Sack Lunches

I think that either I or someone has sent this on in the past.  Always a very good one!

Sack Lunches

I put my carry-on in the luggage compartment and sat down in my assigned
seat. It was going to be a long flight. 'I'm
glad I have a good book to read. Perhaps I will
get a short nap,' I thought.
Just before take-off, a line of soldiers came down the aisle and
filled all the vacant seats, totally surrounding
me. I decided to start a conversation.
'Where are you headed?' I asked the soldier seated nearest to
me. 'Petawawa. We'll be there for two
weeks for special training, and then we're being
deployed to Afghanistan 
After flying for about an hour, an announcement was
made that sack lunches were available for five
dollars. It would be several hours before we
reached the east, and I quickly
decided a lunch
would help pass the time...
As I reached for my wallet, I overheard a soldier ask his buddy if
he planned to buy lunch. 'No, that seems
like a lot of money for just a sack lunch.
Probably wouldn't be worth five bucks.
I'll wait till we get to base.'
His friend agreed.
I looked around at the
other soldiers. None were buying lunch. I walked
to the back of the plane and handed the flight
attendant a fifty dollar bill. 'Take a
lunch to all those soldiers.' She grabbed my
arms and squeezed tightly. Her eyes wet with
tears, she thanked me. 'My son was a soldier in
Iraq ; it's almost like you are doing it for him.'
Picking up ten sacks, she headed up the aisle to where the
soldiers were seated. She stopped at my seat and
asked, 'Which do you like best - beef or
chicken?' 'Chicken,' I replied,
wondering why she asked. She turned and went to
the front of plane, returning a minute later
with a dinner plate from first class.
'This is your thanks.'
After we finished eating, I went again to the back of the plane,
heading for the rest room.
A man stopped me. 'I saw what you did. I want to
be part of it. Here, take this.' He handed me
twenty-five dollars.
Soon after I returned
to my seat, I saw the Flight Captain coming down
the aisle, looking at the aisle numbers as he
walked, I hoped he was not looking for me, but
noticed he was looking at the numbers only on my
side of the plane. When he got to my row he
stopped, smiled, held out his hand and said, 'I
want to shake your hand.' Quickly unfastening my
seatbelt I stood and took the
Captain's hand.
With a booming voice he said, 'I was a soldier
and I was a military pilot. Once, someone bought
me a lunch. It was an act of kindness I never
forgot.' I was embarrassed when applause was
heard from all of the passengers.
Later I walked to the
front of the plane so I could stretch my legs. A
man who was seated about six rows in front of me
reached out his hand, wanting to shake mine. He
left another twenty-five dollars in my palm.
When we landed I
gathered my belongings and started to deplane.
Waiting just inside the airplane door was a man
who stopped me, put something in my shirt
pocket, turned, and walked away without saying a
word. Another twenty-five dollars!
Upon entering the
terminal, I saw the soldiers gathering for their
trip to the base.
I walked over to
them and handed them seventy-five dollars. 'It
will take you some time to reach the base.
It will be about time for a sandwich.
God Bless You.'
Ten young men left that flight feeling the love and
respect of their fellow travelers.
As I walked briskly to
my car, I whispered a prayer for their safe
return. These soldiers were giving their all for
our country. I could only give them a couple of
meals. It seemed so little...
A veteran is someone
who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank
check made payable to 'citizens of United States '
for an amount of 'up to and
including my life.'
That is Honour, and
there are way too many people in this country
who no longer understand it.'

William Pitts

Bread, Butter and Cheese

How delicious would it be to get up in the morning and have a sandwich made of bread, butter and cheese! These must be the thoughts of those who have gone to bed hungry the previous night with the hope that they would taste something better the following morning. Yet, in some parts of the world the good things are throw into the dustbin after one has been satiated with the goodies.

Twenty five per cent of the world’s population use more than seventy per cent of the world’s resources irrespective of the country they come from but the lion share of which is from the developed countries. The other seventy five per cent have to make do on the thirty per cent left over.

These statistics can only tell you one thing – what a mad rush their may be among the seventy five per cent to get that thirty per cent resources. What a disparity between the two? The haves and the have-nots. Yet, the two have to bear the burden equally and at times it is the majority lot.

This is because they have already built their bastions of security. When we see the torments of nature unleashing its terror, the vivid images of the less fortunate hit the screen of our television. So many thousands killed in the storm. Aid is hard to reach these unfortunate many. The fortunate few hardly ever see the real thing expect as vicarious spectators on the flat screen.

The damage is done due the smaller consuming lot and the brunt is being borne by the unfortunate many. That is the ignominy of it. Consumerism is tearing the global apart not only on the pangs of hunger but also helping to accelerate the process to greater heights where more and more are falling into the trap of dreaming of bread, butter and cheese the previous night.

Even in the most poorest of the poor country, you would be surprised to see wealth being flaunted to the extremes where it is impossible to imagine that that is a poor country. That is because the poor of the country live like rats in a hole serving their masters to make more wealth of their poverty. Wealth can expand vast portions only to obliterate the truth of poverty.

They spend ten times more that what the poor might earn in a month. They have water to keep their gardens lush green where the poor cannot get water to serve their basic needs. That is the true story. They have cars from which the metal and others in it are dug up from the boughs of the earth causing the torment to earth just to unleash the brute force of her terror and the poor and the poverty stricken have to bear the consequence.

While he and his family is protected in the castle they have built off the wealth of the poor and using it to cause damage and harm to me by his detrimental action. Is this what we call human rights where one has the right to cause harm to another via his actions? Oh! It is not a seen action for it to be call a violation of human rights. There is something very funny in the way we try to justify our logic to our action. It depends all on who you are on this earth or else you do not matter. You are a person of insignificance. That is what the vast majority of the seventy five per cent that go to bed dreaming of bread, butter and cheese.

Time will come when this wrong is corrected if not then the action of the few will have a consequence will pay out in the future where even the built bastions will suffice to protect one from the fury of nature. The earth is heading into a catastrophe in all arenas of human suffering where the ultimate goal is the annihilation of it.

Steven William Pitts

An Unearthly Figure

Many a men are distorted beyond recognition that they can be referred to an unearthly figures. It is a sad case with such people as like an alien from outer space, they are not able to live a proper earthly life like a normal human being.

Why is the nature of man so? This is because man likes to see what is appealing to his senses and if it is not so, he tries his best to the sight out of his vision as it disturbs him mentally same as the sight of worms and all the ugly creatures of the earth. He believes that they have no place on earth.

Sadly most of what he takes as something not in his liking is essential for the proper function of the earth just as this unearthly figure might be. We should not disregard any people however diminutive he might be as each one of us a part to play in this big wide world.

In fact some of these unearthly figures have contributed tremendously towards the betterment of humanity. Take the likes of Stephen Hawkings. With all his drawbacks he was able to achieve wonders in the field of physics. He made us understand the true value of time and the big wide infinity of space.

We at times feel revulsive at the rag-pickers who fossick for things of value to them. If it were not for them, then the earth would have piled up with scrap polluting the earth more than it is presently. They do a big job for us in their filthy state. No man on this earth is without value. I believe the further down the hierarchy one might be in the social order he is, the more valuable he is to humanity.

It is those who are higher up in the social ladder are the pariah of society not because they have been ostracized from society, but because they take more of the earthly resources then the ones lower down the social ladder. Yet, they believe that they are the might gods that the rest of society has to condescend to.

There were only a few that stooped lower enough to reach out to the unearthly figure. One among the few was Mother Teresa. Even though, I have no religious faith but when it comes to her, it brings a tear to my eye. As a human she is one what we can call so.

Humans are hypocritical in behaviour as it is their belief that their salvation can be bought with wealth. They donate heavily which may help to alleviate a part of human suffering, but they do not go down to the level of giving comfort to the unearthly figure. They just think that by their money which is a just as a faction of what they really have, that they have done their human job on earth. They have bought nirvana.

A peasant does just the same. Many religious text have such anecdotes for moral lessons. The bible, the Puranas and even the Koran but I shall stick to the Hindu religious text. The Hindu God Shiva had a stack of disciples and one among them was an over smart young sage.

One day he told the lord that he was the most holy figure among men. The lord refuted him by saying that he wasn’t but in fact he was the most lazy, just taking pretence of being a holy. The sage countered the lord as to how could he say when he had the name of the lord every moment of the day, right from the time he opened his eye to the moment he shut it.

The lord said no the farmer was a thousand times more holy than he was. The sage totally disagreed. So the lord had to teach him a lesson and bring him down to earth. He told him use the name the lord as much as you want and return to me after a month and let me known the effects of being too holy.

The sage left for the tour of earth uttering the name of the lord to show how holy he was. He shouted the name of the lord expecting food but each human said, “Why you lazy fellow, we do not get enough ourselves and you with your healthy limbs can tilt the earth for yourself. Be off!” And so for a month, he did not get a morsel to earth and landed back in the audience of the lord, thin and frail.

The lord asked him how was being too holy was like. He was too weak to even acknowledge. The lord told him then, that the poor peasant just uttered his name only twice a day, once after getting up and before going to bed. He had to provide for himself and his family. He had more pressing matters at hand than to be too patronizing.

The earth is given and when you have time doing good for the unearthly figures is your duty as I as a god cannot make all men accordingly so I have left it to the high and mighty to do their part.

I believe that if you want to be remember in the modern age you must do for the unearthly figures by stooping to that level not by your wealth but by your deeds. Then you can expect to be in the favour of humans.

Steven William Pitts