forwarded message from Harry E. Barnett

"Robert J. Brown" (rj@eli.elilabs.com)
Fri, 6 Aug 1999 22:12:45 -0500
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From: "Harry E. Barnett" <harryb@hbbse.com>
To: "Beth Saupe" <bsaupe@prairienet.org>, "Krystl Brown" <kb@eli.elilabs.com>,
        "Robert J. Brown III" <rj@elilabs.com>,
        "Barron E Barnett" <barronb@mail.eskimo.com>,
        "Carolyn A. Barnett" <carolynb@hbbse.com>,
        "Margaret Aigner" <Maggiepie@aol.com>,
        "Donna Biesold" <dbiesold@aol.com>, "Martha Ferong" <marthac@aol.com>,
        "Bonnie LaRue" <bonniel@portoftacoma.com>
Subject: Who Packed Your Parachute?
Date: Fri, 6 Aug 1999 11:20:44 -0700

WHO PACKED YOUR PARACHUTE?

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.

Charles Plumb, a US Naval Academy graduate, was a 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 six 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 might have 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 on 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.

Plumb 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.

His experience reminds us all to prepare ourselves to weather whatever
storms lie ahead. As you go through this week, this month, this year...
recognize people who pack your parachute! All we have we owe to others.