March 10, 2019
Dearest Readers,
And a good Sunday morning to you. We’re glad you’re here.
Today in On This Date the US takes possession of what it had bought in the Louisiana Purchase and James Earl Ray pleads guilty to shooting Martin Luther King, Jr. Top of the Charts reviews this date in 1979 and Philosophy 101 talks about serenity.
Many thanks for reading,
Cheers!
xoxoxo
Kaitlyn
On This Date:
In 1804 – A formal ceremony ceding of control of territory sold in the Louisiana Purchase ends in St Louis with the raising of the American flag. The ceremony had begun the previous day when Spain, who still administered the Territory, lowered their flag, which was replaced by the French flag. The United States had purchased the Territory from France the previous year for $15 million in cash and debt assumption. Today the territory that made up the Louisiana Purchases makes up all or part of 15 states and two Canadian provinces.
In 1969 – James Earl Ray, pleads guilty to assassinating Martin Luther King, Jr. at a Memphis hotel on April 4, 1968. He had been arrested in June in London, traveling on a fake Canadian passport and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. Ray and some others escaped in 1977 and were captured two weeks later and Ray died in 1998.
Top of the Charts
#1 songs on this date in 1979:
Hot 100 – I Will Survive…Gloria Gaynor (1st of three non-consecutive weeks)
Soul Chart – Bustin’ Loose (Part 1)…Chuck Brown & the Soul Searchers (4th and final week)
Country Chart – Golden Tears…Dave and Sugar (2nd of three weeks)
Album Chart – Spirits Having Flown…The Bee Gees (2nd of six non-consecutive weeks)
– Chart data courtesy of Billboard.
Numbers Racket
10,670: the continuous number of days the US has been at war.
22.116: the number of dollars, in trillions, of America’s national debt. – Source: usdebtclock.org
611: days until Election Day 2020.
Philosophy 101
(His) manner was so serene that I could not tell if he was serious or not, always a sign of the highest breeding.
Gore Vidal
Creation
Serenity allows us to present the same face to the imposters known as success and failure. They are imposters because both success and failure are subjective and relative. Subjective because people are different and one’s failure may well be another’s success. Relative because neither exists without the other. You take success away and there is no failure. Those that get on in this life realize this and ay putting themselves beyond success and failure are serene in both tranquility and tumult.
Serenity, though, is not reserved for those who come from privilege and breeding; it is there for everyone: you, me, and your aunt in Reno. It takes work, though. Serenity is the direct result of a calm mind and calm minds are reserved for those who know what they are about and who are living the life they were meant to live and anyone of us can do that. All that is required is knowing what we are about, knowing the talents we were issued at birth and a commitment to getting the most out of them.
Serenity is literally there for the taking. All we need is the wisdom to know what we are about, the courage to live the life we are meant to live and the patience to see it through to the very end.
Gore Vidal (1925-2012) was an American writer.