Subject: Re: IJMC - The Man and His Bucket (fwd)
Message-ID: <Pine.SUN.3.91.990514023651.4726A@netcom19>
Fcc: sent-mail
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

                  IJMC - The Soldier's Homecoming

Becca, get out the Kleenex now...you'll need it. Any of you who don't 
want a mushy reading right now, either put this one off or just delete 
it. I found this fairly predictable yet I read it all the way through 
anyway so I'm passing it along for what it's worth. Most of us could 
easily accept other's differences better. I know I could.        -dave






A story is told about a soldier who was finally coming home after having
fought in Vietnam. He called his parents from San Francisco. 

"Mom and Dad, I'm coming home, but I've a favor to ask.  I have a friend
I'd like to bring home with me." 

"Sure," they replied, "we'd love to meet him." 

"There's something you should know the son continued, "he was hurt pretty
badly in the fighting.  He stepped on a land mind and lost an arm and a
leg. He has nowhere else to go, and I want him to come live with us." 

"I'm sorry to hear that, son.  Maybe we can help him find somewhere to
live." 

"No, Mom and Dad, I want him to live with us." 

"Son," said the father, "you don't know what you're asking.  Someone with
such a handicap would be a terrible burden on us.  We have our own lives
to live, and we can't let something like this interfere with our lives.  I
think you should just come home and forget about this guy. He'll find a
way to live on his own." 

At that point, the son hung up the phone.  The parents heard nothing more
from him.  A few days later, however, they received a call from the San
Francisco police.  Their son had died after falling from a building, they
were told.  The police believed it was suicide.  The grief-stricken
parents flew to San Francisco and were taken to the city morgue to
identify the body oftheir son.  They recognized him, but to their horror
they also discovered something they didn't know, their son had only one
arm and one leg. 

The parents in this story are like many of us.  We find it easy to love
those who are good-looking or fun to have around, but we don't like people
who inconvenience us or make us feel uncomfortable. 

We would rather stay away from people who aren't as healthy, beautiful, or
smart as we are.  Tonight, before you tuck yourself in for the night, say
a little prayer that will give you the strength you need to accept people
as they are, and to help us all be more understanding of those who are
different from us!