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WITandWISDOM(tm) - December 13, 2005 ISSN 1538-8794 ~~~~~~~ THOUGHTS: Life's a tough proposition, and the first hundred years are the hardest. - Wilson Mizner Source: Quotes of the Day, http://www.quotationspage.com/qotd.html ~~~~~~~ SPECIAL THOUGHTS: Vietnam Vet Jim Mayer lost both legs in 1969. Today, injured troops from Iraq fill the wards of Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. Jim spends a lot of time with the amputees at Walter Reed. "I want to show them that they still can have a life. A good life. Look at me!" Jim's friend Hal Koster is also a veteran. He co-owns Fran O'Brien's Stadium Steakhouse, close to Walter Reed. He told Jim, "Invite some guys for a steak dinner, on me. Heck, they're probably sick to death of Army chow!" A couple of soldiers showed up the first time. Now the weekly dinners serve as many as 40. They're more than a break from hospital food. The soldiers mingle with civilians and listen to one another’s stories. "Talking to someone who knows what you're going through is a morale booster," says Sgt. Michael QI, Kahn. After all, losing a limb doesn't mean losing your life. Just look at Jim. Lisa Cheng, Editorial Assistant Source: Guideposts, Copyright (c) November 2004, http://www.guideposts.org ~~~~~~~ THIS & THAT: Dear Santa, I've been a good Nana all year. I've fed, cleaned and cuddled my grandchildren on demand, visited the doctor's office more than my doctor, sold sixty-two cases of candy bars to raise money to plant a shade tree on the school playground and figured out how to attach nine patches onto my grandson's Boy Scout uniform with staples and a glue gun. I was hoping you could spread my list out over several Christmases, since I had to write this letter with my grandson's red crayon, on the back of a receipt in the laundry room between cycles, and who knows when I'll find anymore free time in the next 18 years. Here are my Christmas wishes: I'd like a pair of legs that don't ache (in any color, except purple, which I already have) and arms that don't hurt or flap in the breeze; but are strong enough to pull my screaming grandchild out of the candy aisle in the grocery store. I'd also like a waist, since I lost mine somewhere during mental pause.... If you're hauling big ticket items this year I'd like fingerprint resistant windows and a radio that only plays adult music; a television that doesn't broadcast any programs containing talking animals; and a refrigerator with a secret compartment behind the crisper where I can hide to talk on the phone. On the practical side, I could use a talking doll that says, "Yes, Nana" to boost my confidence, along with two grandkids who don't fight and three pairs of jeans that will zip all the way up without the use of power tools. I could also use a recording of Tibetan monks chanting "Don't eat in the living room" and "Take your hands off your brother," because my voice seems to be just out of my grandchildren's hearing range and can only be heard by the cat. If it's too late to find any of these products, the luxury of eating food warmer than room temperature without it being served in a Styrofoam container. If you don't mind, I could also use a few Christmas miracles to brighten the holiday season. Would it be too much trouble to declare ketchup a vegetable? It will clear my conscience immensely. It would be helpful if you could coerce my grandchildren to help around the house without demanding payment as if they were the bosses of an organized crime family. Well, Santa, the buzzer on the dryer is ringing and my grandson saw my feet under the laundry room door. I think he wants his crayon back. Have a safe trip and remember to leave your wet boots by the door and come in and dry off so you don't catch cold. Help yourself to cookies on the table ... Yours Always, Nana Dot P.S. One more thing...you can cancel all my requests if you can keep my grandchildren young enough to believe in Santa. Submitted by Nancy Thomas ~~~~~~~ KEEP SMILING: I worked in the biology department at Buffalo State College in New York. The Great Lakes Laboratory, also stationed at the college, employed a licensed boat captain to man its research vessel. It was common knowledge that the captain couldn't swim. When newcomers learned of this, they would approach him about it. "Is it true?" one of them asked incredulously. "You, a boat captain, can't swim?" "No, I can't," he replied. "Can pilots fly?" Source: Cybersalt Digest, http://www.cybersalt.org/ ~~~~~~~ TRIVIA: I still remember a story that the Rev. John Will Wyatt told me. When he was a seminarian, he pastored a small church in rural Kentucky. It was small enough that he decided he could visit every home during his time there. He was warned not to bother with this one house, that no one had ever been able to do anything with the old man there. John Will went anyway and knocked at the door. The man greeted him kindly and in the course of the discussion found out that no one had ever invited him to church. The man came to the surprise and wonder of the town. All it took was a kindly word. – RP Cly