Beech Tree News Network

Recently I’ve come across a variety of thought-provoking information. Some of that information is summarized below. I love learning new-to-me information and sharing it.
 
•    About a year ago, my oldest daughter sent me a link to an article about the lost tradition of telling ghost stories on Christmas Eve. I didn’t realize it had ever been a tradition. A Smithsonian.com article by Kat Eschner considered the connection between ghost stories and Christmas. She explained that the Victorian English Christmas ghost stories were “about darker, older, more fundamental things: winter, death, rebirth, and the rapt connection between a teller and his or her audience…packaged in the cozy trappings of the holiday” (http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/why-do-ghost-stories-go-christm...). Eschner commented: “As Dickens wrote, the ghosts of Christmas are really the past, present and future, swirling around us in the dead of the year. They’re a reminder that we’re all haunted, all the time, by good ghosts and bad, and that they all have something to tell us.” Perhaps you, like me, are thankful you missed the Victorian era; I much prefer a “Silver Bells” kind of Christmas.

•    In a November 19th Bowling Green Daily News article (C1, 4), John Flesher and Angeliki Kastanis of the Associated Press described the growing nationwide toxic algae problem. I was unaware of this danger. But a 2015 Courier Journal article had explained the progression in this way:
“Harmful algae blooms occur with sunlight, slow-moving water and too many nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, according to EPA. Some are natural, but additional nutrients can come from sewage treatment plants, septic systems and runoff from fertilized farms and lawns. The cyanobacteria can produce toxins that can lead to skin or eye irritation, nausea, flu-like symptoms and liver damage. Dogs are said to be particularly at risk if they drink the water or lick the algae off their coats” (https://www.courier-journal.com/story/tech/science/environment/2015/06/1...).
I’m guessing toxic algae will be an environmental problem that won’t easily go away.

•    In a Bible study written by Beth Moore, the author pointed out that God may direct one of His children on a path that He may have forbidden to another (The Patriarchs: Encountering the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, 2005 and reprinted 2016, page 220). Moore noted that although God’s laws don’t change, His specific directions within them may differ. Her observation was related to a difference in God’s instructions: He forbade Isaac to go to Egypt (Genesis 26:2), but later He told Jacob not to fear going to Egypt (Genesis 46:3). Moore’s comment highlights God’s wisdom and timing – a thought especially appropriate for the holiday season.

Confucius said, “You cannot open a book without learning something,” and Daniel J. Boorstin said, “Education is learning what you didn’t even know you didn’t know” (https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/learning). Today we might consider the computer, tablet and smart phone as learning-tools. And even though I still have much to learn, information is easily accessed.