Airplane Seat Belts

28 05 2008

In my younger years, I thought that seat belts on airplanes were the most pointless things on this planet. I thought that somebody somewhere is getting rich off sealing massive amounts of a product that will never in actuality be used. Why listen to that boring flight attendant’s speech every flight?  

My main argument was that an airplane seat belt was not going to do me any good in a crash. Free-falling thousands of feet extremely rapidly into the traditionally solid earth cannot be contained by a simple seat belt. I mean, come on. There are not any “fender benders” that happen 20,000 feet up in the air without any major consequences.

Let me be the first to say that I was wrong and I am now a fan of the airplane seat belt. Where I still believe that a violent, sudden crash will cause my immediate death with or without my seat belt on (this article disagrees with me), I now believe that there is definitely reason to buckle up.

On my flight last Friday from DFW airport to the Denver airport, the plane suddenly jolted after hitting unexpected turbulence. Now I am not talking about normal turbulence; I am talking LOST Oceanic flight 815 turbulence. I have been on many flights but I have never had the plane jolt and shake as suddenly and as forcefully as it did. It was one of those moments where there were a couple of screams, everybody was fully awake and attentive after that, a few babies and young kids crying, and a plane full of people breathing a collective sigh of relief. I was glad that I had my seat belt on in that moment. 

When the flight attendant came by to see if we were ok, the man sitting beside me asked her if she had another pair of shorts for him.

Lesson learned = wear your seat belt on an airplane.


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Categories : Funny, Life, Random

James 1:27 (Part 2)

28 05 2008

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” - James 1:27

__________________________

This is Miss Patsy’s story…

I met Miss Patsy about the same time that I met Miss Dee. I walked into Miss Patsy’s house with the intention of interviewing her as a candidate for getting her house painted at Sulphur Springs Workcamp.

Miss Patsy greeted me at the door. Her small, frail frame was hidden by the all-of-a-sudden life that had crept into her eyes. I found out that Miss Patsy is 76 years old. She lives alone and has no family in town. She lost her husband years ago and is now a widow. She has three children, but two of them have already passed away. Her living son currently lives near Orlando, Florida, and rarely gets the chance to visit Miss Patsy. She is living well below the poverty line.

The saddest part of this story is that Miss Patsy has severe arthritis and is confined to her home. Due to severe, constant pain, she has not left her house in over three years. Yep, you heard right, three years. She has a nursing service come to her home 1-2 times a week to get her groceries and do light house cleaning.

From June 29-July 2 there will be a group of teenagers and adults at Miss Patsy’s house everyday painting her house and mowing her lawn. She is ecstatic. I think she is happier just to have people around that she can talk to and fix lemonade for a few days rather than getting her house fixed up. Although, she is extremely excited to have her prized white-picket fence in her side yard cleaned up nice and pretty. Miss Patsy cannot believe that people would help her like that without asking for money or wanting anything in return.

My question is why? Why is it such a foreign thing in today’s society to take care of people who cannot take care of themselves? Why is it so foreign to “love your neighbor as yourself”? 

We are going to paint Miss Patsy’s house. We are going to fix up her white-picket fence. We are going to replace anything that needs to be replaced. We are going to help make her yard nice. Why? Because it is the right thing to do. It is what God desires from us.

I encourage you to do the same thing. I do not mean that you need to go find somebody and paint their house for free. Find somebody that you can help without wanting anything back in return. Step outside the bubble known as your comfortable life and invite somebody else in that needs help of some kind.

To quote the 2005 animated film Robots, “See a need, fill a need.”


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Categories : Faith, Life, Movies, People, Spirituality