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WITandWISDOM(tm) - January 19, 2006 ISSN 1538-8794 ~~~~~~~ THOUGHTS: “You create your entire life with your thoughts, hour by hour and minute by minute." - Brian Tracy Source: Weekend Encounter, by Dick Innes, Copyright (c) ACTS International, 2004, http://www.actsweb.org/subscribe.htm ~~~~~~~ SPECIAL THOUGHTS: Rabbi Marc Gafni recalls one of the first bar mitzvahs he ever performed. It was for a boy named Louis. Louis was awkward and sad. His insensitive parents did little to encourage his self-esteem. They implied that he was too dumb to learn the traditional Hebrew passages a boy recites for his bar mitzvah. Rabbi Gafni was determined to bring out the best in Louis. He spent extra time teaching him the songs and prayers. He discovered that Louis was smart, and had a fantastic singing voice. On the day of his bar mitzvah, Louis performed beautifully. At the end of the ceremony, Rabbi Gafni stood and spoke directly to Louis. He said, “Louis, this morning you met your real self. This is who you are. You are good, graceful, talented, and smart. Whatever people told you yesterday, and Louis, whatever happens tomorrow, promise me one thing. Remember . . . this is you. Remember, and don’t ever lose it.” A few years later, Louis wrote to Rabbi Gafni. The boy whose parents predicted that he was too dumb to perform a traditional bar mitzvah was studying for his medical degree at an Ivy League university. He was also engaged to be married. Louis ended his letter by saying, “. . . I kept my promise---I always remembered my bar mitzvah morning when you said that this is who I am. For this, I thank you.” Marc Gafni, The Mystery of Love (New York: Atria Books, 2003), pp. 120-121, http://isbn.nu/0743442202 Source: Illustrations, http://www.cybersaltlists.org ~~~~~~~ THIS & THAT: Crazy Thoughts 2,000 pounds of human hair en route to a wig factory fell onto the highway when the truck carrying it overturned. No one was injured, and everyone is looking for clues as to why the accident happened. State Police, in fact, are still combing the area. Curious as to why cowboys always want to "die with their boots on," a greenhorn from the city asked one of them one day. "Well," said the cowboy, "I reckon it's so we won't hurt our toes when we kick the bucket." At the last ball game I was at, I discovered that the man calling balls and strikes had been born in Rome, Italy. He grew up in Rome, New York, and currently made his home in Rome, Georgia. Yup, he was the Wholly Roman Umpire. I've always wanted to be the guy who tests the mattresses. It seems like such a dream job. Is a giraffe family reunion the necks of kin? My uncle was arrested for throwing bombs off a boat, but they dropped the charges. If we're not careful to conserve our water resources, we could go from one ex-stream to another. I cannot tell a lie. I'm a great dancer. That's right, I cannot bear false witness to waltz fitness. If you trade a sausage for a sea bird, have you taken a tern for the wurst? Source: Mark Mail, http://mrhumor.net/ ~~~~~~~ KEEP SMILING: My father began teaching business classes at the local prison through a community college. On his first night of class, he started a chapter on banking. During the course of his lecture, the subject of ATMs came up, and he mentioned that, on average, most machines contain only about $1500 at a given time. Just then a man in the back raised his hand. "I'm not trying to be disrespectful," he told my father, "but the machine I robbed had about $5000 in It. Contributed by Jennifer Johnson Source: The Reader's Digest, Copyright © May 2002, All rights reserved., http://www.readersdigest.com/ ~~~~~~~ TRIVIA: How well do Russians speak English? English is taught in Russian schools beginning in third or fourth grade, so most citizens speak at least some English. Interestingly, Russia has more teachers of the English language than the U.S.A. has students of Russian. Source: ArcaMax - Trivia, http://tinyurl.com/9kf44