The Creightons were very proud of their son Frank. When he went to college, naturally they missed him; but he wrote and they looked forward to his letters and saw him on weekends. Then Frank was drafted into the army.
After he had been in the army about 5 months, he received his call to go to Vietnam. Of course, the parents anxiety for his first letter was greater than ever before. And every week they heard from him and were thankful for his well-being. Then one week went by without a letter – two weeks – and finally three. At the end of the third week a telegram came, saying, “We regret to inform your that your son has been missing for three weeks and is presumed to have been killed in action while fighting for his country.
The parents were shocked and grieved. They tried to accept the situation and go on living, but it was tragically lonesome without Frank.
About three weeks later, however, the phone rang. When Mrs. Creighton answered it, a voice on the other end said, Mother it’s Frank. They found me, and I’m going to be all right. I am in the United States and I am coming home soon.
Mrs. Creighton was overjoyed, with tears running down her cheeks she sobbed, Oh, that’s wonderful ! That’s just wonderful, Frank. There was silence for a moment, and then Frank said, Mother I want to ask you something that is important to me. While I have been here, I have met a lot of wonderful people and I have really become close friends with some. There is one fellow I would like to bring home with me to meet you and Dad. And I would like to know if it would be all right if he could stay and live with us, because he has no place to go.
His mother assured him it would be all right.
Then Frank said “ You see, he wasn’t as lucky as some; he was injured in battle. He was hit by a blast and his face is all disfigured. He lost his leg, and his right hand is missing. So you see, he feels uneasy about how others will accept him.
Frank’s mother stopped to think a minute. She began to wonder how things would work out, and what people in town would think of someone like that. She said “Sure Frank, you bring him home for a visit, that is We would love to meet him and have him stay for a while; but about him staying with us permanently well, we’ll have to think about that. There was silence for a minute, and then Frank said Okay, Mother and hung up.
A week went by without any word from Frank, and then a telegram arrived “ We regret to inform you that your son has taken his life. We would like you to come and identify the body.
Their wonderful son was gone. The horror stricken parents could only ask themselves “ why had he done this ? When they walked in the room to identify the body of their son, they found a young man with a disfigured face, one leg missing, and his right hand gone.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
making a difference ^^
My friend was walking down a deserted Mexican beach at sunset.
As he walked along, he began to see another man in the distance.
As he grew nearer, he noticed that the local native kept leaning down, picking something up and throwing it out into the water.
Time and again he kept hurling things out into the ocean.
As my friend approached even closer, he noticed that the man was picking up starfish that had washed up on the beach, and, one at a time, he was throwing them back into the water.
My friend was puzzled.
He approached the man and said. "Good evening, friend. I was wondering what you are doing."
"I’m throwing these starfish back into the ocean. You see its low tide right now and all of these starfish have been washed up onto the shore.
If I don’t throw them back into the sea, they’ll die up here from lack of oxygen."
"I understand," my friend replied, "but there must be thousands of starfish on this beach.
You can’t possibly get to all of them.
There are simply too many.
And don’t you realize this is probably happening on hundreds of beaches all up and down this coast.
Can’t you see that you can’t possibly make a difference?"
The local native smiled, bent down and picked up yet another starfish, and as he threw it back into the sea, he replied,
"Made a difference to that one!"
As he walked along, he began to see another man in the distance.
As he grew nearer, he noticed that the local native kept leaning down, picking something up and throwing it out into the water.
Time and again he kept hurling things out into the ocean.
As my friend approached even closer, he noticed that the man was picking up starfish that had washed up on the beach, and, one at a time, he was throwing them back into the water.
My friend was puzzled.
He approached the man and said. "Good evening, friend. I was wondering what you are doing."
"I’m throwing these starfish back into the ocean. You see its low tide right now and all of these starfish have been washed up onto the shore.
If I don’t throw them back into the sea, they’ll die up here from lack of oxygen."
"I understand," my friend replied, "but there must be thousands of starfish on this beach.
You can’t possibly get to all of them.
There are simply too many.
And don’t you realize this is probably happening on hundreds of beaches all up and down this coast.
Can’t you see that you can’t possibly make a difference?"
The local native smiled, bent down and picked up yet another starfish, and as he threw it back into the sea, he replied,
"Made a difference to that one!"
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