Facespast

When missionaries had beards.....

I've started a second blog, facespast.blogspot.com I have a large collection of old family photos that I want to preserve in a variety of ways so that other descendants of these people can see and use them. I hope that descendants of these people might find this blog.

I have begun posting pictures and short identification information relative to the person portrayed. Each posting will feature only one individual. I am trying to post them in pairs however so that the posting featuring a spouse will be readily found by a casual browser of the blog.

I won't be posting the pictures of people yet living and will not be identifying relationships to living people.

This picture was one of the first posts - Missionaries did have beards - of course they also had teenage kids at home.... This is Ole Christian Larsen as a missionary in Denmark. He was then about the age I am now. The nose looks familiar when I look in the mirror - and alas there are hints of the hairline in my mirror as well.

Super Powers

A few years ago I was with one of my children and a friend when we saw a movie with a super hero. We were kind of casually chatting about what would be the best super power to have. All the movie super heroes have multiple powers it seems. What would it be like to have even one super power? What super power do I think is the best? At the time I remember thinking I wish I could look at people and that they would see kindness. Today I saw again the power of kindness.

David and I just attended a wedding of one of his co-workers at the Russian Orthodox Church in Seattle. At the reception several people stood and told stories about how the couple met (at a Boy Scout Meeting - he was the scout master) or had influenced their lives etc.... One woman stood and told her own story in heavily accented English. Patrick had befriended her when she was relatively new to this country. She was so homesick and wanted to go back to Russia. Patrick took her on trips to show her the scenery of the state and helped her do things that we take for granted - like opening a bank account. He was so kind, "the best of what America is" and now she loves this country as her home because of his kindness. I think kindness is a super power. I wonder where I can show a little more kindness?

What super power do you wish you had?