DAKAR – About 150 communities in Guinea collectively abandoned the practice of female genital cutting – a landmark declaration in a country where more than 97 percent of women have undergone the ritual. Other countries are similarly abandoning the tradition…
Giving a Break to Hassled Customer Service People
I was recently traveling during bad weather that had caused cancellations of many flights. I was sitting by the gate, having already changed my ticket and was watching the unfortunate airline rep at the gate counter. She was being bombarded by people who seemed to assume that the poor weather and flight cancellations were her fault. Each one in turn laid all of their grief on her and I could see she was being pushed to the brink…
A little ah-ha light bulb flashed in my mind and since I am apt to follow my instinct, I stood up and took my place in the line of ornery people intent on sharing their bad day with her.
I patiently waited my turn and when I was finally standing in front of her, her weary eyes looked up to me, her forehead creased with stress and she asked “May I help you, sir?” I said “Yes you can”.
I then suggested that she act busy while I spoke to her. I told her I stood in line to give her a 5 minute break. While she typed (I have no idea what she typed), I explained to her that while all of these people were intent on ruining her day, the fact that she had other people in her life that really cared about her and that she had passions in her life that gave her life meaning was far more important than what was happening here today. In circumspect, what was happening here wasn’t important and shouldn’t stress her out.
We chatted back and forth for a few minutes as she continued to look busy. After seeing her regain her composure, I knew she had to get back to her work and I wished her a great day, telling her it was time for the next customer.
She looked up at me and I could see that her eyes were slightly welling up. “Thank you so much”, she said, “I don’t know how to thank you for this”. I smiled and told her the best way to thank me was to pass on the kindness to someone else when she had the chance.
If you ever find yourself faced with a similar opportunity to give someone a break and a minute to recharge, you might think of this story. Take care and be well. Harry
New Orleans Lifted by Cinderella Saints’ Miracle Football
In their hour of greatest need, New Orleans is lifted by their National Football team, the Saints, who head to the championship playoffs! "The team spirit is captured in players such as receiver Marques Colston, who, after scoring a touchdown doesn’t celebrate, but gently hands the ball to the official. Coach Payton has rewarded the team’s spirit of selflessness by spreading the ball around to a variety of players, often leaving defenses dazed and confused." (CS Monitor)
Gratitude: Becoming Grateful Enough to Miss the Negative
Most of us live in a part of the world blessed with abundance on every level – food, water, shelter, life’s frills, employment opportunities, and nature’s beauty. Who could deny that we aren’t incredibly blessed?
Who hasn’t walked into a supermarket at some point and looked around in wonder and gratitude for the incredible blessings of abundance found there. We not only have our choice of what we want but in many variations and infinite quantity. We have what 85% of the world cannot even dream of.
Yet there are people out there who complain about this, that, or the other thing. It is my experience that the people who complain the most haven’t experienced the rest of the world, which they perceive as so much better — the classic, “the grass is always greener on the other side”. Perhaps if they saw more of the world, they would appreciate what they have.
If you listen to the talk radio programs, you would swear that where we live is a place filled with political corruption, incompetence, oppression, lost opportunity, unacceptable healthcare and a hopeless education system. You name it and we suffer from it. Yet, if we could somehow send those people to another part of the world, I don’t think it would take long before they came to appreciate this beautiful place that we call home. That’s not to say everything is perfect – but we have a pretty good head start.
A Man Who Never Complained
He was considered by many to be of pure spirit. By pure in spirit, I mean that he saw the best in every situation and looked for the best in every person he ever met. When a negative situation was put in front of him, he was incapable of seeing anything negative, no matter how it appeared to others. His mind was focused on seeing the beauty in everything and anything that didn’t fit his perception of beauty and wonder in life was literally invisible to him. To give you an idea of how he literally couldn’t see that which didn’t fit his outlook, allow me to share a short story.
For fun one time, we put a small porno movie in the upper corner of the software application we were building and we asked him to review our software to find a “problem” that we had discovered. As he stared at all the screens, we stood behind him almost shaking with laughter, waiting for him to see the movie. All of a sudden he turned around with pride and said, pointing to the screen, “this word is not spelled correctly”. He was right. He never even noticed the porn movie until we pointed it out and then we all had a good laugh.
Losing Didn’t Matter, People Did
We organized a corporate chess tournament and he signed up with many others. It wasn’t until the tournament started that I discovered that he didn’t even know how to play the game. So we patiently taught him. Despite our best efforts, he was soundly trounced in every game.
I noticed that the more soundly he was beaten, the more he laughed. At one point, I took him aside and congratulated him for such a healthy outlook and I asked him how he was able to be so happy as he was beaten over and over.
His response summed up thankfulness perfectly. He told me that he didn’t care about winning or losing. Spending time in the chess tournament was his way of learning something new and spending quality time with people he enjoyed and respected. He also enjoyed taking his chess stories home and sharing them with his wife. This, he said, was the secret of life – making the most out of every moment and appreciating every opportunity.
On the morning of September 11, 2001, Narender was on the impact floor of the north tower of the World Trade Center. A person who lived such a pure, positive life was physically taken from us.
For about a week afterward, we struggled with trying to understand the meaning of this, how something like this could happen to someone we considered a perfect human being. I then realized that I wasn’t going to remember Narender in the way he died – it was how he lived that was important for his memory.
So we organized an annual charity chess tournament and named it in his honor. To enter the tournament, players pays an entry fee and name a children’s charity that they are playing for. Players from around the world have competed. The top 4 players in the tournament divide 100% of the prize pool between their charities. Since then, our tournament has donated thousands of dollars to children’s charities. Narender’s spirit of eternal thankfulness continues to make a difference every year in the lives of sick and needy children.
Narender’s attitude was that we should accept that life is filled with good and bad. It’s how thankful we are for everything we’re given, and what we do with that which we are given, that determines the quality of our life and the lives of those around us. He was right. Take care and be well.
-Harry Tucker
Havana’s Operation Miracle Helps the Blind See Again
"I can see again," shouted a newspaper headline describing Cuba's new "Operation Miracle." The brainchild of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Cuban President Fidel Castro, this extraordinary humanitarian program has restored sight to 100,000 patients from poor villages of Central and South America. It offers free treatment while delivering successful eye operations. (Scotsman)
This Bicycle Can Charge a Cellphone
Motorola Inc. will release a new, bicycle-powered cellphone charger aimed at Third World residents who lack regular household power supplies. (Canada.com)
Pastor Answers Prayer by Donating his Kidney
Harold Bricker’s rare O-positive blood type made an organ donation nearly impossible. Yet, when he finally released his anxiety about waiting with 60,000 other patients for a new kidney, and "turned it over to the Lord," he received what his prayers had not until then provided. Without even publicizing his plight, he was approached by a local pastor… (photo and story in The Record Herald)
4 Contest Winners from GNN!
We surged past the 1,000 mark for registered users and now announce our four winners. I welcome all who joined the network and urge you to use your features as members, leaving comments for the stories that move you — or disturb you… Congratulations to Christopher Powers of Minneapolis, Minnesota, who was our 1000th member! Also winners were Bob Dean of Biloxi, Mississippi, Rose Zealous of Los Angeles, California, and Sandy Sanderson of Canada. WooHoo!… (Read more for details)
Canada Court Says Child Can Have 2 Moms, 1 Dad
Interesting news to me, and, it seems, good news for a 5-year-old Canadian boy who will benefit from a judge’s ruling that says he can legally have two mothers and a father. (Reuters)
Guinea Pig Saves Choking Dog at Shelter
"Snowball, an albino Guinea pig at the Humane Society shelter of Harrisburg, is being called a hero in the rescue of a choking pit bull-mix puppy." In Harrisburg, PA, a “resident” guinea pig at the West Shore shelter of the Humane Society saved the life of a choking puppy by alerting staff members. They heard frantic squealing and shuffling from the cage of Snowball, an albino guinea pig that shared a hallway with Bianca, a deaf white pit bull mixed puppy. When staff arrived, they discovered that Bianca had tried to escape her crate by wedging her head through the door. When she became caught, she started choking and struggling to remain conscious.
Bianca was quickly released from the crate door and is now fine. “The dog got lots of hugs, gave us lots of kisses, and the hero enjoyed two carrots,” said Claudi Luci, an HSHA volunteer.
Sharpshooter Frees Trapped Eagle with One Shot
Biologists who gathered on the shore with binoculars could see the reason for the eagle hanging from a tree and over a cliff. Its talon was stuck in a knothole…. (AP)
Woman Nursing Abused Lions Back to Health
This AP story features a photo of a huge lion planting a big kiss onto the lips of a Columbian woman who rescued him from abuse and continues caring for him alongside a menagerie of other animals at her Villa Lorena shelter for injured and mistreated animals in Chile. (read the story)
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The True Angel of Africa
Sonia Waters has “a salutary lesson for anyone who has felt helpless in the face of extreme poverty and deprivation, who feels the problem is simply too big and any one individual too small to change anything…”
Sonia’s “kitchen table charity” has raised funds from family and friends to provide a poor village in Malawi with a primary school (equipped with books, pencils, and a daily meal for all pupils); a new kindergarten and playground; a village vegetable garden, a goat-keeping enterprise and a women’s co-operative. (UK Daily Express)
Alpha Achievers Celebrate Decade of Success for Young Black Men
Alpha Achievers are celebrating 10 years of encouraging academic excellence among ethnic minority male high school students in Howard County, Maryland. The program was started by the historically black fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha, whose efforts have led to reductions in school drop out rates and teenage pregnancy among black youth…
The Baltimore Sun reports:
“It took some time to change the mindset that it wasn’t cool to do well in school,” said an assistant principal at Oakland Mills High School. “Now we have men of color striving to get into the Alpha Achievers.”
The school’s 100 Alpha Achievers are bonded by community service, a code of conduct, a consistent grade point average of 3.0 and above, taking honors, Advanced Placement and gifted-and-talented courses, and social events:
The group’s annual calendar — in which members pose in tuxedos — has become a tradition, with proceeds paying for college scholarships, field trips and operating costs. (Baltimore Sun)
US Congress Tackles Earmark Spending
Within hours of being sworn in, the new leadership in the US House of Representatives tackled one of the biggest ethics concerns in Congress, earmarks. The pet projects and tax breaks for favored corporations can no longer be snuck into spending bills without a congressman’s name attached. A good way to set higher standards in government. (MCT News Service)
NYC Subway Hero Pulls Youth Under the Train to Save Their Lives
A NYC man’s quick-thinking saved a teen and himself as he dove onto the tracks of an oncoming subway train to rescue the boy who’d fallen ill from the platform. Wesley Autrey became America’s most famous hero of 2007, a few days after the year began, by pulling himself and the boy into the center trough which gave them just enough clearance to avoid the train.
(WATCH the Video below…)
SHARE the inspiring hero story…
Dwindling White Congregation Gives Church to Blacks
A "dying" Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala, which had dwindled to about 40 elderly white people, decided to give their church and everything in it — including the cemetery and the 9-foot-Steinway concert grand piano — to a thriving predominantly black Baptist congregation started in 2003 that had no building to call its own. (Religion News Service) Thanks to SG for the suggestion! (John Malcomson sent another link with a photo of the two pastors! Alabama Baptist)
Firefighters Save Exhausted Horse From Mud Pit
"A frightened horse was comforted by firefighters in Oregon who administered oxygen and used portable lamps to warm the shivering animal as they fashioned a sling and used manpower to pull her from a mudhole." (story includes multiple photos and video: KOMO)
Zoo Animals Enjoy Feast of Christmas Trees
Leftover Christmas trees are fed to elephants, camels, deer, and sheep in a traditional New Year feast at Germany’s Dresden Zoo. This AP photo of a baby elephant eating its Christmas tree is sweet…
Worldwide Air Crashes in 2006 Lowest in 53 Years
Air travel is getting safer as the number of plane crashes worldwide fell to its lowest level in 53 years during 2006. Even while air travel increased by 4 percent over the previous year, 22 fewer commercial flights ended in disaster.
