Charles Plumb was a US Navy jet pilot in
Vietnam. After 75 combat missions, his plane was destroyed by a
surface-to-air missile. Plumb ejected and parachuted into enemy hands.
He was captured and spent 6 years in a communist Vietnamese prison. He
survived the ordeal and now lectures on lessons learned from that
experience!
One day, when Plumb and his wife were sitting
in a restaurant, a man at another table came up and said, ' You're
Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty
Hawk. You were shot down! 'How in the world did you know that?' asked
Plumb. 'I packed your parachute,' the man replied. Plumb gasped in
surprise and gratitude. The man pumped his hand and said, 'I guess it
worked!' Plumb assured him, 'It sure did. If your chute hadn't worked, I
wouldn't be here today.'
Plumb couldn't sleep that night, thinking
about that man. Plumb says, 'I kept wondering what he had looked like
in a Navy uniform: a white hat; a bib in the back; and bell-bottom
trousers. I wonder how many times I might have seen him and not even
said 'Good morning, how are you?' or anything because, you see, I was a fighter pilot and he was just a sailor.'
Plumb thought of the many hours the sailor had
spent at a long wooden table in the bowels of the ship, carefully
weaving the shrouds and folding the silks of each chute, holding in his
hands each time the fate of someone he didn't know.
Now, Plumb asks his audience, 'Who's packing
your parachute?' Everyone has someone who provides what they need to
make it through the day. He also points out that he needed many kinds
of parachutes when his plane was shot down over enemy territory - he
needed his physical parachute, his mental parachute, his emotional
parachute, and his spiritual parachute. He called on all these supports
before reaching safety.
Sometimes in the daily challenges that life
gives us, we miss what is really important. We may fail to say hello,
please, or thank you, congratulate someone on something wonderful that
has happened to them, give a compliment, or just do something nice for
no reason. As you go through this week, this month, this year, recognize people who pack your parachutes.
I am sending you this as my way of thanking
you for your part in packing my parachute. And I hope you will send it
on to those who have helped pack yours! Sometimes, we wonder why friends
keep forwarding jokes to us without writing a word. Maybe this could
explain it! When you are very busy, but still want to keep in touch,
guess what you do - you forward jokes.
And to let you know that you are still
remembered, you are still important, you are still loved, you are still
cared for, guess what you get? A forwarded joke. So my friend, next
time when you get a joke, don't think that you've been sent just another
forwarded joke, but that you've been thought of today and your friend
on the other end of your computer wanted to send you a smile, just
helping you pack your parachute.
-- Author Unknown
1 comment:
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