Bonnie,
Thanks for sharing a softer side of Jerry Lewis. Goes to show you
that each of us has our own perception. Either or neither could be
right...usually somewhere in the middle. I hope I made the point that
my observations were based on my own perception of that image Jerry
Lewis placed before the public. I never read anything regarding his
personal life.
As for just who is going to enter the Kingdom of Heaven? I suspect if
there truly is a heaven and hell, that there will be a great multitude
of disappointed people when they read their new address.
Carl Jarvis
On 8/22/17, Bonnie L. Sherrell <blslarner@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Jerry Lewis never meant to present the kids he fought so hard for as "poor
little orphelines." He was very passionate about getting funding to help
such
children survive their childhoods, which was why he did those telethons
year
after year after year. He never told why this mattered so deeply as it did
to
him. It is suspected that he had close friends and possibly relatives who
died
of muscular distrophy, and that this was done in their memory. The
presentation
of the children he worked so hard for as pitiable was simply the way such
appeals were presented when he was growing up, and he continued them, not
knowing any other way to do so and not realizing that he was possibly
demeaning
the very children he wished to help. He poured the greater portion of his
own
excess income into funding research to help these children live to and
through
maturity, and had specific children he sponsored he visited regularly,
grieving
deeply each time one of them died in spite of the medical care he helped
obtain
for them.
He was a perfectly normal person who did indeed put on the persona of a
mentally
and/or socially challenged person in his performances, and he was excellent
in
pantomime, a skill most on this list would not appreciate as it is
basically
visual in nature, as is slapstick humor. As a kid I loved his performances.
Was never into the telethons, as they were not of any interest to my
stepdad,
who ruled the television on his days off from Boeing. And believe me, Labor
Day
was one of his days off from work.
I was highly offended by the pastor of a Wisconsin-Missouri synod Lutheran
church to which I took one of my past clients. He held up Jerry Lewis as a
man
to be lauded as one who worked hard at a cause that he served passionately,
and
then casually threw the man away by noting, "Too bad he won't reap anything
good
from it in the end as he's Jewish and not a Christian who has been saved by
his
faith."
I've seen a lot of so-called Christians who have done not one whit of good
for
the world in which we live. I doubt that their surface-held faith will get
them
anywhere, actually, while I suspect that the good Lord is already welcoming
Jerry Lewis as one who did indeed always seek to help the least of the
children
of the world in whatever ways he knew how.
Bonnie L. Sherrell
Teacher at Large
"Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very
wise cannot see all ends." LOTR
"Don't go where I can't follow."
We gave the Goblin King control of our nation!