| Prior Date | Archive Index | Next Date |
|
WITandWISDOM(tm) - May 23, 2003 ISSN 1538-8794 ~~~~~~~ THOUGHTS: "I've learned that to speculate endlessly about what happened serves no purpose other than to torment myself . . . I know now that I can't relive the event forever. If I made a mistake, I've got to forgive myself for being human." - Christopher Reeve, regarding the horseback-riding accident that left him a quadriplegic. From his autobiography, "Still Me." ~~~~~~~ SPECIAL THOUGHTS: Pam was a young woman who was active in a Campus Life Club I ran some years ago, and she was very lonely. She used to call different ones of us leaders two or three times a week. Pam felt like she was unattractive. She had never had a date, and she had problems at home. And she usually called to talk about her problems and how depressed she was. Until that week she called me and I said to her, "Pam, don't call me again until you've carried out an assignment I'd like to give you." Well, I encouraged her to go to the local senior citizens' facility and volunteer for one night. She was hesitant, but she did it. Well, that night she read to those folks and she walked with them and listened to their stories. When she was leaving, some of them asked, "When will you be back?" Well, she hadn't planned to come back. But their encouragements caused her to tell them, "Uh, next week." She did go back the following week - and virtually every week after that through the rest of high school. Last I knew, she'd become a doctor. Once she started to live for some people who needed her, Pam didn't call much anymore. She didn't need to. She was too busy making a difference. . . By Ron Hutchcraft "A Word With You" daily devotionals are now available via e-mail. To subscribe send a blank email to mailto:awordwithyou-subscribe@hutchcraft.com Copyright (c) 2000, By Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc. PO Box 400, Harrison AR 72602 Source: Daily Wisdom, mailto:dw-subscribe@lists.gospelco m.net ~~~~~~~ THIS & THAT: Berlin, Germany (Reuters): After 15 days sitting on top of a two-and-a-half-meter (eight-foot) high pole, a momentary shift of his buttocks shatters Benjamin Buettner's dreams of glory in the 2003 World Pole-Sitting Championships. The contestants must stay on the pole day and night, squatting on a 40 by 60 cm (15 by 23 inch) board -- about the size of a broadsheet's front page. They may come down for only 10 minutes every two hours to perform their ablutions. "If you get back up there a second late, you're out," said organizer Klaus Mueller from the Heide Park Soltau amusement park in western Germany where the event is staged. Ladders allow competitors to go up and down and also supply them with food and drink or whatever distractions they need to while away the hours on their bird-like perches. To make sure no one cheats when the rest of the world has gone to bed, electronic sensors attached to the board monitor the pressure of backsides. Video cameras run constantly, as 22-year-old ambulanceman Buettner found out. "He tried to dupe us by pressing on the board with his hands and stealing a few seconds of respite on the ladder, but the camera caught him and the judges threw him out," said Mueller. This year's field of iron-bottomed contestants includes the reigning world pole-sitting champion, a 27-year-old mechanic who happens to be a Pole. Egypt, Hungary and Germany were also represented, but for some the stakes were too high. With the contest entering its 17th day, only six of the 10 starters remain in the fray. They are bracing for a long wait. "The current world record stands at 196 days. This year they want to crack the 200-day mark," Mueller said. That would mean sitting on the pole until mid-November. The unusual sport dates back to 1952, when villages in the Dutch province of Holland were flooded and inhabitants sat on top of poles until rescuers arrived. The Dutch are the sport's purists. "The Dutch competitions mimic the original scene. There, you don't get to sit on a board, and you can't come down. The winner is the last one to fall into the water," Mueller said. Source: White Board News, http://www.joeha.com/whiteboard/ ~~~~~~~ KEEP SMILING: During a visit with friends, conversation turned to what each one of us would do if he or she became instantly wealthy. As we rattled off desires for lavish homes and fancy cars, Tom a gentle Texan sat quietly pondering. Then he delighted us all by saying simply, "Reckon I'd hire someone to break in my new blue jeans." Contributed to "Life In These United States" by Ken Renteria Source: DailyInBox: Reader's Digest CyberSmiles, http://dailyinbox.com/rd/ ~~~~~~~ TRIVIA: Lana is a chimpanzee working at the Yerkes Primate Center in Atlanta, Georgia. I say she is working; what I mean is that she has chores to do in a study of ape language ability. Lana has a computer keyboard that she operates. Each key represents a different word, and Lana has learned to string these words together in various phrases and sentences to request what she wants, such as food, or to respond to coded instructions presented to her on a lighted panel above the keyboard. Lana once asked for a drink in twenty-three different ways. Her trainer put cabbage into her food container but falsely told her that he had put monkey chow into the feed drawer. She checked the container and responded by pushing the buttons that said, "You move cabbage out of machine." Lana seems to enjoy her work very much. She sometimes pushes the buttons to request her favorite "hit record." She uses correct grammar in asking for such food as bananas and M&M's. In "her laboratory" Lana talks to the computer by pushing the buttons at any hour of the day or night. A closed-circuit video camera records her activities through the night, when she is often found seated in front of the keyboard, communicating with the machine. Source: Glimpses of God's Love by James A. Tucker and Priscilla Tucker, Copyright (c) 1983 by Review and Herald Publishing Association, http://isbn.nu/0767904249 Submitted by Nancy Simpson |