So he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" Luke 10:29

I had one of the most frightening experiences that I ever had. Yes, guys can have bad experiences as well. I had just finished driving thirty minutes on the freeway, had gotten off the exit ramp and was making a left hand turn to continue on to my office. My car died. I tried to restart it over and over again without any luck; I was not succeeding. There I was stuck in to the middle of traffic, frustrated, and surrounded by hostile drivers and unsympathic horns, feeling very sorry for myself. I heard the sound of a very familiar voice from a rolled down car window— it was "M" from my office. "K, do you need any help, is there something I can do?" I blurted out "I think I can get it started if I had a can of starting fluid," I said. "Where can I find it?" she replied and after receiving me instructions she drove off.

Another car pulled up; it was a second co-worker, "L" with her darling blond haired child in a car seat behind her. Even though she had the day off, and was going to her mother's house, she asked that familiar question as well "How can I help?" I start to feel better already when a third co-worker "J" called me on my cell phone and asked me if I was all right. I assured her help was on its way when the fourth co-worker, Sean pulled up behind me in his car. His four-way flashers signaled others behind him of my distress and not to use our lane. How can I say this without being silly? Sean was the best thing that ever happened to me just at that moment: he is very a familiar face, a confidant, and better yet a good friend.

For the next hour and a half he stayed with me, we joked, traded stories back and forth and tried to trouble shoot the no start problem. When "M" arrived with the stating fluid, he helped me try to restart my reluctant vehicle. He was my lifesaver, keeping me from going ballistic, or absolutely insane. The police arrived and finally the AAA tow truck, yet Sean stayed with me the entire time even giving me a ride to the office as well as helping me to chase down the parts needed to make the repairs.

These four people personify the story of "The Good Samaritan." I really can't say enough about them, some of which are less than half my age and old enough to be my children. They are a true friends who I shall always be thankful.

K.

The goal of the goalie is to keep the scoring ball away

What is the meaning of life, the purposed of life? You really don't have to go to the Oracle of Delphi to find out. Having been off a number of days during the Christmas and New Year's holiday, and now being back at work, I've learned a few things—about life. It's nothing as lofty as you might think. It's very simple. Life needs a purpose, a goal in order to work effectively. Without a goal, or purpose, life is much more aimless; there is no direction. We wander, we are listless, and we wallow in self-pity. We become uncomfortable in our situation.

So where do we start? When we're in school, out goal is to finish, to graduate. We have a goal and purpose. After graduation there is another goal, to get a job and become successful, so we seek that out. It is necessary to always have purpose in order to have direction. We must always have another one at hand as we finish up our first. It fact it is possible to have several working out at one time.

That is why people seem to waste away when they're out of work for a while, either retired or downsized. They are crushed with self pity or remorse. There is no goal or purpose to guide them, period.

K.

Brig. Gen. Paul W. Tibbits, dies, "I only did my duty"

Brigadier General Paul W. Tibbets USAF (retired) died this past November 1, 2007. Tibbits was the commanding officer in charge of dropping the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, which forced the Japanese warlords to begin to seriously consider unconditional surrender. A second bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan brought them to the surrender table. Much has been written about whether we should have dropped to bomb on the homeland islands or have invited the Japanese to witness the destruction of a less inhabited piece of land. Much has also been written on our moral right to killed non-combatants in this atomic carnage.

Some modern day Japanese, and a few Americans, have conveniently forgotten that Japans warlords had global conquest in their sights when they attacked China in July 1937. Japanese solders bayoneted, machine-gunned, or beheaded 300,000 innocent civilians during their Rape of Nanking 1937-1938. These same modern apologists forget the Bataan Death March of April 1942 in which approximately 18,000 Allied solders were executed or left to die as they fell behind the forced march. To the militaristic Japanese, the idea of surrender was totally foreign; those that give up were considered to be less than human and were treated accordingly with utter disdain and contempt.

With that cultural viewpoint, the Japanese would never have yielded to defeat. It was only when faced with total destruction did the Japanese relent and do the unthinkable and submit to unconditional surrender. Who knows where Japan would have gone if not stopped.

K.