The Clown's Prayer

The Clown’s Prayer
Anonymous

As I stumble through this life,
help me to create more laughter than tears,
dispense more cheer than gloom,
spread more cheer than despair.

Never let me become so indifferent,
that I will fail to see the wonders in the eyes of a child,
or the twinkle in the eyes of the aged.

Never let me forget that my total effort is to cheer people,
make them happy, and forget momentarily,
all the unpleasantness in their lives.

And in my final moment,
may I hear You whisper:
"When you made My people smile,
you made Me smile."

Dick Van Dyke read this at Stan Laurel’s funeral in 1965.

Jonella 4/20/12 Jonella 4/20/12

Ralph Lindenmeyer: May 8, 1920-March 20, 2012

This week the funeral for Ralph Lindenmeyer was held at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Vista. He was a friend of my dad’s from his days at the San Diego Union Tribune. Dad was a sports writer. Ralph was a typesetter. More on that in a minute.

I felt it was important to go because he was my godfather. His late wife, Lenore, was my godmother. I didn’t know them well. We moved away from the neighborhood shortly after I was born. But during the summer we’d drive from Denver to San Diego for vacation. That’s how I really knew him. There was always a beach party. Now, you need to understand what a beach party is. It is an all day affair consisting of getting there early to stake out a fire ring, swimming, eating, building sand castles, swimming, eating some more, building a fire, cooking hot dogs on skewers and beans in the can on the flattest rock you can find, toasting marshmallows and eating brownies, sleeping in the car on the way back to the hotel.

Ralph was a very Catholic Catholic. Throughout my life I received cards for my First Communion and Confirmation, high school and college graduations. But even though he was not just an active but passionate Catholic, he was open to other’s practices and faiths. It makes me think he’d be okay with my doubts, the shift in my faith. I didn’t know that his favorite saint was St. Therese. The only reason this of any importance to me at all is that she’s kind of my patron saint. I went to St. Therese Academy. So did a lot of kids, I know. But then there was a display of her things at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York when I was there. She also played a small prank on me at when I lit a candle to her at Sacre Coeur in Paris. A book about her life literally jumped of a shelf at me in Barnes & Noble. So for her to be the saint of choice on his prayer card was so cool!

Ralph was a Pearl Harbor Survivor. This is something I’ve always known. He was Navy Machinist Mate Third Class on Ford Island. What I didn’t know was that his youngest daughter didn’t know that until 1976. She had to have been eighteen years old. And she read it as an article he wrote for the newspaper. Ralph was active in the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association. He even consulted on the 2001 Pearl Harbor movie.

My sister and I have the same memory of him at the paper. He spent thirty years as a typesetter for the San Diego Union Tribune. What he did was, in the days before computers formatted everything, was set the letters for each story. Every word was handset into a box, letter by letter. He could spell backward and hold a conversation while getting the newspaper ready to print.