Who's packing your parachute?
Charles Plumb was a US Navy jet 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, "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 had 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 at
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.
Now, Plumb asks his audience, "Who's packing your parachute?"
Everyone has someone who provides what they need to make it through the
day. He 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, recognize people who pack your
parachutes.
I am sending you this as my way of thanking you for your part in
packing my parachute. And I hope you will send it on to those who have
helped pack yours! Sometimes, we wonder why friends keep forwarding
jokes to us without writing a word. Maybe this could explain it: When
you are very busy, but still want to keep in touch, guess what you do
--- you forward jokes. And to let you know that you are still
remembered, you are still important, you are still loved, and you are
still cared for, guess what you get? A forwarded joke. So my friend,
next time when you get a joke, don't think that you've been sent just
another forwarded joke, but that you've been thought of today and your
friend on the other end of your computer wanted to send you a smile,
just helping you pack your parachute.
U.S. Legacies June 2003
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