November 17

Often it is difficult, if not impossible, to look on the bright side of life. I have found however that with a little bit of effort some good may be found in anything that happens in your life. Have you fallen from a high place of fame, fortune and renown? Has life hit you repeatedly in the back of the head? Take heart, all is not as dark as it might seem to be. In your moments of despair, you would be well served if you took a moment to pause and remember Sir Walter Raleigh who, on the 17th in 1603, went on trial for treason. The trial did not go particularly well and he would in the end be convicted, the sentence of death by beheading being passed down. For a variety of reasons, the sentence would not be carried out until October 29, 1618. When Raleigh was led to the block so that justice could be administered he asked to see the axe. Upon viewing it, he stated, “This is sharp medicine, but it is a Physician for all Diseases and miseries.”