellow Jackets never made a first down either, but that was because they scored every time they started at the line of scrimmage. This thorough shellacking was not the end of the world for the school from Lebanon, TN. Cumberland University has continued its educational mission. Its graduates over the years have included 80 members of Congress and 30 college presidents. Cordell Hull, one of the leading statesmen of the 20th century and winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace, was an alumnus. The 1916 contest is celebrated by Cumberland as "The Game of the Century." Stories about the fateful trip to Atlanta are cherished on campus; Cumberland University has maintained a good institutional sense of humor about the whole thing, and so should we. We should ever be grateful to the Cumberland Bulldogs who took to the field on October 7, 1916. And we ought never to forget, regardless of how bleak things may seem in life, that we always can say, "Well, things may be bad, but at least I'm not behind by 222-0!" If you can keep in mind what happened [94 years ago this coming Thursday 2010], then perhaps you can avoid having a crushed spirit and dried-up bones. Amen. E-mail: joey_n_welsh@hotmail.com This story was posted on 2010-10-03 07:04:57
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