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WITandWISDOM(tm) - May 26, 2005 ISSN 1538-8794 ~~~~~~~ THOUGHTS: Talent is always conscious of its own abundance, and does not object to sharing. - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn , Writer Source: DailyInBox Presents, http://dailyinbox.com ~~~~~~~ SPECIAL THOUGHTS: When she was fifteen, Linda Stafford announced to her English class that she would someday write and illustrate her own books. Half of the class sneered and the remainder just laughed at her prophecy. To make matters worse, her English teacher responded that only geniuses become writers and then smugly announced that she was on track to receive a D as a grade for the semester. Stafford broke into tears. She went home and wrote a sad short poem about broken dreams and mailed it to a weekly paper. To her astonishment, the newspaper not only chose to print the poem but they also sent her a $2 check for publishing her writing. When she shared the news with her teacher, her only reply was that "everybody experiences some blind luck from time to time in his or her life." During the next two years, Stafford sold dozen of poems, letters, jokes, and recipes. By the time she graduated from high school, she had a scrapbook filled with her published writing but never again mentioned a word of it to her teachers, fellow students, or even her family. Such people are "dream-busters." Stafford recently stated, "if you have to choose between your friends or your dreams, always go with your dreams." Source: My Daily Dose of Inspiration, http://www.quietstones.com/mydailydose ~~~~~~~ THIS & THAT: "Are there any prayer needs today?” I asked during a worship service. One person mentioned a neighbor who was sick. Another spoke of a couple with financial problems. A young man asked us to pray for the family of a friend’s grandmother who recently died. After hearing what seemed to be all the requests I said, “If there are no other needs then let us bow our heads and pray.” Shortly after beginning the prayer, I felt something tugging on my pants leg and at the same time heard a loud whisper: “Preacher… Preacher… “I ‘needs’ something too!” Still speaking, I slightly opened one eye and took a peek. A little boy was on his hands and knees below me, tugging on my pants leg as hard as he could and earnestly whispering: “Preacher, I ‘needs’ something too!” The choir members behind were beginning to lose their composure and I could hear giggling in the background as the boy continued tugging on my pants and was by now speaking loudly: “Preacher, I ‘needs’ something!” “Oh no!” I thought to myself. “In my arrogance and pride, had I ignored the needs of a small child? Maybe he knew of someone who was ill that we needed to include?” Feeling guilty and ashamed, I stopped the prayer and gently asked the young boy: “Yes son, what do you need?” “Preacher, I ‘needs’ to go to the bathroom!” Source: Clean Hewmor, mailto:clean-hewmor-subscribe@welovegod.org ~~~~~~~ KEEP SMILING: As you journey through life take a minute every now and then to give a thought for the other fellow. He could be plotting something. Submitted by Lorraine ~~~~~~~ TRIVIA: Who is D.B. Cooper, and what did he do? On the evening of November 24, 1971, a smartly dressed middle-aged man jumped out of a Northwest Orient Airlines jet flying over Washington state with $200,000 in cash. D.B. Cooper boarded a flight out of Portland, Oregon, and shortly after takeoff, handed a flight attendant a polite bomb-threat note requesting the money and four parachutes. The plane landed at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, where Cooper's demands were met and the other passengers were evacuated. The plane took off again, bound for Mexico, and Cooper parachuted out along the way. He was never found, and the case remains the world's only unsolved skyjacking. The name "D.B. Cooper" is actually a misidentification. The gentleman who stepped off the airplane at 10,000 feet bought a ticket under the name "Dan Cooper." He was mistakenly referred to as "D.B. Cooper" by an officer at a press conference, and the name stuck. Cooper leapt out of the Boeing 727 (the only commercial airplane with a staircase in the rear) directly into American folklore. He inspired songs, books, and a 1981 film starring Robert Duvall. A massive manhunt in the woods north of Portland came up empty, although five years later a boy discovered a bag containing roughly $6,000 of Cooper's money along the banks of the Columbia River. The Mount Saint Helens eruption in 1980 covered most of Cooper's potential landing zone in ash. Whatever happened to Cooper? He would have been exceedingly lucky to survive the jump -- the plane was traveling at 200 miles per hour in freezing rain. He would have landed in the wilderness at night, at the onset of winter, with no survival gear. But the article from U.S. News suggests that he may have wound up as an antique salesman in Florida. The case remains open. Source: Top Greetings