Thought for the Day

[Mary Marguerite Ludwick <ludwick@TENET.EDU>]

..My brother sent this message to me, I hope you find it of
value.

>>Subject: Bullets
>>
>>ATTITUDE IS EVERYTHING.........By Francie Baltazar-Schwartz
>>
>>Jerry was the kind of guy you love to hate.  He was always in a good
>>mood and always had something positive to say.  When someone would ask
>>him how he was doing, he would reply, "If I were any better, I would be
>>twins!"
>>
>>He was a unique manager because he had several waiters who had followed
>>him around from restaurant to restaurant. The reason the waiters
>>followed Jerry was because of his attitude. He was a natural motivator.
>>If an employee was having a bad day, Jerry was there telling the
>>employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.
>>
>>Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up to Jerry
>>and asked him, "I don't get it! You can't be a positive person all of
>>the time. How do you do it?" Jerry replied, "Each morning I wake up and
>>say to myself, Jerry, you have two choices today.  You can choose to
>>bein a good mood or you can choose to be in a bad mood.'  I choose to
>>bein a good mood.  Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a
>>victim or I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it.
>>Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their
>>complaining or I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the
>>positive side of life."
>>
>>"Yeah, right, it's not that easy," I protested. "Yes it is," Jerry said.
>>"Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every
>>situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You
>>choose how people will affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood
>>or bad mood. The bottom line: It's your choice how you live life."
>>
>>I reflected on what Jerry said. Soon thereafter, I left the restaurant
>>industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but often thought
>>about him when I made a choice about life instead over acting to it.
>>Several years later, I heard that Jerry did something you are never
>>supposed to do in a restaurant business: he left the back door open one
>>morning and was held up at gun point by three armed robbers.
>>
>>While trying to open the safe, his hand, shaking from nervousness,
>>slipped off the combination. The robbers panicked and shot him. Luckily,
>>Jerry was found relatively quickly and rushed to the local trauma
>>center. After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Jerry was
>>released from the hospital with fragments of the bullets still in his
>>body.
>>
>>I saw Jerry about six months after the accident. When I asked him how he
>>was, he replied, "If I were any better, I'd be twins. Wannasee my
>>scars?"
>>
>>I declined to see his wounds, but did ask him what had gone through his
>>mind as the robbery took place.
>>
>>"The first thing that went through my mind was that I should have locked
>>the back door," Jerry replied. "Then, as I lay on the floor, I
>>remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live, or I could
>>choose to die. I chose to live."
>>
>>"Weren't you scared?  Did you lose consciousness?" I asked.
>>
>>Jerry continued, "The paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was
>>going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the emergency room and I
>>saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really
>>scared. In their eyes, I read, 'He's a dead man.' I knew I needed to
>>take action."
>>
>>"What did you do?" I asked.
>>
>>"Well, there was a big, burly nurse shouting questions at me," said
>>Jerry. "She asked if I was allergic to anything. 'Yes,' I replied. The
>>doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a
>>deep breath and yelled, 'Bullets!' Over their laughter, I told them, 'I
>>am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead."
>>
>>Jerry lived thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his
>>amazing attitude. I learned from him that every day we have the choice
>>to live fully. Attitude, after all, is everything.
>>
>>You have 2 choices now:
>>
>>1. Save or delete this mail from your mail box. 2. Forward it to your
>>dear ones and choose to pass this on.
>>
>>Hope you will choose choice 2.



Mary Ludwick, MLS         Ludwick@tenet.edu
Librarian, B. B. Owen Elementary (grades K-5) A Blue Ribbon School
The Colony, Tx.   (about 30 miles north of Dallas, Texas)