Soap Box

*NOTE* Charlie's in the middle of his annualThe Angelus House golf tournament and concert for this place which is near and dear to his heart. This soapbox from 2013 explains what the Angelus is all about. - TeamCDB

"I had no shoes and complained until I saw a man who had no feet."

I don't know who said it or where this old proverb comes from, but I've been hearing it all my life and it sums up a lot more than just one sentence of a wise saying. It encompasses the absolute fact that no matter how bad you've got it, you never have to look too far to find somebody who has it a lot worse.

It reminds us that feeling sorry for ourselves is a waste of time, it reminds us to count the blessings we do have, to value the basic gifts of life and realize that no matter our circumstances, there are those who would give anything to just be in our shoes.

You've only to see the plywood and cardboard hovel communities on the outskirts of Mexico City to realize that, no matter how humble your home may be, you are many times better off than so many people in the world.

A visit to Saint Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee can be a epiphany to the uninitiated as you see scores of children of all ages braving the ravages of chemotherapy, losing their hair, taking on a pallid color being moved up and down the halls in wheelchairs, on gurneys, wearing oxygen masks and knowing that they still have more bone grinding months of treatment before they have any hope of going into remission.

And the pain parents, who have to watch their precious flesh and blood go through long periods of nausea, crippling weakness and not understanding why this is happening to them is nearly unbearable.

And consider the people who live under the thumbs of tyrants, who can be taken off the street and never seen again at the whim of the powerful, and the women who subsist under the smothering suppression of Sharia Law totally dominated by males and susceptible to public beatings or being stoned to death.

Consider the men and women in the military who spend months on end in desolate outposts where the temperature can reach 130 degrees and never knowing when the next turn of the Humvee wheel could detonate an IED or the enemy could lob a mortar shell over the wire.

I am currently in Tampa, Florida for an event I've been a part of for more than twenty years, a multi-event fundraiser consisting of a concert, a golf tournament, auctions, a blackjack tournament at the Hard Rock Casino and other related activities all pulled together by volunteers and held for the sole purpose of raising funds to help a place called the Angelus make it through another year.

What is the Angelus?

A fair question.

The official description of The Angelus would be a group home and activity center for the indigent founded by Dave and Pauline Shaffer.

But as usual, the official description does not come close to encompassing the scope and the mission of the Angelus.

Now let me give you my description.

The Angelus is, first of all, a place where the love and compassion of God is practiced 24-7-365. A place where people who have little to look forward to but going from the bed to the wheelchair and back again are given purpose and meaning and education, no matter their level of learning competence or their physical condition.

The Angelus is not some cold, impersonal institution where everyone is clinically viewed as just another number in a computer, another body to be washed and fed and placed in a room with a big screen television and forgotten about for the rest of the day.

The Angelus is vibrant and alive with activities and distractions and the people who work there are not there for the money they make or work at a place where they can loaf part of the day, they're there because they truly care about the ones in their charge and give it all they've got every day to make their lives as comfortable, busy and entertaining as possible.

The most touching Christmas pageant I've ever seen is the one the Angelus does every year with all the participants in wheelchairs.

As I write this, it is Wednesday; tomorrow I will go to The Angelus and visit my "precious ones" as I call them.

They will all be in the recreation room making cookies or Christmas cards and I will go around the room, renew some old acquaintances, make new ones, speaking with the ones who are able to talk, bragging on a Christmas cookie one of them has just finished or talking drivers with a wheelchair-bound NASCAR fan.

To walk into a room where nobody is able to get out of the wheelchair they're in, where some can't speak at all and some are terrified by things only they can see, where human beings have been abandoned by parents, family and society to see the look on faces of those who try so hard to communicate but just can't make the words come out, it's a sobering experience and one that unfailingly makes you stop and think, and I thank Almighty God for the physical and mental health of my wife, child, grandchildren and myself.

And for the existence of rare people like Dave and Pauline Shaffer, their son, Joe, and all the other dedicated people who devote themselves to keeping the doors of the Angelus open.

The next time life is knocking you around, just look around you and you'll have no trouble finding somebody who has a lot more bruises than you do.

What do you think?

Pray for our troops and the peace of Jerusalem

God Bless America

� Charlie Daniels

To help support the Angelus, please donate:

The Angelus House
12413 Hudson Avenue
Hudson, FL 34669

PLEASE READ BEFORE YOU POST

Feel free to comment on Charlie's soapboxes, but please refrain from profanity and anonymous posts are not allowed, we need a name and you MUST provide a valid email address. If you provide an email address, but leave the name as "Anonymous" we will pick a name for you based on your email address. No one other than website administrators will see your email address, not other posters. If you post without a valid email address, your comment (whether positive or negative) will be deleted. � TeamCDB