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WITandWISDOM(tm) - September 9, 2005 ISSN 1538-8794 ~~~~~~~ THOUGHTS: Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries. - James A. Michener Source: Carol's Thought for Today, http://users.adelphia.net/~mrs.carol ~~~~~~~ SPECIAL THOUGHTS: There's a scene from a movie a few years ago called "Nobody's Fool." There's a working man named Donald Sullivan. Everybody calls him Sully. He's about sixty years old, and spent his whole life in the same town. When his parents died, he inherited their house. He never moved in. Instead he left it alone. It was the house where his father beat him as a child. So he has left it alone, and every day he drives by to watch it slowly fall apart. One day he takes one of his friends, a builder, through that broken-down house. The builder says, "Sully, you could have saved this place. You could have fixed it up a little bit, rented it out. You could have sold it and put the money in your own pocket. Instead you stick it to your old man. What's it been - - thirty, thirty-five years? You still keeping score?" Meanwhile the house is falling down . . . The Arithmetic of Forgiveness by William G. Carter Tom Long tells of the time he was at the checkout table at the library at Princeton Seminary when a friend of his, a pastoral counselor, approached staggering under the weight of a stack of books. Tom teased him a little, asking what a pastoral counselor was doing with all those books. And the fellow replied he was doing some research on forgiveness. Tom says he was surprised and puzzled. "Research on forgiveness? What are you trying to find out?" The counselor thought for a moment and replied, "I guess I’m trying to find out if forgiveness really exists or not. You know, I see so little evidence of it in my work." Scott H. Bowerman, "To Infinity - And Beyond!" Father, forgive me for I know now what I do. Source: Illustrations, http://www.cybersaltlists.org ~~~~~~~ THIS & THAT: An Indian firm which rents out wedding guests says business is booming. The Best Guests Centre, at Jodhpur in Rajasthan, is looking to expand across the state. The company caters for families who fear they will fall short of guests at weddings. It hires out guests, either traditionally dressed or wearing smart western clothes, according to requirements and budget. The guests dance and try to impress with their etiquette without letting anyone know they are being paid for it. Proprietor M I Syed briefs his staff about the groom, the bride and their families before the wedding to avoid a faux pas. He told The Statesman: “The breaking up of joint families and lack of affection among relatives also creates a demand for paid guests. "Such families need to hire guests to make up for the fewer number of relatives available for attending the marriage.” Source: Ananova http://www.ananova.com ~~~~~~~ KEEP SMILING: The cruise ship my friend was working on docked at a Mexican port during a very high tide. Everyone on board was forced to use the ship's narrow gangplank as a passageway to the dock far below. The staff stood motionless when a passenger in her 70s appeared at the top of the plank. There wasn't room for anyone to assist her, so she edged along slowly and finally made it to the dock safely, to everyone's relief. As she stepped down, she turned, looked back at the top of the plank and shouted, "It's okay, Mother, you can come down now." Contributed to "All in a Day's Work" by William D. Hoover Source: DailyInBox Presents, http://dailyinbox.com ~~~~~~~ TRIVIA: Mia Daveline, a 36-year-old secretary at a Beverly Hills law firm, had asked for a month off with pay to care for her husband, Kerry, who was suffering from stage-four melanoma. No go, she was told. Co-worker Alicia Rodriguez asked the other secretaries if they'd give up vacation or sick time for Daveline, as she planned to do. Seventeen workers donated 20 days – with pay. By Rena Dictor Leblanc Source: Copyright © April 2002, The Reader's Digest Association, Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved., http://www.readersdigest.com/