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Life According to Stephen Colbert

The below post makes the following especially apropos in that JW was a great fan of the humor of Stephen Colbert. Thus, it is entirely appropriate that a man who JW admired as humorist would also espouse a profound philosophy of life as he did in a recent NY Times profile when he recounted:

In 1974, when Colbert was 10, his father, a doctor, and his brothers Peter and Paul, the two closest to him in age, died in a plane crash while flying to a prep school in New England. “There’s a common explanation that profound sadness leads to someone’s becoming a comedian, but I’m not sure that’s a proven equation in my case,” he told me. “I’m not bitter about what happened to me as a child, and my mother was instrumental in keeping me from being so.” He added, in a tone so humble and sincere that his character would never have used it: “She taught me to be grateful for my life regardless of what that entailed, and that’s directly related to the image of Christ on the cross and the example of sacrifice that he gave us. What she taught me is that the deliverance God offers you from pain is not no pain — it’s that the pain is actually a gift. What’s the option? God doesn’t really give you another choice.”

I-Pads in Action - Part II

As indicated in the below post, the St. Mary's County local newspaper has published a brief article on JW's Technology fund in action.  Our thanks to all who helped make this entirely fitting remembrance of John a reality.

As a reminder, details regarding JW's current memorial fund can be found here.

I-Pads In Action

The original memorial fund established in John's memory was at his alma-mata elementary school, Mother Catherine Spalding School in Helen, MD.  Earlier blog entries such as here and here gave periodic updates as to the accomplishments achieved with the funds.

Due to the earlier generosity of so many, the fund is still going strong.  Keeping with the intent of the fund to place technology in the hands of the children in the classroom, it was especially exciting to hear that it was recently used to introduce I-Pads into the curriculum for grades 1-8.  Just recently, JW's mom & dad had the opportunity to see the I-Pads in action in the 7th grade science class as well as the 1st grade science lab.  It's hard to realize that even though JW somehow always had the latest gizmo, he never had the opportunity to own an I-Pad himself.  Nonetheless, without a doubt, the big geek is extremely pleased that a lot of little geeks are being fostered in his memory.