Who Packs Your Parachute?
Saw this and it's some food for thought, enjoy!
Charlie Plumb graduated from the Naval Academy at Annapolis. He
went on to fly the F-4 Phantom jet on 74 successful combat missions in Vietnam. On his
75th mission, with only five days before he was to return home,
he was shot down, captured, tortured, and imprisoned in an 8 x 8 foot cell. He spent the
next 2,103 days in communist prison camps.... almost 6 years.
During his imprisonment, he distinguished himself among his fellow
prisoners as a professional in underground communications. 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, each time, holding in his hands 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.
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.
As you go through this week, this month, this year, take a moment
now and then to recognize people who pack your parachute.
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We call it suicide stew because it gives us such horrible heartburn/indigestion. I think it's the onion soup mix! I actually take a Pepcid about 30 minutes before I eat it, and dahubby washes it down with Mylanta!!
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