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I've ridden with a lot of people on a lot of elevators, but none quite as unusual as the young man that I met on an elevator a while back. Actually, he wasn't unusual; but what he carried was. He had his arms full of a wadded up tuxedo and a wadded up wedding gown. So here's this fellow, marching down the hall with a wedding gown and a tuxedo in his arms.
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I saw my friend Rich at a busy committee session. We had a lot to do and there were some very important choices to make. In fact, we didn't even get through everything we needed to! But Rich, well, he didn't forget what really mattered. He announced out of the blue, "Hey everybody! I brought baby pictures!" Oh, yes, you could guess! He's the father of a newborn son. So, forget everything else, man! Who cares about all this business stuff we've got to do? He wanted to share his greatest joy with us - his child. You know what? That man had his priorities straight.
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Oh, it happens every year after Thanksgiving and Christmas...leftovers. I cannot believe the infinite possibilities for preparing turkey. You know how it goes: You have turkey crispies for breakfast, and turkey, butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch, etc. I mean, listen, there are so many ways to get rid of that turkey! Actually, any time of the year, it's just hard to get a lot of enthusiasm for dinner when it's leftovers. It's just not fair how many times you and I serve just that to our family. They deserve much better.
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It was the biggest snowstorm of the year. Not the kind you dig out from very quickly. And the evening news showed one hazard of such a storm that was really out of the ordinary - a hazard that shouldn't have happened. The man in the news had started the challenging job of shoveling the sidewalk in front of his house, which happened to be on a main street. At the same time, of course, the city snowplows were doing what they should do. They were busily moving the snow that was clogging those main streets, and that's when it happened. Are you guessing? Somehow it was captured on video for all of us news watchers to see. The snowplow roared past the man on the sidewalk, showered him with this heavy shower of snow spraying out either side, and literally buried Mr. Shoveler in a sudden avalanche from the street and from the sky. The snowplow plowed onward, and the operator never even knew what he had done. Thankfully, the man on the sidewalk was able to dig out unharmed, but he was stunned. After all, snowplows are for unburying streets, not burying people. Right?
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When our daughter was little, one of her favorite books was Misty of Chincoteague. Now, if you haven't read that classic, let me bring you up-to-date. Chincoteague is an island off the eastern shore of Virginia. And it's known for these beautiful white ponies. They're wild ponies, and that's who Misty was-one of those wild ponies.
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The funeral plans for Matt were in the works. The Park Service had announced that Matt was one of five people who had been killed in a plane crash on a mountainside in Montana. The funeral never happened. Suddenly, Matt's bereaved parents heard the stunning news: although he had been badly injured, their son, along with one other Forest Service worker, had just been rescued alive, miles from the crash site. Rescue workers at the scene of the crash had concluded that the charred wreckage and the scattered human remains indicated that the crash had been "un-survivable." But amazingly, Matt and his fellow worker hiked for 29 hours, often in subfreezing temperatures, until they reached a highway where a motorist picked them up. One news magazine called it, "A Miracle in the Snows of Montana" (Newsweek, October 4, 2004).
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I never had a sister, but my sons have one, which means I have a daughter. Now, our oldest son is two years younger than our daughter, who is the oldest, but it was interesting to see as I watched their relationship what I had missed growing up. Oh, there was a lot of kidding around; the kids called it "busting." They had some exciting disagreements growing up because, well, they're two very different people.
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It was Christmas Eve a long time ago, and we got an emergency S.O.S. phone call from a school principal that we knew in Patterson, New Jersey. She actually had promised to supply Christmas toys for some of her students who were burned out families, and I think at that time Patterson was one of the arson capitols of the country. Actually, she had come up short and it was Christmas Eve. So - this emergency call was asking if we could help.
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I don't think this is going to come as a news flash to anybody who's been around very long, but the differences between men and women aren't just biological. For example, the difference between how a man and woman tell a story or relate an incident. The man sort of skims the surface; gives you the 30,000 feet view of things, and usually he can't even remember a lot of details. I often had to ask my wife, "When did that happen? Where were we? Who were we with again?"
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Men and women are different. Aren't you glad you're listening today? Now, that is not exactly news worth tuning in for, but trying to understand those differences, oh we could talk about that for a long time. For example, one of those differences shows up when I can remember my wife and I were driving long distances across this country. I can sum up the difference pretty succinctly. She wanted to stop and see things; I wanted to get there! My honey would see signs for an interesting attraction or the kind of store she liked and she'd suggest we stop and check it out. Not me. Hey, we have a destination. We've got to get to it girl! Who wants to waste time along the way? Guy-think!
