Humor 1/18/99: A Little Kiss

Hey,

I hope your weekend is going well. For the first time in 7 years, I
actually get Monday off. First week of classes went well. This quarter
I'm taking Marketing, Finance, Operations, Law for Entrepreneurs, and
Managerial Problem Solving.

This week's thought provoking question comes from "201 Great
Questions". #149. You have been given the responsibility to distribute
20 million dollars to help the world be a better place. Where you give
this money is totally up to you. How would you distribute it?

Let me recommend one thing to you. Go to the www.planetall.com website
and sign-up. It's free. At this website, you can connect to other
people, from your college, grad school, work, church, clubs, and other
friends. You can give them permission to see your address, phone, and
email information, and vice versa. If you put in your birthdate, it
will send a reminder email to your friends that it is upcoming. When
you change your email address or any other part of your information, it
will automatically send an update to the friends connected to you
through this website. I find it extremely useful for staying in touch
with people.

This week's humor comes from Anna Man, followed by a story forwarded by
Dave Shim. Actually, the email contains several good stories, some of
which I'll send out in future weeks. Enjoy!

-Josh.
_________________________________________

A LITTLE KISS
______________

FOUR strangers travelled together in the same compartment of a
European train. Two men and two women faced each other.

One woman was a very wealthy and sophisticated 75 year old lady
who was decked out in the finest of furs and jewelry. Next to her
sat a beautiful young woman, nineteen yrs. old--who looked like
something right off the cover of a fashion magazine. Across from
the older lady was a man in his late-forties who was a highly
decorated Sergeant Major in the Army. And next to the Sergeant
Major sat a young private fresh out of boot camp.

As these four strangers travelled, they talked and chatted about
trivial things until they entered an unlighted tunnel, and there they
sat in complete darkness and total silence, until the sound of a
distinct kiss broke the silence; following the kiss a loud slap could
be heard throughout the cabin.

In the ensuing period of silence the four strangers sat quietly with
their own thoughts.

----------------------------
The older lady was thinking,
----------------------------
"Isn't it wonderful
that even in this permissive day and age there are still
young women who have a little self-respect and dignity?"

--------------------------------------------------------
The young woman, shaking her head and greatly puzzled,
--------------------------------------------------------
asked herself, "Why in the world would any man in his right
mind want to kiss an old fossil like that when I'm sitting here?"

------------------------------------------
The Sergeant Major, rubbing his sore face,
------------------------------------------
was outraged that any woman could ever think that a man in his
position would try to sneak a kiss in the dark.

------------------------------------------
And the private, grinning from ear to ear,
------------------------------------------
was thinking, "What a crazy and mixed up world this is when a
private can kiss the back of his hand and then smack a Sergeant
Major in the face and get away with it!"
___________________________________


LEARN FROM CHILDREN

The purest lessons sometimes come from the purest hearts.
A little break to make us think...

"Butterfly Kisses"

We often learn the most from our children. Some time ago, a friend of
mine punished his 3-year-old daughter for wasting a roll of gold
wrapping paper. Money was tight, and he became infuriated when the
child tried to decorate a box to put under the tree. Nevertheless, the
little girl brought the gift to her father the next morning and said,
"This is for you, Daddy."

He was embarrassed by his earlier overreaction, but his anger flared
again when he found that the box was empty. He yelled at her, "Don't
you know that when you give someone a gift, there's supposed to be
something inside of it?" The little girl looked up at
him with tears in her eyes and said, "Oh, Daddy it's not empty. I blew
kisses into the box. All for you, Daddy."

The father was crushed. He put his arms around his little girl, and he
begged her forgiveness. My friend told me that he kept that gold box
by his bed for years. Whenever he was discouraged, he would take out
an imaginary kiss and remember the love of the child who had put it
there. In a very real sense, each of us as parents has been given
a gold container filled with unconditional love and kisses from our
children. There is no more precious possession anyone could hold.
_____________________________________

Joshua Li
431 S. Burnside Ave. #12 B
Los Angeles CA 90036
(323)936-8476
Permanent Email: joshli@post.harvard.edu
http://personal.anderson.ucla.edu/joshua.li/