Poetry with Meaning

William Cowper

God moves in a mysterious way

  His wonders to perform;

He plants his footsteps in the sea,

  And rides upon the storm.

                                    

Cowper wrote the words to these two hymns “There Is a Fountain” and “God Moves in a Mysterious Way?”

The first verse of “There is a Fountain.”

     There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Immanuel’s

     veins; and sinners, plunged beneath that flood, lose all their

     guilty stains.

Inspirational lines:

Edgar Guest

     It takes a heap o’ livin’ in a house to make it home.

   

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

     How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

     I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can

       reach.

George Gordon, Lord Byron

            She walks in beauty like the night.

Unknown

            Man’s Life is laid in the loom of time….

            The dark threads were as needful

            In the weaver’s skillful hand

            As the threads of gold and silver

            For the pattern which He planned.

Annie Johnson Flint

         Have you come to the Red Sea place in your life,

         Where, in spite of all you can do,

         There is no way out, there is no way back,

         There is no other way but through?

Unknown

Methuselah ate what he found on his plate, and never, as people

  do now, Did he note the amount of the calorie counts; He ate it

  because it was chow.

He cheerfully chewed each spices of food, unmindful of troubles

  or fears. Lest his health might be hurt by some fancy dessert;

And he lived over nine hundred years.

The moral of this story is if your name is Methuselah you can eat

anything you want and live a long life.

I would encourage you to find a book of poetry and enjoy.

One of my favorite books of poetry:
The Best Loved Poems of the American People.

To Be or Not to Be--Cousins--That Is The Question!

  The  Connection  Between  Jannis  Parrish  and  Gilbert  Parrish

Jannis Parrish

There is evidence that indicates Jannis’ ancestry originated in Paris, France, and  migrating to England, and then to the colonies. The Parrish spelling began as Paris, and in England added the “h” Parish.

John Randall Parrish traces his family ancestry to a Joel Parrish (1700-1791) in Spotsylvania County begining with: Joel, Henry, Absolom, Ezekiel, John Bryant, Lessie Newton, and Jannis’ dad John Randall Parrish.  They left Virginia and Carolina and moved to Georgia and surrounding areas.

                
Gilbert Parrish

This branch of the Parrish family is traced back to England. The name may have originated from the church division of counties – the Town Parish. Later some added the “r.” It is still spelled both ways: Parish, Parrish.
The first colonial ancestry of John A. Parrish was traced to Edward Parrish (1640-1680), born in Virginia in 1640, married Clara Judgwyn and eventually moving to Maryland. They moved from Virginia and Maryland to Kentucky and Tennessee.
The line of descendants: Edward I, Edward II, Edward III, Wlliam, Isham, Mager, Isham, Nelson Sr, Nelson Jr, John Louis, and Gilbert’s dad John Aubrey Parrish.

No family connection has been found that link: 
Edward Parrish (family link to Gil)  and
Joel Parrish (family link to Jannis).

                                              

                                                                   

                             

Academics is Not a Priority!

From U.S.A. Today

Nearly half of the nation's college students show no gains in learning in the first two years of college.
A recent survey of more than 3,000 students on 29 campuses nationwide is revealing. After two years in college, 45% of students showed no significant gains in learning; after four years, 36% showed little change.
Students also spent 50% less time studying than students a few decades ago.

The average student earned a 3.2 grade-point average. It appears that students are able to go through the system with little effort. Other details in the research: 35% reported spending five or fewer hours per week studying alone.  50% said they never took a class in a typical semester where they wrote more than 20 pages; 32% never took a course where they read more than 40 pages per week.

Here is the typical week of a college student:
Socializing and recreation.....................51%
Sleeping..............................................24%
Working, volunteering, student clubs....9%
Attending class....................................9%
Studying..............................................7%

Who is at fault?
             Individual responsibility
             Parenting breakdown
             Work ethic "What's that?"
             The absence of good role models
             A lack of commitment
             Lack of moral responsibility
             Lowering standards of achievement
             Emphasis on self, or self-righteousness
             Cultural trends: blame someone else, expect a handout, laziness, etc.

What to do?
            Wake up
            Make learning a priority
            Gain wisdom from others
            Be a role model
            Be a better parent
            Be a better teacher
            Strive for excellence
            Set higher goals
            Establish moral principles
            Don't be deceived by feelings or emotions
            Learn about how we gained our rights and freedoms
            Be a student of history
            Be thankful and grateful that we have another chance
            Look up!
            Have faith!            

Give Credit Where Credit is Due

I titled the above blog "Academics is Not a Priority" however credit must be given to students and parents that believe that academics is a priority. A great majority of Americans are conscientious and concerned about the quality of learning. We are fortunate to have many great learning institutions.

We do have colleges and universities that provide quality education. One must avoid institutions of higher learning that are politically motivated desire to indoctrinate young people. We must give credit to those colleges that aspire to teach the ability to think, to reason, and to use common sense. There are students that are searching for truth and who desire quality education. Many have high standards and goals in life, and there are those who desire to develop character and look for purpose. This article reminds us that good and bad are in every field of endeavor.





           
 

GENEALOGY

Origins of the Parrish Family

The name, Parrish, originated in England around 1500. The origin is uncertain, but some believe that it may have come from the word Parish that was used as a title of the districts. Some families have added the "r." Thomas Parrish came to the colonies on the ship Increase in 1635. They settled in Virginia, Maryland, Massachusetts, and the Carolinas. Edward Parrish (1640-1680) was a Quaker planter and significant landholder in Baltimore, Maryland. History records that there were four Parrish brothers that settled in Virginia and spread to the surrounding colonies. 

The sixth generation from Edward Parrish (1640-1680) was Mager Parrish (1769-1814). He was born in Goochland, Virginia, and fought in the War of 1812. His family moved from Virginia to Kentucky. In 1818 the western part of Tennessee was inhabited by Chickasaw Indians. General Andrew Jackson, ten years before he became president, and Isaac Shelby, who had been the governor of Kentucky were meeting with Chickasaw leaders offering them $300,000 for land, which opened the way for development in what became West Tennessee.

Soon after Mager’s death his family moved to Dyer County, Tennessee. His wife was Judith Shelton (1769-1840). Her ancestry goes back to John de Shelton (1099) England. Her ancestry goes like this: Sir Thomas Shelton (1537); Sir Ralph Shelton (1514), etc. Some of the Shelton titles were: Sheriff of Nottingham, Knight of the Bath, and Knight of the Garter.

Mager and Judith had nine children.
One of his sons Nelson Parrish   (1808) was my great ,great
grandfather. The Parrishes continued to be landowners. 
My great grandfather was a Baptist minister.
My grandfather was a veterinarian.

When he was 40 years old, while doctoring a horse,
was kicked in the stomach and died from the injury.

My dad was seven when his dad died. He had two sisters, so it became his responsibility, as the only man of the house, to become the head of the household, a huge responsibility. His mother married again two years after my grand-father died. She married Homer Oliver Hendren Sr. He had two sons and a daughter who became my dad’s step brothers and sister. Dad’s mother Ola Kee and Oliver Hendren had a one son and one daughter together, who were half-brother and half-sister to my dad.

Counting my dad (John A. Parrish 1913-1973), there were eight children in the Parrish-Hendren family. John Parrish and his wife Lois Tedford (1914-1990), had three children-two sons and one daughter. I was the oldest of the three born in 1933; my brother 1935; and my sister 1943.

This is the story of the Parrish family from their settlement in Virginia up to the present. We are the eleventh generation of the Parrish family. 

Aubrey Ted Parrish

John Gilbert Parrish

Lois Ann Parrish

Published in the Leatherneck

                                     Iwo Jima

I was on Iwo Jima in nineteen forty-five;
It's only by God's grace that I'm still alive.

The Japs were dug in and ready to fight.
They would pick you off in the day, and infiltrate at night.

They blew a whistle that sounded like a bird;
We became alert when that was heard.

The sand and dust was an added curse.
The terrain and fortifications made our job worse.

It wasn't a weakness to cry or pray;
It strengthened our resolve for the coming day.

The enemy had orders to kill and hold out to the last man--
To die for the Emperor and their homeland.

A price was paid for each foot we would take.
When the big shells would come in, the whole island would shake.

Thirty-five nights on watch in a hole
Put you in stress right down to your soul.

When our advance to the north came to a close,
How much more we could have taken, only the Lord knows.

When the ships came in to take us away,
I said Semper Fi to those heroes who would stay.

Written by Homer Hendron  USMC (1943-1946)

Poison Sumac

Lyrics of this story were set to music and played on a guitar.

  I met a wicked vine that had a wicked twitch.
  It grew along the fence row and ended in a ditch.
 
  It's worse than poison ivy and poison oak combined.
  My life was put on hold and went into reverse and rewind.

  Scratching from head to toe and even itches on my back.
  It's not the three leaf poison ivy, but a plant called poison sumac.

  Don't get upset if I moan and fret,
  The scratching never ceases and that's as good as it gets.

  I haven't had a good nights sleep in weeks.
  The swelling travels over the body giving me the creeps.

  My bloodshot eyes magnify their size.
  I am ready to die and prepared to say my goodbyes.

   Chorus:
    Oh, don't touch that spot,
    That itchy, twitchy spot,
    For it might swell up and turn red,
    And if it gets infected I might as well be dead.

The Pursuit of God

Is there an epitaph you would like for others to read after you have departed from this world? There is a story going around that three men died and met St. Peter at the Golden Gate. He asked each man this question. "What would you like your epitaph to say?"  The first said, 'A good man and a good example for others.' The second said, 'Here lies an unselfish man, a leader among men.' The third said, I would like to hear others say (at the funeral)  'I think I saw him move.'

Immediately we see one man was not ready to leave this world. He wanted to go back. He reminds us of Lot’s wife. She had to have one more look. She was not prepared to move on, even though her life would be spared. I don’t know if you have a preferred epitaph, but if you are entering heaven for eternity, to see Jesus face to face is all that matters.

I read theological and devotional books because they inspire me to know more about the deep things of God. Remember what David said in one of his psalms: “As the deer thirst after the water brook, my soul thirst for thee, O God." I want that intimate knowledge of God, not just knowledge “about” God, but to know Him. A kind of intimacy that satisfies the hunger of the soul.  We must not forget that God is a Person and it is possible to know Him personally. To know anyone takes time and requires several encounters. It is more than a casual encounter, it is the fullest, most intimate communion of which the human soul is capable.

Be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Be filled with the fruit of the spirit.

Be filled with knowledge of God personally.

     Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

     Do God's will beginning today.

     Do love heaven more than the things of this world.

             Give to others.

             Give up things to serve God.

             Give and it shall be given unto you.

                        Wake up.

                        Stand up.

                        Give up.

                        Look up.

                     

                      

                     

EDUCATION - TO BE OR NOT TO BE!

I have come to appreciate the wisdom of men and women of the past. Those who have created and written classical music hundreds of years ago, yet the classics never grow old; great poets whose rhyme and rhythm continue to inspire and inventions that have made our lives more comfortable and discoveries in science and medicine that have saved millions of lives over the centuries. It is a reminder of the quality of education and training that our forefathers received.

Recently there was an e-mail floating around that contained an eighth grade final examination used in 1895. It was given to students in Salina, Kansas. It took five hours to complete. I believe that college graduates today would have trouble passing this exam. I read recently that a high school student in the year 1900 had a better education than college graduates today.

There seems to be a trend over the past 100 years to "water down" public education. Over the past 50 years we have seen the growth and demand for private schools in America. What has happened? Has the public government school become a political football? What has happened to the old work ethic? Have we become complacent? Have we forgotten the importance of learning and gaining knowledge and wisdom? Have we replaced reading, writing, and arithmetic for a "feel good" child and replaced failure by passing everyone to build self-esteem? Can we turn the curve around?

                                                         What to do!
*Pray for teachers.
*Better training for teachers.
*Raise the bar on teacher training and require higher expectations.
*If the quality of the classroom teacher is raised, the quality of the student
     will improve.
*Get back to basic in the classroom: reading, writing and arithmetic.
*Teach students the facts of history and not the facts of life.
*Put patriotism and loyalty back in the textbooks.
*Put the Ten Commandments back on the classroom wall.
*Get back to moral values in and out of the classrooms.
*Parents! Wake up. Train your child. Teach your child. Discipline your child.
*Get back to teaching moral standards and values.
*Teach young people that there are moral absolutes, and it is not situation
      ethics.
*Teach young people that they are created in the image of God.
*Tell them that evolution is still a theory not a fact.
*Get back to teaching the principles that made this country great, by refreshing
     students of the importance of the Constitution of the United States.
*Pray.
*Put God first.

For Your Information!

Year to date statistics on Airport screening from the Department of Homeland Security--

Terrorist Plots Discovered                0

Transvestites                                     133

Hernia's                                          1,485

Hemorrhoid Cases                          3,172

Enlarged Prostates                          8,149

Breast Implants                             59,350

Natural Blonds                                    3