Good People are handy to have around

Charles Plumb was a US Navy pilot in Vietnam. After 75 combat missions,
his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile. Plumb ejected and
parachuted into enemy hands. He was captured and spent 6 years in a
communist Vietnamese prison. 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, "Your Plumb! You flew a 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 shook 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 the man. Plumb kept
wondering what he looked like in his Navy uniform and how many times he
might have seen him and not said anything because Plumb was a fighter
pilot and the parachute packer was just a sailor.
Plumb thought of the man-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, holding in his hands each time
the fate of someone he didn't know.
Since meeting the sailor in the restaurant, Plumb now asks his
audiences, "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. We may
fail to congratulate someone on something wonderful that has happened
to them, give a compliment, or just do something once for no reason.
As you go through this week, this month, this year, recognize people
who pack your parachute. I am sending you this as my way of thanking you
for your part in packing my parachute,
and perhaps you will send it to those who have helped you pack yours.

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