Thought this might provoke a bit of thought!!

MommC

On Vacation!
Mar 2, 2002
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> The Rented Room
> author unknown
>
>
>
> Our house was directly across the street from the
> clinic entrance of Johns Hopkins Hospital in
> Baltimore.
> We lived downstairs and rented the upstairs rooms to
> outpatients at the clinic.
>
> One summer evening as I was fixing supper, there was a
> knock at the door. I opened it to see a truly awful
> looking man. "Why, he's hardly taller than my
> eight-year-old,"
> I thought as I stared at the stooped, shriveled body.
> But the appalling thing was his face, lopsided from
> swelling, red and raw.
>
> Yet his voice was pleasant as he said, "Good evening.
> I've come to see if you've a room for just one night.
> I came for a treatment this morning from the eastern
> shore, and there's no bus 'til morning."
>
> He told me he'd been hunting for a room since noon but
> with no success; no one seemed to have a room. "I
> guess it's my face. I know it looks terrible,
> but my doctor says with a few more treatments..." For
> a moment I hesitated, but his next words convinced
> me: "I could sleep in this rocking chair on the
> porch.
> My bus leaves early in the morning."
>
> I told him we would find him a bed, but to rest on the
> porch. I went inside and finished getting supper. When
> we were ready, I asked the old man if he would join
> us. "No thank you. I have plenty." And he held up a
> brown paper bag.
>
> When I had finished the dishes, I went out on the
> porch to talk with him a few minutes. It didn't take a
> long time to see that this old man had an oversized
> heart crowded into that tiny body. He told me he
> fished for a living to support his daughter, her five
> children and her husband, who was hopelessly crippled
> from a back injury.
>
> He didn't tell it by way of complaint; in fact, every
> other
> sentence was prefaced with a thanks to God for a
> blessing. He was grateful that no pain accompanied his
> disease, which was apparently a form of skin cancer.
> He thanked God for giving him the strength to keep
> going.
> At bedtime, we put a camp cot in the children's room
> for him. When I got up in the morning, the bed linens
> were neatly folded, and the little man was out on the
> porch.
>
> He refused breakfast, but just before he left for his
> bus,
> haltingly, as if asking a great favor, he said, "Could
> I please come back and stay the next time I have a
> treatment? I won't put you out a bit. I can sleep fine
> in a chair." He paused a moment and then added, "Your
> children made me feel at home. Grownups are bothered
> by my face, but children don't seem to mind." I told
> him he was welcome to come again.
> And on his next trip he arrived a little after seven
> in the
> morning. As a gift, he brought a big fish and a quart
> of the largest oysters I had ever seen. He said he had
> shucked them that morning before he left so that
> they'd be nice and fresh. I knew his bus left at 4
> a.m., and I wondered what time he had to get up in
> order to do this for us.
>
> In the years he came to stay overnight with us there
> was never a time that he did not bring us fish or
> oysters or vegetables from his garden.
>
> Other times we received packages in the mail, always
> by special delivery; fish and oysters packed in a box
> of fresh young spinach or kale, every leaf carefully
> washed. Knowing that he must walk three miles to mail
> these and
> knowing how little money he had made the gifts doubly
> precious.
>
> When I received these little remembrances, I often
> thought of a comment our next-door neighbor made after
> he left that first morning. "Did you keep that awful
> looking man last night? I turned him away! You can
> lose roomers by putting up such people!"
>
> Maybe we did lose roomers once or twice. But, oh! If
> only they could have known him, perhaps their illness'
> would have been easier to bear. I know our family
> always will be grateful to have known him; from him we
> learned
> what it was to accept the bad without complaint and
> the good with gratitude to God.
>
> Recently I was visiting a friend who has a greenhouse.
> As she showed me her flowers, we came to the most
> beautiful one of all, a golden chrysanthemum, bursting
> with blooms. But to my great surprise, it was growing
> in an old dented, rusty bucket. I thought to myself,
> "If this were my plant, I'd put it in the loveliest
> container I had!"
>
> My friend changed my mind. "I ran short of pots," she
> explained, "and knowing how beautiful this one would
> be, I thought it wouldn't mind starting out in this
> old pail.
> It's just for a little while, till I can put it out in
> the garden."
>
> She must have wondered why I laughed so delightedly,
> but I was imagining just such a scene in heaven.
> "Here's an especially beautiful one," God might have
> said when he came to the soul of the sweet old
> fisherman. "He won't mind starting in this small
> body."
>
> All this happened long ago -- and now, in God's
> garden, how tall this lovely soul must stand.
>
> The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man
> looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at
> the heart." (1 Samuel 16:7b)
>
> Friends are very special. They make you smile and
> encourage you to succeed.
>
> They lend an ear and they share a word of praise. Show
> your friends how much you care.
>
> Pass this on, and brighten someone's day.
>
> Nothing will happen if you do not decide to pass it
> along.
>
> The only thing that will happen if you do pass it on
> is that someone might smile--because of you.
>
> =====
> Smile and the world will smile with you
>
>
 

Musicqueen

Miami Nice!
Jan 31, 2002
2,252
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In that case, Villa Trina should be banned already...with only 20 some posts...this person is posting in ALL the forums...sometimes with a one-word answer!!!
 

Theresa

Vettehead from Buckhead
Jan 16, 2002
491
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I don't think anyone that cuts and pastes a joke will win anyway. It will probably be the most thought provoking post. What if it's all a hoax. Kind of like doing a lab experience with little rats and watching them scurry around.
 

MommC

On Vacation!
Mar 2, 2002
4,056
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dr1.com
I didn't cut and paste (even thought I could have editted!)

just to win a contest......(as if I will anyways-my experience is I don't win contests!!) but as I said in the headline.....because I thought the story would provoke some thought. It was sent to me yesterday by a dear friend who knew I would appreciate it and I thought some others would also enjoy reading it.....
 

Musicqueen

Miami Nice!
Jan 31, 2002
2,252
4
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Well...I don't think it says anywhere in the rules that the winner will be the one with the smartest, longest, funniest or anything in particular post...
Just the one that happens to post when the counter reaches 100,000!!!
 

Robert

Stay Frosty!
Jan 2, 1999
20,574
341
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dr1.com
The counter does not discriminate, but...

Short, let's get my count up posts don't go over well. If it's obvious that someone has stated a posting frenzy to get their numbers up just after the prize was announced, they have zero chance of winning.
Remember, all decisions of dr1.com are final.