Topic #75: What’s the biggest lesson you learned so far this year?
When I got an email from our former exchange student, a girl who’d lived with us for a year, asking if she and her husband could evacuate from Tokyo to our house, I learned our world is very small. I learned that the ties that wrap around the earth, from exchange students to host families to other students, are a web of interconnectivity. The purpose of youth exchange is to forge connections around the world. That purpose is unfolding all over the world as millions of North Americans who’ve hosted Japanese students worry about ‘their kids’ half a world away.
I’m glad we can do something concrete to help amid this tragedy. It is awesome that through youth exchange, we really can help change the world. Let us be thankful for our connections around the world and the opportunities they provide for us to improve our planet.
If you keep your goldfish in a bowl, it will remain an inch or two long forever. If you put it in a pond it will grow to fit the pond. There are apparently documented specimens over 90 lbs. The one in the Yahoo story is given as 30 lbs, so you can imagine how gigantic a 90 lb carp would be!
Shawn L. Bird 
The theory of invocation January 12, 2011
Some people suggest that because Rotary is an organization that does not discriminate by sex, race, business or faith, that invocations are not appropriate. I support the idea that an invocation to a particular deity is inappropriate, but that the concept of invoking thankfulness or thoughtfulness is always appropriate.
As such, within my blog you will find a wide variety of short prose pieces or poems that are meant to provoke a tone of contemplation in the members. Because my particular club is mainly Christian, I chose to completely avoid what is the norm for us, and therefore I provide options that are completely secular. Eventually I may be adding quotes from a variety of faiths as well.
I hope Rotarians find these neutral invocations useful and I make them freely available for use within Rotary. I know that they are one of the most popular reasons people come to my site. When you use one of my invocations, please acknowledge my authorship when you present it to your club. I’d also be delighted if you’d log into the comment beneath the invocation you share to tell me the name and location of your club and when you used it (or plan to). i.e. “Rotary Club of Salmon Arm (Shuswap) District 5060 BC Canada. January 5, 2011.”
With thanks.
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