Some Goodies!

[Guest guest]

MORSEL: Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity,

and I'm not sure about the former. --Albert. Einstein

------------------------

 

There once was a King

who offered a prize to the artist

who would paint the best picture of peace.

Many artists tried ~

 

The King looked at all the pictures,

but there were only two he really liked,

and he had to choose between them.

 

One picture was of a calm lake.

The lake was a perfect mirror

for the peaceful towering mountains all around it.

Overhead was a blue sky with fluffy white clouds.

All who saw this picture thought

that it was a perfect picture of peace.

 

The second picture had mountains, too.

But these were rugged and bare.

Above was an angry sky from which rain fell,

and in which lightening played.

Down the side of the mountain tumbled a foaming waterfall.

This did not look peaceful at all.

 

But when the King looked,

he saw behind the waterfall a tiny bush

growing in a crack in the rock.

In the bush a mother bird had built her nest.

There,

in the midst of the rush of angry water,

sat the mother bird on her nest....

a picture of a perfect peace.

 

The king chose the second picture.

 

" Because, " explained the King,

" peace does not mean to be in a place

where there is no noise, trouble or hard work.

Peace means to be in the midst of all those things

and still be calm in your heart.

That is the real meaning of peace. "

 

------------------------------

 

The priest says to the others, " I think our good friend would have liked

to take something with him to his next life. " He pulls a $100 bill from

his wallet and drops it on the casket.

 

The rabbi agrees, " That's a fine idea, " and drops his own $100 bill on the

casket.

 

The doctor, not to be outdone, does the same.

 

The lawyer murmurs, " What a wonderful thought, " as he gazes down at their

friend's casket. Whipping out his pen, he quickly writes a check for $400,

drops it into the grave and takes the three $100 bills as change.

 

-----------------------

 

Years ago, a John Hopkin's professor gave a group of graduate students

this assignment: Go to the slums. Take 200 boys, between the ages of 12

and 16, and investigate their background and environment. Then predict

their chances for the future.

 

The students, after consulting social statistics, talking to the boys, and

compiling much data, concluded that 90 percent of the boys would spend

some time in jail.

 

Twenty-five years later, another group of graduate students was given the

job of testing the prediction. They went back to the same area. Some of

the boys - by then men - were still there, a few had died, some had moved

away, but they got in touch with 180 of the original 200. They found that

only four of the group had ever been sent to jail.

 

Why was it that these men, who had lived in a breeding place of crime, had

such a surprisingly good record? The researchers were continually told:

" Well, there was a teacher... "

 

They pressed further, and found that in 75 percent of the cases it was the

same woman. The researchers went to this teacher, now living in a home

for retired teachers. How had she exerted this remarkable influence over

that group of children? Could she give them any reason why these boys

should have remembered her?

 

" No, " she said, " no I really couldn't. " And then, thinking back over the

years,

she said musingly, more to herself than to her questioners: " I loved those

boys.... "

[Guest guest]

Thank you! Wonderful stories. Edith