People move through this world, in and out of each other’s lives. You. Me. Everyone. And. So many times, we are unaware of how we might be affecting other people.
But be assured. Our lives, our thoughts, our words, and our actions are having an impact on the world around us. Whether we realize this or not.
How about Otto Frederick Rohwedder? Most of us probably don’t recognize his name. But let us wish him a happy birthday. He was born on this date, in 1880. In the far off and away of Davenport, Iowa.
Now. When Otto was a little boy, he probably never imagined what he’d grow up to become. He was probably building things with wooden blocks and coloring on sidewalks with big chunks of chalk.
But he was destined to become an inventor. He is the person who gave us an incredible thing in all our lives. Sliced bread. Yes indeed. Otto Rohwedder invented the bread-slicing machine back in 1928.
His very good machine revolutionized the baking industry. Because of him, sliced bread became commercially available throughout the world. The “greatest thing since sliced bread.” Thanks, Otto.
But wait. There’s more. Today is also the birthday of Revilo P. Oliver. He was born in 1908. Revilo was an American right-wing advocate who alleged Lee Harvey Oswald was part of a Soviet conspiracy.
The thing about this guy? He became increasingly involved in white supremacist and white nationalist causes. He wrote for publications associated with racial hatred, including The Spotlight and Liberty Bell, where he openly expressed anti-Semitic, racist, and anti-Black views.
Two very different men, born on the same date. It seems there are all kinds of people in this world. Side by side. Doing all sorts of different things. Ourselves included.
Some of these things are good. Some are bad.
Perhaps we never mean any harm. Perhaps our intentions are good. But as we go about our own little worlds, those “little worlds” bump into others.
Hopefully, we can try to heighten our awareness of how we might be helping or harming others, whichever the case may be. And, hopefully, our paths, realized or not, will always be filled with goodness toward this world of ours.
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“To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world.”
— Dr. Seuss
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“What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.”
— Jane Goodall
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“You never know when a moment and a few sincere words can have an impact on a life.”
— Zig Ziglar
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