...When All is Said and Dunn

Like many people who have computers and are on-line, I get a ton of e-mails. Most are business related and some come in the form of jokes, information or words of wisdom. Again, like most people I dump about 90% of these because I don't find the jokes funny, the information is boring or bogus, and the wisdom sounds like it came out of a fortune cookie.

But when I get a good one I generally do what is called "forwarding it on" to friends and family. The other day I received one from a friend of mine named Jan Alejandro under the heading of "National Friendship Week". It contained some interesting statistics and an equally intriguing little story. I called him to see what the origin of the material was, but it had been forwarded to him and my searches on the web proved futile.

So while I am unable to give credit to the original author, and I truly wish I could, it doesn't diminish its meaning or its message and I decided to forward it to all of you. I hope it enlightens you as much as it did me.

"If we could shrink the earth's population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, it would look something like the following:

There would be:
57 Asians
21 Europeans
14 from the Western Hemisphere,
both north and south
8 Africans

52 would be female
48 would be male

70 would be non-white
30 would be white

70 would be non-Christian
30 would be Christian

89 would be heterosexual
11 would be homosexual

Six people would possess 59% of the entire world's wealth and all six would be from the United States.

80 would live in substandard housing
70 would be unable to read
50 would suffer from malnutrition
One would be near death;
One would be near birth
One (yes, only 1) would have a college education
One would own a computer

When one considers our world from such a compressed perspective, the need for acceptance, understanding and education becomes glaringly apparent. The following is also something to ponder...

If you woke up this morning with more health than illness...you are more blessed than the million who will not survive this week. If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation ...you are ahead of 500 million people in the world.

If you can attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death...you are more blessed than three billion people in the world. If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep...you are richer than 75% of this world.

If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace ... you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy. If your parents are still alive and still married ... you are very rare, even in the United States and Canada.

If you can read this message, you just received a double blessing in that someone was thinking of you, and furthermore, you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world that cannot read at all.

A little story to think about: His name was Fleming, and he was a poor Scottish farmer. One day, while trying to make a living for his family, he heard a cry for help coming from a nearby bog. He dropped his tools and ran to the bog. There, mired to his waist in black muck, was a terrified boy, screaming and struggling to free himself. Farmer Fleming saved the lad from what could have been a slow and terrifying death. The next day, a fancy carriage pulled up to the Scotsman's sparse surroundings.

An elegantly dressed nobleman stepped out and introduced himself as the father of the boy Farmer Fleming had saved. I want to repay you, said the nobleman. You saved my son's life. No, I can't accept payment for what I did, the Scottish farmer replied, waving off the offer.

At that moment, the farmer's own son came to the door of the family hovel. Is that your son? The nobleman asked. Yes, the farmer replied proudly. I'll make you a deal. Let me provide him with the level of education my son will enjoy. If the lad is anything like his father, he'll no doubt grow to be a man we both will be proud of. And that he did.

Farmer Fleming's son attended the very best schools and in time, he graduated from St. Mary's Hospital Medical School in London, and went on to become known throughout the world as the noted Sir Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of Penicillin.

Years afterward, the same nobleman's son who was saved from the bog was stricken with pneumonia. What saved his life this time? Penicillin. The name of the nobleman? Lord Randolph Churchill. His son's name? Sir Winston Churchill.

Someone once said: What goes around comes around. Work like you don't need the money. Love like you've never been hurt. Dance like nobody's watching. Sing like nobody's listening. Live like it's Heaven on Earth. "

I wish all of my e-mails could be this good.

The Shrub Speaks: “I have said that the sanction regime is like Swiss cheese – that meant that they weren’t very effective.” White House Press Conference 2/22/01