IMPACTFUL IMPRESSIONS

I was reflecting the other day about my fascination over languages, cultures, travel and foreign missionary work. What, or who, made such an impact on me that the course of my life was to be set so early in my journey? I do not come from a family that traveled or had a very “outward” look into the world and her events. Yet, I have traveled and been to over forty countries, which is not bad for a “kid from the South Bronx” (though it has been a very long time since I have been call a kid - sigh).

So what was it that stirred me to such adventures that no one else in my extended family desired to experience or to become such a person with no real roots. I came up with a list of six. They are not listed by their impact as much as on a timeline in my life.

1. A black and white cartoon that had a talking dog, Mr. Peabody, and a boy, Sherman, with horned rimmed eyeglasses as his sidekick. Mr. Peabody would “set the wayback machine” and go back to different epochs and countries. This cartoon had me mesmerized.

2. Tin Tin comic books. These worldwide adventures by Tin Tin and his dog were not simply read but memorized. I can still remember Tin Tin on a camel as he rode by the pyramids. Thats an impact from forty-five to fifty years ago!

3. National Geographic magazines. I can remember my father coming home with boxes of old National Geographic magazines that really opened the door to the world -- and in color! Africa came to life through those old but beautiful magazines.

4. I had a much older cousin named Vinny (yup I have a Cousin Vinny) who left home as a young man to travel and live in Spain for a couple of years. Why he had to flee from General Franco’s Spain is another story but one that filled me with youthful excitement.

5. The Maryknoll magazine. This was a small-sized, monthly publication full of stories from Catholic priests that were of the missionary order called Maryknoll. This was the beginning of my melding the needy in the world with the spiritual, in intriguing far away places.

6. “Travels with Charley in Search of America,” by John Steinbeck. I recently re-read this book that I had first read as a teenager. I so wanted a dog named Charley with a camper full of books named Rocinante traveling from one coast to another.

This simple list of six with the Holy Spirit truly set the rudder of my life. What we expose ourselves and our children to will have great impact on our and their lives and will make life-long impressions. So what are we exposing ourselves and our loved ones to?

The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness.Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness. Luke 11:34-35.

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