And The Moral of the Story Is....

As often happens on Tuesday nights, I forgot to load up any photos. After a two-hour Chorale practice, I come home and begin preparations for work the next day and bed. Weirdly, working on the blog is not one of my preparation steps. So, for today, I will be sharing a story that the director reads in many of our concerts. He usually relates an anecdote that links our next song to some moral or way to connect with the audience's lives. This one has to do with us knowing that God is speaking to us, but we don't take the time to listen. I'll call it "The Telegraph Job Story". I found it on the web, but if I just share a link, y'all won't read it. Come on. You know you won't.

Back when the telegraph was the fastest method of long-distance communication, a young man applied for a job as a Morse Code operator. Answering an ad in the newspaper, he went to the office address that was listed. When he arrived, he entered a large, busy office filled with noise and clatter, including the sound of the telegraph in the background. A sign on the receptionist's counter instructed job applicants to fill out a form and wait until they were summoned to enter the inner office.

The young man filled out his form and sat down with the seven other applicants in the waiting area. After a few minutes, the young man stood up, crossed the room to the door of the inner office, and walked right in. Naturally the other applicants perked up, wondering what was going on. They muttered among themselves that they hadn't heard any summons yet.

They assumed that the young man who went into the office made a mistake and would be disqualified. Within a few minutes, however, the employer escorted the young man out of the office and said to the other applicants, "Gentlemen, thank you very much for coming, but the job has just been filled." The other applicants began grumbling to each other, and one spoke up saying, "Wait a minute, I don't understand. He was the last to come in, and we never even got a chance to be interviewed. Yet he got the job. That's not fair!"

The employer said, "I'm sorry, but the last several minutes while you've been sitting here, the telegraph has been ticking out the following message in Morse Code: 'If you understand this message, then come right in. The job is yours." None of you heard it or understood it. This young man did. The job is his.

Hey, what did y'all think of Apple's product announcements yesterday? Bigger iPhones? I am not really surprised. The Apple Watch? We knew it was coming, right? Will you buy one? I have not had a watch for a while now, and I am unlikely to get this one, especially for over $350. However, the features sound pretty cool. And the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus have an 8 megapixel camera. Pretty amazing.

Did you have a iPod back in the day? Maybe you still do and use it at the gym? I still have one, although I have been using my iPhone for music lately. Anyway, after yesterday's announcement, when the Apple Store came back online, the final iPod option was gone. No more iPods, and no more click wheels.

Do you take all your vacation days? Most of us don't anymore. When you do actually go somewhere, do you take a lot of photos to celebrate it? There is a girl in Holland that faked a bunch of photos to convince family and friends that she took a trip to Asia. You can read about it and see a couple of her fake photos here.

Have you wondered how you will recognize your universe if you are ever light-years away on a trip? Well, here's a map to help you.

Did Seinfeld have a sister on the TV show? Apparently, he mentioned her in one episode that he had one. Learn more trivia facts in this video.

I am not finding anything else to share today, so we will end with a Clarity of Vision comic that I thought of during this morning's commute. So, if you do not at least grin, blame it on traffic.