A little contribution

A group of children were playing near two railway tracks, one still in use
while the other disused. Only one child played on the disused track, the
rest on the operational track.

The train is coming, and you are just beside the track interchange. You can
make the train change its course to the disused track and save most of the
kids. However, that would also mean the lone child playing by the disused
track would be sacrificed. Or would you rather let the train go its way?

Let's take a pause to think what kind of decision we could
make.



Most people might choose to divert the course of the train, and sacrifice
only one child. You might think the same way, I guess. Exactly, to save
most of the children at the expense of only one child was rational decision
most people would make, morally and emotionally. But, have you ever thought
that the child choosing to play on the disused track had in fact made the
right decision to play at a safe place?

Nevertheless, he had to be sacrificed because of his ignorant friends who
chose to play where the danger was. This kind of dilemma happens around us
everyday. In the office, community, in politics and especially in a
democratic society, the minority is often sacrificed for the interest of
the majority, no matter how foolish or ignorant the majority are, and how
farsighted and knowledgeable the minority are. The child who chose not to
play with the rest on the operational track was sidelined. And in the case
he was sacrificed, no one would shed a tear for him.

The great critic Leo Velski Julian who told the story said he would not try
to change the course of the train because he believed that the kids playing
on the operational track should have known very well that track was still
in use, and that they should have run away if they heard the train's
sirens. If the train was diverted, that lone child would definitely die
because he never thought the train could come over to that track! Moreover,
that track was not in use probably because it was not safe. If the train
was diverted to the track, we could put the lives of all passengers on
board at stake! And in your attempt to save a few kids by sacrificing one
child, you might end up sacrificing hundreds of people to save these few
kids.

While we are all aware that life is full of tough decisions that need to be
made, we may not realize that hasty decisions may not always be the right
one.

'Remember that what's right isn't always popular... and what's popular
isn't always right.'

Everybody makes mistakes; that's why they put erasers on pencils.

Something that really did change my life ... touching



TWO GLASSES OF WINE

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle,
when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and
the 2 glasses of wine theory...

A professor stood before his philosophy class with some
items on his desk in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly,
he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill
it with golf balls.

He then asked the students if the jar was full. They
agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured
them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into
the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if
the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it
into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked
once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous
'YES.'

The professor then produced two glasses of wine from
under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar,
effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.

'Now,' said the professor, as the laughter subsided, 'I
want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf
balls are the important things; your family, your children, your health,
your friends, and your favorite passions; things that if everything else
was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.

The pebbles are the other things that matter like your
job, your house, and your car. The sand is everything else; the small
stuff.

If you put the sand into the jar first', he continued,
'there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for
life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you
will never have room for the good things that are important to you.
Pay attention to the things that are critical to your
happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups.
Take your partner out to dinner. Play another 18 holes. Do one more
run down the ski slope. There will always be time to clean the house and
fix the disposal. Take care of the golf balls first; the things that
really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.'

One of the students raised her hand and
inquired what the wine represented.

The professor smiled. 'I'm glad you asked. It
just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem,
there's always room for a couple of glasses of wine with a friend.'

Of Sand and Stones...


There is a story of two friends who were walking through a desert. At a certain point of the journey they had an argument, and one friend slapped the other one right across the face. The one who got slapped was very hurt, but without saying anything, wrote in the sand: "Today my closest friend slapped me."

The two friends kept on walking until they found an oasis, where they decided to go into the water. The one, who had been slapped, got stuck in the mire and started drowning, but his friend saved him. After the friend recovered from near drowning, he carved out on a stone: "Today my closest friend saved my life."

The friend who had slapped and saved his best friend asked him, "After I hurt you, you wrote in the sand and now, you write on a stone, why?"

The other friend replied: "When someone hurts us, we should write it down in sand where winds of forgiveness can erase it away. But, when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever erase it."


Just a reminder that we should not hold on to grudges but instead to never forget those who have helped us.

Cheers.

RED MARBLES

I was at the corner grocery store buying some early potatoes.

I noticed a small boy, delicate of bone and feature, ragged but clean, hungrily apprizing a basket of freshly picked green peas.

I paid for my potatoes, but was also drawn to the display of fresh green peas.

I am a pushover for creamed peas and new potatoes. Pondering the peas, I couldn't help overhearing the conversation between Mr. Miller (the store owner) and the ragged boy next to me.

'Hello Barry, how are you today?'

'H'lo, Mr. Miller. Fine, thank ya. Jus' admirin' them peas. They sure look good.'

'They are good, Barry. How's your Ma?'

'Fine. Gittin' stronger alla' time.'

'Good. Anything I can help you with?'

'No, Sir. Jus' admirin' them peas.'

'Would you like take some home?' asked Mr. Miller.

'No, Sir. Got nuthin' to pay for 'em with.'

'Well, what have you to trade me for some of those peas?'

'All I got's my prize marble here.'

'Is that right? Let me see it' said Miller.

'Here 'tis. She's a dandy.'

'I can see that. Hmmmmm, only thing is this one is blue and I sort of go for red. Do you have a red one like this at home?' the store owner asked.

'Not zackley but almost.'

'Tell you what. Take this sack of peas home with you and next trip this way let me look at that red marble', Mr. Miller told the boy.

'Sure will. Thanks Mr. Miller.'

Mrs. Miller, who had been standing nearby, came over to help me.

With a smile said, 'There are two other boys like him in our community, all three are in very poor circumstances. Jim just loves to bargain with them for peas, apples, tomatoes, or whatever.

When they come back with their red marbles, and they always do, he decides he doesn't like red after all and he sends them home with a bag of produce for a green marble or an orange one, when they come on their next trip to the store.'

I left the store smiling to myself, impressed with this man.

A short time later I moved to Colorado , but I never forgot the story of this man, the boys, and their bartering for marbles.

Several years went by, each more rapid than the previous one.

Just recently I had occasion to visit some old friends in that Idaho community and while I was there learned that Mr. Miller had died..

They were having his visitation that evening and knowing my friends wanted to go, I agreed to accompany them.

Upon arrival at the mortuary we fell into line to meet the relatives of the deceased and to offer whatever words of comfort we could.

Ahead of us in line were three young men.

One was in an army uniform and the other two wore nice haircuts, dark suits and white shirts...all very professional looking.

They approached Mrs. Miller, standing composed and smiling by her husband's casket.

Each of the young men hugged her, kissed her on the cheek, spoke briefly with her and moved on to the casket.

Her misty light blue eyes followed them as, one by one, each young man stopped briefly and placed his own warm hand over the cold pale hand in the casket.

Each left the mortuary awkwardly, wiping his eyes.

Our turn came to meet Mrs. Miller. I told her who I was and reminded her of the story from those many years ago and what she had told me about her husband's bartering for marbles.

With her eyes glistening, she took my hand and led me to the casket.

'Those three young men who just left were the boys I told you about. They just told me how they appreciated the things Jim 'traded' them.

Now, at last, when Jim could not change his mind about color or size...they came to pay their debt.'

'We've never had a great deal of the wealth of this world,' she confided, 'but right now, Jim would consider himself the richest man in Idaho '.

With loving gentleness she lifted the lifeless fingers of her deceased husband. Resting underneath were three exquisitely shined red marbles.

The Moral: We will not be remembered by our words, but by our kind deeds. Life is not measured by the breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath.

Today I wish you a day of ordinary miracles ~ A fresh pot of coffee you didn't make yourself.

An unexpected phone call from an old friend.

Green stoplights on your way to work.

The fastest line at the grocery store.

A good sing-along song on the radio.

Your keys found right where you left them.

...
It's not what you gather, but what you scatter that tells what kind of life you have lived!

This post has been edited by SilenTz_1993: Aug 5 2008, 05:12 PM

what i'm about to write is not for the lulz.
its something i wake up to every morning as a reminder....


Quote " Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups"

Teamwork - Share victory, share defeat

"Why do we fall, sir? So that we might learn to pick ourselves up."

-Sir Michael Caine,as Alfred Pennyworth.in Batman Begins

"If you are good at something, dun do it for free"

~How Poor We Are~

One day a father, of a very wealthy family, took his son on a trip to the country with the firm purpose of showing his son how poor people can be. They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family.

On their return from the trip, the father asked his son,"How was the trip?"

"It was great Dad!"

"Did you see how poor people can be?" the father asked.

"Oh yeah," said the son.

"So what did you learn from the trip?" asked the father.

The son answered,

"I saw we have one dog and they have four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night. Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon.

We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our sight. We have servants who serve us, but they serve others. We buy our food, but they grow theirs. We have walls around our property to protect us, they have friends to protect them."

With this the boy's father was speechless.

Then his son added,

"Thanks Dad for showing me how poor we are."

As a child gathering pebbles on the shore

I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.

Quote by Sir Isaac Newton

This post has been edited by strife01: Aug 6 2008, 01:27 AM

“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.”

“If you are going through hell, keep going.”

Quotes by Winston Churchill

This post has been edited by Avex: Aug 6 2008, 02:02 AM

At an airport, I overheard a father and his daughter in their last moments together. They had announced her plane's departure and standing near
the door she said, "Daddy, our life together has been more than enough. Your love is all I ever needed. I wish you enough too, Daddy."

They kissed goodbye and she left. He walked over towards the window where I was seated. Standing there I could see he wanted and needed to cry. I tried not to intrude on his privacy, but he welcomed me in by asking, "Did you ever say goodbye to someone knowing it would be forever?" "Yes, I have," I replied.

Saying that brought back memories I had of expressing my love and appreciation for all my Mom had done for me. Recognizing that her days
were limited, I took the time to tell her face to face how much she meant to me. So I knew what this man was experiencing.

"Forgive me for asking, but why is this forever goodbye?" I asked. "I am old and she lives much too far away. I have challenges ahead and the reality is, her next trip back will be for my funeral," he said. "When you were saying goodbye I heard you say, 'I wish you enough'. May I ask what that means?" He began to smile. "That's a wish that has been handed down from other generations. My parents used to say it to everyone."

He paused for a moment and looking up as if trying to remember it in detail, he smiled even more. "When we said, 'I wish you enough,' we were wanting the other person to have a life filled with enough good things to sustain them." He continued and then turning toward me, he shared the following as if he were reciting it from memory:

I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright.
I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun more.
I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive.
I wish you enough pain so that the smallest joys in life appear much bigger.
I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.
I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.
I wish you enough "Hellos" to get you through the final "Goodbye".

He then began to sob and walked away.


I WISH YOU ENOUGH.

A hundred of failures are worth more than a success without failure.

This post has been edited by strife01: Aug 7 2008, 12:35 AM

The Real You

One woman describes herself as "Five feet, three inches tall and pleasingly plump." After she had a minor accident, her mother accompanied her to the hospital emergency room. The admitting nurse asked for her height and weight, and she blurted out, "Five-foot- eight, 125 pounds."

The nurse pondered over this information and looked over the patient. Then the woman's mother leaned over to her and gently chided, "Sweetheart, this is not the Internet."

If you could change your appearance in life as easily as you can make one up on the Internet, would you remake yourself? It's tempting to think so. We live in an age when most of us are increasingly dissatisfied with our bodies. We want liposuction, face lifts, tummy tucks, silicon implants and cosmetic surgery - too often for no other reason than to look like someone else!

And don't think I am only talking about women. Men too place great emphasis on their bodies. Studies show that in 1972, one in six men didn't like their appearance; today, almost 50% of men surveyed reported being unhappy with their looks.

Of course, our bodies keep changing. I have less hair on top than twenty years ago. An older man who happens to be bald looked at my head recently and said, "It looks like you go to the same barber as I do."

According to the book THE ADONIS COMPLEX (The Free Press, 2000), more and more men are feeling insecure about their appearance. In 1996, over 700,000 men had some cosmetic surgery - often in an unhealthy attempt to fix a perceived flaw that nobody else noticed. Eating disorders and steroid abuse are common among males.

The book's authors Harrison Pope, Katharine Phillips, and Robert Olivardia did an experiment in which men were asked to take a computer image of an ordinary man and add muscle mass to him until he was the size these men wanted to be. On average, the men packed about 28 more pounds of muscle mass on the computer image; women, on the other hand, only added a negligible amount of muscles to the image to create their ideal guy.

Poet Khalil Gibran said, "Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart." When you and I choose to believe that our most attractive qualities lie within, we can let go of those unrealistic expectations of our bodies.

Let's care for our bodies; we'll keep them for the rest of our lives. Let's be thankful for them and treat them well.

But remember, the real you, the essence of you, cannot be improved by a bottle or a pill or a salon. It is a beautiful and glorious light shining from your heart to the heart of the world. Cherish the real you - it's pretty terrific. And let it shine.

by Steve Goodier

Hi guys .. 1st of all sorry that I've nothing to share with you guys .. mods feel free to delete if it's inappropriate but I sincerely would like to thank the TS and everyone who contributed.

I'm going tru a hard time and this thread has seriously brighten up my day ... thanks to everyone ... more of this should be going on in LYN .. cheers guys

May life be brighter for everyone here

Edit: Something I've juz camed out with ... it just suddenly crossed my mind ... for those who've just turned from a young adult to a real adult ..

I've forgotten how to be happy, but i've learnt how to be a man - Gymboi

This post has been edited by GymBoi: Aug 9 2008, 12:13 AM

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

-Marianne Williamson