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Archiver > CORNISH > 1998-11 > 0909957541


From: "TIM I PURDY" <>
Subject: Fw: OFF TOPIC: not genealogy
Date: Sun, 1 Nov 1998 13:59:01 -0800


>
> This was forwarded to me and I'd lke to pass it along, since especially
deals with all that awful stuff that was being circulated in the past few
days.
>
> Jerry is the kind of guy you love to hate. He is always in a good mood
> and always has 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 be in a good mood or you can
> choose to be in a bad mood. I choose to be in 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."
>
> 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 gunpoint 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. Wanna see 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."
>
> But when they wheeled me into the ER 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 deadman'. 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 two choices now:
> 1. Delete this.
> 2. Forward it to the people you care about.
>
> I Hope you will choose #2.
> I did.
>
>
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