Reasons to be thankful to someone or other

SHARED THOUGHTS…. 04.05.13.

============================

 

An Old Guy And A Bucket Of Shrimp     (This is a true story.  We have to appreciate when we see something as odd as this… or for that matter, anything odd, perhaps has a reason for it to be so! We all have our own reasons to be thankful to someone or other. The gentleman in this illustration found a way to express his thankfulness in a unique way that helped him to constantly be reminded of the incident in a life-long act of pay back!  ------------------------------------------------------------   It happened every Friday evening, almost without fail, when the sun resembled a giant orange and was starting to dip into the blue ocean. Old Ed came strolling along the beach to his favorite pier.. Clutched in his bony hand was a bucket of shrimp. Ed walks out to the end of the pier, where it seems he almost has the world to himself. The glow of the sun is a golden bronze now. Everybody's gone, except for a few joggers on the beach. Standing out on the end of the pier, Ed is alone with his thoughts...and his bucket of shrimp.  Before long, however, he is no longer alone. Up in the sky a thousand white dots come screeching and squawking, winging their way toward that lanky frame standing there on the end of the pier.  Before long, dozens of seagulls have enveloped him, their wings fluttering and flapping wildly. Ed stands there tossing shrimp to the hungry birds. As he does, if you listen closely, you can hear him say with a smile, 'Thank you. Thank you.' In a few short minutes the bucket is empty. But Ed doesn't leave.  He stands there lost in thought, as though transported to another time and place.  When he finally turns around and begins to walk back toward the beach, a few of the birds hop along the pier with him until he gets to the stairs, and then they, too, fly away. And old Ed quietly makes his way down to the end of the beach and on home.  If you were sitting there on the pier with your fishing line in the water, Ed might seem like 'a funny old duck,' as my dad used to say. Or, 'a guy who's a sandwich shy of a picnic,' as my kids might say. To onlookers, he's just another old codger, lost in his own weird world, feeding the seagulls with a bucket full of shrimp.  To the onlooker, rituals can look either very strange or very empty. They can seem altogether unimportant .... maybe even a lot of nonsense.  Old folks often do strange things, at least in the eyes of Boomers and Busters.  Most of them would probably write Old Ed off, down there in Florida .That's too bad. They'd do well to know him better.  His full name: Eddie Rickenbacker. He was a famous hero back in World War II. On one of his flying missions across the Pacific, he and his seven-member crew went down. Miraculously, all of the men survived, crawled out of their plane, and climbed into a life raft.  Captain Rickenbacker and his crew floated for days on the rough waters of the Pacific. They fought the sun. They fought sharks. Most of all, they fought hunger. By the eighth day their rations ran out. No food. No water. They were hundreds of miles from land and no one knew where they were. They needed a miracle. That afternoon they had a simple devotional service and prayed for a miracle. They tried to nap. Eddie leaned back and pulled his military cap over his nose. Time dragged. All he could hear was the slap of the waves against the raft..  Suddenly, Eddie felt something land on the top of his cap. It was a seagull!  Old Ed would later describe how he sat perfectly still, planning his next move. With a flash of his hand and a squawk from the gull, he managed to grab it and wring its neck.. He tore the feathers off, and he and his starving crew made a meal - a very slight meal for eight men - of it. Then they used the intestines for bait.. With it, they caught fish, which gave them food and more bait.......and the cycle continued. With that simple survival technique, they were able to endure the rigors of the sea until they were found and rescued (after 24 days at sea...). Eddie Rickenbacker lived many years beyond that ordeal, but he never forgot the sacrifice of that first life-saving seagull... And he never stopped saying, 'Thank you.'   That's why almost every Friday night he would walk to the end of the pier with a bucket full of shrimp and a heart full of gratitude.  Reference: Max Lucado, "In The Eye of the Storm," pp..221, 225-226 PS: Eddie started Eastern Airlines.

 

"When you change the way you see things, the things you see, change."

 

(Thank you Jimmy)

 

============================================================

The cockroach theory for self development.   At a restaurant, a cockroach suddenly flew from somewhere and sat on a lady. She started screaming out of fear. With a panic stricken face and trembling voice, she started jumping, with both her hands desperately trying to get rid of the cockroach. Her reaction was contagious, as everyone in her group also got panicky.   The lady finally managed to push the cockroach away but ...it landed on another lady in the group. Now, it was the turn of the other lady in the group to continue the drama. The waiter rushed forward to their rescue.   In the relay of throwing, the cockroach next fell upon the waiter. The waiter stood firm, composed himself and observed the behavior of the cockroach on his shirt. When he was confident enough, he grabbed it with his fingers and threw it out of the restaurant.   Sipping my coffee and watching the amusement, the antenna of my mind picked up a few thoughts and started wondering, was the cockroach responsible for their histrionic behavior? If so, then why was the waiter not disturbed? He handled it near to perfection, without any chaos. It is not the cockroach, but the inability of the ladies to handle the disturbance caused by the cockroach that disturbed the ladies.   I realized that, it is not the shouting of my father or my boss or my wife that disturbs me, but it's my inability to handle the disturbances caused by their shouting that disturbs me.   It's not the traffic jams on the road that disturbs me, but my inability to handle the disturbance caused by the traffic jam that disturbs me. More than the problem, it's my reaction to the problem that creates chaos in my life.   Lessons learnt from the story: I understood, I should not react in life. I should always respond.   The women reacted, whereas the waiter responded.   Reactions are always instinctive whereas responses are always well thought of, just and right to save a situation from going out of hands, to avoid cracks in relationship, to avoid taking decisions in anger, anxiety, stress or hurry.   (Thank you Ajit)

=============================================================

A clever way to get out of a difficult situation. 

Moishe the Carpenter, returning home with his week’s wages, was accosted

by an armed robber on a deserted street.

“Take my money,” said Moishe, “but do me a favour: “Shoot a bullet through

my hat otherwise my wife won’t believe I was robbed.”

The robber obliged.

 

He threw Moishe’s hat into the air and put a bullet through it.

“Let’s make it look as if I ran into a gang of robbers,” said Moishe,

“otherwise my wife will call me a coward! Please shoot a number of holes

through my coat.”

So the robber shot a number of holes through the carpenter’s coat.

“And now…” continued Moishe.

“Sorry,” interrupted the robber.

 

“No more holes. I’m out of bullets.”

“That’s all I wanted to know!” said Moishe.

“Now hand me back my money and some more for the hat and coat that

you’ve ruined or I’ll beat you black and blue!”

The robber threw down the money and ran.

Moral :

It's never too late to use our brains to get out of a difficult situation!!

===================================================

Have a good week ahead. 

 

MOHANDAS. KP.

http://mohandas-sharedthoughts.blogspot.com/