Point To Ponder

[David006]

Got this story sent from the UK..

Reminds me of a two day R& R I spent in the Bahamas ..got chatting to a local fisherman at the dock in front of our hotel ..invited me on board his somewhat decrepit fish boat and fed me rum and coconut water...said he fished during the night, slept and drank during the day and sold his fish to the hotel behind the dock; where he was THE chef..."mon what I want with anything else!" Envied that guy ever since...

Life Explained:

>

> A boat docked in a tiny Mexican fishing village.

>

> A tourist complimented the local fishermen

> on the quality of their fish and asked

> how long it took him to catch them.

>

> "Not very long." they answered in unison.

> "Why didn't you stay out longer and catch more?"

> The fishermen explained that their small catches were

> sufficient to meet their needs and those of their families.

> "But what do you do with the rest of your time?"

>

>

> "We sleep late, fish a little, play with our children,

> and take siestas with our wives.

> In the evenings, we go into the village to see our friends,

> have a few drinks, play the guitar, and sing a few songs.

> We have a full life."

> The tourist interrupted,

>

>

> "I have an MBA from Harvard and I can help you!

> You should start by fishing longer every day.

> You can then sell the extra fish you catch.

> With the extra revenue, you can buy a bigger boat."

>

> "And after that?"

> "With the extra money the larger boat will bring,

> you can buy a second one and a third one

> and so on until you have an entire fleet of trawlers.

> Instead of selling your fish to a middle man,

> you can then negotiate directly with the processing plants

> and maybe even open your own plant.

>

> You can then leave this little village and move to Mexico City ,

> Los Angeles , or even New York City !

> From there you can direct your huge new enterprise."

>

>

> "How long would that take?"

> "Twenty, perhaps twenty-five years." replied the tourist.

> "And after that?"

> "Afterwards? Well my friend, that's when it gets really interesting, "

> answered the tourist, laughing. "When your business gets really big,

> you can start buying and selling stocks and make millions!"

> "Millions? Really? And after that?" asked the fishermen.

>

>

> "After that you'll be able to retire,

> Move to a tiny village near the coast,

> sleep late, play with your children,

> catch a few fish, take a siesta with your wife

> and spend your evenings drinking and enjoying your friends."

> And the moral of this story is:

>

> Know where you're going in life...you may already be there!!

>

>

[IanForbes]

It's an old story, David006... but a truism.

I'll leave it with a poem I wrote along the same theme...

Shed no tears for me my friend

I’ve lived the life I chose

And the prickly pear I left behind

I once thought was a rose

Memories of a distant past

Haunt me occasionally

Then I look around and realize

I’m were I want to be

There’s much to learn and understand

Life’s messages are taught

With hurts and pains, and sometimes gains

It’s never done for naught

All I ask is one more ride

And reach the count of eight

Then I will smile and thank the Lord

For making the specter wait.

[Loz]

Nice story.

Need more input like that.

Enter Bobby...

Click here for Bobby's Answer!

[David006]

It's an old story, David006... but a truism.

I'll leave it with a poem I wrote along the same theme...

Shed no tears for me my friend

I’ve lived the life I chose

And the prickly pear I left behind

I once thought was a rose

Memories of a distant past

Haunt me occasionally

Then I look around and realize

I’m were I want to be

There’s much to learn and understand

Life’s messages are taught

With hurts and pains, and sometimes gains

It’s never done for naught

All I ask is one more ride

And reach the count of eight

Then I will smile and thank the Lord

For making the specter wait.

Excellent poem mate choked me up...mind if I forward to some "old" mates? Think I will print and frame! Have you published any?

[David006]

Nice story.

Need more input like that.

Enter Bobby...

Click here for Bobby's Answer!

of course....great "timeless sentiment"...could be the expat theme song ( well maybe?? a " few" would not agree).

cheers

david

[elcent]

Very good and so true. No longer resourcefulness as our grandparents had. Now with all the trained subject idiots, it looks as of we're here at the moment.

"The Future" As Leonard Cohen in his poetic prophecy song reveals

Give me back my broken night

my mirrored room, my secret life

it's lonely here,

there's no one left to torture

Give me absolute control

over every living soul

And lie beside me, baby,

that's an order!

Give me crack and anal sex

Take the only tree that's left

and stuff it up the hole

in your culture

Give me back the Berlin wall

give me Stalin and St Paul

I've seen the future, brother:

it is murder.

Things are going to slide, slide in all directions

Won't be nothing

Nothing you can measure anymore

The blizzard, the blizzard of the world

has crossed the threshold

and it has overturned

the order of the soul

When they said REPENT REPENT

I wonder what they meant

When they said REPENT REPENT

I wonder what they meant

When they said REPENT REPENT

I wonder what they meant

You don't know me from the wind

you never will, you never did

I'm the little jew

who wrote the Bible

I've seen the nations rise and fall

I've heard their stories, heard them all

but love's the only engine of survival

Your servant here, he has been told

to say it clear, to say it cold:

It's over, it ain't going

any further

And now the wheels of heaven stop

you feel the devil's riding crop

Get ready for the future:

it is murder

Things are going to slide ...

There'll be the breaking of the ancient

western code

Your private life will suddenly explode

There'll be phantoms

There'll be fires on the road

and the white man dancing

You'll see a woman

hanging upside down

her features covered by her fallen gown

and all the lousy little poets

coming round

tryin' to sound like Charlie Manson

and the white man dancin'

Give me back the Berlin wall

Give me Stalin and St Paul

Give me Christ

or give me Hiroshima

Destroy another fetus now

We don't like children anyhow

I've seen the future, baby:

it is murder

Things are going to slide ...

When they said REPENT REPENT ...

[David006]

Very good and so true. No longer resourcefulness as our grandparents had. Now with all the trained subject idiots, it looks as of we're here at the moment.

"The Future" As Leonard Cohen in his poetic prophecy song reveals

Give me back my broken night

my mirrored room, my secret life

it's lonely here,

there's no one left to torture

Give me absolute control

over every living soul

And lie beside me, baby,

that's an order!

Give me crack and anal sex

Take the only tree that's left

and stuff it up the hole

in your culture

Give me back the Berlin wall

give me Stalin and St Paul

I've seen the future, brother:

it is murder.

Things are going to slide, slide in all directions

Won't be nothing

Nothing you can measure anymore

The blizzard, the blizzard of the world

has crossed the threshold

and it has overturned

the order of the soul

When they said REPENT REPENT

I wonder what they meant

When they said REPENT REPENT

I wonder what they meant

When they said REPENT REPENT

I wonder what they meant

You don't know me from the wind

you never will, you never did

I'm the little jew

who wrote the Bible

I've seen the nations rise and fall

I've heard their stories, heard them all

but love's the only engine of survival

Your servant here, he has been told

to say it clear, to say it cold:

It's over, it ain't going

any further

And now the wheels of heaven stop

you feel the devil's riding crop

Get ready for the future:

it is murder

Things are going to slide ...

There'll be the breaking of the ancient

western code

Your private life will suddenly explode

There'll be phantoms

There'll be fires on the road

and the white man dancing

You'll see a woman

hanging upside down

her features covered by her fallen gown

and all the lousy little poets

coming round

tryin' to sound like Charlie Manson

and the white man dancin'

Give me back the Berlin wall

Give me Stalin and St Paul

Give me Christ

or give me Hiroshima

Destroy another fetus now

We don't like children anyhow

I've seen the future, baby:

it is murder

Things are going to slide ...

When they said REPENT REPENT ...

My ex always used to say..listening to Leonard Cohen made her want to slash her wrists......i gess he does tend to be a "little" depressing" nevertheless... thanks for your input

rgards

david

[Lantern]

This one touched me. No idea of it's origin.

3900 Saturdays The older I get, the more I enjoy Saturday mornings. Perhaps it's the quiet solitude that comes with being the first to rise, or maybe it's the unbounded joy of not having to be at work. Either way, the first few hours of a Saturday morning are most enjoyable.

A few weeks ago, I was shuffling toward the garage with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other. What began as a typical Saturday morning turned into one of those lessons that life seems to hand you from time to time.

Let me tell you about it. I turned the dial up into the phone-in portion of the band on my ham radio in order to listen to a Saturday morning swap net. Along the way, I came across an older sounding chap, with a tremendous signal and a golden voice. You know the kind; he sounded like he should be in the broadcasting business.

He was telling whomever he was talking with something about 'a thousand marbles.' I was intrigued and stopped to listen to what he had to say.

'Well, Tom, it sure sounds like you're busy with your job. I'm sure they pay you well but it's a shame you have to be away from home and your family so much. Hard to believe a young fellow should have to work sixty or seventy hours a week to make ends meet. It's too bad you missed your daughter's dance recital' he continued.

'Let me tell you something that has helped me keep my own priorities.' And that's when he began to explain his theory of a 'thousand marbles.' 'You see, I sat down one day and did a little arithmetic. The average person lives about seventy-five years. I know, some live more and some live less, but on average, folks live about seventy-five years.' 'Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up with 3900, which is the number of Saturdays that the average person has in their entire lifetime. Now, stick with me, Tom, I'm getting to the important part. It took me until I was fifty-five years old to think about all this in any detail', he went on, 'and by that time I had lived through over twenty-eight hundred Saturdays. I got to thinking that if I lived to be seventy-five, I only had about a thousand of them left to enjoy. So I went to a toy store and bought every single marble they had. I ended up having to visit three toy stores to round up 1000 marbles.

I took them home and put them inside a large, clear plastic container right here in the shack next to my gear.' 'Every Saturday since then, I have taken one marble out and thrown it away. I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focused more on the really important things in life.' 'There is nothing like watching your time here on this earth run out to help get your priorities straight.' 'Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign-off with you and take my lovely wife out for breakfast. This morning, I took the very last marble out of the container. I figure that if I make it until next Saturday then I have been given a little extra time. And the one thing we can all use is a little more time.' 'It was nice to meet you Tom, I hope you spend more time with your family, and I hope to meet you again here on the band. This is a 75 Year old Man, K9NZQ, clear and going QRT, good morning!'

You could have heard a pin drop on the band when this fellow signed off. I guess he gave us all a lot to think about. I had planned to work on the antenna that morning, and then I was going to meet up with a few hams to work on the next club newsletter.

Instead, I went upstairs and woke my wife up with a kiss. 'C'mon honey, I'm taking you and the kids to breakfast.' 'What brought this on' she asked with a smile.' 'Oh, nothing special, it's just been a long time since we spent a Saturday together with the kids. And hey, can we stop at a toy store while we're out? I need to buy some marbles.'

A friend sent this to me, so I to you, my friend. And so, as one smart bear once said...'If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day, so I never have to live without you.' - Winnie the Pooh.

And if you receive this e-mail many times from many different people, it only means that you have many FRIENDS. And if you get it but once, do not be discouraged for you will know that you have at least one good friend... And that would be ME.

[elcent]

@David

Leonard is indeed very depressing, he points us directly to our misconceptions and prejudgments, but when you listen carefully to his poems he always points to a solution, usually short remarks with a lot of weight. As somebody said "They broke the mold with this guy"

In his song Hallelujah when he talks with King David directly and after exposing him he then says "there's a blaze of light in every word, it doesn't matter which you heard, the broken or the holy Hallelujah"

[IanForbes]

It's an old story, David006... but a truism.

I'll leave it with a poem I wrote along the same theme...

Shed no tears for me my friend

I've lived the life I chose

And the prickly pear I left behind

I once thought was a rose

Memories of a distant past

Haunt me occasionally

Then I look around and realize

I'm were I want to be

There's much to learn and understand

Life's messages are taught

With hurts and pains, and sometimes gains

It's never done for naught

All I ask is one more ride

And reach the count of eight

Then I will smile and thank the Lord

For making the specter wait.

Excellent poem mate choked me up...mind if I forward to some "old" mates? Think I will print and frame! Have you published any?

Forward it if you want, David. I have had lots of stuff published. That is what I do for a living now. I just haven't included my poetry. I prefer to give that away for free to those that like it.

[Crossy]

Not Thai related but interesting none the less, off to The Pub for you