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WITandWISDOM(tm) - July 6, 1999 ~~~~~~~ THOUGHTS: "Good friendships are fragile things and require as much care as any other fragile and precious thing." - Randolph Bourne (E-zine: POWERQUOTE Mailto:powerquote-list- request@discian.com?Subject=Subscribe) ~~~~~~~ SPECIAL THOUGHTS: I was a boy growing up in the old country. We had no electricity then. The mode of transportation was a horse-drawn carriage. We had a small palm-leaf thatch roof hut, and I lived with my elder sister and mother. Life was quiet, simple, and primitive. My mother made sure we were raised as Christians. But one particular quality that I could never really appreciate was my mother's commitment to hospitality. She would always welcome any stranger who passed by our house or came to church to share a simple meal at our house. One particularly hot day an old man entered the church during worship. He smelled, walked with a limp, and wore the attire of a beggar. And he obviously had a hernia of some sort, as it was bulging from the pants he was trying to hold up with his hands. Despite my being a teenager and poor, appearances were important to me. I was afraid Mother would invite the old man to our house. And at the end of the service Mother dutifully approached the old beggar. I was furious. How could she? What would my friends say? We rode home on a horse-drawn cart. I sat in front with my sister and verbally expressed my displeasure to her, knowing that the old man heard everything. We arrived home, and mother served lunch. I decided to wait in my room and not share the table with the old man. He slurped and spilled, making disgusting sounds as he chewed his food. Looking back, I don't know if it was intentional. Maybe it was. I managed to control my tongue, but my actions and expressions spoke for the anger inside. The old man finished his meal and stood up to leave. "I apologize to the boy, as I know he is not pleased with me. This has been my only full meal in days. Thank you." With a bow to Mother, he held his pants and limped quietly toward the from door. "Nilo!" my mother shouted. "The dogs!" Reluctantly I came out of my room, even though I had been waiting for the moment when he would leave. Our garden had a small iron gate that you could never open without making a cranking sound. And we had three dogs. I went outside and saw the three dogs sitting on the other side of the iron gate, waiting for leftovers from lunch. And there was no old man. I ran all around the house looking. With a heavy heart I realized the implication. I rushed back to the house weeping and flew into the arms of my mother. "I kept telling you," Mother repeated to me between sobs. I entered my room, knelt beside my bed, and pleaded and agonized for the Lord's forgiveness, promising that I would give the old man my best pants and shoes if only he would come back. By Pastor Nilo Submitted by Alvin Reys in the Philippines ~~~~~~~ THIS & THAT: "NEW WORDS TO USE AROUND THE OFFICE" The latest terminology used by the modern day warrior. . . CUBE FARM - An office filled with cubicles. IDEA HAMSTERS - People who always seem to have their idea generators running. MOUSE POTATO - The on-line, wired generation's answer to the couch potato. SITCOMs - What yuppies turn into when they have children and one of them stops working to stay home with the kids. Stands for Single Income, Two Children, Oppressive Mortgage. SWIPED OUT - An ATM or credit card that has been rendered useless because the magnetic strip is worn away from extensive use. TREEWARE - Computer slang for documentation or other printed material. CHIPS AND SALSA - Chips = hardware, salsa = software. Well, first we gotta figure out if the problem's in your chips or your salsa." IRRITAINMENT - Entertainment and media spectacles that are annoying, but you find yourself unable to stop watching them. PERCUSSIVE MAINTENANCE - The fine art of whacking an electronic device to get it to work again. (E-zine: JOKEMAN Mailto:JokeMan-subscribe@onelist.com) ~~~~~~~ KEEP SMILING: PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION NOTICE: "When you exit this vehicle, please be sure to lower your head and watch your step. If you fail to do so, please lower your voice and watch your language. Thank you." (E-zine: FAST EDDIE'S FUNNIES http://recommend-it.com/l.z.e?s=154533) ~~~~~~~ TRIVIA: The Gallup organization sent out a spelling quiz and discovered that the best spellers are in Australia, the next best in Canada, followed by great Britain, and then the United States. People from the United States misspelled an average of 6 of the 10 words on the quiz - and as bad as that was, the U.S. showing would have been worse had it not been for participants who were 35 years old or older. Great Britain was the only country in which women did not excel men - males and females scored about the same there. In all the countries on 1 in 20 adults could spell all 10 words correctly. The 10 words on the quiz were . . . (if you want to take the test stop reading here and ask someone to read the list of ten words to you. If you don't want to take the test just keeping reading and eventually you will find out what the ten words were. We needed just a little filler here so yours eyes would not jump ahead and ruin the test if you wanted to take it.) The 10 words on the quiz were accelerator, calamity, cauliflower, deceive, kerosene, magazine, parallel, penitentiary, picnicking, and sandwich. Source: Bits & Pieces, April 1, 1993, Copyright (c) Economic Press, Inc., www.epinc.com via http://www.witandwisdom.org |