Wet Pants and Virtue

"Come with me to a third-grade classroom. There is a nine-year-old kid sitting at his desk and all of a sudden, there is a puddle between his feet and the front of his pants are wet. He thinks his heart is going to stop because he cannot possibly imagine how this has happened. It's never happened before, and he knows that when the boys find out he will never hear the end of it. When the girls find out, they'll never speak to him again as long as he lives.

The boy believes his heart is going to stop; he puts his head down and prays this prayer, "Dear God, this is an emergency! I need help now! Five minutes from now I'm dead meat."

Justice Served

A car on the 65 miles-per-hour freeway blows past as if you were walking.  Weaving in and out of traffic you lose sight of him.  Three miles down the road, flashing blue and red lights allow you to see the culprit sitting on the side of the road, window down while a trooper is furiously writing in a ticket-book.

It’s over, the final exam complete.  Across the aisle, sits that one guy who has copied and plagiarized his way through assignments and weekly lectures, assuming he showed up at all.  But, the final was a surprise.  It wasn’t a memory test at all – it was an essay.  If you didn’t know the concepts, you weren’t going to pass.  The slacker didn’t know the concepts.

A co-worker, recognized as being very political, throws people under the bus in a manner less hobby than business strategy.  She’s successfully crawled up the ladder with innuendo, misinformation and manipulation.  When they announce the new Vice-president of sales, you expect to hear her name – that’s just the way things happen.  But today, this position has been filled by someone you know to be a person of honor and integrity with a deep seated attitude of caring. Smugly, you look across the room at your co-worker.  That look on her face?  Priceless!

By Virtue of That Bond

Designated Survivor 
Season 2, Episode 1: “One Year In”

Catastrophe averted.
Hard work praised.
President Kirkman (Kiefer Sutherland) addresses his staff.

"Everyone, if I could just have your attention, please.
I just wanted to take a moment and thank you for your hard work today.
We managed to avoid an international crisis, and we saved a lot of lives.

But I, uh, I didn't get everyone home, though.

As some of you might know already, I had a friend on that plane, one of the two people who were killed. He dedicated his life to helping other people. Not for fortune or fame, but because whenever he saw pain, he would have to do whatever he could to try and ease it.

Holocaust Survivor

Zahava Rendler

I've read news articles about Holocaust Survivors speaking at schools.  I wondered what it would be like to hear first-hand stories of the darkest days in human history.

This week, I heard that Zahava Rendler would be speaking at a nearby Kentucky library the next evening.  I made it in time to be in the front row of a very crowded meeting room.  A short video was played before the speaker began.  I was already disappointed.  Anticipating that I would be hearing the life-experience of a survivor, I had imagined a story of brutal incarceration with the eventual day of freedom followed by a new life with a bright future.