This Little Light of Mine

I bought a rug tonight.   It's a made of wool, made in America, machine woven "oriental" rug.  I will probably never be allowed to walk on it with shoes on.  You may think this is a restrictive, limiting rule being imposed on me by someone in authority in my living room (ok, it's my wife--c'mon guys, how many of you seriously believe you have the primary authority in your living room?).  The fact is walking barefoot over this little piece of wool is far better than treading on it in your shoes.  

Why do i talk about this rug when the title is the "This Little Light of Mine?"  Well, we bought this rug at a benefit auction.  My wife quickly points out the purchase price was well below its retail value.  She was bidding against a very nice woman she had just met--apparently trying to outbid each other at an auction is a way of strengthening the newly-formed bond between women.  I would say right now that I'll never understand women, but guys compete as a way of bonding all the time--on any golf course or basketball court or squash court you see, you will see the very same thing.  Add to that the fact that this woman was the wife of a retired NFL player and coach, and--well you get the picture.  

Moments before we walked into the site of the benefit, we thought about just turning around and leaving.  After all, we had made a donation by buying the tickets, and we didn't know more than a handful of people who would be attending, and they would all be working on various aspects of the benefit's silent and live auctions and raffles.  We decided to go ahead and I wound up with this rug.  

The event had a keynote speaker, who was the niece of a well-known person, and I had no real idea of her connection to the cause the dinner was to benefit and low expectations--my sense was this was a relative of a famous person who wouldn't be speaking to us unless she was born into this famous family--a little like watching TV news magazines featuring Bill and Hilary Clinton's daughter.  I was wrong (OK, are you really surprised?), she turned out to be an engaging speaker with a positive message that fit perfectly with the purpose of the evening's benefit.  She wrapped up her presentation leading us all in a rendition of "This Little Light of Mine" with a couple of new lines.  Here they are

This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine.  

If your light don't shine, please don't put out mine.  

This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine.  

If your light don't shine, please share some of mine.

I kinda like them.  How about you?