LAKE OCONEE —
Laugh and the world laughs with you; Weep, and you weep alone. These lines first appeared in “Solitude,” a poem printed in the February 25, 1883 issue of the New York Sun.
The author was Ella Wheeler, a Wisconsin-born journalist and poet, who received $5 for her work. The poem was published again in May of that year in a collection of Miss Wheeler’s called Poems of Passion. The collection was a great financial success. To her dismay, Ella Wheeler Wilcox, (now married) found the poem, word for word, in a book by John A. Joyce, published in 1885. The poem had a different title, “Laugh and the World Laughs With You,” but Joyce claimed it as his own. Mrs. Wheeler offered $5,000 for any printed version of the poem dated earlier than her own. Neither Joyce nor anyone else ever produced one, but he continued to reprint the poem as his own until he died in 1915. As a final irony, he had the two famous lines chiseled on his tombstone in Oak Hill Cemetery, Washington, DC. Since that time, however, publishers have given credit where credit seems to be due — to Ella Wheeler Wilcox.
Give God the credit for all that has happened in your life. That is where it is due. Wishing you much love and much light.
—The Rev. David W. Key, director of the Baptist Studies Program, is involved in recruitment, admissions, student life, counseling, placement, and development functions for Emory University’s Candler School of Theology. He teaches in the Contextual Education program. He is the founding pastor of the Lake Oconee Community Church at Reynolds Plantation. Contact him at (404) 727-6350 or dkey@emory.edu. His
column appears weekly in this space.
Life Lessons
Give God the credit for the things in your life
- Life Lessons
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Pray for faithfulness in the midst of life’s challenges
Oswald Chambers, in his book “Run Today’s Race,” taught us that faith for my deliverance is not faith in God.
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Don’t put off the most important thing
As Douglas MacArthur said, in war all tragedy can be summarized in two words, “too late.”
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What are you delaying in your life?
In the early ‘90s, U.S. News and World Report told us that Chicago learned one price of neglecting the underpinnings of all its economic growth.
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Find a community and become a part of it
Harry Emerson Fosdick reminds us that the Great Wall of China is a gigantic structure which cost an immense amount of money and labor.
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Let God be your passion
A woman rushed up to famed violinist Fritz Kreisler after a concert and cried
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Pray for God’s will and nothing else
At a meeting of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Bobby Richardson, former New York Yankee second baseman, offered a prayer that is a classic in brevity and poignancy: “Dear God, Your will, nothing more, nothing less, nothing else. Amen.”
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Not too early to make Easter plans
Fritz Kreisler, the famous violinist, once said
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God calls on you to overcome your obstacles
Do you have a lot to overcome in your life? David Livingstone, the pioneer missionary to Africa, walked over 29,000 miles during his ministry.
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Are you coasting in life?
Bertoldo de Giovanni was the pupil of Donatello, the greatest sculptor of his time, and he was the teacher of Michelangelo, the greatest sculptor of all time.
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Will your soul take the high road or low?
John Oxenham wrote the following poem:
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