Summary: In This Episode: “I just don’t have time” is the modern mantra. And I’m here to tell you why that’s total B.S. Because if you apply Uncommon Sense to the time problem, that turns out to not be the problem you think it is.<br> <br> <a class="twitter-share-button" href="https://twitter.com/share?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">Tweet</a><br> <a href="#transcript">Jump to Transcript</a><br> <a href="https://thisistrue.com/category/podcasts/">How to Subscribe and List of All Episodes</a><br> Show Notes<br> <br> * <br> My buddy Leo Notenboom and I both liked Ruth Knelman’s story: she is also featured on Leo’s <a href="http://ps0.us/grandmaruth">Not All News is Bad</a> today.<br> * The story of blood and plasma donor James Harrison was told in Episode 8: <a href="https://thisistrue.com/podcast-008-man-with-golden-arm/">The Man with the Golden Arm</a>.<br> * I tell some of my stories as a volunteer medic (in text) in my blog: they’re gathered in the category <a href="https://thisistrue.com/category/ems-story/">EMS Stories</a>.<br> * My meme site that I mentioned is <a href="https://randysrandom.com">Randy’s Random</a>.<br> * If you’re a volunteer or perform other service yourself, please briefly tell other listeners in the Comments below what you do, maybe to spark an idea for them.<br> <br> <a name="transcript"></a><br> Transcript<br> “I just don’t have time” is the modern mantra. And I’m here to tell you why that’s total B.S. Because if you apply Uncommon Sense to the time problem, that turns out to not be the problem you think it is. I’m going to tell you how to get more out of putting time in.<br> I’m Randy Cassingham, welcome to Uncommon Sense.<br> This week I want to tell you about Ruth Knelman — Knelman is spelled with a K, which I mention so maybe you can visualize her a little bit better. If that doesn’t work, I have a photo on the Show Page. Born in New York, and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, Ruth, her husband Edward, and their young son moved back to the United States for his job, settling in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Edward was a traveling salesman, and Ruth found she had a lot of time on her hands. Rather than just sit around the house, she decided to become a volunteer, first at her son’s school.<br> She has been doing it since, even though her son long ago grew up, and Edward has died. She has done many things over the years: she taught other women at her synagogue how to cook, and is known especially for her brisket and kugel. She volunteered at the old Mount Sinai Hospital for 32 years — until it closed in 1991. These days she mostly volunteers at pre-schools — eight of them — where she reads to the kids, and helps the teachers hand out snacks. The kids call her “Grandma Ruth”.<br> “She’s not a pushover,” said kindergarten teacher Christine Sedesky. “When she passes out snacks, the kids must respond with ‘yes, please’ or ‘no, thank you.’” You know, the kinds of basics that children should learn at home, but very often don’t these days. “I wanted to do some good,” Ruth said. “People are so involved in their own lives. You can’t be all for yourself.”<br> So the first step in Ruth’s story of Uncommon Sense is her attitude: she had a fundamental understanding that the world doesn’t revolve around her, and it’s incumbent on us all to do something to give back. Ruth has been giving back for quite some time now.<br> “At her age, it’s incomprehensible that she can do everything that she does,” says her son Kip, who is now 69 years old himself. You may be counting on your fingers right now: Kip being 69 pretty much implies that Ruth is somewhere around 89. But no, she isn’t. She’s 108. That’s right,
