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WITandWISDOM(tm) - May 25, 2001 ~~~~~~~ THOUGHTS: There are comforts and compensations that one who has not suffered knows nothing of - like the lamps that nobody sees till the tunnel comes. - R W Barbour Source: Peter's Pearls, http://www.peterspearls.com.au ~~~~~~~ SPECIAL THOUGHTS: Charles Plumb, a US Naval Academy graduate, was a jet pilot in Vietnam. After 75 combat missions, his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile. Plumb ejected and parachuted into enemy hands. He was captured and spent 6 years in a communist Vietnamese prison. He survived the ordeal and now lectures on lessons learned from that experience. One day, when Plumb and his wife were sitting in a restaurant, a man at another table came up and said, "You're Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down!" "How in the world did you know that?" asked Plumb. "I packed your parachute," the man replied. Plumb gasped in surprise and gratitude. The man pumped his hand and said, "I guess it worked!" Plumb assured him, "It sure did. If your chute hadn't worked, I wouldn't be here today." Plumb couldn't sleep that night, thinking about that man. Plumb says, "I kept wondering what he might have looked like in a Navy uniform: a white hat, a bib in the back, and bell-bottom trousers. I wonder how many times I might have seen him and not even said "Good morning", "How are you?" or anything because, you see, I was a fighter pilot and he was just a sailor. Plumb thought of the many hours the sailor had spent on a long wooden table in the bowels of the ship, carefully weaving the shrouds and folding the silks of each chute, holding in his hands each time the fate of someone he didn't know. Now, Plumb asks his audience, "Who's packing your parachute?" Everyone has someone who provides what they need to make it through the day. Plumb also points out that he needed many kinds of parachutes when his plane was shot down over enemy territory --- he needed his physical parachute, his mental parachute, his emotional parachute, and his spiritual parachute. He called on all these supports before reaching safety. Sometimes in the daily challenges that life gives us, we miss what is really important. We may fail to say hello, please, or thank you, congratulate someone on something wonderful that has happened to them, give a compliment, or just do something nice for no reason. As you go through this week, this month, this year, recognize people who pack your parachute. Source: Charles Plumb, "Packing Parachutes," in Insights to Excellence, Executive Books, Harrisburg, PA. http://www.executivebooks.com/insightsintoexcellence.html Excerpt reprinted with permission of the author Charles Plumb Plumbtalk@aol.com http://www.Charlieplumb.com/ To read the full article visit http://showcase.netins.net/web/herker/ejection/plumb.html Submitted by Wes Gudahl ~~~~~~~ THIS & THAT: FUN QUESTIONS TO ASK AT U.S. NATIONAL PARKS . . . CARLSBAD CAVERNS NATIONAL PARK: How much of the cave is underground? So what's in the unexplored part of the cave? Does it ever rain in here? How many ping-pong balls would it take to fill this up? So what is this -- just a hole in the ground? DENALI NATIONAL PARK: What time do you feed the bears? What time do they let the animals out in the park? What's so wonderful about Wonder Lake? Can you show me where yeti lives? How often do you mow the tundra? How much does Mount McKinley weigh? YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK: Does Old Faithful erupt at night? How do you turn it on? When does the guy who turns it on get to sleep? We had no trouble finding the park entrances, but where are the exits? EVERGLADES NATIONAL PARK: Are the alligators real? Are the baby alligators for sale? Where are all the rides? What time does the two o'clock bus leave? ~~~~~~~ KEEP SMILING: "No, I didn't actually build it," said the beaver to the rabbit as they stared up at the immense bulk of Hoover Dam, "but it's based on an idea of mine." Source: Clean Laffs http://www.shagmail.com/sub/sub-jokes.html ~~~~~~~ TRIVIA: The lightest President of the United States was John Madison who was 5' 4"and weighed under 100 pounds. The tallest was Lincoln at 6' 4". The heaviest was Howard Taft who, at times, weighed over 300 pounds. Source: "Knowledge in a Nutshell," By Reichblum, Charles Published by ARPR, incorporated, Copyright, (c) 1997, ISBN: 0966099184, http://isbn.nu/0966099184/price Submitted by Ward Batty |