Elias was a carpenter, a building contractor, and a farmer. He moved his family to Kansas City, Missouri way back in the early 1900’s, and gave up the farming part. In Kansas City he bought a paper route and got his sons to help him deliver the papers. And they got to learn to deal with the discomfort and pain that went with that work.
But discomfort and pain can either make you or break you.
In the case of his fourth son, Elias, I think you’ll see it helped make him remarkable.
In 1917, the elder Elias moved his family to Chicago. And the junior Elias took photographs and worked on his drawing skills for the school paper. He hoped to become a newspaper cartoonist. But World War I interrupted his progress, and he served as an ambulance driver.
When he got back to the states, he moved back to Kansas City and went through a series of trials and errors. And I won’t go into detail because you probably already know a lot of them. But his ability to get through them probably came from working with his dad on that paper route.
Oh wait, I forgot to mention one minor detail. Elias was actually his middle name. His first name was Walt. And you’re probably way ahead of me as I tell you his last name was Disney.
But do you know that, because of his production work, he still holds the record for the most Academy Awards? Yeah, for the most nominations. 59. And for the most wins held by a single individual. 22
I remember my whole family gathered around the TV, back in the 60’s, to watch “Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color.” There was usually a special Sunday evening movie the whole family could watch together. Imagine that. And there was never a show that included any bathroom humor or sexual innuendo.
No wonder it was so unsuccessful. NOT!
Anyway, I just thought I’d share those little tidbits of into with you to encourage you to work through whatever discomfort and pain you’re dealing with, today. And Elias, I mean Walt, was the motivation because he was born on this day, December 5th, 123 years ago, back in 1901.
Time flies when you don’t Micky Mouse around and waste it.
My guess is that Walt would not be pleased or proud of where the Disney empire has gone since then. But I’ll leave that for another time.
CrackerJack and Disneyland,
Scorin’ crack and lyrics banned,
Gets better everyday. Just cast those sins away.
Right and wrong? Who thought of that?
Some guys who thought the world was flat?
Now we’ve learned to see. “No one’s the boss of me.”
(lyrics from my song, “Worldview”)
As long as you’re here, joint the wonderful world and growing body of believers who signed up for the FunderFlash Journal, if you haven’t already. And I’ll send you good stuff so you can focus on faith, hope, and love with me.
Stay tuned…
