What To Do With Manure

I was at a funeral of a gentleman last Saturday that I have known for a number of years. While I knew much of his late life, I was not, however, acquainted with his life’s accomplishments.

At the funeral, I heard an interesting description of him: he was a man with a life well lived. As they described his accomplishments, I could see what they meant.

He was the president of the “300 Mile An Hour Club” at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. To this day, he holds 31 land speed records. This was all generated by a life long love of fast cars, which bit him, hard, in the late 40’s, as a youngster growing up in the Los Angeles Area.

He was also the president of the Burbank chapter of Alcoholics Anonymous and had been continually sober for 53 of his 88 years. That is quite a feat, since he still associated with all of his old friends.

However, one of the creeds he lived by was this, “Money is like manure. If you let it sit, it will just burn. You must spread it around and help young things grow.” He lived by that creed and gave thousands of dollars to local and national charities like Boy Scouts, Salvation Army and the Union Rescue Mission in Los Angles. One of his most generous gifts, however, was that he completely funded the college educations of more than 30 young people who might not have gone to college, but for him.

A life well lived, indeed. Rest in peace, Earl.